Strike Witches
The Winged Chronicles
Desertion
A week has passed since the incident with Griffin, it was dark out as Mina walked around the complex hopeful to see a sign of Griffin. The only sigh that she saw was that in the area someone broke into Griffin's room two days after he disappeared and all his belongings in his room was cleaned out and no one even found out till the day after, Lynette and Yoshika went in to clean it up and dust and they discovered that his been emptied and no one ever knew about it. Mina walked into the complex and went to her room, opening the window she couldn't get the image of the blood and bones coming from Griffin's back. Mina letting a large sigh out thinking to herself wonders how Lynette must be doing if someone like herself who seen the horror's of war was disturbed by what she witnessed. Trying to keep herself in a better mood she closes the window and falls to sleep, Lynette down the hall is also gazing out the window hoping that Griffin will return one day so that she can thank him for saving her, she closes the window and falls asleep.
Ten days after Griffin disappeared most of the girls during meal times didn't day much, they just kept to themselves with no real conversations taking place. After the eleventh day the girls started to forget what happened and when back to their original routines except Lynette she couldn't the memories out of her mind and she couldn't forget what really happened. Lynette approached Mina days before asking "why cant we tell everyone the truth" Mina turned to Lynette with compassion in her eyes and says "would they believe us?" Lynette shocked at Mina's answer yells "if it came from, both of us they would" Mina crossing her arm's and looking out the window replies "possibly but, would you really want to humiliate Griffin and reveal his secret?" Lynette still not convinced yells "but he's out team mate we have the right to know" Mina understanding Lynette's concern replies "yes you do but, its not worth it to tarnish is reputation in the process, he's been there for us when we needed him now its our time to be there for him" understanding Mina's reason drop's the subject.
During the first few week's of Griffin's disappearance the Neuroi still attacked frequently, on the third day Lynette worried about Griffin is standing in front of of Griffin's work table with his spare double Gatling gun on the wall. Lynette curious about the weapon tries to pick it up, the weight of the gun was immense, Lynette without the strength to hold it lets it drop on the table with a large smash. Lynette looks around the hangar with a panicked look seeing if anyone saw her, with no one around she lets out a sigh of relief. With determination not to give up she draws magic into her arms and lifts the gun, with a large sigh of exertion Lynette understands why Griffin is the only person here that uses this immense weapon. Lynette notices the the two ammo cartilages on the top and bottom are not loaded, so wanting to know the weapons full weight Lynette turns the gun on its side and she loads the ammo cartilages. The instant Lynette finished the alarm for an Neuroi attack went off, Lynette panicked grabs the gun and runs towards her striker unit and waits for the rest of the girls. Mina and Barkhorn enter at the same time and tell Lynette to follow them and the rest can catch up. Lynette still panicking just nods and flies out with Mina. After a few minuets Lynette notices that her right arm is dragging her down more than normal. In that moment Lynette remembers that she is still caring Griffin's gun and she forgot her own. As the three approached the Neuroi Mina looks behind her at Lynette and notices what weapon she is carrying, Mina yells "Lynette what are you doing with that weapon" panicking Lynette avoids eye contact and replies "I wanted to try something new" Mina still confused shakes her head and turns to Barkhorn and says "you two stay information and back me up" Lynette and Barkhorn nod their head as Mina dives towards the single Neuroi approaching their position.
Mina dives straight towards the Neuroi with Barkhorn and Lynette following from behind, Barkhorn and Mina open fire hitting the Neuroi caused it to scream from pain. Lynette not sure how to use Griffin's weapon holds onto the grip with her right hand and pull's the trigger. With a loud blast Lynette flies back twenty feet and the single bullet hit's the Neuroi with such force that Mina and Barkhorn firing together couldn't do the same damage with a single shot combined. Mina turn's shocked at the impact crater that Lynette made and yells "Lynette what was that?" Lynette still shaken up replies "I don't know " as she flies back to regroup, during this the rest of the girls catch up and commences firing. Lynette studying the gun notices two nobs, one says single, semi and auto the other nob has a plus and an negative sign. The positive sign was cracked up to maximum so Lynette lowers to to half, switches it to semi and Lynette this time bracing for the impact fires the gun. Lynette pulls the trigger and this time the gun fires and with about half of the destructive power hits the Neuroi and damages it, the Neuroi screeches as it starts to drop in altitude.
After a twenty minuet battle the girls start to feel exhaustion from the prolonged battle start to make mistakes with a few near fatalities, Lynette is pushing herself to the limits trying to protecting herself with her multishields dodges an Neuroi energy attack and flies right into the path of another one. Lynette knowing the fate she caused herself cringes and stares right at the beam of energy accepting her death. Lynette in her last attempt to evade the attack instinctively turns the double Gatling gun to full power and to automatic, Lynette with all her will points the gun directly attempting to manipulate the path of the beam slightly to give herself a chance. Lynette yells "it's not time" as she grasps the gun with both hands and pulls the trigger. With a sound that made the air around them tremble which naturally got every ones attention the only thing that they were able to see was a person with the appearance of Lynette firing a monster of a weapon flying backwards with a Neuroi beam trailing after her. After an instant, the rest of the girls notice what kind of trouble Lynette really is in and they charge after her in attempt to catch up. Mina turns to Yoshika and Mio and says "stay here to finish off the Neuroi" the two of them nod and charge right back at the descending Neuroi as the rest of the group heads towards the directing Lynette went.
With a quick battle Yoshoka and Mio finish off the Neuroi and quickly try to catch up with the rest of the group. After about twenty seconds Lynette lets go of the trigger, with the speed created from the Gatling gun Lynette hovered flying backwards for about ten seconds and then Lynette started to drop. With a fifty foot impact wave the rest of the girls knew where Lynette was and rushed over to help her. Shirley dives in after her and drags her motionless body out of the ocean, when Shirley reappears out the ocean with Lynette unconscious in her arm the rest of the girls rush her towards dry land. With the girls afraid for the worst they preform CPR, after a few heart wrenching minuets Lynette coughs out the water in her lungs and she starts to breath on her own. Yoshika and Mio catch up and hear about what happened, Mio asks "are you alright" Lynette nods as Barkhorn says "fine enough to hold onto Griffin's gun the entire time you were unconscious. Shocked Lynette lifts herself up and realizes that she is still grasping Griffin's gun, relieved that she did loose it gets up and says "since I'm feeling better lets head back to the base" they all agree and they fly off at the corner of her eye Lynette catches a black figure watching them over the horizon, unknowing what it was and Mio not sensing anything thought it was just her imagination. When the girls enter the hangar they take off their striker units and start chit chatting about the previous battle bragging about who did what, Lynette locks towards Griffin's work desk places the gun back on it takes a step backwards, bows and says "I'm sorry" and quickly walks out of the hangar.
Later that evening around three in the morning a figure is seen running towards the base, Sanya patrolling the area with Eila notices the figure from the sky, Sanya with her usual apathetic/tired expression points towards the figure and Eila looks in the direction wondering what Sanya is pointing at. Eila seeing nothing turns towards Sanya and says ``what?`` Sanya looks again and with a confused look starts to fly away without saying a thing, believing that Sanya is seeing things Eila forgets the matter and continues with their patrol. The figure emerges from the bushes and continues to run towards the base. The figure enters the hangar and slowly walks in, the figure notices all the striker units ready for deployment as he walks past them, he approaches Griffins work bench and reaches under it and takes out a tool box with a wending torch, gas can and a black pipe.
The following morning the girls get up like they normally do, the girls all at their own pace and they all grab their respected meals and sit down and eat, the normal conversations take place with no one really caring about what happened the previous day. About mid day the alarm sounds again for an Neuroi attack all the girls rush in the hangar knowing the drill, Lynette the third one in run;s towards her striker and equips it and reaches for her weapon on her right, but as Lynette reaches for it, it isn`t there. Shocked at the situation Lynette instantly faces the mechanism that holds her main weapon, all that is there is a piece of paper with some writing on it. As the rest of the girls head out Lynette reads the not all it says it "use it" confused Lynette looks around and sees another not across the room at Griffins work station. Rushing Lynette hurries over and sees the note over Griffins gun, Lynette grabs the not and all it says is "fixed". Confused again Lynette inspects the weapon and notices there has been a lot of changes, the main differences is a metal pipe with leather surrounding it coming out horizontally with three buttons attached each button is coloured differently red, blue, green. Lynette presses the green button and with a mechanical span and winding sound the knobs on the main gun start to turn and sets it at the lowest power setting and at automatic fire, Lynette presses the blue button and the same sound happens but the power setting is set at the middle and at semiautomatic, Lynette presses the red and the gun goes to full power and at single shot. Amazed at the improvements Lynette firmly grabs the gun her right hand and supports it with her left with the newly attached handle, and hastily tries to catch up with the rest of the group.
Lynette catches up with the rest of the girls and in their hurry they don't notice Lynette's absence. As they approach the Neuroi Mina yells out the battle formations with Lynette supporting from the back, the girls charge in and leave Lynette in the back without her main rifle tries to aim at the Neuroi with no success, panicked Lynette hurries with a shot and misses. Lynette calms down and points the gun at the Neuroi and remembering her training takes a deep breath and aims in her mind and fires using only her instincts to aim. With a confirmed hit Lynette gets some confidence and presses the blue button on her gun and starts to fire consecutively.
After the battle all the girls are heading back and they know that Lynette is going to keep using Griffins gun and they don't bring it up. When they all return to the hangar Lynette walks towards Griffins work station and sees another note with a medium size book on the table. Lynette reads the note and it says "your station is equipped for it now" and Lynette opens the book discovering that its a instruction manual for maintain the gun and all its components written in Griffins handwriting at that moment Lynette knew Griffin was still around and watching out for them even if they can't see him. Lynette smiles and she goes to her striker terminal takes off her striker unit and places her new gun at the holder on the right of her.
Three weeks have come and gone, all the girls are starting to forget about Griffin and believing that he was just a figment of their imagination or a bad memory, Lynette and Mina think differently, they know he will come back one day when he is ready. Sometimes at night Mina can hear someones voice yelling in pain but its so faint Mina usually believes she's just hearing things. On the fourth week no one even brings Griffin up, he is long forgotten, the alarm sounds during mid breakfast and all the girls rush in reaction to the alarm. All the girls rush in the hangar and attach their striker units and grab their weapons and start to fly out. During mid flight most of the girls are getting used to the idea of going out most days to fight the Neuroi and they've stopped complaining and accepted their new lives.
Flying for ten minuets Mina sees a figure in front of them being described as the Neuroi, Mina yells "Neuroi sighted, groups spread out and keep formation" Mina takes charges with Barkhorn and a few other girls following behind straight at the Neuroi, leaving only Lynette, Yoshika, Perrine and Lucchini behind. Lynette looks at the three other girls and says "umm, lets follow the rest of the girls and help them" all the girls agree and they hurry to catch up with the rest of the group. The fighting is nothing compared to the previous Neuroi and Mina's group defeats the Neuroi with no real effort, as Lynette's group catches up Mina and the rest of them are celebrating their glorious and quick victory, Lynette confused says "the Neuroi never been this easy to defeat before" Shirley says "maybe their learning their lesson" Lynette shakes her head and doesn't believe the fight is over, but the rest of the girls are jumping around enjoying the victory. Lynette starts to feel an ominous presence and she knows that there's something coming, Lynette calms her mind, Yoshika looking towards Lynette knows she's feels that somethings amiss, Yoshika also starts to check around them looking for any sign of Neuroi activity. Lynette starts to remember Griffin's training and starts to prepare for the worst, during mid sentence Lynette feels the compression in the air and Lynette instantly throws her arm at the direction and a shield in that position without opening her eyes, an instant later a red energy beam hits the shield that was directed at Mina's back. The girls shocked at what just occurred, Lynette still with her eyes closed feels another air fluctuation and hastily points her other arm at that direction and an instant before Erica was hit from behind Lynette stopped it with another shield. Lynette still concentrating to maintain the shields and sense other attacks opens her eyes and yells "Run!" as twenty energy attacks come from all directions and impacts the group. The first few attacks were blocked by Lynette and as more and more start to hit smoke starts to fill the area. More and more attacks enter the smoke cloud and continues till thirty blasts has entered the cloud and not one left it.
Seconds pass and nothing emerges from the smoke cloud, Neuroi start to appear from the clouds from high altitude and start to head into the direction of the smoke cloud and the girls. After twenty seconds the Neuroi start to circle the smoke cloud waiting for it to clear. When the smoke clear all the girls have their eyes closed braced for the impact with Lynette with her arms out in amazement that they didn't die from that attack. Mina says "amazing Lynette you've really improved, Lynette looks around and says "I didn't stop all of them I missed more than half" shocked all the girls start to look around wondering what just happened. From a tiny island below them stands a grey figure, smirking.
Yoshika looks below her and yells "down there" as all the girls look down, a grey figure smiling with his hands up towards them slowly starts to rise and gains altitude. As the grey figure starts to reach their altitude Lynette and Mina instantly know who he is, when the grey figure reaches them face to face he takes off hi cloak and says "long time huh" as Griffin smiles.
Mina as well as he other girls can't believe their eyes at what their seeing, Griffin smiles and says crossing his arms "what, looks like you've seen a ghost" Yoshika says "i thought you were gone or dead" Griffin surprised says "what makes you think that, i just had some errands i had to attend to." Mina knowing what kind of situation their in yells "we can say hello later" as she turns to face the Neuroi that have them surrounded. Griffin agrees and grab's his Gatling gun form his waist and faces the Neuroi, Mina yells "spread out and engage" Griffin smiles and says quietly "you miss me?" The battle rages on for more than an hour, when the smoke clears from the area all of the girls and Griffin are in one piece and Mina says "everyone lets head back."
The group heads back towards the base and no one says a word, no one even looks at the direction of Griffin. Everyone knows he saved their lives again but, there's something that doesn't seem right with Griffin's attitude its like he's waiting for something. When the group enters the hangar Griffin changes his legs back to walking feet and Griffin heads towards his old work bench and places his gun on it and places his hand on top of it. Mina removing her striker unit walks towards Griffin and yells "My Office, Now!" as Griffin follows Mina towards the exit, all the girls shocked at Mina's action just stand their dumbfounded and as Griffin walks past Lynette he smiles and in that instant Lynette know that smile all to well, its the smile of someone who's expecting to die.
