"Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change."
from Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
After the events that happened of the third assembly of the Strike Witches near the Rhine, everything had changed. The world faded in white. Everyone who saw this was about to wake into a different reality.
Yoshika suddenly snaps her eyes open she looks around and sees nothing but blackness. Her head moves, but her body cannot. She was still wearing the same sailors' school suit from Yokosuka that she usually wears. She could not understand why her body can't move, but she knew that she can't force herself. Though she can't get out, she has to know why. Suddenly, a flash of an image came to her. It was so fast that she couldn't read it. But she knew she can see herself that way as she closed her eyes in her patience. She was under some sort of frozen stasis. Her body was under cold temperatures. The pod she was in was all steel, and the glass that covered that pod made sure the outside world can't be seen. She saw herself asleep and frozen inside the same pod.
"Now you know," a Fusoan girl's voice said to Yoshika before she herself had her eyes open in the same space of darkness. There was another girl there, in some sort of girls' school suit for Fuso but navy blue in color. Yoshika's was mostly white, but blue was only serving as the sideskirts. The other girl had brown hair and bright brown to chestnut eyes. Like Yoshika, her body couldn't move. Then she continued. "There's no use in getting loose. I don't know... but I kinda figured it would be that way." This girl was right beside Yoshika.
"Do... do you know what happened to us?" Yoshika asked this, knowing her own native language was used. They were both Fusojin in nature. Yoshika asked to know if the other knew the situation.
But as much as the other girl knew, she only had the idea that she was frozen. "Wish I could help, but I can't. I'm frozen... Yoshika." She then winced at this point. Looking away, she didn't mean to call the other girl Yoshika. The real question is how she knows the name. "Wait... Did I just...?"
"Yeah. I... know you too... Hikari? Wait... I've been looking at files before... You're with the 502nd?!"
"And you were the girl in the picture! I didn't realize that there was another Fusojin in the 501st next to Sakamoto!"
"What was your role?!"
"I don't know! All I know is how to locate cores and fight Neuroi!"
And Yoshika winced at this. The ability itself isn't new, but she found another girl who could do so. "Wow... Just like Sakamoto..."
And Hikari knew that she was talking to the same person. "So you really are...? You're really a witch in the 501st?"
"Of course. I function most of the time as a medic since I have healing magic."
"I see. That..." She turned her head away to smile. "It must be a cool ability, to help others in need. They just tell me I worked the hardest in the 502nd."
"Well... that means something." Yoshika said this to Hikari with a smile. "I don't believe the value should go away."
Hikari smiled back at Yoshika for the kind words. "Thanks, Yoshika." She then heard some whooshing sound nearby before she saw another Fusojin there. It was...
"SAKAMOTO-SAN!" Yoshika shouted to see Mio was there somehow across her, in the same situation as she was.
Mio saw Yoshika Miyafuji standing still. That time, her eyes were looking normal and had no eyepatches from before. And she was in the same situation as her. "Miyafuji, do you know where we are?"
"I don't know, Major. I'm in the situation as you are," Miyafuji said before another swoosh sound was made and she suddenly saw Minna just beside Mio. "Commander!"
Minna winced at where she was. "Mio? Miyafuji? What's going on? Where's the op table? Where are we?"
Sakamoto replies. "We don't know either, Minna. It's best we stay calm."
"STAY CALM!? Do you know what that white flash was about?! I wanna know as much as the next person! We have to know what the hell happened to the war, and what was gained and lost!"
"Damn it, Minna. This isn't helping." As soon as Mio finished her remark, a lot of other swooshes were heard around them.
Members of the 501st and the 502nd came appearing, asking the same questions, and they were all in a half-circled formation. Gundula Rall couldn't believe she was seeing Minna Dietlinde-Wilcke once again. Takami was then reunited with her sister Hikari. Lynette was talking briefly with Yoshika. Eila and Sanya asked each other about what happened to them. The Romagnan witch Franceska Lucchini almost cried, and Charlotte "Shirley" Yeager calmed her down. The rest talked almost softly when suddenly in front of them, they were seeing some sort of 3-dimensional astro-chart. The whole universe was shown here, and it zoomed towards a spot where a whole solar system was later seen. A blip from one of the planets there lit up, and a big screen suddenly shows before a transmission comes in. The signal was weak with the static running on the transmission.
Soon, the transmission shows a black haired brown eyed man through the weakened static, as the transmission was attempted to being boosted. For some reason, he was holding the camera and was running while sounds of beam-fire and gunfire were heard in the background. He was seen pushing some sort steel door closed with his body before he panted. Then he looked towards the camera. All the witches in that room saw him looking like hell with some blood on his jacketed chest and the dirt and sweat on his face.
"I know you can all hear me," the man said. "Honestly... fuck... I didn't know you guys could actually wake up. The whole damn outpost is a warzone, and they're crawling everywhere. Look... It should be safe here, so listen to me... very carefully. My name is Tyler Fray. You don't know me, but I know you... witches of the 501st and the 502nd. What I'm about to tell you is completely accurate and might explain your current situation. The world you knew... No... The reality you knew...
"...is gone. The world or reality you thought you had... currently doesn't exist."
StrikeStanding692 presents:
"WORLD WITCHES PROJECT: ASSAULT"
