Even with the events of the previous night, and her inexplicable conviction that it was something very important, Nagato was still surprised at how fast things moved. She'd barely finished getting dressed and showered that morning when Ooyodo knocked at her door, telling her to report to Admiral Goto's office. And, oddly, the secretary ship hadn't followed her, instead heading the other way, probably to retrieve someone else.

It didn't take long for the battleship to arrive at headquarters and make her way into the Admiral's office, finding Admiral Goto, Kongo, Tenryuu, Kiso, and Sendai already there, the Admiral sitting and the shipgirls standing scattered about.

"I'm assuming this is about the events of last night?" she asked.

Admiral Goto nodded, the light cruisers exchanged confused looks and Kongo huffed and fell into a cute pout. "My teitoku won't tell me what's going on!" she complained.

"And I told you, you'll have to wait for me to explain like everybody else," Goto calmly replied.

Silence fell, and Nagato leaned against the wall, feeling antsy. She wanted to be out there, wanted to get whatever this was over with as soon as possible. And a look at the light cruisers showed they were feeling restless, too. Tenryuu and Kiso were tapping the hilts of their blades, eyeing each other with increasingly tight frowns, while Sendai had pulled out a kunai and was slowly - some might say obsessively - sharpening it.

Then Mamiya opened the door, wheeling in a dim sum-style cart, and the tension utterly evaporated.

"Breakfast, everybody!" the food ship announced. "I've got pastries, omelettes, and coffee. Feel free to help yourself!"

The smell coming from the cart could only be described as delectable, and Nagato's stomach took the opportunity to remind her of the usual morning hunger. As such, she was right behind the light cruisers in swarming the cart, grabbing one of the plastic forks and an omelette and taking a big bite. A delighted moan escaped her lips: the omelette was incredibly light and fluffy, streaked through with smooth spots of egg white and lightly and evenly salted. Swallowing almost felt like a betrayal of her taste buds.

Once she had her mind back from the brain-melting taste, she glanced back at Kongo. "You're not eating?" she asked.

"Nah, I ate already," the battleship airily replied. "Enjoy!"

Mentally shrugging, Nagato returned to her omelette. She'd devoured it and two excellent muffins when Yuudachi walked in. Her nose and the two ear-like tufts of hair on her head all twitched, her entire demeanor perked up, and then she scampered over to the cart, taking some of the food herself.

Taking a deep bite of omelette, the destroyer exclaimed, "Mm, delicious, poi!" Nagato shuddered; it was all she could do to not grab the destroyer and hug her forever and ever. Taking and eating seconds of the omelette helped distract her.

Inazuma arrived next, and sheer ridiculousness stemmed the Nagamon this time. The battleship was too busy trying not to laugh.

Not everyone else was able to.

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Tenryuu howled, Sendai and Kiso both descending into giggles next to her. "Didn't manage to dodge Tatsuta, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up, nanodesu…" Inazuma sighed, adjusting the football helmet on her head. That done, she began to waddle towards the cart, pillows tied to her body with sturdy rope hampering her every movement.

Ashigara arrived last a couple minutes later with Ooyodo trailing behind, looking somewhat tired. Most of those present could guess what had gone on, and said nothing. Once again, the food provided an admirable distraction.

Soon enough, the food had been consumed, Mamiya and Ooyodo had decamped to the mess and outer office, respectively, and the eight-woman team had parked themselves in a semi-circle around Admiral Goto's desk.

"Alright, let's get started. Around two in the morning last night, NORAD detected a high-energy reaction in the stratosphere over the North Pacific," Admiral Goto began. "And then fifteen minutes later, the Yuubaris gave them a call to compare notes and track the emergence of seven objects from whatever event happened. Unfortunately, they were only able to get so much data before these objects, whatever they are, went to ground, so we still don't know what they are."

"And Nagato, Hoppo-chan told me that you woke up around when the event happened." The battleship's eyes widened slightly, and she nodded. "Is there anything you can add?"

"About the event itself? Nothing more than what the scientists were able to gather, I suspect." Taking a deep breath, Nagato closed her eyes and concentrated. It took almost a full minute, but an… awareness prodded itself into her consciousness. "I think I can detect the objects, though. And I believe I will be more sensitive to them if I can get closer."

"Good," Goto nodded. "Then your mission, all of you, is simple: find one of these objects, and bring it back here so we can figure out what the hell we're dealing with. We've gotten word from Dutch Harbor that they've found something that's probably one of these objects-"

"It is, if my navigation fairies have the direction right," Nagato interjected, eyes still closed.

"So that's where you'll be going first. Any questions?"

"Why has Japan been entrusted with this mission?" Ashigara asked. "I'd have thought the United States would have preferred to handle this, especially if some of these objects are on US soil."

"And why the eight of us, specifically?" Tenryuu added.

Goto smirked. "Oh, the US wanted to handle this, and China really wanted them to handle this. Unfortunately for them, Phoenix and South Dakota are still on probation from their little stunt with the rocket in Mexico, so they don't really have the capacity to handle another Outside Context science problem." The smirk died away. "And as for why you eight… call it a gut feeling, but there are six more of these objects, and a lot of Abyssal factions who'd love to take them. This initial search might end up a milk run, but I doubt later ones will. And you did a good job working together when we raided the Director's headquarters last year."

Pausing, Admiral Goto waited for more questions. There were none.

"Excellent. Dismissed!"

~o~

Everyone scattered after that to set things in order. Tenryuu and Nagato needed to find someone to watch over their charges; Inazuma had to surreptitiously get her "safety gear" removed; and all had equipment to restock, repair, or simply bring to maximum efficiency.

Still, within an hour the team was ready and steaming north up the east coast of Honshu, waving hello to passing fishermen and sightseers. At a comfortable cruising speed of fifteen knots, it took some time to reach the Aleutians, and longer still to reach Unalaska, one of the more easterly islands and where Dutch Harbor was physically located.

The time was passed mostly by talking. Ashigara, Kongo, and Inazuma, connected as they were to command, were full of base gossip, carefully couched in "I heard"s and "maybe"s and "It's not confirmed, but"s. That was exhausted as they passed Hokkaido, at which point Tenryuu goaded Kiso into sharing stories of her domestic life with Hokaze. It only took ten minutes for the light cruiser to first attempt to melt into an embarrassed puddle, and Nagato took pity on her by cutting in with a story of her own about Hoppo-chan. For all that the little Abyssal was mostly converted to human, there were still little things that tripped her up in cute and funny ways. Like last week, when she'd first seen a chicken.

That brought in everyone else with stories about their sister ships and destroyer charges, and the result was a lively discussion on family - and plenty of bellyaching.

"- don't even get me started on Hibiki's drinking problem! She gets all grabby when she gets drunk!"

"These days I wish for that short black dress now. Some of the things Tatsuta's tried to force me into lately…"

"I'm really beginning to understand why Kitakami's such a bitch all the time, now that I've got a bit of outside perspective on the whole situation. But would it kill her to be a little less bitchy?"

"Shiratsuyu discovered the We Are Number One music video, poi. My life is hell."

Everyone was laughing - a little nervously - at Yuudachi's spat statement when Inazuma suddenly held up a hand.

"Ssh."

Everyone fell silent, and now they could hear it: the sound of distant thunder. A sound every one of them had heard hundreds of times, and could identify on the spot.

Heavy gunfire. And lots of it.

"Well," Tenryuu remarked. "I guess Admiral Goto was right to send us here. Orders?"

There was only a short pause before Nagato answered. "We're kicking it to flank. Sendai, head into the base, get the gem. If these are normal Abyssals, Kongo and I will provide long-range fire; if abnormal, we'll dive in with our full abilities. The rest of you?" She grinned. "Smash."

Nobody said anything. They just picked up steam and surged forward.

In the event, there were just normal Abyssals brawling near the island. Normal Abyssals that were more fighting each other than the base's defenses, which were in all honesty rather minimal.

"Why're they fighting each other, poi?" Yuudachi wondered.

"Does it matter?" Kiso snapped. "Let's kill these guys and go home!"

Though these eight had not fought together in a year, the simple fact is that naval warfare, then as in every naval war, was sparse on big fleet battles and heavy on smaller actions involving two or three squadrons. And with the differing availability of the shipgirls, everyone in the fleet had by necessity become very used to improvised teamwork, on top of everyone working with everyone at some point.

As such, everyone moved almost instinctively into their roles. Kongo and Nagato slewed to starboard well away from the furball, their rigging springing to life and the massive gun turrets on it swinging out while their fire control crews read range data from their radar and began working on a firing solution. Inazuma shifted to her lightning form and sprinted in, circling the formation and flinging lightning bolts into the crowd. With so many ranged attacks screaming in, the Abyssals' already poor discipline cracked further, introducing sizable gaps in their screens as the destroyers flailed about in contradictory directions.

Into these gaps poured Yuudachi, Ashigara, Tenryuu, and Kiso. The destroyer and heavy cruiser fanned out, slamming into the Abyssals like bull elephants wrapped up in knives. Tenryuu and Kiso plunged further in, their swords blurs that severed heads and carved open torsos.

With such a magnificent distraction, it was no wonder that Sendai was able to steam around the battle and go straight to the island, and from there to Dutch Harbor itself. As she crested the last of the mountains ringing the mountain, she was met by a couple of sailors waving to her from the other side of the harbor.

"Oh thank god!" one of the two sailors said when she finished crossing said harbor. "We thought they were gonna kill us all!"

Sendai smirked. "Yeah, those Abyssals don't stand a chance. More importantly, we heard that you found one of the objects that showed up the other day?"

"Yeah, this way!" the other sailor said. "Anything to make the Abyssals less likely to attack us!"

The blatant unwillingness to fight made Sendai roll her eyes, but no more, and she still followed. Rear positions were important; that had been drummed into their heads sufficiently since being summoned. And not just because they were a good place to dump personnel wholly unsuited for the front lines.

Soon enough, they reached the site: a small crater, at the center of which was a small, diamond-shaped gem in a bluish purple color. Neither sailor seemed to want to go near it, but Sendai wasn't a squishy human being. She just walked into the crater, crouched down and picked it up, looking it over.

Obviously, it was a beautiful gem, with utterly flawless lines and a deep matte color. And, somehow, there was a feeling of… depth to the thing. Like she was looking into a portal to another world or something. For a moment, she felt like she was about to fall in.

Then the feeling passed, and the light cruiser stowed away the gem.

"Alright, now that we've got whatever-this-is, time for me to head back to the battle, and-"

All at once, the gunfire that had ebbed but not fully gone away went entirely silent.

"Aw, come on!" Sendai snapped, before sighing and beginning to walk back. "Anyway, see you guys later. Good luck with the cleanup."

~o~

Despite another salvo of 16" shells locked, loaded, and properly aimed, Nagato checked her fire; what few targets were left were too mixed up into their melee fighters to safely fire on them. And at this point, they didn't need the help. The battleship winced as Yuudachi carved open one of the hapless Abyssals from collarbone to crotch in one swipe of her claws. Yeah, her guns were overkill.

"Oh, I see Sendai!" Kongo called out.

Nagato followed her fellow battleship's gaze, and indeed, Sendai was steaming up to them, a grumpy look on her face.

"You guys could've left one of them for me," she groused once she was in hearing range. "Anyway, I got the dingus. For all the fuss, I was expecting it to be bigger. Or more alien."

"Can I see it?" Nagato asked. Sendai nodded and pulled out the gem, handing it over.

"Ohh, pretty," Kongo remarked at seeing it. Nagato didn't reply; much like Sendai, she found that the object had remarkable depth to it. Unbidden, a name came to mind.

"Soul Gems…"

"What?"

Shaken out of the… trance she was in, Nagato looked up at Kongo and Sendai, both of whom were looking at her with a mix of confusion and concern.

"They're… soul gems?" Kongo queried. "What are those?"

"I'm pretty sure she just thought that name up on the spot, Kongo," Sendai deadpanned. "I like it, though. Rolls off the tongue."

Nagato shook her head, putting the Soul Gem away. "No, that's what they're called. Don't ask me how I know that." Noting that the rest of the fleet had finished mopping up the Abyssals, Nagato sighed and gazed wistfully up at the clouds. Honestly, she was almost as happy to not have to use the Super Nagamon as she was at the victory.

This action did not escape either Kongo or Sendai. The battleship, for once, kept quiet, leaving Sendai to ask the obvious question.

"What's with the sad sighs, Nagato?" she asked. "We won! Easily, which I'm still not happy about."

"Don't be an idiot, Sendai," Nagato snapped. "This isn't over. This isn't even close to over, and it won't be as easy as this. Not again."

"Jeez, sorry I asked…" Sendai muttered, turning and steaming away.

Nagato, for her part, sighed and ran her hand down her face. Where had that come from? She wasn't prone to snapping at people. A hand alighted on her shoulder, and she glanced over it to see Kongo giving her a compassionate smile.

"Remember, my door's open if you need to talk," Kongo said, before grinning manically. "Let Auntie Kongo solve all your problems!"

A groan of exasperation worked out of Nagato's throat, and she felt her mood lighten a bit. Still, once the fleet reassembled and headed off back to Japan, Nagato let herself fall back and silently brood. Most of the fleet, flush with victory, was content to let her, and Kongo seemed willing wait for Nagato to come to her. The one exception was Tenryuu, who dropped back to where Nagato was.

"So, what's bothering you?" she bluntly asked.

There was a strong urge to tell Tenryuu that it was simply due to her knowledge that this whole quest would get harder down the line. There was an equally strong urge to just spill her guts; Tenryuu knew the feelings that went into the Super Nagamon. Surely she could help, tell her what path to take with the Super Nagamon.

Suddenly, she shuddered, a spike of raw fear streaking through her. It passed quickly, but it was as good an excuse as any to put off a confession.

"Like I told Kongo, this isn't over," the battleship replied, just a hint of nerves in her voice. "And I've got a sudden feeling that it just got harder."

~o~

Harbor Princess eyed the screen in front of her, part of a kludged together visual conferencing system she was trying to spread to all the remaining Installation-class Abyssals, to some success. On said screen was Midway Princess, looking like she hadn't slept in three days, and an odd, beautiful, and quite familiar purple-blue gem. [So… you have one of them, too,] Harbor Princess mused.

[Y-Yes!] the other Installation confirmed. [And unlike you, I can't hold out to a determined assault! The only thing saving my nuts is that Central Princess is still dicking around with negotiations, and this is exactly the sort of thing to cut through that kind of red tape!]

[Calm down,] Harbor Princess replied, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Midway Princess may have had an increasing tendency to descend into histrionics, but her position was sufficiently precarious to justify such an attitude. Didn't make it pleasant, but the Abyssal could at least tough it out. [I've got more submarines than I know how to deal with, so I'll be transferring over a few dozen. I wish I could do more, but-]

[Yeah, they'll be coming for you, too. I get it. Thanks anyway.] A pause, where Midway Princess almost seemed to nod off, and then she shook her head. [Anyway, do you know what these things are? And if we can use them somehow?]

[I've got people working on it,] Harbor Princess said. [It's going to take time, unfortunately, and I suspect we're gonna be attacked long before then.]

[Yeah, I was afraid of that,] Midway Princess said a little hysterically. And with that, the other Installation signed off.

Sighing out through her nose, Harbor Princess leaned back, weighing the risks and rewards of this new development. She was tempted to punt the odd object out of her territory, let the Japanese have it, but the power… she could feel it even here, over a mile away from where they were keeping the gem. If they could tap into its power…

And there was the rub. For all the combat power at her disposal, Harbor Princess knew she didn't have the scientific resources to figure this out in any reasonable time. Even more so than she'd implied to Midway Princess. And no way was she going to the Director for this. Their relationship wasn't outright antagonistic - thank God, because that was not a fight she was winning - but it was strained and colder than the ice caps. No way the Director would do her a favor like this. Not with others of these gems out there for the redhead to grab herself.

So. Best to hold the status quo: keep the stone stored away behind all the unmanned security she could muster.

Still, she could put her forces on alert. And in fact, she mused as she stood, she'd better do that immediately.

~o~

Down south, the Director looked through her goggles at the completion of her latest project. Something that could stand up to the exceptional fighters among the shipgirls. Previous attempts had failed, repeatedly, and after a lot of soul-searching in the wake of the loss of her battleship, she'd come to a conclusion.

She'd gotten stuck in a rut.

By that, the Director meant that she had focused too much on the Abyssals. Drawn from humanity's hate and pain and anger, they were thus near-limitless in number, but painfully limited in individual capability by the basic shipgirl template. There was only so strong you could make them without that human will to interact with the magic. To match one of the exceptional shipgirls, she needed to go beyond the Abyssal template.

In practice, that meant creating life, humanity, from nothing. A daunting task, to be sure, but one she relished as a new challenge. And now, finally, that challenge had produced the two figures lying in the pods she was looking over and ready to animate.

Grinning, she pulled a switch, arcane machinery humming to life. Glowing blue galvanic essence flowed down tubes and wires and into the chambers, quickly suffusing both the bodies within. The result was a blue glow that rapidly built in power until it obscured the contents within. At that point, the Director began counting in her head, and after seventy-five Mississippis, threw down the switch, and leaned back to wait.

CRASH!

She didn't have to wait long. A dark brown fist punched out of one of the chambers, followed by the rest of the body. Her new creation was tall, muscular, dark-skinned - and very, very male. Success!

Oh. Also, he was nude. The Director mentally slapped herself for forgetting about that.

[Ah…] he said. [You must be our creator.]

"I am," the Director said, before hurling a pair of jeans into his face. "Now put on some pants already!"

[Yes, mistress,] the man playfully said as he put on the pants.

[Aw, c'mon, don't I get some pants, too? Or do I have to wear a kilt?]

That would be the other of her creations, fair-skinned with jet black hair, but otherwise of identical build to his sibling. The Director tossed some pants at him, too.

"I've got clothes in the antechamber," she said. "Take your pick. When you're dressed, meet me back here so I can give you your mission."

[Yes, mistress!] the dark-skinned one barked, saluting, still with a wide grin on his face.

[Aye aye,] the other drawled.

Once both were out of the room, the Director sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. Personality. Of course they had personality. And annoying personalities, too. Still, if they had the power she'd planned for them, that was a very small price to pay.

About ten minutes later, the two walked out again, now fully dressed.

[So, while we were getting dressed we decided that we should have names,] the dark skinned one said. [I decided I'm gonna go by Truxtun.]

[And I'm Lee,] the other said. [So. Who do you want us to kill?]

Names. Names. For a moment, the Director saw red, and felt an urge to rend the flesh from their bones. But then the voice of her mentor intruded with the greatest lesson she'd ever been taught: respect your creations. Always.

Names were dangerous, but give them what they wanted, and they would stay loyal. That was the important part.

"Very well," she said. "A few days ago, seven objects appeared on this world. I managed to finagle a way for you to detect the unique energies they give off. I think."

[Huh, so that's what that is…] Lee mused. [I assume you want us to go retrieve them?]

"Yes. And I have reason to believe that Japan is sending their best shipgirls out to do the same." She smiled. "If you meet them, kill them. Though beware the one named Nagato; she's powerful enough to require both of you together."

[Yeah, yeah, we'll be careful,] Truxtun said dismissively, before hopping in place. [Oh, this is going to be fun!]

[It's not supposed to be fun, dumbass,] Lee shot back, though an amused grin had spread over his face. [Though you have a point. No one said we can't enjoy this.]

"Ahem."

The two turned towards their creator, who looked distinctly unamused.

"If you two could get going?" she said.

The two shared a glance, and then did so, and once they were out of sight the Director collapsed to the ground, vision swimming. Why yes, doing an all-nighter - or rather, five in a row - to rush completion of this project had consequences. Who knew?

~o~

And finally, deep on the ocean floor somewhere between Davy Jones' locker and the Marianas Islands, something stirred in the ocean muck. All that could be seen was a pair of glowing red eyes, but the normal denizens of the abyss had long since vacated the area, so there was nobody there to notice.

Light may have been anathema to them, but concentrated malevolence was far more of a problem.

Now that the creature had stirred, it paused, seemed to scent the water around it, and sped up and north. Its prize was near, it knew, and there was no one to stop it.

Not that anyone could.