The Witch of the Neuroi
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Except for the OC's. I own all the OC's.
Ch.4: The Training Incident and Meeting
At the Strike Witches base in Dover, Sanya was returning from her night patrol, yawning tiredly. Landing in the hangar and taking off her Striker Unit, she walked tiredly to Eila's room, mistaking it for her own. Opening the door, Sanya sleepily walked to Eila's bed, and plopped down on it, falling asleep before she even hit the mattress.
Eila woke up with a start. "Wha-?" Eila asked, now wide awake. She looked to her left, only to see Sanya fast asleep on her bed. "Sheesh! Only for today, got it?!" Eila asked, before getting off the bed, covering Sanya with het blanket. Eila then crouched down, and started to pick up Sanya's clothes, which were strewn about. "Only for today…" Eila mumbled, before holding Sanya's clothes close to her and started giggling.
Minna was in her office, thinking about their encounter with the "Invincible Trio", when the door opened. Looking up, Minna saw Mio with Ursula and Ichiro, while Ursula was carrying a box.
"Do you have a moment?" Mio asked as she, Ursula, and Ichiro walked into the room, closing the door behind them. "Sorry for using you like this, Ursula." Mio apologized.
"No, this is no problem at all!" Ursula replied.
"It's data." Ichiro explained. "About the Neuroi that Sanya, Eila, and Ursula faced from the other day."
"The Neuroi attacked on August 16th and August 18th." Mio explained. "We intercepted mysterious signals at each location each time it appeared."
"The frequencies are off, but their waveforms are extremely similar to Sanya's singing." Ichiro said.
"Yes…" Minna said softly.
"Singing?" Ursula asked, before remembering Sanya's song.
"It looks like we can assume the Neuroi was copying Sanya's actions." Mio said.
"Yes…" Minna said softly again.
"We should expand the level of analysis even further." Ichiro suggested.
Mio sighed, but agreed with Ichiro. "Things are going to get busy for a while." Mio said, and then looked at Minna. "I'd like to inform Barkhorn and Erica now as well. Call them here."
"Umm, Barkhorn is off duty today. She left before dawn." Ursula said.
"Where to?" Mio asked.
"London." Ursula answered.
"London?" Minna asked.
"Her unconscious little sister apparently woke up." Ursula explained. "She tried to leave in a hurry with a Striker, but everyone stopped her! She's usually such a calm person, too!"
"It's no surprise." Minna said. "Her sister is her very reason for fighting. Everyone has the courage to fight because they have something very important to them they want to protect."
"No…not everyone does…" Ichiro said lowly, and then walked out of the room.
Mio winced, something that Ursula and Minna noticed. "You know something, don't you Mio?" Minna asked.
"Yes, but I'm not at liberty to tell." Mio replied, before she also walked out of the room.
With the Neuroi…
Yoshika was flying back to the Gallian Hive, having learned all she could from the Karlsland Hive while spying on it. If she stayed any longer, she would have risked being detected.
'So…the Carrier-class…that's what those three cube-like Neuroi were called. No wonder we didn't know about them; they were a newly created class. We need some of our own Carrier-class Neuroi. Now that I think about it, my elite three are somewhat of a Carrier-class…' Yoshika thought to herself, before she flew into the Hive.
Axion, Ixia, and Xalia were waiting for her. "How went your spying mission?" Ixia asked.
"It went well." Yoshika replied. "I learned that the three Neuroi you three went up against yesterday were a new strain of Neuroi, called the Carrier-class. It was no wonder that we didn't have any data on them."
"Interesting. Focusing more on numbers rather than power." Axion said.
"We need some of our own Carrier-class Neuroi of we are to effectively counter them. Can you three train some?" Yoshika asked.
"We can, thanks to the data you collected, but it will take a while." Xalia answered. "I guess I am a hybrid between a Fort-class and a Carrier-class, since those drones act similarly to my spikes."
"Please do." Yoshika requested as she went deeper into the Hive to get some rest; she was out all night spying on the Karlsland Hive that is loyal to the Neuroi King.
Several hours later, she left the Hive to go spy on the Strike Witches.
With the Witches…
At a hospital in London, Trude barged into one of the rooms with Erica right behind her.
"This is the medical ward! Not so loud!" a nurse scolded.
"Oh, sorry!" Trude apologized while Erica waved to Chris who was in a hospital bed, wide awake. "I rushed straight here, so…" Trude was cut off by Chris's giggling. "Chris…!" Trude said, walking to her little sister before giving her a hug.
"Were you okay without me, Big Sis?" Chris asked.
"Don't be silly!" Trude said quickly "Of course I was okay! Who do you think I am?!"
"She was a complete wreck!" Erica said "The nightmares were making her cry out 'Oh my sister, when will my baby sister ever wake up?'" Erica said, imitating Trude.
"Is that true?" Chris asked.
"You shut your mouth!" Trude yelled at Erica, blushing in embarrassment "This is supposed to be a happy reunion!"
"But it's the truth." Erica said.
"I am a dedicated soldier of Karlsland! I give people nightmares, got it?!" Trude asked her little sister.
"Sis… you seem to be in good spirits!" Chris said.
"Really?" Trude asked.
"That's because my sister Ursula mellowed her out a bit." Erica replied. "Trude's still got a long way to go, though…"
"Hey!" Trude yelled, but then turned to her little sister, calming down instantly. "I'm just glad that my pretty little sister woke up at last!"
"Talk about blind sisterly love…" Erica groaned.
Walking back out to the car, Trude and Erica found a letter stuffed between the windshield and the wiper.
"So, who left this?" Erica asked, giving the letter to Trude.
"No clue." Trude said, flipping the envelope over to see Minna's name on it.
"Who's it for?" Erica asked, taking the letter. "Minna Dietlinde Wilcke?"
"That's odd…" Trude said.
Five Witches took to the air on a training exercise. The five consisted of Ursula, Perrine, Shirley, Lucchini, and Lynne, who then split into two teams; Ursula and Perrine on one team, and Shirley and Lucchini on the other team. Lynne was acting as the referee. Ursula, Perrine, Shirley and Lucchini were armed with paintball guns.
"Hartmann! Watch your rear!" Perrine warned.
"Gotcha!" Lucchini said. But right before she could fire, Ursula pulled up and disappeared from her sight. "Huh?" Lucchini asked.
Ursula pulled up behind Lucchini, and opened fire with a burst of paintballs, hitting both her and Shirley's Strikers.
"That technique..!" Perrine said, recognizing it as one of Mio's maneuvers. What she didn't know was that Ursula had the heart of a dogfighter, as well as a researcher, and was very, VERY observant; allowing her to copy most aerial maneuvers almost perfectly on the first try.
Lynne blew the whistle she was holding. "The Perrine-Hartmann team wins!" Lynne exclaimed.
"She got me!" Lucchini whined. "That's so weird! I was right behind her, too!"
"You've really matured, Hartmann!" Shirley praised.
"Do you think so?" Ursula asked.
"Yes, you've definitely improved your skills." Shirley said.
"Yeah! But you wouldn't have been so lucky at high altitude!" Lucchini said.
Ursula was walking out of the bathhouse, drying her hair, when Perrine confronted her.
"Hartmann! When did you learn that major technique?!" Perrine asked/yelled.
"Huh? I didn't know you were here, Perrine." Ursula said.
"I've been here this entire time!" Perrine yelled. "The hard left turn is Major Sakamoto's specialty! How did you learn it?!"
"I only tried to copy what she did…" Ursula replied.
"Liar!" Perrine accused. "If such a high-level technique could be learned by watching it, no one would struggle to master it! Major Sakamoto must be teaching you in secret! That's not fair!"
"I don't see how a hard left turn could be so difficult!" Ursula replied, getting angrier at Perrine by the second.
"You insist on playing dumb, huh? You have some nerve!" Perrine yelled.
"How can a hard left turn be so difficult?!" Ursula replied angrily.
"That's it! I challenge you to a duel!" Perrine yelled.
In Minna's office, Trude and Erica approached Mio, Ichiro and Minna, giving Minna the letter.
"Sorry, but I went ahead and read what was inside." Trude said. "'Don't get involved. You know too much.'" Trude read the letter again. "What does that mean?" she asked.
"Very intriguing." Erica said.
"Yes, very interesting indeed." Ichiro said.
"You haven't done anything to be ashamed of, do you, Minna?" Mio asked.
"No, I haven't." Minna replied "All we've done is research the Neuroi…"
"Then why were you sent this?!" Trude asked.
"Any idea who sent it?" Erica asked.
"Too many possibilities to even count." Mio answered.
"Yes. I'm sure there are plenty of people in the military who despise us." Minna said.
"But I have a pretty good idea who might resort to something as vulgar as this." Mio said "He probably already knows something that goes to the heart of this war. We must have treaded close to it."
"Who's 'he'?" Trude asked.
"General Trevor Maloney… an Air Force general." Mio answered.
"There's something about Maloney that I don't like." Ichiro said, before walking out the room.
"I'll talk to him." Mio said, before she left the room as well.
Mio quickly caught up to Ichiro. "Dr. Miyafuji. Is something wrong?" Mio asked.
Ichiro sighed. "Mio, you know about the 500th Joint Fighter Wing that I've told you about, right?" Ichiro asked, turning to face Mio.
Mio nodded.
"Well, Trevor Maloney was in charge of the Proto Witches, and when he deemed it a failure he had a very small smirk on his face. It was almost as if he was pleased that my daughter died." Ichiro explained.
Mio continued to ponder upon what the Professor had said in disbelief.
With the Neuroi…
Yoshika was spying on the conversation from her usual hiding spot; low enough to avoid the radar net, and far enough to be out of range of Sanya's "Magic Antenna".
"You have no idea how right you are…dad." Yoshika said softly with a painful smile, before flying back to the Hive to get ready for the next stage of her plan.
With the Witches…
Ursula and Perrine were in the hangar, and Ursula went to grab one of the paintball guns.
"Not those." Perrine said, grabbing her gun that she uses for combat.
"Oh, are we using actual guns?" Ursula asked.
"We're about to duel." Perrine confirmed, hopping into her Striker Unit.
Ursula smirked. 'Perrine, you spoiled fool. You have no idea how big of a mistake you just made. Where I'm from, duels are done with actual guns, while shooting at each other. Time to show you why it's a mistake to challenge a Karlslander to a duel.' Ursula thought to herself as she hopped into her Striker Unit as well, grabbing her gun while she was at it.
Three minutes later, both Witches were airborne.
The two Witches were flying above the hills of Britannia.
"Hartmann. Do you read me?" Perrine asked as she approached Ursula head-on. "The first to take the other's back for over ten seconds wins. That is all."
Ursula scoffed. 'Is that how they do it in Gallia? I won't give her the pleasure of a duel that doesn't fire any shots.'
That was when the two Witches passed each other.
Ursula wasted no time turning around and lining up a shot. "Perrine, you fool." Ursula said through the intercom. "I won't give you the pleasure of that kind of duel."
"Wh-What do you mean?" Perrine asked hesitantly, starting to regret her idea for a duel after seeing Ursula turn around and get behind her back.
"Because back in Karlsland, duels are fought with actual bullets!" Ursula exclaimed as she lined up a shot and pulled the trigger, spewing out bullets.
Perrine was taken by surprise, and was barely able to dodge the bullets. "What are you doing?!" Perrine yelled.
That was when the Neuroi alarm went off.
"The alarm!" Perrine exclaimed.
"A Neuroi has appeared?!" Ursula asked.
In the control room, Minna, Mio, and Ichiro were looking at the radar screen.
"Grid East 23. Three Neuroi confirmed. They're on course for London." Minna reported.
"Commander! This is Perrine!" Perrine's voice said through the radio. "Hartmann and I are already up in the air, doing, uhh, training! We'll go on ahead!"
What?! Why wasn't I informed of this?!" Minna asked.
"Because we weren't training." Ursula's voice answered. "The stuck-up here challenged me to a duel for a pretty stupid reason."
"Be quiet!" Perrine's voice yelled.
Minna, Mio, and Ichiro sighed.
But then Ichiro realized something. "Wait, did you say three?" he asked.
"Yes. Why?" Mio asked.
"Then I'm coming up with you. It's very likely that those three are the "Invincible Trio", and I have some questions for them." Ichiro said with finality.
Sayaka and Akimoto walked into the room. "We would like to follow…" Sayaka said, with Akimoto nodding.
"Is that so…" Ichiro sighed, "Then so be it… but make sure to stay with me"
Minna, knowing that she wouldn't be able to talk the three out of it, relented. "Very well, we'll be guarding you. Get into the Ju52 and standby." Minna then turned to the radio. "Perrine, Ursula, I'll let this slide for now, but it better not happen again. I want both of you to return to base and wait for the others, NOW!" Minna ordered.
Ursula, hearing Minna's orders, relented. "Come on, let's head back." Ursula said, flying back to the base. Perrine nodded, and followed her back to base.
Mio walked into Eila's room, seeing both Eila and Sanya asleep. "Eila, wake up." Mio said.
Eila groaned. "What is it…?" Eila asked tiredly.
"Get up now. It looks like all our questions are going to be answered." Mio replied.
Eila, as soon as those words registered in her brain, immediately sat up. "Finally. All those questions were driving me crazy." Eila said.
"Oh, and bring Sanya as well. She can sleep on the plane." Mio said, before stepping out of the room.
Eila looked at the still sleeping Sanya as she put her clothes on, and shook her gently. "Sanya, I need you to wake up for a bit." Eila said softly.
To her surprise, Sanya did wake up. "I heard everything. Step out and let me get dressed." Sanya said tiredly.
Eila then stepped out of the room, and waited for Sanya to get dressed.
Three minutes later, Sanya stepped out of the room, dressed in her usual outfit. "Let's go get on the plane. I still sleepy…" Sanya said tiredly.
"Right." Eila replied, nodding; she wanted some more sleep as well.
Five minutes later, both Eila and Sanya walked onto the runway, where the base's Ju52 was sitting, its engines already prepped and waiting. The two tired Witches walked into the plane, and fell asleep on the seats.
Akimoto and Sayaka walked into the plane moments later.
Ichiro and Minna were in the cockpit of the Ju52, performing pre-flight checks. Once everything checked out, Ichiro started the engines.
A minute later, the Ju52 took off, with Ursula, Perrine, Mio, Shirley, Lucchini, Lynne, Trude, and Erica escorting them to the flight path of the "Invincible Trio".
Ten minutes into the flight, Mio spotted three glints in the distance "Targets spotted." Mio called.
Minna, in the co-pilot's seat of the Ju52 (Ichiro was in the pilot's seat, because he knows how to fly the plane, and Minna was in the co-pilot's seat because she received some training on how to fly the Ju52) asked Mio, "Are they the "Invincible Trio"?"
Mio lifted up her eye patch, revealing her "Magic Eye", and used it to zoom her sight on the three glints in the distance. There, in the sight of her "Magic Eye", was the "Invincible Trio".
"Yes, the three are confirmed to be the "Invincible Trio"!" Mio called.
"We can finally get some answers." Ichiro said, and flew the plane to meet with the three Neuroi, the escort Witches following him.
With the Neuroi…
The three Neuroi were flying on course for London, but that wasn't their actual destination. The three clearly remembered their Commander's orders.
Flashback
"Axion, Ixia, Xalia, I believe it's time to reveal the truth to the Strike Witches." Yoshika said as she hovered in front of her three elite Neuroi.
"Are you sure that now is the time?" Ixia asked.
"We will need all the help we can get to destroy the Super Hive that the Neuroi King has sent to this planet when it arrives." Yoshika answered. "Plus, if we can stop the war between our faction of Neuroi and the humans, then it's a risk we will have to take. Your orders are to fly on course to London, but that's just to draw them out. If they ask you to answer some questions, then lead them here, because the humans can't understand your language like I can. If they fire at you, then you have permission to engage, but only fire on the ones that fire at you first." Yoshika ordered.
"Understood." Axion replied, as he, Ixia, and Xalia flew out of the Hive to commence their mission; it was time that the Strike Witches learned the truth of this foolish war.
Flashback End
Axion them noticed the approaching group of Witches escorting a plane. "Well, it looks like they took the bait. If they ask us questions, I want Ixia to fly beneath them and allow them to land on your back. If what I know about human planes is correct, they have a limited supply of fuel." Axion said.
"Got it." Ixia confirmed.
"Well, here they come." Xalia said, as the group approached them.
With the Witches…
"There they are…it's the "Invincible Trio"." Ichiro said as they approached the three Neuroi.
"It's time we get some answers." Minna said as the group pulled up next to the three Neuroi. Surprisingly, the "Invincible Trio" has yet to open fire.
"We have some questions for you." Mio said to the three Neuroi. "Can you answer them?"
The Neuroi that looked like a submarine then materialized a needle and first pointed in the direction of the Gallian Hive, and then gently tapped the needle to Mio's ear while screeching softly. The submarine-like Neuroi then dematerialized the needle.
Mio was confused, but Lynne got the message. "Oh, so you're saying that there's someone at the Gallian Hive that can translate?" Lynne asked.
The submarine Neuroi "nodded" the best it could, taking the Witches by surprise that the Neuroi actually answered a question, although it did make sense as the Witches just remembered that the Neuroi can't speak their language.
"Well, let's go then." Sayaka said, which Ichiro agreed while Minna was hesitant, but relented; if anything went wrong, Minna still had her Striker Unit in the cargo area of the plane. Unfortunately, there was no more room for Eila's and Sanya's Strikers, so they had to leave those behind.
The group of Witches and Neuroi then turned and flew to the Gallian Hive.
A/N: I want to give thanks to my good friend P4Nd0RaS for rewriting this chapter!