Ember's POV:
It was the next day already and Trude's car had only just arrived. Watching her off, I noted how much more relaxed Trude seemed.
"Hey, Ember," I turned to look at Minna, "I've got a message for you. Package arrive, ETA two hours."
"Package arrival... Wait, you don't mean..." She only nodded. "Looks like Christmas has come early for me." With the car long gone, everyone that went to say bye to Trude had dissipated into their daily routine. Yoshika and Lynne were going around cleaning the base, Erica sleeping, Mio, getting ready for the days training routine, and so on and so forth. I, on the other hand, was trying to find anything to do to kill time, and I ended up just going back to my usual spot under a tree to nap. I only woke up because my ears picked up the soft drone of the twin Radial engines of the C-47. Stretching, I made my way to the runway, using my magic to assist slightly when I spotted a familiar Witch taxiing on the runway.
"Seris! Long time, no see!"
"Ember! It seems like Command likes to send me to some of my old Training buddies! Last stop I had, I got to see Lilith!"
"You got to see Little Lily? How is she doing?"
"Great! She says that the Neuroi raids have been quite sporadic, but she's holding up. Anyway! You're going to love the new toys you'll be receiving."
"Do tell."
"Obviously, you're getting that new Striker I told you all so very long ago, but you're arsenal is getting upgraded. With the help of a Karlsland's design team, Browning Arms Company has modified your M2 Heavy Machine gun so that it can be shoulder fired and it's now magazine fed instead of belt fed configuration. I'll let you read up on that and obviously we've got a replacement ammo backpack and light weight sling for the new magazines." The C-47 touched down in front of us and came to a complete stop. Unloading multiple crates, Seris waved good bye at me. "I'm sorry that I don't have much time to chat but... We're on a very tight schedule."
"If you see any of our Training mates, tell them Ember says hi." I waved as she took to the skies before unpacking all the crates with Shirley's aid. Sure enough, I found the gun Seris was talking about and my god, I would have given up my M2 in a split second if I knew this thing was out there. Reading up on the notes that came with the package, I found out that this was a joint Liberion and Karlsandian project naming it the M2.5 Neuroi Reaper. They've shortened the barrel of the gun and machined out specific spacific parts out of aluminum to reduce the weight. They also added a roller system to the bolt system upping the RPM to 850 rounds per minute. They've even shortened the bullet slightly but made everything up with a much faster burning gun power the Karlsander's offered. It worked so well, that even with everything changed, it had better ballistic properties than the old gun. Looking at the gun itself, I could see it still had the box frame around the firing mechanism while a butt stock and trigger mechanism was pointing out the back and the longish barrel pointing out the other. Looking at the top of the gun, the feeding tray was no longer visible and the upper receiver looked more connected to the gun itself. On the top, there was a latch and slot for the beta-mags to lock in place and feed ammunition to the gun itself. Tapping the magazine, I was happy to get a thick clunking noise instead of a high pitched tink showing it was tiny. Lifting up the gun, I noted it did feel quite a bit lighter but also feels nice and balanced. Sticking a magazine in place, I looked down the sites before nodding happily.
"Ember! You're killing me here! Show me the Striker all ready!" Looking up quite startled, I saw Shirley in the hanger, balled up hands bouncing up and down in anticipation.
"When did you get here?"
"After the C-47 leave. Nice toy by the way."
"Thanks... As for the Striker..." I looked towards the largest crate out of them all and walked up to it, pulling off the cover and what I saw inside took my breath away. It was a rather large Striker Unit, much larger than my current one and it was painted with a black base and a red flame patter on the sides. Looking at the wings, they were pained a dark grey with the familiar black and white stripes on both of them, but one thing I noted was that they were swept back.
"My god... Ember, why do you get so many cool looking toys?" Shirley whined.
"What? You don't like your Merlins anymore?" She stiffened up and started to shake her hands side to side.
"Nononononono! I still love them my Merlins! It just can't help be a bit jelly about how you get to have this cool little toy... Though I wonder, what's under the hood?" Taking the two Striker's, I leaned them against my Launcher Unit before pulling off my own P-38's and replaced them with my new toy.
"You can look at them but don't fiddle with anything!" She nodded eagerly and skipped over to the Striker, opening up the maintenance hatch and engine compartment. Grabbing the documents that came with everything, I flipped to the Striker side of the Documents.
'So... This the P-38-N Firebird... Not a Lightning? Still, a fitting name... Swept back wings to get better air flow and stronger wings to go faster... Engine... Merlins? Hell yes!' I grinned and looked up at Shirley, seeing that she all ready had a pouting face on.
'You got Merlin engines as well!?"
"Yep! And larger Merlins as well to compensate for the larger magic reserves as well! But damn, Lockheed sure outdid themselves this time!" Reading further my eyes bulged slightly. "My god..."
"What?"
"It's says here that it can go up to Mach 1.1..." Looking up again, I saw that her blue eyes seemed to dim slightly.
"My dream was to be able to go past Mach 1..." A small tear was brimming her eyes and understood.
"Heeyy, don't worry! I won't take that dream away from a friend of mine! I promise I won't go past the sound barrier... Unless it's a dire situation and a Witch's live is in danger."
"Thank you Ember! You don't know how much that means to me! I will someday break the sound barrier!" Her ocean blue eyes seemed to brighten up again and I went to unload the rest of my gear before inspecting it all. The ammo sling was shaped differently... Or if you would call it a sling. It was more like an ammo pouch that holds two beta magazines that is strapped to the body with two different buckled straps. The backpack on the other hand was completely different. Slightly smaller, they had slots that could hold the four mags and they lock in during flight. Tinkering around with the mechanism, I got the hang of releasing the magazine from the holder and letting it slide down into my hand before replacing it with the empty one. Next, I found the speed loader for the magazines and I started to fill all the magazines I have before stowing everything away. With everything set in order, both Shirley and I went down for breakfast. Both Yoshika and Lynne cooked breakfast. Later that day, we hooked up a bunch of telemetry devices onto my Striker before I jumped into it, with a full combat load. I started to feed magic into my Striker and the twin Merlin engines roared to life.
"Hey Shirley, tell me when I hit 790 kmh all right?"
"Got it!" She gave a thumbs up at me as I got into a hover.
"This is Ember, taking off!" Tilting forward, I gunned the engines, getting a quicker response than I was used to. Getting enough speed, I pulled straight upwards, ascending to about 1000 meters, pacing the engines accordingly.
"56 seconds to get to 1000 meters!" Shirley called out. "... You're taking it easy aren't you Ember?"
"Just pacing the engines Shirley, not going to do anything special." Pulling around, I started to descend to about 300 meters before gunning the engines to see my acceleration.
"All right! You hit 790!" Shirley said seconds later and I stopped my acceleration. Everything about the Striker felt phenomenal in all categories. Touching down, I docked and started to work on my Striker with Shirley's aid with the Merlins. A day later, Trude came back from her little vacation to her sister with a small smile, but a refreshed aura to her as well. Though ever since my little demonstration of my new Striker, Shirley's been asking me to help tune up and modify her Striker. Today, she's been going at it ever since this morning.
"What about this setting for magic allocation?" I suggested.
"Tried that last time. Only got a 4 km/h boost in my max speed... What if I..." A small backfire was the result of her little tinker. "Nope! I meant this!" Watching her, I watcher her fingers work their magic when both Lynne and Yoshika came running in.
"Shirley!"
"Huh? Yo! What's up, you two?" She gave a wave to them.
"Um... What exactly was that sound?"
"That, was an accidental backfire..." I explained.
"Huh?"
"Go on Shirley, try out the mods."
"Check this out." She stood up slightly and had the Launcher unit secured her Striker legs in place before letting her magic flow into the Striker Unit. The Merlins roared to life as a magical circle appeared underneath her. The engine noise was like a symphony playing their song. Checking on her engines readings, I gave a thumbs up to Shirley.
"Doing great!" She returned it as well, mumbling something that I couldn't hear over the roar of the engines when I noticed Yoshika waving her arms.
"Oh, what are you saying?"
"Shirley! The Noise!" Lynne started to wobble side to side and I knew that wasn't good. Drawing my hand over my neck at Shirley, she cut the engines as Lynne fell over. "PLEASE BE QUIET!" I cringed, fingers in my ears as Yoshika yelled at us.
"Your voice is to loud."
"You said it..."
"Huh? Oh... I'm sorry... Though... What are you two doing here? I mean, doing in this hanger with all this noise?"
"Jeez! Can you keep it down!" All eyes went upward towards the sleepy voice of Lucchini.
"Oh! Lucchini!" There she was, sleeping soundly with all the engines noise in the background and only Yoshika's shouting woke her up.
"I swear... You choose the weirdest locations to sleep Francesca..."
"And here I was so soundly asleep... Yoshika! Your shouting woke me up!" She jumped down from the beam up on the roof and landed down gracefully on the ground... How she got up there, I have no idea.
"Oh, I'm sorry... Though Lucchini, doesn't all that noise bother you?"
"Nah, it happens all the time!"
"Second question... How the hell did you get up there in the first place?"
"I climbed." She had a bright smile on and I just leaned forward with a blank stare.
"You just... Climbed...?"
"Yeah! It's really easy for me!" And sure enough, she ran up and started to climb her way up onto the beam where her blanket was.
"... Might I ask why you learned to climb?"
"Because it's fun and..." She looked up with her eyes closed as if to think up more ideas.
"And...?"
"And it gives me an advantage over people!" She looked down at me with a bright smile while I looked at her confused.
"Advantage over people- EEP!" She leapt from the girder again, this time, jumping onto my back, hands reached around with a firm grasp on my chest.
"My, my, did you grow Ember?" My face had turned tomato red and I couldn't move from my spot. "Still not as good a Shirley's..." She pouted as she jumped off. I, myself, used my arms to cover my chest and glared at the little boob devil.
"So Shirley, you're always making such thunderous noise?" Yoshika asked, looking towards where Shirley used to be.
"I just modified the Striker Engines."
"Modified the engine... What do you mean?"
"Come here, I'll show you." She turned around and started to walk outside with her Striker on. Lucchini ran over to grab a telemetry device from the shelf and ran outside again.
"Um, what's the modifications?"
"I adjusted the energy allocations of the magic engine."
"By allocation, you mean you changed the amount of energy used for attacking and defending?"
"Gold star to you Ms. Bishop."
"You got it."
"Though, what did you enhance?" Lynne yelled at Shirley as she started her Striker.
"Speed, of course!"
"Shirley!" Lucchini raised her hand ready for the signal.
"Right!" She put on her goggles as she got up into a hover.
"Go!" Lowering her hand forward, Shirley took off quickly. "Go, Shirley!"
"Wow, such acceleration!"
"You haven't seen anything yet!" She continued down the runway until she pulled up into a steep climb, going completely vertical. Looking over Lucchini's shoulder, I could see multiple rollers with numbers with speed in km/h and altitude in meters. "Wow! 50 seconds and she's all ready at 1000 meters up!"
"Rivaling my own Striker's ascension rate." A white contrail was behind her as she flew past us.
"Wow, she's still accelerating!"
"770 kilometer per hour! 780! 785! 790!"
"Come on Shirley, faster!"
"Amazing!"
"She broke 800 kilometers! It's a new record!" She zoomed by, a few feet in front of us when Lucchini started to whine. "Boo! She's not accelerating anymore..."
"I guess conventional strikers aren't there yet..." I said under my breath. Looking up, Shirley had slowed down and we started to run up the runway.
"Shirley! You set a new record!"
"It was amazing!"
"That was awesome!"
"Oh, all right!" She then presumed to tackle us to the ground. Lucchini fell on top of me, Lynne off to the side, and Yoshika on top of Shirley. "Aaahhh, I'm so hungry!"
"I'm quite hungry as well..." Looking up towards the sun's direction, I could see that it was setting quite low. Getting up, I went into the kitchen and fetched a few sandwiches for the group of us in the hanger before returning, devouring one on the way back. With the sun setting, the sky turning a orangish color, Shirley worked on her Striker under a single light. Yoshika and Lynne on the other hand were looking a scrap book.
"What is this Shirley?"
"'New record achieved by Glamorous Shirley.'" Lynne read out and I looked over their shoulders to see multiple pictures of Shirley in them.
"Bike records?"
"Shirley says she used to be a bike record before becoming a pilot!" Lucchini explained.
"Oh yeah! I remember seeing some newspaper clippings of your achievements before!"
"You ever heard of the Bonneville Flats Yoshika?"
"Bonne?"
"It's a flat made of salt as far as the eye can see right in the middle of Liberion."
"I didn't know there was such a place." Lynne added.
"I've always wanted to go to the flats myself." I said with a sigh. "All those engines that set world speed records there... Oh, I wanted to see them all!"
"A mechanic at heart eh Ember? Yeah, it's amazing what machinery has been there, but it was also the holy land for us speed freaks." She closed her eyes as if she was remembering something. "The day I broke the record, that was when I heard the stories about Witches who fly through the sky at world's fastest speed with magical engines. I all ready kind of knew about there existence with Ms. Fire Maiden over here fighting the Neuroi."
"You even have a name for yourself Ember?" Yoshika asked, quirking her head off to the side.
"Well... It's just a title a reporter gave me. Nothing much but for a good poster name."
"But, it's still nice to have a person around to raise the Witch's and civilians moral Though on that day, I applied and enlisted in the military. And so, here I am now, doing this."
"So on your off-duty days, you attempt to break the limits of your speed."
"The top speed. Amazing! But how far will you have to go until you're satisfied?"
"Well lets see... The speed of sound. I'd like to exceed Mach 1 someday... Before a certain red head breaks it..." She gave me a soft glare and I held my hands up.
"I won't! I swear!"
"Uumm... What's the speed of sound?"
"That? It's the speed that sound travels. It's about 1200 kilometers per hour."
"Is it really possible to put out such a speed?"
"Well... Kind of..."
"What Shirley is saying is that only specialized Witches, like myself, that has a larger than usual magic supply can really go past the sound barrier. I'm only one of a very limited amount of people that has that potential and my Striker is said to go about Mach 1.1. Plus, it's a custom built one to outperform any mass produced one and this version can't really sustain a regular Witch through long patrols and battles."
"Then why haven't you gone that fast Ember?"
"What? You think I would ever take that achievement away from Shirley here! It's her own challenge and it won't be fare since I've got a special Striker. I want the first person to break the sound barrier to be a normal Witch like Shirley."
"And I will break the sound barrier. I just need to keep chasing that dream, and it will happen sooner or later." She winked at Yoshika as she stood up. "Well, that's all for today." She hung her goggles up on her Striker and I got up as well, stretching slightly. "By the way, did you two want something?"
"Huh?" Lynne and Yoshika looked at each other.
'Tick... Tick... Tick... DING!'
"WAH! We forgot all about it!" I chuckled slightly and the four of us started to walk out.
"We're meeting at 1000 hours tomorrow morning!"
"I can't wait!"
"The beach... Been a while since I've been to one... Last time was when I was back home..."
"Wow, that long Ember?... Though what do you mean by that Shirley?" She skipped and turned around.
"To see you two in swimsuits!"
"Waahh!" I gave off a laugh before Shirley spun around with a giggle and took off. "SHIRLEY!"
I looked back to see Lucchini was sleeping on the Launcher Unit. Not bothering to wake her up, I went back to the kitchen to deposit the large plate I carried the sandwiches. Walking back to my room, with my hands behind my head, I went in to finish up the documents for my new equipment when it hit me.
"WAAH! Blazette and I don't have a swim suit!"
"Why would you need a swim suit Ember?" I looked up at my sister, who was currently reading a book in her bed.
"Weren't you at the meeting today?"
"Oh yeah... Tomorrow..."
"I'm going to ask Minna if she has any spares..." I looked down. "If they fit..." Slipping out of the room, went to Minna's office and knocked on the door.
"Come in."
"Hey, Minna, I've got a little problem..."
"No swim suit?" She rummaged under her desk before pulling up a brown bag. "Problem solved."
"How did you-"
"It occurred to me today that you two didn't have a bathing suit for tomorrow so I ordered two to be delivered. I've got an olive green two piece for you along with a grey one piece for you sister. I could go only on your last years measurements so I hope they fit."
"Hey, I don't think the two of us grew much. Thanks Minna!" Taking the bag and went to my room and tried it on, finding it fit quite nicely... Though a little tight around the chest area. Blaze also slipped in her own as well before we both got ready for bed.
Waking up the next day, I woke Blaze up and we both went down to the kitchen and got breakfast. The other Witches were walking about what they were going to wear. Finishing up breakfast, we all went our ways to get dressed and both Blaze and I got into our suits. Getting to the meeting room, both Blaze and I were the first to get done. Shirley and Lucchini with Shirley in a red bathing suit that fit tightly with her curves while Lucchini... Well, it looked nice on her at least.
"Lookin' good you two!" Shirley gave a thumbs up before she sat down with Blaze and and Erica soon came in with matching black swim suits and followed up with Mio and Perrine with Mio in the bathing suit she wears under her uniform and Perrine in a blue two piece. Sanya and Eila then came in with Sanya in a black two piece and Eila in a blue bottom piece and a white upper. Lastly, Minna, Lynne, and Yoshika came in with Minna in a white two piece, Lynne in a pink one piece with some white frillies around her chest, and Yoshika following Mio's choice with is using the swim suit underneath her uniform.
"Now that everyone is here, lets go down the beach!" Minna announced.
"Oh, and both Trude and Ember follow me for a second." Mio asked.
"Yes, ma'am." Everyone filled out of the door and with my own instructions of following Mio, we went to the back of the hanger into a little door for the storage room.
"What do we need from here?"
"See those two dummy Strikers?" She pointed at a A6M3 Striker unit and a Spitfire Mk IX which was completely made of metal. Lifting one up, they felt about the same weight as a regular Striker. "Pick them up and follow me with them."
"Ooohhh, swimming training if they fall in... God, I hated that... Welp! Off we go!" Marching out with a Striker leg under each arm, we followed Mio out to a point where Minna was too waiting.
"You can just drop them here. Now go along and have fun." Minna shoed as away. Taking a running start, I jumped off the edge, pulled a summersault, and straightened out before entering the water with very little splash. Surfacing, I looked off into the distance to see Trude powering along in the water with Erica doggy paddling behind her. Both Shirley and Lucchini jumped back into the water while Eila and Sanya were sitting on the beach. Swimming around, I found Blaze, floating on her back in the water. Swimming up beside her, I turned over and floated on my back as well.
"Enjoying your time here?" I asked her.
"Defiantly. The last time we were at the beach was when Dad and the whole family went out for a beach vacation when he was coming to visit... It's such a long time ago..."
"Yeah..." Glancing over at the side, I could see both Sanya and Yoshika were all ready in the two Strikers. "Looks like Yoshika and Lynne are going to jump now."
"Hm?" She turned her head to the side before looking back up. "Oh... Well, good luck to them... At least they don't have a Striker like mine. The P-61's heavy!"
"But you passed..." We stayed this way for some time when Minna called out it was break time. Getting out of the water, I watched at both Lynne and Yoshika collapsed into the sand.
"Ah, you'll get used to it." Shirley then appeared from the water as well and I walked down towards them.
"She does that with the rest of us to motivate us."
"Besides, sleeping like this isn't bad, either." Laying down in the sand as well next to the three, I let out a sigh and embraced the warm feeling of the sun rays against my skin.
"The sun's nice and warm."
"Yeah, it feels nice."
"Doesn't it?"
"Been for ever since I was like this..." Relaxation was the only word I could think of as we laid there when I felt a little sensation in the back of my head.
"Huh?" Yoshika sat up and was looking at the sun. I felt that same feeling again when I looked up as well.
"What's the matter?"
"Just now, something flew across the sun." Shirley now even got up and looked.
"Something..." She squinted when the feeling came in full force.
'Neuroi!'
"It's the enemy!"
"Neuroi!" Getting up from where we were sitting, both Shirley and I started to sprint towards the hanger. "Shirley!" The air raid siren went off.
'Damn she's fast!' I had to activate my magic just to keep up with her as she vaulted over the concrete barrier. Jumping over it, we both ran off towards the hanger and jumped into our Strikers. The hanger door opened up just as I charged my new gun, a large magical circle under both of our units.
"Yeager. Taking off!"
"Vermillion. Taking off!" Both of our Merlin engines roared to life as we fed power into them, and soon we were taking off towards the enemy.
"Shirley! Ember!" Both Yoshika and Lynne were in our way and we had to roll around them. Correcting, we both took off towards the sky.
"Shirley! Ember! Can you hear me?" I could hear Minna's voice through the intercom.
"Commander!"
"There's one enemy craft, an ultra-high-speed model. It's all ready moved inland."
"What's the course?"
"It's heading... West-Northwest from here. It's target, judging from this course is... London!"
"Single Units take the lead! Show them your speed you two!"
"Roger that!" Gunning the engines yet again, we both took off after the enemy. We both kept on going as I tried to catch up with Shirley though something seemed a bit different from before.
"Shirley! Something seem off to you?" She seemed like in a trance like state when she spread her arms out.
"This feeling... It's the same..."
"Same as what... Also didn't we just past the 800 km/h speed limit of your Striker? We're both still accelerating!"
"It's the same... Like that time!"
"Return immediately, Lieutenant!" Mio yelled into our intercoms.
"Hey Ember!"
"Yeah?"
"Ready to break the sound barrier?"
"You think you can do it?"
"Just watch me! Let go!" A large magical circle appeared behind her Striker and took off like a rocket.
"Hehe, let do this!" I caught up to her as we started to shake as we kept on accelerating, a cone in front of us when a large vapor cone formed around Shirley followed up by a loud bang. A few seconds later, I too had a large vapor cone around me that was followed by a large bang.
"Is this... Is this the world of Super sonic flight?"
"This is... This is absolutely amazing..."
"Wow, this is awesome! I did it! I finally did it!"
"Can you hear me Lieutenant!? Answer me!"
"Major! I did it! I broke the speed of sound!
"Emergency stop! You're about to crash into the enemy!"
"Crash into the enemy...?" I looked up as a large black body of a Neuroi was getting closer. "ShitshitshitshitSHITSHITSHIT!" I flared up while Shirley just continued on through with a shield extended and smashed right through the enemy. In through one side she went before out the other before the Neuroi was destroyed. "Well... That's one way of destroying a Neuroi. Uh... Mission complete... Neuroi destroyed. Shirley got this one heehee."
"What about Shirley?"
"Um..." I looked around to see she was climbing up high. "I got a visual. She's doing fine... I think..." Turning around, I could see both Yoshika and Lynne finally arriving when I noticed Shirley was decelerating. "Uh oh..." Rushing up, I caught her just as she reached the apex of her climb. Her swimsuit was burning off and her Striker stopped working as I caught her and they fell off. "Yoshika! Lynne! Catch the Striker Unit!"
"Huh?" They looked at me with some confusion when the two Striker legs fell past them "WAH!" They both dove after them and caught it before they were destroyed on impact.
"I got her Minna." I looked down at her and she had a smile on as she slept. "She's unconscious but she seems fine."
"That's a relief."
"Any idea to why one day her Striker could only do 800 plus and now they can go supersonic?"
"A little Romagian was involved in it"
"Oy vey... All right, lets get back to base girls."
"Yes!" On the way back to base, Shirley woke up and looked up at me.
"Huh? Where am I? What happened? What about the Neuroi?"
"Calm down will you. The Neuroi was destroyed, which you crashed into, and now we're returning back to base... Also Yoshika's been giving you some stares while we are flying back since your bathing suit was burned off."
"Huh!? N-N-No I wasn't!" She looked away, a shade of read that is putting my hair color to shame. "I wasn't staring at those large... Soft... Volumptious chest..." She had a dreamy face on for a split second before shipping her face back and to reality. "I-I-I MEAN NOTHING! N-N-NOTHING AT ALL!"
'Oh such a weird girl.' We continued back in silence before we landed. The rest of the Witches were gathered, Lucchini had a bright red spot on her head, and Shirley let out a sneeze. Getting back into regular clothing, we celebrated Shirley's achievement and even some alcohol was broken out. A blush on my face as I raised up my glass, I cheered:
"Congratulations to Glamorous Shirley for breaking the Sound Barrier!"
"To Shirley!" Everyone cheered, raising their own glasses when I downed the rest of my drink. Mio was all ready wobbling back and forth after her first drink and I myself just finished my fourth glass.
"Saaayyy Ember," Shirley draped an arm over my shoulder, just as drunk as I was, "I just want to say, thanks fer keeping yur promise of being the second Witch to go the speed erf sound."
"Ner problema Char." Saying our good nights, I ventured back to my room, stumbling all the way back, and with my sisters help. Falling heavily into my bed, I fell asleep right away.
Please, leave a review below if you want. I don't bite... Much...