Disclaimer; See previous chapter
Chapter 08 The Phantom Girls I
CE76
Samantha wondered if Taylor was crazy when she was handed this weird looking baggy thing he said was a flight suit. He had welcomed her aboard the ship just moments ago and granted her the honorary rank of Corporal, now he was giving her this black rubber-like full-body spandex and was telling her to put it on.
"So Sam, this is the latest advancement in space suits from the Grabella Research Institute. It's really user friendly, so I'm pretty sure you'll have no trouble putting it on."
Samantha scrutinized the baggy "Skin Suit Mk II" as Taylor called it. No way was this thing going to fit her. It was at least eight sizes too big. And the Grabella Research Institute? She's never heard of the place.
And also there was the more important question. "Why do I have to put this on?"
Still leaning against the infirmary wall, Shoko answered. "We want to see how good of a mobile suit pilot you are. So we're going to have you pilot a suit in a mock simulation battle against one of my pilots."
"Um, I'm a prisoner of war. Isn't giving me a mobile suit a bit dangerous for you guys I mean?" Samantha pointed out.
"That's quite unlikely. We're giving you the oldest suit in our hanger. Escape is quite impossible for you." Shoko shrugged nonchantly. "Besides… if you can last even ten minutes against Chris, then you deserve to get away." She added as an afterthought.
"Eh?"
Shoko had shown Samantha to the hangar changing rooms before departing, leaving Samantha to her own machinations.
It took Samantha little effort to find an empty locker, mainly because all but one of the lockers strangely were empty, and that one locker had a chainsaw in it. It was weird. Didn't anyone need to store their clothes when doing dock duty?
Getting the skin suit on was a relatively easy task. Despite the fact it should have been too big for her and covered her entire body from the neck down, even having spots for toes and fingers, the slippery insides made it incredibly easy to slip on.
"Wow, the Commodore wasn't kidding about this being user friendly." Samantha mused. "But more importantly, this is my chance!"
Indeed a golden opportunity for her escape was at hand. Who cares if they gave her some crap machine? A mobile suit was a mobile suit, and assuming she could somehow slip by whoever they sent at her, she could get away.
Now all she had to do was figure out how to repeat that miracle she did a week ago.
"Alright, now where is that helmet?" Samantha looked around the changing room. Strange, no helmet. A frown graced her features. How was a flight suit supposed to function without a helmet?
"Oh well. Maybe they'll give me one later." Samantha reassured herself. "Okay, now, Shoko said I was to push some button on the right wrist… ah there it is!" Samantha located the slip touchpad on the right wrist of the suit and gave the blinking symbol a little press.
Instantly the baggy flight suit deflated like a balloon until it wrapped around her like a second skin. The once thick rubbery material had shrunk until it was hugging her body like a second skin. Almost too much like a second skin. Samantha paled.
"You know, we could be drinking martinis at Von Braun right now if we didn't have to sneak around like the kid that stole from the cookie jar." Marty complained.
"Mou, Lark… stop complaining so much. I think I hit my head again." moaned Nono, clearly too disoriented to know who she was talking to. She was lounging on one of the nearby reclining beach chairs the tech crew reserved for visitors.
A mild disaster earlier that day.
Somebody, probably one of the two kids, had dropped a lollipop into "the core". The ensuring panic had her entire section trying to remove the sticky item before something blew up. Nono had the grand honor of being the one to remove it, exposing herself to lethal levels of radiation.
Mission successful, but the radiation had given Nono a massive headache of the "I wish I were dead" variety. Disadvantage of being a cybernetic organism, you can't die from things that you would rather have killed you. The three hour sterilization procedure didn't help things any.
Without receiving treatment from Rumiko, it would be a long time before Nono could even remember who she was.
"Lark? Did you put something in your pillow?"
"I have no idea what the hell you are going on about Takaya."
"Oh Look! Nonoriri!" Nono suddenly declared before promptly passing out.
"Geez, Rumiko better fix up that concoction of hers quick." Marty stated, checking off the last checkbox on the touchpad in his hands. "Okay Shoko! The controls for a standard mobile suit have been rigged. This baby's all ready to go!"
The tech crew and their visitors were huddled around a single machine out of its berth. Sitting in the hanger bay was a blue machine lightly taller than the average mobile suit. It was quite odd since it was incredibly bulky and cumbersome.
Of course it only looked cumbersome. In its prime, the Gespenst Mk II Type S was the stuff of nightmares. Even know, the battle cry of 'Gespenst Kick!' still sent shivers down some pilots' spines.
"Good. Professor Presty, are you ready?" Shoko commanded. The scientist gave a hearty thumbs up to the wing commander. "Good. I guess this just leaves the pil… the hell?"
When Samantha shuffled into the hanger, all activity ground to a halt. A few jaws were dropped. Some people collapsed into fits of laughter.
Standing bashfully in one of the doorways to the hangar bay was the object of their mirth. The black skin suit was advertised to fit over it's user like a second skin. Literally. Samantha's body outline from her curves and her lack of any chest were very apparent to everyone on the deck. In fact if it was any thinner, Samantha guessed it would be see through!
She might as well have walked in there naked.
The blush on her face told them she realized this as well. Her face was definitely brighter than a shooting star.
"…you're doing this on purpose aren't you?" Shoko tried to steady her voice, but her quivering lips showed that either anger or mirth was slowly creeping in.
"But… I did what you said! I pressed the button and everything! How come it's so… so… tight?!" Samantha blurted out. Shoko sighed when she realized the incredibly rookie mistake the young redhead had made. Understandable since Samantha had never encountered such an odd piece of technology before.
The swordswoman could remember the chaos that ensued when the bloody thing became standard issue. Nobody wanted to wear it, especially after the SRX team was publicly humiliated in them. She never wanted to experience that nightmare ever again.
It really pained her to do this. It really did.
"…Sam. You are supposed to wear that UNDER your normal clothes."
Samantha let out a high pitched yelp as the pieces fell into place. The disuse of the changing room, the fact no one on the ship seemed to be suing a space suit of any sort… Samantha did a one eighty and bolted for her clothes as fast as her two legs could carry her.
Shoko sighed as the hangar crew burst out into fits of laughter. Shoko hoped this would not leave any lingering mental scars. "This is partially my fault I suppose. I'd better follow her to make sure she puts it on correctly this time."
Marty, trying to regain his composure, tapped the swordswoman's shoulder. "Hey look on the bright side; at least she doesn't know how to turn the thing invisible yet!"
Samantha fidgeted in the seat of the modified Gespenst Mk II as it locked its feet onto the launch catapult. Now dressed in her new attire over the transparent, oh how she blushed when she learned it could actually turn invisible, skin suit. It was understandable that Samantha was quite frazzled by the most recent turn of events.
Wondrous piece of technology aside, this 'skin suit' proved one undeniable fact for the poor girl.
She had to get out of this ship. Her modesty depended on it.
And the still haven't given her any form of helmet. This was going to make ditching this big robot as an escape plan a real problem.
"Are you ready for launch, Assault-4?" An Indian girl roughly Samantha's age showed up on large panoramic view screen. Wearing large round spectacles and dressed in modest working attire the communications officer wore an expressionless face.
Samantha unfamiliar with this person simply nodded. "Uh, yeah."
"That's good. Sergeant Maj. Heartily was starting to grate on my nerves with his complaining. Good hunting Corporal Douglas. Starting catapult."
"Wha-Aieeeeeeeeeeeeee!"
Before she could brace herself, Samantha experienced the biggest catapult launch she had experienced in her short life. Either the lack of her usual space suit was making the catapult launch more extreme than it normally was, or like everything else on this crazy ship the launch catapult was over the top.
The Gespenst Mk II rocketed out of the launch bay at impossible speeds. It crashed headfirst into a large outcropping of rock nearly ten kilometers away which ground her to a stop. Damage was relatively light though, thanks to the zero gravity alloy that Marty had seen fit to equip onto the machine almost eight months prior.
... But that didn't stop Samantha from being jostled around in the cockpit like a rag doll.
"That was the most pathetic excuse of a launch I have ever seen in my entire career as a mobile suit jockey." Samantha could hear someone grumble over the communications channel. "Pull yourself together rookie. In a real battle, I have killed you six times over right now."
Fumbling with the controls to make the machine stand, Samantha took in her surroundings. She was pretty sure this was the moon. The ground was the right color, and the earth sphere was hanging like a blue orb over their heads. She was tempted to turn her robot around to see what the ship she had been held on looked like, but something caught her attention.
Standing before her Gespenst Mk II was another blue machine, what she presumed was her opponent. It looked absolutely vicious. Surprisingly, a technical readout of her adversary popped up in the corner of Samantha's view screen for her to see.
Despite the ceramic armor that it was coated with, the machine's bulky form was lightly armored by conventional standards. However it was armed with two high ordinance hyper bazookas stored on its back, a massive beam gatling-cannon secured in its left forearm and a huge shotgun slung over its shoulder in its right. As if its main armament wasn't enough, its 'utility belt' stored grenades and explosives of all kinds on various hard points along with missile racks 'hidden' in its legs. Except he had opened up all his weapon ports.
Numerous thrusters were placed strategically thought the machine's frame giving unparalleled speed and agility. A red Cyclops eye stared at her from under the horned helmet.
The name of this fearsome mobile suit was the Kampfer. Years after its conception, this mobile suit was still a force to be reckoned with.
Then she recognized the pilot's voice. "Hey, you're that kid aren't you? Chris Heartily?"
"That's Sergeant Major Chris Heartily. I outrank you… kid." Chris retorted, his voice sounding quite annoyed over the communications channel. "Look, here is the raw deal. This is a live fire exercise. Your job is to throw everything you can at me and my job is to give you hell. Ka-peesh?"
Samantha blinked. Live fire? Her eyes wandered to the large amount of weaponry the Kampfer was armed with.
Against THAT!?!?!?
Samantha quickly checked her own weapons. Her primary weapon was a pitiful machine gun and a backup split missile launcher. Samantha let out a soundless scream.
Forget trying to escape. She'd have a ghastly enough time just trying to survive!
"Hey kid, I have a ton of aggression to work off, so brace yourself!"
Samantha didn't have another warning. The Kampfer casually opened up with the shotgun, and immediately switched over to his gatling cannon. The automatic reloading mechanism for the shotgun ejected the depleted casing the shell while a new one entered the chamber.
Reacting quickly, Samantha slammed on the accelerator, as the right thrusters on the Gespenst flared to life. A massive fireball erupted at the point she had been moments before as the explosive shell detonated and one of the beams came so close to her suit that the heat caused the a slight darkening of the armor.
"He is serious!" Samantha gaped in horror. Live ammunitions? The hard reality of the situation was really sinking in. It was one thing to think about being in a live fire exercise, but it was another to actually live in it! The ground behind her fleeing Gespenst bloomed with explosions where she ran.
In desperation she executed some of the evasive maneuvers she had been taught, pulling the hovering Gespenst into a zigzagging motion while trying to reorient her suit to face the Kampfer. Then a shotgun blast in the trajectory of her evasion path threw her Gespenst off balance and sending it on it's behind.
"That is the most basic textbook maneuver in the book. Try harder." She could hear Chris grumble. The Kampfer had barely moved from its spot and was playfully twirling the shotgun by its trigger guard in the right hand like a cowboy from an old western.
Samantha's mouth gaped at the causal motion. How had he programmed his mech to DO that?
The shotgun finished one more revolution before it suddenly snapped back into firing position and a shot was fired directly at her.
Once again Samantha was barely able to evade. The chest thrusters moved her Gespenst, skidding across the ground backwards as a 12 foot crater was formed in front of her. The sixteen year old girl gaped at the view screen. Now Samantha was torn between all out panic and trying to predict his next move.
One hit from an explosive of that level would finish her for sure! These people were going to kill her! Life fire? She was a bleeding rookie! This was only her second time in a real robot and they wanted to test her using live fire? She was dead for su…
Now this won't do will it?
Suddenly a something clamped down on her rising panic. Hard.
Calm down Samantha.
"Calm down." Sam gripped her controls tighter as an odd calming sensation poured into her. How odd, suddenly she didn't feel so afraid anymore. "It's no use panicking. If I panic now, I lose and it'll be all over."
Think it though. You have nothing to fear.
"He's taking his time. If he wanted to, he would have finished me already. He even said so himself." Her clear mind logically deduced the truth, and suddenly Sam felt a lot better. Just calm down and analyze his moves.
Don't think, feel. Stop trying to pilot and just do it. It'll come to you naturally.
"Don't think, just feel." Sam said to herself, forcing the Gespenst back onto its feet. Confidence she didn't know she had suddenly washed over her. This was just a training program, but she might as well put on a good show.
Chris cocked an eyebrow as he watched the machine stagger to its feet once again. "What happened? She was completely wigging out on the comm. channel just a moment ago." Suddenly, it all clicked in Chris"s head.
"Artesia. She's helping the rookie out." Chris would cry foul play, but he was pretty sure the Presty's were dancing with joy at the kinds of data that were flying through their computer screens. That and he was pretty sure he could still defeat her easily.
Let him make the first move. He's overconfident, he'll make a mistake. That will be your chance
"Let him make the first move." Sam continued. "Find an opening, strike back."
You can do this.
"Let's do this." Sam forced the machine into action, the Gespenst surged backwards firing its machine gun all the way. Samantha's horrible aim wouldn't win her any Olympic medals, but it caused the Kampfer to finally move.
I knew you could do it.
"Wow! Maybe this girl got some stuff after all." Chris grinned with anticipation. "Okay, let's see what you got." The Kampfer alternated firing its shot gun and its gatling-cannon as it sped along the dusty lunar surface. Sam ceased firing as she focused all her efforts in dodging the incoming weapons fire.
Despite the explosions ripping her surroundings to pieces, Sam couldn't help but smile as well.
It took some getting used to, but Sam eventually got used to his pattern of attack. Shotgun whenever he had the chance, gatling-cannon whenever he could. If her guess was right, he would stay away from the Hyper Bazooka and the missiles out of caution for actually hurting her.
He was just conducting a test after all. Now that she had it all figured out she could almost even see where he was going to shoot next!
As Sam swerved the Gespenst Mk II in and out of the massive amounts of incoming fire, one thought entered her head. "That's odd, is just it me or is he slowing down?"
Somewhere in the distance, a little blonde girl, barely older than a toddler, with golden eyes in a pink long sleeved shirt smiled.
"Wow. Chris isn't pulling any punches." Marty mused as he watched the battle from the view screen the techs had set up in the now quiet hangar bay. Popcorn was broken out, some chairs were drawn and the lights were dimmed. Aside from the constant clicking sound of the Presty's collecting their data from another corner of the hanger, all attention was focused on the large thirty inch television set.
The Gespenst Mk II Type S swerved in and out of beams and rocket propelled grenades like a daredevil was at the wheel.
Shoko rolled her eyes. "Of course he is. He's missing her on purpose. Chris is a dead shot at that range, so there's no way she could dodge all that weapons fire of he were serious."
The view of the battle on the screen circled around the two battling machines like the camera was circling overhead. In fact, it was.
"Are you sure this is such a good idea. Major? All those explosions might draw some attention." Ariel's voice sounded over the television speaker as her Zeta Plus continued to beam the recording of the battle from above.
Shoko responded through the headset she was wearing. "Can't be helped. The Professor and I want to put pressure on the girl. We think she's one of those 'latent potential' types. So she needs and an adequate threat to get her going. This is also in one of A.E.'s testing zones of experimental suits, and they've covered all the paperwork for us."
"I see. As long as they don't see your Rei-Shiki, we should be okay then." Ariel confirmed.
"Ohy! Ariel, focus! The Gespy just dropped off the bottom of the screen there!" one of the Techs complained. "How can we see the action if we can see the participants?"
"This is not some kind of wrestling match you fool."
As Shoko observed the progress of the battle, a slight smile graced her features. As the battle progressed, Chris's shots were missing by a wider and wider margin, so much so he was beginning to recalibrate his aim more often.
Even though she was using a Gespenst Mk II Type S and Chris was still going easy on her, the mere fact that she was holding up so well against a pilot of Chris's caliber despite her level of experience was saying a lot.
Shoko stole a quick glance at Takeshi Presty, who looked back at her with an affirmative look. "Negative point one six seconds." He said, reading off his computer screen.
"I knew it." Shoko murmured to herself. A negative reaction time, Samantha was predicting Chris's moves before he had even made them. That could only mean one thing…
A short cry from the techs drew her attention back to the monitor.
"Holy Shit! She hit Beowulf!" The impossible happened.
Chris had made a slight mistake, a slight overcompensation on his port thrusters from a fancy slide maneuver making his mobile suit stall for just four milliseconds. Samantha pounced like a coiled tiger. The Gespenst returned fire.
It was so unexpected, that Chris taken completely flat footed, only had milliseconds to dodge the short, three round burst. Sliding out of the way using a boost from his starboard thrusters, Chris was unable to dodge it completely as seared off the paint on his right shoulder.
A stunned silence settled over the techs when that happened.
Shoko suppressed a grin as she spoke into her microphone. "Chris, Ariel, enough. I think that the Presty's have collected enough data. Conclude the exercise and return the base, I think the girl's demonstrated what we needed to see."
"Understood. Assault three returning to base."
"Rodger that. Assault two, concluding the exercise." Chris said with amusement and a slight malicious edge.
Apparently he took offense to having his paintjob scratched by a greenhorn.
In a spectacular flourish, the Kampfer fired three blasts with its shotgun that hit the Gespenst's knee joints. The first two rocket propelled grenades blew the legs clean off, promptly disabling the blue machine and sending it tumbling onto the moon's surface. The third found itself imbedded in the Gespenst's head.
A prolonged silence followed as the camera circled overhead.
"Chris…" Shoko growled.
"Hey I finished it!"
"Never mind, just bring her home. Assault-One out." Shoko sighed as she watched the legless Gespenst flop around the ground like a dying fish. "…this is almost embarrassing."
"You said it." Marty agreed.
Shoko lifted her glasses and rubbed her fatigued eyes with her left hand. "Anyway, I want her mech detained and the Corporal in my ready room by twelve hundred hours…"
There was a wet sensation in her hands. She could hear several people in the hangar gasp in surprise. A clattering sound in the background indicated that Nono had sprung to her feet in alarm.
She pulled her hand away from her eyes.
Her palm was covered in blood.
"Interesting… This confirms my hunch. Postpone the briefing until tomorrow."
"So? What do you think?" Takeshi Presty spoke as he reviewed the data streaming from the video recording.
A mechanical feminine response replied. "The data clearly shows she is a Newtype, however her performance compared to previous pilots is abysmal. Were it not for the fact she is the only candidate, I would heavily recommend she not be the test pilot. In short, she sucks."
You giggled at the voice's words. "I wonder who thought you that phrase, Alice."
Samantha stumbled out of the wrecked Gespenst onto the gray steel floor of the Kurogane's portside hangar. She had spent the last ten minutes staring at the main view screen which showed nothing but static while the Kampfer dragged her sorry behind back to the Kurogane. She hadn't even been able to see the ship's exterior!
"I thought he was holding back, now I know he was holding back." Samantha grumbled as she nursed her sore back. Not watching where she was going, she collided with a small girl in an orange jumpsuit who was knocked onto her behind. Samantha quickly held a hand out to the small techie. "Oops, hey are you okay?"
"Peachy!" The mousy mechanistic hopped to her feet. "See no broken bones. Wait, you must be Sam Douglas. Very nice to meet you!"
Samantha was taken aback by the young girl's energy. Diminutive in stature this girl was around Samantha's age, and wore to large round coke bottle sized spectacles over her wide cobalt eyes. Her busy hair was put into twin pigtails. He had a laptop securely tucked under her right arm.
"Oh yeah, I need to introduce myself. My name is Rebecca Robinson, but everybody calls me Becky so you can too. I'm the lead-technician in charge of your machine Ms. Douglas! Very pleased to meet you."
Becky was shaking Samantha's hand vigorously while the pilot was looking baffled at the jumpsuit clad girl. "A personal technician? But…"
"It's standard operating procedure around here, so you don't have to worry about getting special treatment." Marty interrupted. "Becky, the Major and the Presty's have OK'ed the decision to let this girl have a crack at the La Platina. Stop wasting your time on this Gespenst and prep that instead."
Becky snapped off a quick salute. "Aye Master Chief sir!" She took off towards a different part of the hangar.
"…she forgot to collect her team." Marty sighed. "What am I ever going to do with that girl?"
"Err… Master Chief?" Samantha hesitantly asked.
Marty wiped his hands on his jumpsuit to clean the grease off them before replying. "My name is Martin McFly, Marty to my friends. Don't let my age fool you, but I'm the chief mechanic on this flying bucket. By the way, nice flying Corporal, Not many people have been able to catch Beowulf off guard like that."
Samantha blinked. "Beowulf?"
Marty pulled her down to his height before he draped an arm over her shoulder. "That be Chris Heartily, an old friend of mine. You know somebody is going to have to teach you the lingo around here and it might as well be me. You up for lunch tomorrow?"
An expert in martial arts and sword fighting as well as being prey to various assignation attempts, Shoko was like a drawn sword, even in her sleep. The slightest change in her surroundings would not go unnoticed. It was impossible to catch this woman off guard.
Many fallen foes would attest to that.
However even as she rested in the reclining hair in her quarters she did not notice the girl sitting just an arms length from her.
Gazing at the scarred woman with her two golden eyes, the young invisible girl sat herself on the bed next to this hardened warrior, just content to watch as the older woman took a moment in her long turbulent life to try and find the one thing that continued to elude her.
Perhaps, thought the little girl, that is why this scene is so beautiful.
A/N Quick update! It's back to the Kurogane and company. I put most of my comments in the previous chapter, So It's just a quick note here.
+ Skin suits are a play on the skin tight pilot suits some super robot pilots have to wear. Plus they allow the heroes to look good while flying in their robots. No clumsy, bulky space suit for the ATX team! Oh, and yes, it a waste disposal system, although the thought of using let the crew a little green for a long time. It took a very controversial and perverted logistics General to make them standard issue.
+I don't know whether Nono would be affected by the radiation. The science behind Buster Machines has always been somewhat a mystery to me.
+ I chose the Kampfer as Chris's mobile suit because it has so much weaponry that it can 'pierce through any defense'. That and the fact both machines have "horns" on their heads. It's meant to be a long range take on the Alteisen's design concept; 'break through any defense with overwhelming firepower'.
+ Kurogane has a different mechanic policy from other vessels in their fleet because of the nature of the operations assigned to them. They operate behind enemy lines quite a bit, so parts are in short in supply. This often forces them to cannibalize fallen enemies for parts and integrate normally incompatible components into their machines to keep them operational.
Therefore the mechanic crew must know the machines intimately to so they can modify any salvaged parts to their liking. Hence the higher Mechanic to Pilot ratio than usual. Not that Shoko actually lets Marty carry out his duties on her machine.
Omake!
"General, how can you remain so calm? Rescind your order already! I have the documents right here. Sign and stamp and then the ordeal will be over."
"It's just a mutiny."
"Just a mutiny? What's wrong with you! One mutiny is bad enough, but the entire armada is reporting cases of uprisings! Heck, some of the commanders have joined in the uprisings as well! The other members of the bass are breathing down your neck and there have been numerous attempts on the lives of members of our division!"
"Ah, yes. Well, I'm just in charge of logistics, the Admiral Noah is the one who has to deal with this…"
"They are crying out for YOUR blood! Noah had to move the Excellion in system to deter the Hagane from firing on this station!"
"I'm well aware of that. Noah did a good job didn't he? They're just overreacting. The troops do that every time we issue new equipment."
"General. The entire SRX team found themselves naked when the graduation ceremony in Axis. It was a PR disaster for them. I think trying to find and gut you is a very expected response from them."
"Well, I always thought their females were hot…"
"Wow, yeah that was a great show wasn't it… ahh, the Kobayashi sisters… wait… No, No, What am I saying!? "
"After that calamity, the entire fleet got wind of the incident and since then everybody wants to get rid of the skin-suits? I believe that's where you left off."
"Yes! Thank You!"
"You know, if they honestly wanted to, they could have just dumped the skin suits into space and be done with it."
"Not after you ordered the entire stock of regular space suits to be incinerated. Now they don't have spares. General, I promised to follow you hell and back if you made the military more 'acceptable', but I'm not sure I can survive this! Farman and Fury are already in the hospital and Major Elric is a hostage on the Soyukaze! Heck, Hawkeye was almost killed when Captain Werec herself carpet bombed the research facility!"
"Their sacrifice will not be in vain."
"General, I'm serious! Mini-skirts are one thing, but stripping them naked?"
"Well… they aren't exactly naked, just wearing invisible clothes…"
"General Mustang!"
"Ah, Hawkeye. Jean and I were just having a chat about the new space suits. Care to join us?"
"TheKurogane and Gloria just arrived in the sector! Skull Squadron and the ATX Team have joined up with the SRX and they're mounting an assault! The Excellion can't hold them off for long! We've to get you out of here!"
"…maybe I should have stopped with the mini-skirts." General Mustang mused.
Preview - I'm no Hallucination. The girl curtsied. You may call me Artesia. I'm the Kurogane's resident ghost.
