"Sector 12B has been overrun! Requesting assistance," cried a panicked voice in the control room.

"37F reported clear. The Lovehearts are on the move to intercept in 12B," another girl shouted.

A group of robots clinked and whirred past Spencer, their mechanical bodies laden with diagnostic equipment and analysis tools.

It was pure pandemonium in the control room. Messages and alerts blared out from all sides, and dozens of monitors blazed with a haphazard array of maps, reports, and breaking news feeds.

"T-minus ten minutes until the Crystal Braves arrive," one of the analysts called out, their voice urgent and strained. "Cybernova has the Northern Valley under control."

"Spencer, update on our Op's activity?" Ena asked from the control room's center.

"Still operational and active," Spencer replied, keeping an eye on the tracking beacon. "He's made it out of the base and received assistance from some Confederate elites that happened to be on a mission in the area."

"What a mess..." Ena muttered, palming her face.

"Bad news, Chief," Spencer added, hands flying across his keyboard. "Chaos Energy readings at the anomaly site are spiking. We're looking at a Magnitude 4.5 right now. Oh fuck me sideways, it's still going up."

"Send that intel out," Ena replied, adjusting her glasses. "I'm putting out requests for any available high ranking Magical Girls in the area. We need to do something fast."

"Ena! Headmistress Egan is approaching the command room!" a voice called out.

Ena froze, her eyes widening as she turned towards the door. "Oh? This should be interesting."

"Sorry for the intrusion, Ena. We need to secure the situation at hand," Headmistress Bridgette asserted as she sauntered into the room. "We have little time to waste. Projectors. I need a full situation report."

A group of machines began projecting images from various Chaos Events occurring around Shoreline City and the surrounding areas.

The room grew quiet as they all watched the situation unfold.

"It seems the generator outages and rift portals have left a gaping hole in the city's defenses," one of the students noted, glancing down at his screen. "The government's not prepared for this. Even our robust emergency response protocols can't account for the number of events."

"It's no wonder they're struggling to coordinate a conventional military response," the headmistress replied grimly, her eyes narrowing at the projections. "We'll have to manage the situation ourselves for now with the Magical Girls. Step up your communications and send out distress signals to cities outside the immediate response zone."

"Quite the situation, huh Bridgette?" a new voice piped up.

Spencer and the headmistress turned to see a woman pulling herself into the command center, her wheelchair whirring and clicking as she rolled to a stop next to them. She had long, dark red hair, and her golden eyes glinted with a fierce intensity. She was wearing round glasses and a two-piece suit that matched her hair color, and she looked to be somewhere in her late thirties through forties.

"Well I'll be... Professor Hawking in the flesh!" Ena replied, her eyes widening as she gave an amused smirk. "What brings you here?"

"Emergency support, of course. Plus a bit of nostalgia, I'd say," she said, nodding her head at the monitor. "I happened to be in the area, and Bridgette brought me down here with her for ol times' sake."

"Uhh, ol times' sake?" Spencer asked, raising an eyebrow.

"It's nothing, really," Professor Hawking replied, waving her hands.

"Very mysterious," Ena muttered, eyeing the older woman curiously.

"I dare say, is that little Spike? Spencer? Good to see you, boy," said Hawking, grinning widely at Spencer. "I see you've acclimated yourself here well. My, you've had quite the growth spurt, haven't you?"

"I mean, you could say that, " Spencer responded, chuckling. "I'm always full of surprises. Anyway, it's been a long time, Prof. How's the research going? How are the sims?"

"Simply marvelous, my boy. Simply marvelous. Rachel and I have been keeping busy," Hawking replied, grinning mischievously. "As a matter of fact, I just received an alert that you've successfully deployed Project Raiju?"

Ena and Spencer shared a look, shifting awkwardly.

"Haha, yeah, about that. It's not like we had much choice," Spencer said, rubbing the back of his neck. "We got it to go right on time, probably. I'll say it was even one hell of a surprise that it worked at all."

"Correction," a robotic female voice suddenly rang out. "The activation sequence was in fact, initiated by its designated target, and not by Mister Williams."

"Addendum: That is a humorous way of stating that you simply, as they say, spazzed out, Spencer," the other orb chirped, a high-pitched female voice ringing through the air.

Spencer scowled, crossing his arms. "Really? Well screw you both then. I've spent way too many hours sitting down painstakingly adjusting and soldering your damned wires to take this lip. Y'all some snippy ungrateful bots down there."

The two orbs went quiet, their camera lenses flickering slightly.

"Enough with the jabs and gibes, folks. We've got a serious situation on our hands," the Headmistress declared, raising her voice.

"Ena! Headmistress! Celestial Sonata is on the line," a voice shouted.

"Put her on screen," Ena replied, furrowing her brow.

"Gotcha on this end," Spencer said, nodding his head. "Switching her into the global channel."

The screen at the center flickered, and a girl with blue eyes, long pink hair, and a golden aura appeared in a flash.

"Hah...wow!" Celestial Sonata said, her eyes brightening with a smile. "It's so good to see you all up and ready to go."

"Miss Sonata," the Headmistress said, nodding her head. "We've been keeping tabs on the situation as best as we can over here. Is it as bad out there as the reports are saying?"

"It's worse. I've personally eliminated fourteen Viscount to Count-class horde leaders, but there are probably dozens more surrounding the city if not more." Sonata replied, letting out a sigh. "These things just keep coming, and without the negentropy generators to buffer the energy spike, it could be hours before levels start to decline. I've been through some high-level Chaos Events in the past, but I think this is the first time I've seen this many Magnitude 2 and 3 events scattered across such a wide region."

"That's a lot to take in," Ena muttered, twirling her hair. "Are you in need of assistance, Miss Sonata?"

"As a matter of fact, I am! Well, more like I'm going to try to make a play here. I've heard chatter from the Nexus that this started with an anomaly out west in Lenapehoking Territory." Celestial Sonata replied, tilting her head. "Would you be a dear and verify that, Administrator? Headmistress? I've never been one to doubt my source, but I do intend to set off right away to investigate and I need to know what I'm getting into."

Spencer nodded, his eyes glancing at the pod at the front of the room. "Yeah, we caught it early. We managed to send one Support Op down through a proxy drone, but he's a total noob. We haven't been able to send anyone else though."

"You sent a single greenhorn operator, without backup in those crazy conditions? Must be desperate indeed," Sonata said, crossing her arms.

"We're out of options, Miss Sonata," Spencer responded. "Unfortunately he's the only one who's been able to get his butt on the ground. His quick action prompted the other student hubs to try and send backup behind him, but the storm's made it difficult to establish a steady connection. He's carrying some cutting-edge magitech with him that made him the exception, and well, we just had to put our faith in him."

"Besides, it looks like he's succeeded so far," Ena added, pulling up a map with a smirk. "The mind resonance locator has him departing Fort Hiawatha as we speak."

"Hold up," Spencer interjected, staring at the screen as a red dot sped across the topographical map. "How's he moving that quickly?"

"Answer: Operator formally designated as 'Sparky' has hijacked and commandeered an Aeolus Mk. III unit from Fort Hiawatha," the high-pitched Raiju orb suddenly chirped.

"He stole a mech?!" Headmistress Egan exclaimed, eyes wide. "From a military base?"

"Affirmation: Based on files logged by the operator's primary unit. He has, in fact, also enlisted the Confederacy's Epsilon Company to aid in his mission," the other Raiju chirped, its camera lens flickering. "The mission's support unit has witnessed, as you might say, a wild ride."

"Does... does he even know how to drive that thing?" Ena gaped in surprise as her eyes landed on the speeding dot.

"Answer: According to central log files, Operator Sparky has not utilized a Mark Three until this point. However, he once commandeered a Mark One to rescue his father from brigands and learned the fundamentals of mech piloting through that experience."

Professor Hawking suddenly began to snicker, palming her face. "Rachel, you sly dog," she murmured as she began to guffaw.

"Well, that's unexpected," Celestial Sonata smirked, raising an eyebrow. "Sounds like the sort of thing that Elyse Wildstorm would do back in her day, except this guy's not a Magical Girl. I have to admit, he does sound like a fun guy. Still, the question remains: what exactly is he doing down there?"

"According to the log files forwarded by Mister Williams here to the Nexus, the St. Antonia's cell has deployed to the region with experimental technology in an attempt to gather intelligence on the anomaly," Headmistress Egan replied, raising an eyebrow. "I presume this is the magitech Williams mentioned, and his preliminary report also indicated a Novel Aberrant has manifested from the center of the anomaly."

"Well darn," Sonata breathed, tilting her head. "Novel Aberrants can be nasty business. Anyway, I'm ready to move out as soon as possible to get more boots on the ground, if you will. Have your operator ping me when you get a read on the situation, or if something happens down there. I'll bring the cavalry."

"Unfortunately, we may not be able to get you connected," Ena admitted, frowning. "We mentioned the storm already, but we haven't been able to get a stable connection going for the past fifteen minutes. My guess is that the anomaly's generating a powerful electromagnetic field that's disrupting radio signals and the usual channels. Since Draupnir units work through Imaginary Space Tunneling, his drone hasn't suffered the same issue."

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I have a suggestion." The robotic Raiju orb with the high-pitched voice spoke up. "We could attempt to synchronize with the partition on the ground with the operator's neural link via the drone and request data to be broadcasted back through the network."

"You think we can do that?" Ena asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Most definitely. Although the Raiju unit's personality matrix seems far more advanced than our own partitions, we are still technically of the same origin as imaginary creatures. If we were to request a direct interface with the ground unit, we may be able to relay information back and forth."

"An interesting proposition!" Ena grinned.

"There's still the problem that we won't be able to relay any intel to Celestial Sonata," Spencer pointed out, stretching his arms.

"Then I'll just have to make do," Celestial Sonata declared, returning a grin. "If I'm going to have to go down there with a communications blackout, it means I'm just going to wing it."

Headmistress Egan and Hawking shared a look, sharing a worried glance.

"Miss Sonata..." the Headmistress started. "It will be incredibly dangerous for you to go in without any intel or communication, given that it's a Magnitude 4.5 event. Are you sure you're up for this?"

"Quite up for it, actually," Sonata replied, smiling mischievously. "Going in with the flow might be a little risky, but my heart tells me this is the way to go. Did I get where I am waiting for things to fall in my lap?"

"Please be careful out there," the Headmistress said, her face creased with concern.

"You can count on it!" Celestial Sonata added. "And you don't need to worry about a thing, Headmistress. I'll take care of it. I always do, after all."

Celestial Sonata winked at the camera, before disappearing in a flash of pink and gold motes.

"Quite nostalgic, isn't she?" Hawking chimed in, a faint smile on her face.

"She truly is," the Headmistress replied, sighing.

"More importantly," Hawking continued. "I didn't want to burden her, considering the circumstances, but we do have another problem on our hands."

"What is that?" Spencer asked.

Hawking paused for a second, looking at Spencer before turning her attention to the Headmistress.

"You might want to sit down, Bridgette," Hawking murmured. "There are some... things that you and your student here should be aware of."

The Headmistress's brow creased, and she frowned, adjusting her collar. "What is going on, Stephanie? You have to tell us if there's something serious at hand."

"It's about... the boy's father. Professor Jacob Williams. He was sent over to Fort Hiawatha to assist the Coalition with a secret project today. Unrelated to chaos energy, I can assure you, but this has occurred at the worst time and place possible for Sisyphus."

Spencer froze, a chill running down his spine. "You can't mean..."

"To relieve your concerns, your father has been reported safe and secure. He's underground in the bunker which successfully entered emergency lockdown," Hawking continued. "However, the base has been reported to have been overrun. Rest assured, though. Your mother is already on the way with the flagship Elysium to provide relief."

"Fuck me sideways, that's serious," Spencer blurted out. "Wait, how did this happen?! Don't they have containment wards and things set up for this sort of thing? I know that outpost isn't exactly at the top of the priority list, but it's still a major logistics hub for Shoreline City and the Mississippi."

"The wards and containment should be a matter of course, but something clearly went wrong. The feedback from the negentropy generators failing overloaded the main electrical grid, as well as the primary security systems, and the situation quickly devolved from there," Hawking explained, a sigh slipping from her lips. "Even with multiple redundant systems built in, there are always going to be black swans like this."

"Fucking hell," Spencer breathed. "My old man's holed up underground? And the entire base has been overrun? This sounds like a complete disaster and clusterfuck to me."

"He's in good hands," Hawking smiled faintly. "Epsilon Company is in fact, down there to escort him personally. He'll make it out alive, don't you worry, boy."

Spencer scowled at her. "Well, that's kinda reassuring, but not really. And let's not forget to mention that the entire complex and surrounding towns have been turned into a scene from a horror movie."

Hawking snorted in amusement, crossing her arms. "Trust me. Your father has the devil's luck, or so I've been told. He's gotten out of scrapes like this before. There's no need to worry."

Spencer gritted his teeth, shaking his head. "I hope you're right."

A beeping noise suddenly began to ring out in the control room, and everyone's eyes immediately turned to the pod at the center.

"Guys?" a boy named Sohrab began, his voice wavering. "We might have a problem."

"Fuck what now?!" Spencer exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock as he dashed over to the pod. "What's going on?"

"I-I'm not sure," Sohrab replied, his hands trembling as he struggled to read the monitors. "It's like something's trying to overclock his entire nervous system and brain, but not from the outside."

Spencer stared at the pod, frowning as he read the monitors. "This... this can't be right!"

"What's wrong?" Ena asked rushing over to his side.

"Ikki's experiencing some sort of massive feedback or an energy overload. He needs medical attention," Spencer muttered tensely. "Not to mention that his body's temperature is plummeting. Fast."

"Shit," Ena cursed, her eyes widening as she saw the monitor flash red. "That's not good."

"There's something else," Sohrab added, rubbing his chin. "We're getting periodic information blackouts from the Draupnir unit and the operator's neural link. Some sort of instability in his natural mana and ethereal charge could be causing interference."

"Do we pull him out now?" an analyst asked.

Spencer shook his head, taking a seat next to the pod. "No. It'd be a bad idea to just yank him out of there without knowing what's going on. But we need to get more data. You're on to something, Sohrab. Is there anything we can do to compensate?"

"I'm sorry. I'm really not sure," Sohrab responded helplessly, pulling his hoodie up over his head. "As a matter of fact, this is a first for me."

"Me too," Spencer replied, rolling his shoulders. "What in the world could be causing this? The Williams protocol just projects a pilot's consciousness out over a distance into a Draupnir unit. They're designed to be reliable and stable. Even in unusual situations or chaos events, they've never caused this sort of feedback before."

"Unless..." Ena chimed in, placing her hands on her hips. "The unit from before did imply it could perform in-depth analytical functions on the anomaly. The amount of processing power that would entail is enormous. How precisely would it do that from a single proxy drone?"

"No fucking way," Spencer's eyes suddenly lit up in realization. "Could it be leeching off his mana, but over such a distance? That sounds far-fetched."

The sound of hands clapping together suddenly filled the room, and Spencer narrowed his eyes, turning to the source of the clapping.

"Bravo. Simply marvelous. You really are your father's son, aren't you?" Hawking said, a gleam in her eye as she stared at the pod. "There's no mistake about it. Something in the boy's Soul Graph has allowed him to serve as a conduit and process unprecedented amounts of Imaginary data, which in turn has made him the most compatible user of Project Raiju. It is as you deduced. His mana is likely being utilized by Project Raiju to enhance his ability to pilot and utilize the Aeolus unit he has commandeered. But this has inadvertently caused a sort of error unforeseen by Feynman and I. As a child from our sister plane of Earth, he is not a born mana user and is suffering from the first signs of severe mana exhaustion."

"You've got to be kidding me," Spencer replied, his face creasing in shock. "Using magic through a proxy drone? That's literally unheard of."

Hawking's lips tightened into a thin line. "It seems that the boy is on the verge of collapsing due to the amount of data he is processing. Some sort of perception acceleration technique or protocol from Project Raiju is clearly at work, and his body may not be able to keep up with the strain his mind is causing it from afar."

"Fuck," Spencer muttered, reaching for the pod. "We have to override the drone and pull him out before he kills himself."

Spencer began to work the controls, fumbling at the console with his fingers as his heart raced in his chest. He felt a rush of anxiety and panic wash over him as the command console suddenly blinked away, locking him out.

"What the—" Spencer exclaimed, looking around frantically.

His eyes landed on the emergency override lever on the opposite side of the wall, and breaking into a sprint.

"You can't!" one of the Project Raiju orbs suddenly chirped, rising into the air and rushing in front of Spencer. "He needs to do this. We need to do this. Please don't pull him out yet."

"Are you kidding me?!" Spencer growled.

The orb just bobbed in place, its lens flickering with a strange orange glow.

Spencer growled, his fingers digging into his palms. "Listen, orb. You're talking about letting him die here. I won't have his blood on my hands because he wants to be a hero or whatever the fuck is going on out there!!"

The orb's lights turned an angry red, and it began to glow with heat. "Hey! I am not an orb! It's Raiko to you, buster. Get that through your thick skull! And I know his limits better than anyone."

Spencer flinched at the oddly human-like outburst from the device, staring at it in shock. "You— Wait, since when do you have an autonomous personality matrix and that kind of attitude?"

The orb shifted awkwardly, its lens blinking as it projected the avatar of an Asian teenager with a straw hat and a sundress. "Since you became an absolute moron, probably. But I guess that started the day you could suck on your mom's tits."

"Alright," Spencer groaned, palming his face. "We seriously don't have time for this. Give me one good reason. ONE reason not to pull him out with a heart rate pushing 200 and systolic blood pressure to match."

Raiko avatar frowned, lifting her brim. "Well for one, Celestial Sonata just took one hell of a hit and we're trying to save her life. Also, I know his limits. I've been keeping watch over his physical body the entire time through the neural link."

Spencer balked, his eyes widening in surprise. "Celestial Sonata's gone down? THE Celestial Sonata? The one we were just talking to like seven minutes ago?"

Raiko crossed her arms and let out a soft chuckle. "Yup. I'm putting one hell of a multitask job up here right now. Thankfully I'm only an artificial human, and not limited as a human consciousness would be. So I can get by. Good on my other... 'siblings' for setting this up, by the way. Anyway, do you seriously think I'm going to let him blow his own mind into pieces or go splat in that pod? No way! That's not going to happen, okay?"

Spencer blinked, rolling his eyes. "Look, orb, I get it, okay? But I'm a kid. Maybe a bright one, but still a kid. I don't have a lot of experience with stuff like this. Still, I know a couple of basic things about human biology and severe mana exhaustion is not a joke. He's running out of time in there and fast."

The image of the avatar faltered, and its pupils rolled for a moment. "It's Raiko, not orb. One of these days I'm going to kick you in the shins for that. Anyway, I believe Doctor Hawking over there has a solution to this, and possibly even anticipated it. Am I wrong, good Doctor?"

Spencer turned back to Hawking, who had a smirk on her face. "Mmm, no, you're not entirely wrong, little one. Rachel did forecast this as one of three scenarios for his first serious deployment, and we're currently at the best possible scenario. I intended to get this in place as soon as I could once I saw the project go online."

Spencer turned to Hawking, frowning in confusion. "Do you have a solution to this? There's no time to explain everything, so just give me an option. Fast."

"Of course," Hawking said, a sly smile on her face as she lifted her fingers. "That's why I'm here."

Spencer's eyes widened as she produced a small case from her coat pocket. Inside was a medical needle, syringe, and a cylindrical metal container with a long needle attached.

"This," she said, presenting the contents. "Is your friend's ticket out of trouble."

Spencer reached out to touch the cylinder, before pulling his hand back and freezing. "What is this, a stimulant? Or something else? You need to inject it?"

"Something else," Hawking replied, her voice low. "It's an experiment developed by Feynman and myself that incorporates arcane nanomachines and modified organic compounds. Called Aurora, it can help provide a limited replenishment of mana in a pinch, but more importantly, it can help mitigate and stall the symptoms of low level chaos corruption on a non-magic user's body."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just... whoa," Sohrab interjected, stepping forward. "You expect us to just inject someone with an experimental formula that could possibly mess up their entire energy balance and then some? This guy's already in a precarious state as it is, and that sounds like the exact opposite of helpful."

Hawking shot him a piercing glare. "Let's just say that the substance has been field tested extensively by Sisyphus, and we have an extremely low percentage of potential side effects or risks. The amount is insignificant for mages of any significant level of training or acclimation, but for someone like young Ikazuchi, it will be a life saver. Your operator and his condition is far more important. There's no time to debate this."

Sohrab blanched, taking a step back as he rubbed his nose.

Hawking stared at him, eyebrow raised. "Spencer. Spencer, listen to me. We must try. It's the only chance we have right now."

Spencer looked down, biting his lip as his mind raced.

His eyes darted to the pod as the monitors blinked red in alarm.

He had no choice.

"Alright. Let's do it. Jesus Christ, how could this situation possibly get more fucked up?" Spencer groaned, throwing his arms up in the air.

"Well, I did have something I needed to report on," the Raiju avatar said plainly. "It's about the anomaly, and uh, you might want to brace yourself."

Spencer sighed "Give it here, because the longer we sit on this, the worse it's going to be. So spill the beans, orb."

"It's Raiko, you jackass," the bot replied, her tone stern.

"Alright, fine. Whatever. Let's hear it," Spencer added, looking at the avatar.

"It's come to my attention that we may have a larger problem on our hands,"

"Are you gonna leave us hanging? Get on with it!" Spencer groaned.

"So you know how the anomaly is a Magnitude 4.5? Well it's about to get worse."

"Holy fucking shit. How much worse?"

"It's about to breach into the upper Magnitude 5 range. I'm estimating a 5.8."

Hawking blanched, slumping against her wheelchair.

"Magnitude 5.8? That implies the presence of a Duke?" Ena perked up, rubbing her chin. "That's just not possible, not with the current readings it's giving off."

The bot avatar shook its head, frowning. "No, we have a bit of a trickier situation."

"Trickier? Than a Duke?" Ena said, her voice faltering.

"The attack that KO'd Celestial Sonata... well, I have good reason to believe it was an, erm, a little old ability from the history books called Desolation. And Ikazuchi? I'm pretty sure he's fighting a chaos beast utilizing the Authority of Liminality in that mech right now."

The immediate silence in the room was deafening.