Chrono X Angel, Book 5: Winds of Change

Chapter 8

October 16th

In the past 36 hours since leaving Los Angeles, the convoy had been left relatively alone it seemed. Whether or not it was due to them outpacing Megáli Anarchía's agents, or them just not knowing where they were, Nonami was not entirely sure. She did however worry that every mile they drove drew them closer and closer into a trap. She could not say why though, other than just sheer intuition drawn from her centuries of unlife. It just did not feel right that they had been so unharried this whole time. The convoy had entered the Cleveland city limits about twenty minutes ago now, making great time despite a few necessary but brief pit stops, and were currently driving against the coast of Lake Erie when she spotted it on the horizon. A great, long necked creature rushing towards them at high speed through the water. With a head shape somewhere between a snake and a horse, greenish brown scaly skin, glowing yellow eyes and a mouthful of razor sharp teeth, it seemed the legend of Bessie had come to life and was out for their blood.

"Evasive maneuvers!!" She ordered into the comms as the beast threw itself ashore and onto the highway in front of them. It was just before dawn and fortunately not many people were out on that stretch of highway just yet. So long as they could take care of this creature, be it real or Tulpa, quickly they should hopefully be fine. As it was still dark enough, with the sun not rising for at least 90 minutes, Nonami decided it was safe to shift into her vampire form. However, upon doing so she instead received quite the shock. It seemed that, instead of her true form emerging she became a brown and orange garbed magical girl. While it made sense to her, considering how the others had already been similarly affected, she cursed herself briefly for forgetting that bit of information. Still, if Rei's earlier show of strength were any indication, she should have all of her vampire powers available to use.
The beast roared, slamming its massive tail into the road just in front of the van Hyoka was driving. The Yuki Onna only just barely managed to drift the van out of the way as it hit the ground.

"Everyone, stay out of its range and we should be okay!" Shouted Nonami, calling on the Quake Breaker, "Hyoka, see if you can use your hydrokinesis to summon a tidal wave and drag it back into the lake!! If this thing isn't a Tulpa, we don't want to hurt it! But even if it is, we want as much distance between us and it as possible!!"

It lifted its tail up again, this time whipping it at Nonami who realized in that moment they were definitely not dealing with a Tulpa at all. When they had fought Megáli Anarchía's Tulpas back in Fumizaki, while they may have left marks on their opponents, their lack of true reality prevented them from harming the environment around them. This lake monster was leaving divots in the pavement whenever it slammed its snake-like tail at the vans. It seemed to be after something, Nonami thought as she raised a wall of stone to block another string of blows. The vans? Possibly. But why? It was not a Tulpa, and they had no evidence Megáli Anarchía used mind control tactics like Meggido's nanobots. Did it just not like them? The only odd thing about this group, aside from some personalities were... the presence of a lich? Their own status as magical girls? No, neither of those seemed a likely culprit. Nonami's train of thought was cut off as a wave of water erupted out of Lake Erie, dragging the monster back in and sweeping it out with a powerful riptide. When Nonami looked over at Hyoka, the girl was almost completely transparent, drained of nearly all her energy.

"Did it work?" She whispered, condensing into an orb form to conserve her energy.

"I hope so," sighed Nonami, trying her best to use her stone powers to smooth out the asphalt on the road before they headed back onto the road.
"What I want to know, is why that creature attacked us."

"Bessie," came the voice of Alex over the coms, "That was Bessie, the monster of Lake Erie. She's never been aggressive though, at least never to that degree. You think the cargo has something to do with it?"