Mobile Suit Nanoha (Nanoha Mecha TF) (Patreon)

<Shooting Mode. Engaged.> The machine reported, as it’s heart shaped head shifted to a two-pronged form, humming as it charged.

“Are you sure that’s necessary? It could damage whatever’s inside.” The blonde looked around, particularly at the ceiling above. “Or, possibly, cause a cave-in.”

“Do you have another way to get in, Fate? I don’t see a door.” The weapon’s wielder replied - though, despite the pragmatic justification, she had a wide grin that made Fate think she just wanted to blow something up. Although on the other hand, she tended to smile like that around Fate all the time anyway.

“...Fine. We need to get in fast anyway.” she conceded, taking a couple steps back.

Nanoha winked, and refocused on her aim. It wasn’t any spell she had to call out, so much as just a blast of as much energy as she could safely shove into Raising Heart, but it was only sensible to pay at least a little attention as she blew a hole in the ancient metal wall.

<Fire> Raising Heart reported, a beam blasting out of the weapon and into the wall. The cavern shook violently, but soon returned to stability. When the dust cleared, a sizable hole had been blasted into the wall - plenty for the two young women to step through.

“See, I told you it was fine. Come on!” Nanoha said cheerfully, returning Raising Heart to normal.

Fate rolled her eyes, but allowed Nanoha to take her hand as they stepped into the hole. As they pushed in, Fate lit up her own Intelligent Device, brightening up the room.

She hadn’t fully been sure what to expect when she arrived. The Time-Space Administration Bureau hadn’t been able to get all that much information; it had only detected the underground structure by chance while a ship was scanning the area for unrelated purposes. But further scans had shown not only a massive, clearly purposefully built metal structure beneath the surface, but they had detected immense energy readings coming from within. What their source was, none could say - it was too much for even their best information-gathering magic and technology to piece together, like trying to look directly into the sun and read the pattern of spots and patches.

While they might not know exactly what awaited within the structure, they knew one thing - anything producing energy like that simply had to be a Lost Logia, a piece of magical technology from ages long past. And that meant that, no matter how dangerous it could be, it was the Time Space Administration Bureau’s job to contain it.

It was lucky that two of the Bureau’s best agents, Nanoha and Fate, had happened to be relatively close by, and were called in. With whatever device contained inside already active enough to produce such energy, there was no time for a careful excavation and archaeological dig; the scholars of the future would have to forgive them for breaching by force. With Nanoha around, just about any situation that could be solved by big beams of magic would be solved in that way - the Ace wasn’t exactly known for being subtle.

As the dust cleared and Fate’s Bardiche cast a glow on the surroundings, the two found themselves in a strange place. “Woah… this looks like a sci-fi movie…” Nanoha said, looking around.

“Don’t touch anything.” Fate snapped. “It could be dangerous.”

It was a laboratory, or at least, it looked like one to Nanoha. A good old fashioned mad scientist’s laboratory, with diagrams, models, beeping computer-like terminals, and whirring devices of indeterminate purpose.

The lab was not in itself that odd - it wasn’t like Nanoha and Fate hadn’t seen things with a similar look before in their time in the Bureau. But what was disconcerting was that, while the building had to be ancient, it still seemed to be fully in working order. Fate considered the possibility that it wasn’t a single Lost Logia hidden within, but a whole cache of them.

“I wonder how we missed this for so long…” Nanoha wondered aloud, walking into the lab, careful not to stray close to any machines. “Maybe someone was here before us and turned it on?”

“I’m not sure. It could be some kind of automated system triggered by the ship passing by, or some other factor. But whatever it is, we have to be careful.”

The duo walked further into the complex - they had to investigate it for any evidence of what might have caused it’s activation after so long, or at least what kind of device they were dealing with. Once it was found, they would be able to call in the TSAB and begin a full operation to secure it and make sure it doesn’t fall into the wrong hands like so many Lost Logia had in the past.

The pair soon reached the deepest level of the complex; they couldn’t find any more stairs downwards, and when they pressed forward, they found a large chamber with a ceiling high enough that Fate suspected it reached the surface.

“Wow… I wonder what this all is…?” Nanoha wondered aloud. The chamber was ringed in more monitors and devices, with a particularly large machine at the center.

<Detecting large magical energy readings in this location.> Bardiche reported as Fate looked around at the consoles. The screens had text on them, but it wasn’t in any kind of language she’d ever seen, and she took a moment to start documenting it for further research. It was possible it would be something the TSAB had records on, if they looked deep enough into the archives.

Meanwhile, Nanoha had found herself approaching the large device in the center of the room. It was roughly cube shaped, three or four times her height at a guess, and composed of a smooth silvery metal similar to the metal the rest of the structure was built out of. When she’d seen it she’d at first thought it was built into the floor, but further examination showed it was free-standing.

“This is really cool,” Nanoha said with a smile. Usually when you encountered this kind of old tech it was in the use of some misguided individual or a villain. It made it hard to really wonder at what it must have been before being turned to dark ends.

As Nanoha rested her hand against the machine, something beeped. [New Material Detected] A voice said in language neither woman could recognize yet both could somehow understand. [Analyzing. Analyzing.]

A beam of light swept over Nanoha. “...Eh?”

“Nanoha, get away from it!” Fate shouted.

The scanner light changed from green to red, as it rested on Raising Heart’s core. [Template selected. Beginning procedure.] The machine reported. The cube shifted and grinded, a small, human-sized hole opening in the side.

Nanoha bolted, instincts from years of work as an agent of the TSAB screaming to evade. She activated her flight ability and tried to leap backwards. But the cube glowed pink, and Nanoha found herself yanked out of the air by invisible forces. “Fate!” she cried out, but the blonde magical girl wasn’t able to reach her hand in time as Nanoha was sucked inside the machine, which closed it’s hatch as quickly as it opened, leaving Fate to ineffectually slam her weapon against smooth metal.

-----

The opening slid shut, trapping Nanoha inside the machine. The magical energy that had sucked her inside had begun to abate as soon as she was contained. She did her best to remain calm, analyzing the situation she had found herself in.

The interior of the machine was filled with beeping screens and text she couldn’t read, similar to those outside. But some of the monitors instead had images - one of them was a silhouette that she was pretty sure was her own, probably scanned in by the machine earlier. Another silhouette was also humanoid, but didn’t seem quite the same. The chamber she was in was, as one might expect from the cube that had dragged her in, cuboid in shape, and actually surprisingly big. The monitors kept it adequately well lit to see the walls - the room was probably something like ten meters in each direction, plenty of room to move. The material of the walls resembled what the exterior had been made out of, so Nanoha was pretty sure she could blow her way out.

“Sorry, I didn’t want to do this…” Nanoha muttered. It was a shame to destroy the Lost Logia, but she didn’t want to wait to see what it did to her. “Raising Heart!”

<Acknowledged.>

The Device shifted mode, preparing the biggest beam Nanoha could produce safely in the enclosed confines. She could just hear Fate talking about how she acted like a hammer, seeing every problem as a nail to be solved with a larger beam - in her defense, Nanoha had yet to find a problem that was not solved with greater firepower.

The beam started charging, light gathering at the tip of the weapon, but as she prepared to fire, the voice of the machine spoke again. [Energy spike detected. Correcting.]

Pink light suffused the cube, tinting Nanoha’s whole view. She covered her eyes, just in case, but it didn’t seem directly harmful - instead, it was effecting Raising Heart. <Error. Error. Unable to charge energy.>

“Wha?” Nanoha gasped. She couldn’t blow her way out - and given that Fate hadn’t burst in, something was keeping her from entering as well.

[Analysis complete. Compiling complete. Applying changes.]

Nanoha didn’t like the sound of that - but she didn’t have the ability to do anything but try to pump more energy into Raising Heart. But it wouldn’t work, she was simply trapped.

As she worked, she felt a strange sensation in her Barrier Jacket - the magical armor that always formed around her while wielding Raising Heart. The light, breathable cloth felt stifling and stiff. It was becoming difficult to move, and indeed, the cloth didn’t look like it was moving much at all anymore no matter how Nanoha tried. “Oh, that doesn’t look good…”

She’d never had her Barrier Jacket itself influenced by enemy magic before! But it certainly seemed to be this time. Nanoha watched in amazement as the stiffened cloth hardened and shifted in texture. She cautiously reached up to touch it, and found that it was no longer cloth at all but smooth metal. It was less like she was wearing a normal outfit with magical protective properties and more like she was wearing armor shaped like clothes.

“Ah! Raising Heart, are you alright?” Nanoha found herself suddenly worrying about her Intelligent Device - if this was influencing her Barrier Jacket, was it influencing her weapon? Unfortunately, what she saw was not encouraging. She’d hardly been looking, but Raising Heart now seemed… somehow stuck to her gloves? Or rather, merged with them.

<Systems functioning properly.> Raising Heart reported. <Interference with enacting functions detected.>

Nanoha tried to remove her Barrier Jacket - it was dangerous but she could usually just resummon it. But she found it wouldn’t dissipate; it felt heavy on her body, the metallic texture seeping inside. She felt weird all of a sudden…

[Merging.]

Nanoha felt her magical outfit clinging to her body, binding itself to her. They began to conform to her body more, and as they did, she had a strange sensation - she could feel her clothes. As she examined herself, she found that it was suddenly hard to tell where the clothes ended and her own body began. The metal merged smoothly into her skin.

“Ah! That’s not normal!” Nanoha tried to shake her clothes free of her body, and as she did they only seemed to grow more a part of her. The metallic texture spread out across her skin, from the places that the clothes touched her - which was a lot of her. The new metal replacing her body was a milky white color, except in some places where it was gold instead - it reminded her somewhat of Raising Heart’s color scheme, actually.

She shook her head - that wasn’t important, what was important was that she was turning into metal! Fast, too, faster than she could keep track of even if she’d had a means to stop it. She felt strange as it went inside her too - she was reasonably confident she didn’t have human insides anymore wherever the metal went, replaced with wires and circuitry and more metal. She felt oddly empty - kind of like when you haven’t eaten in ages and see something delicious, and suddenly you need something inside.

The metal crept over her face, and she tried to wince but found her facial muscles had already metallicized. Her vision blinked out. When she could see again, she didn’t know how long had passed - but enough had gone by for the rest of her head to be metal, with her hair going white-and-gold as well, and her eyes a solid pink.

Status reports scrolled across Nanoha’s vision, in that same language as before - although, now she could read it. It showed what she had become - some kinda mecha! She hadn’t noticed while she was changing, but she’d grown almost a whole meter in height, easily big enough to fit someone inside; which was exactly what she was meant to do, seeing as she was hollow, with a cockpit built for a pilot.

Frankly, if it wasn’t so terrifying, Nanoha would find it cool - people had always compared her to mecha from those animated tv shows, and now she genuinely was one. But she had a bigger problem as the voice spoke again.

[Conversion complete. Mechanized Combat Unit 5-3-8 generated. Preparing data reformatting…]

Nanoha was by no means a computer expert, but anything that messed with her “data” was no good. She wasn’t going to sit and wait for it! “Sorry, computer voice thing,” she said, her voice coming out of internal speakers now - that felt weird, “But I’m out of here!”

As it turned out, she wasn’t just there to carry people around. She was loaded for bear with weapons in her arms, legs, face, and even the metallic wings that had formed on her back - and with advanced flight systems keeping her mobile.

She leveled her arm at one wall, and amped up her volume. “Fate, get out of the way!”

-----

The cube was smouldering, smoking, and utterly undamaged. Fate had yet to even land a scratch, and was getting exhausted - but she had to get Nanoha out! She couldn’t leave her there and let it do whatever it wanted to her!

She was just preparing another flurry of blows when a voice - dim, but clear - came from inside the cube. “Fate, get out of the way!”

Fate trusted Nanoha implicitly, and she’d moved before she consciously processed her words. The side of the machine started to glow subtly red, then white, and then a pink beam blasted through its side. “Nanoha!” Fate called out, as a figure burst through the hole.

It was… well, Fate could recognize Nanoha anywhere, and this looked like her. Almost. Kind of. A tall white-and-gold mecha in a Nanoha-esque shape flew out of the hole, and looked over at her. For a moment, Fate felt like it was a cold calculating machine gaze - but the pose it struck was distinctly Nanoha. “Fate! Sorry to worry you! I’m back now! It is me, it tried to delete me I think but I blew my way out first!” she looked back around. “...I think it’s kinda busted now, but with how dangerous that is, I don’t think that’s a bad thing.”

Fate looked at her for a minute. Should she worry if this was really Nanoha, or some trick by the Lost Logia? ...No. She could feel it was Nanoha, in the way she talked and acted. Fate trusted her instinct on that matter. She’d know if the machine was just faking it.

The blonde magical girl allowed herself to smile a bit. “...You’re going to have to let Vivio ride, I hope you know.”

“I-Is that safe? I don’t know how safe I am…” Nanoha stammered, the worry about their adoptive child immediate and further assuaging Fate’s remaining concerns.

“I’m sure that the TSAB will figure something out for you. The machine is still mostly intact. Let’s head back up.” She started up, but staggered, her Barrier Jacket dissipating. “...Oh, I used up too much energy trying to break you out…”

Fate heard something behind her as Nanoha walked up, and something surprising happened - Nanoha… opened up? Showing a cockpit, filled with bleeping computers and controls. “Well, then, I guess you should pilot me! I’m a mech for now, so wouldn’t it be cool?”

“...I suppose I should ensure it’s safe…” Fate said, flushing a bit as Nanoha casually suggested she enter her…

As soon as Fate entered, a wave of pink light washed over her. She was worried at first, but when it faded she felt fine… although, her outfit had been replaced with a skin-tight jumpsuit. “...Oh, I suppose this is what you like now, then?” she said with a wry smile.

“S-Sorry! It was automatic, I didn’t even think about it!”

The teasing continued as mecha and pilot rose to the surface, with a mission complete and a lot of explaining to do...