Arriving at Kalos, Galahad found himself ushered into an office where the general that would be their Kalos correspondent was waiting with the final member of their team. The general was a fat Gogoat, heavily decorated and wearing every single one of his medals while seated in his office in private. Galahad knew that Kalos hadn't been in a major war in hundreds of years, so the validity and the value of these medals was in serious question. More importantly, however, was the completely inexperienced and newly graduated Lieutenant standing at attention beside the general's desk. He knew who she was, he just hadn't come prepared for her to be on his team.
The general, whose name was Maneaux, didn't even bother to stand. He motioned at the young Lieutenant. "Here she is. Take good care of her."
Galahad shook his head in disbelief. "I'm sorry, sir. I'm just not one for pranks."
"No prank, Major. We made a deal, and now you have to uphold your government's side of it."
"I don't understand. I was told your government agreed to only take one spot on the team, but you can't possibly intend to fill that spot with-"
"The Princess made the arrangement herself. She'll be your final member."
Galahad look at the girl, standing proudly in her uniform. He could already see the court martial he'd get into when she inevitably died. There was no way she was prepared for the sort of missions they would be taking. He doubted she'd ever seen combat. She was trying too hard to keep looking straight ahead, but was finding it difficult not to look back at him as he sized her up.
The general grunted, pointing to the door. "Don't just stand there. Be on your way."
With a defeated sigh, Galahad saluted. "Yes sir." He turned and walked out, hoping against hope that she wouldn't follow and someone else would just end up with his team somewhere along the way somehow. Between all the problematic personalities he now had to deal with, she would probably be the best, but her inexperience was a serious issue.
She caught up with him and began to step in time with him. "Thank you for accepting me as part of your team, sir. And may I just say that I am pleased as punch to be a part of this program."
He figured it couldn't hurt to check. "How much combat have you seen, Lieutenant?"
"I have studied over one hundred hours of front line footage, and I graduated at the top of my officers' class just last week. I won't let you down, sir."
"Oh boy. You do know what you've signed yourself up for, right?"
She nodded. "Covert counter-terrorism. We fight bad guys."
"And you're fully prepared for this? What can you do?"
"I've been told I'd make a good command officer."
He shook his head. "You're not taking my job. At least not yet, and we have a captain as second in command."
"Oh... well, right. Of course." She gave it a moment of thought, then gave a different answer. "I make for a good intelligence officer."
He stopped walking just inside the door to the Kalos Military Command building and turned to her. "We have our intelligence, operator, sniper, sapper and wheelman. What are you?"
She was starting to look uncomfortable. "I, uh... um... I can do all of those things."
"Jack of all trades, Lieutenant. Master of none. That makes you the grunt. I won't be giving you special treatment, and you can't expect the others to either. You made the deal to be the only team member from Kalos, and that means you're not our princess." He stepped out of the building, heading to the jeep that was waiting for them and got in the back.
She climbed in beside him. "I don't expect special treatment. I just want to be treated the same way the rest of the men are." He suddenly decided to not tell her that the team consisted of five females and himself. She continued. "I have top marks in every subject, so I think I can handle myself in a situation."
"Really, Lieutenant?" The jeep started moving and she lost her balance, nearly falling out the back. He reached out and grabbed the front of her uniform, pulling her back into her seat. "Which situation is that? Listen, I imagine you think you're unmatched in the classroom, but any classrooms you're going to be in from now on either have people shooting at you from outside, people shooting at you from in the same room, civilian children that you need to protect, or a bomb that needs to be defused. And I'm not promising it won't be all of that at once."
"Sorry, sir. I'll try to keep up."
He let the conversation fall into silence until they arrived at the plane. To his surprise, the entire team was waiting patiently inside. They were dressed in their uniforms, awake, and alert. Except for Mio, who was still working on her coffee. They noticed when he arrived, the new lieutenant in tow, and stood when he walked toward them.
Gwen took a deep breath, then started. "We just received the call. We're deploying immediately. We'll get details in the air."
"Good." No time to sit back and relax, not that he'd expected a vacation. "Captain Gwenevere, Lieutenant Anasthasia, Lieutenant Willow, Lieutenant Mio, this is Lieutenant Diana. She'll be joining us."
Gwen nodded to her. "Just call me Gwen."
Beside her, Anasthasia did the same. "Ana for short."
Mio grumbled. "It's too early for exchanging names."
Willow finished off. "And I'm Willow. Please don't shorten it to 'Will' or 'Low'. I will not tolerate it."
Diana calmly walked over and started shaking their hands, saying hello. Galahad went to tell the pilot that they were ready to move. As they took off and the plane turned East, they all began to take interest in their direction. Galahad returned, and Gwen sidled up to him.
"This is not the direction I was expecting. Where are we headed?"
"Get used to surprises. We're heading for Fiore."
