The Haruno Chronicles

Ch. 21 This one has a mixture of emotions in it as throughout the chapter, many wondrous things may happen.

Disclaimer: Everything, material, characters, locations ect… are property of the respective people.

Chapter 21 – New plan, New General, New a lot of stuff

They were all in General Jackson's room when a messenger came rushing in. "Sir, Headquarters has just finished their final analysis on the Dimensional Shift surrounding Fretica. The time at which inter-dimensional transport will be possible is exactly 1100 hours tomorrow. I have also another message with a red seal priority and a 2nd class secrecy level. If you would." The messenger handed the General a reading tablet. While he was reading over it, Sarah asked her father, "What is these class and priority things about. Is it important." John answered, "In this case yes. A red seal priority means that the someone who sent it higher than a general ranking and unless it was sent by the council, that message would be from Supreme General Commander Saito Yui. That rank is as high as a normal mage can get without being chosen for the special elite or Z squad or becoming one of the council. It is a very prestigious rank. The Supreme General Commander is the one who gives the orders and assignments out for us Generals. He also has the power to command anyone of lower ranks as well. As such, anything sent by him is automatically given the red seal priority as to get it to the recipient as soon as possible so they can reply quickly to keep things efficient throughout the entire T.S.B.A. Also, second-class secrecy level is basically a rule to whom the contents of the message can be revealed. A 2nd class secrecy level means that only the recipient and those otherwise directly related to the contents of the message can be told." When Sarah collected her thoughts, she said, "So this is a very important message then." "Yes indeed."

Jackson read through the message with a shocked face. There was also sadness there as well. When he finished, he said, "I have good news and bad news. As the good news would sound weird without the bad news, I'll start at the low end. Unfortunately, while on duty to try and track the source of a Lost Logia somewhere in Earth's general dimensional quadrant, something struck General Ferro's private ship, blowing it to pieces. Luckily, all of the crew managed to escape, including the general but not unharmed. Something had entered the ship and started to attack the crew. None were exempt from the attack, including the general. The strange thing was that it didn't kill any of them, but it took their most important part of them as mages, their Linker Core's. A Linker Core is the source for a mages Magic. According to examinations, most of the crew's members will be able to heal their Linker Core's, as they are still young. It is easier for the young to heal their Linker Core's. Unfortunately though, General Ferro was the oldest of all the generals and is not so lucky. His Linker Core was permanently damaged and therefore, he has been forced to retire himself as a General and has decided that now would be a good time to go into retirement. This Leaves the T.S.A.B vulnerable, as there is now one less General in the ranks."

Everyone looked shocked and confused at once. Some of them hadn't got parts of it, but the atmosphere that the generals were giving off was enough to tell that something grave and unprecedented had just occurred. The generals all sat in silence in respect for the Generals duty and commitment. Jackson revealed to them that General Ferro was the one who had trained him personally and he had a good friendship with him. The gloomy air was so thick that they all felt ill. After almost 5 minutes, Lee couldn't take anymore. He spoke up, "Well, what is the good news." Jackson and the rest recovered from their state and he said, now back to normal, "yes, there is some good news. As I said before, The T.S.A.B is weakened greatly by the absence of a general. Due to this, the council immediately fills the position as soon as possible. Just for times like this, they keep tabs on all SSS or higher mages and already have the candidates ready so they already have announced the new General." All the other Generals looked at him, "So who is it already?" said Lindy. Jackson said, "Well, I will tell you this, because of this promotion, you shouldn't tease John anymore." John looked confused and said, "and what does that have to do with anything?" Jackson said, "Because, seeing all Generals are of equal status and to be treated as such." Everyone needed a second to register what he had just said, then when John was done, he said in complete surprise, "you don't mean–." "That's right, as of today, you are now promoted to GENERAL CROSS, leader of the 5th section. The same one you already were in."

Everyone turned to look at John, who was shocked. They all stared at him for a minute, then he stood up, went to the window and yelled, "HELL YAH, I'm A GENERAL BABY. WOO HOO, OH YEAH!!!" Everyone looked at him, he had a look of pure happiness on his face, and then John sat back down. Then Lindy came over and hugged him, "I'm so happy for you John, we final did it, and we finally kept our promise." At the word "promise," everyone looked confused, so Lindy said to them all, "A long time ago as you all know, John and I were good friends in the training academy. We worked hard there and graduated with high marks, and right after graduation, we made a promise to each other. The promise was that one-day, we would both be able to look each other in the face as Generals and now we have. SO good for you John." After it was all done, everyone went over to congratulate John on his promotion. John secretly to himself was very happy, as one of his biggest dreams had just come true.

When they were done with the congrats ect… Jackson went ahead with what he was saying. "Don't worry John, there isn't going to be any formal ceremony or nothing, you just have to go to a small party made up of Generals, their adjacent or what we call their Captain Commander and a member of the council. These parties are surprisingly informal and you will have to bring your family. Also as customary, the banquet will be held on the new generals home world so the party will be held on Earth. Besides your family, you are allowed to invite up to 5 other people as long as they know about the T.S.B.A. The date and time are to be decided, you will be sent a notice and a few other things have to be done. Though the official public announcement to all mages about this isn't going to be until the banquet, all the generals and their adjacent know about it. Also, just because the official announcement isn't until the party, you officially were instated as an active general the second that I told you so you still have to perform General's duties immediately. First, you need to chose your new adjacent, you can chose anyone from your section with at least a AA rank. Also, you need to chose out your new private ship and move into your new office and a bunch of other things. By the way, your current crewmembers, the ones from the ASURA are as your direct underlings, the new crew of your private ship as is custom. You by the way, as another custom, have to tell your section that you are their new General. Absolutely no one in section 5 has been told yet as is another tradition. That will be your first assignment as a general. Unfortunately, you cannot get back to your ship until tomorrow so you will just have to do it tomorrow. And that is all that's been written."

After that, they all went to do various things. Lee asked Sora to spar with him in magic. Since he had devoted a lot of time to his sword studies, he hadn't been getting in much mage practice so they went back out to the training field to Spar. Surprisingly, they were no longer tired from the day's earlier training. As for the Johnson kids, they had asked their older brother to teach them something cool. He didn't know how to teach too well so Lance and Nanoha decided to go and help, thinking it would be fun. Chrono and Sakura, getting into the mood decided, even though they were slightly tired, to also do a mock battle like Lee and Sora. Sarah went and worked on her Ki training some more in the mean time. The Generals (Now including John) were remaining In Jackson's room. John had asked them to tell him about certain things. Apparently, it was tradition (what is with all of this tradition stuff) for a new general to meet with at least two other generals once to ask all the questions that anyone in that position would ask. The rest of the day passed relatively fast and it as time for bed before anyone knew it. All not knowing what the next few days would bring.

When they woke up the next morning, it was 9 o'clock. They all ate breakfast together as it was their last day on the planet. During breakfast, a message for the new general came. It said that the time and place of the party was exactly one week from today at 6 pm at the Fraise De Grand, an extremely fancy restaurant in the middle of lower Tokyo that Lee had only been to once when he was younger for his uncle Will's wedding. Chrono and Sakura on the other hand had been there many times (remember, both of their families are very rich). They said it was a good restaurant so John didn't complain. Jackson had told him last night that when he had said informal, he should have said less formal. There had to be some amount of decency for a General's Party after all. There was something else in the message as well. It was his first mission assignment from the Supreme General Commander. To his surprise, it was a Lost Logia Mission on Earth. "So they did know about it," said John. Lee looked confused and said, "What do you mean?" John answered, "I was wondering for a while if the T.S.A.B. knew about you and your friends collecting those Saren Stones. Believe it or not, those stones are classified as Class 1 Lost Logia. I guess they thought as they weren't causing Dimensional damage and it is technically an non-administered planet, they would leave it to you guys, who were natively from that planet. They sometimes do that as to not waste their resources."

Sarah then said, "So what are lost Logia anyway? Lance and Nanoha have told us they are relics from some lost, advanced civilization. So can you tell us something?" Grayson was the one to answer these questions, "Very well then, I will tell you the story. It starts off with an ancient magical civilization by the name of Azhard. This civilization existed more than a 100,000 years ago by current records. It is said that at the beginning, it was a normal planet that evolved like a normal planet into a regular society. But for some reason, this civilization went farther into evolution and achievement unlike any other planet before or since. It evolved beyond what we could imagine. But, it evolved too much and they ended up destroying themselves and creating the largest Dimensional Dislocation in all of our recorded history. The planet ceased to exist but many fragments of their achievements and their technologies of their civilization somehow survived and were scattered throughout all of the dimensions. Some found them and tried to learn from them. Some are harmless and even beneficial but there are some that are very dangerous, like those Saren Stones, which are given a class 1-danger notice. Anything with a class 3 to class 1 danger notice has been labeled to dangerous to be loose so the T.S.A.B usually collects them and seals them away from society. Although, like in your case, well at first at least, they thought you would be able to handle it so they didn't interfere. But it seams the higher ups decided that they are too dangerous so now your father is in charge of collecting them." They all listened with intrigue as they ate breakfast.

After breakfast, they went and got their things ready (not that they had a lot). When they were ready, they said good-by to General's Grayson, Lindy, and Jackson. Although, it wasn't for too long as they would all see them again in a week at John's party for his promotion to General. It turned out that the Johnson's would be at the party as well as each General was aloud to invite 5 guests and Jackson gave Grayson one of his so that all of the Johnson's could come. Apparently, the wives of general's were already counted as guests without invitations so Jackson, without kids didn't really need any of his invitations. They said good bye and then were transported onto the Asura, where Amy was waiting for them. They decided to take the ASURA home because of what John had to tell his crew. When they appeared in the teleportation room, Amy was waiting for them. "Where have you been, this ship has been in a state of Chaos since that attack yesterday on the General and we don't know anything else, the ASURA still has a few problems in need of fixing, though they said that they needed to give us a new ship. This one is out of date. So can you tell us anything?"

John said that al would be explained when he got everything settled. He said that he was going into his room for a while and when he came out, he would explain everything and that he was not to be disturbed until then. Then they all left for his room that was more like a house. He then asked all of his children to go into his bedroom and asked the Johnson's to stay in the living room for a bit. They said okay and the Cross's went to his large bedroom. He then asked them all to sit down. "Okay, I need your help," he started, "first, I need your opinions on how I should tell your mom. I want to make it special." Sarah had already thought about this a bit. "This is an easy one dad, one of us, not you will tell mom over dinner. Trust me, I am a girl you know. She will go ecstatic." John said that she would trust her and that they would do it her way as no better suggestions came up.

Then he asked them, "Okay, now I have one more thing I need your help with. I am terrible when it comes to choosing people for stuff so I want you to read these five résumés and tell me which, in your opinion would make a good 2nd or Captain commander. It lists personalities, mage states and the likes. As for ranks, they are all over qualified so any of them would be good but I can't chose so I need your input. Also, please, please, please do not let a word of me asking you for help leave this room. I would be too embarrassed if anyone found out I was asking my kids for help, no offense." Sora said, "No offense taken, I think I can understand that." They looked at the five candidates. One was an experienced mage with a captain level and an S ranking, good with battle magic (attacks and shields) but not too good with other types. The second was surprisingly Rodger from the training room thing, and in a bigger surprise, he was a AAA+ ranked mage, even though his rank was just a lieutenant (one lower than a captain) and his stats were great in support magic and he had a good personality. The next was again, another shocker with Fredrick (other guy from training room thing) and was an S ranked lieutenant mage with great attack and support but no defense or healing or teleportation abilities what so ever. The fourth was another Captain level mage with a wide variety of abilities all over except for support. The fifth was Amy; John's used to be direct junior. Her stats were pretty good. Captain level, S ranked mage. Her abilities were strong in most areas except barriers and fields and she had a good personality as well. The three of them, after reading all five of them thought for a bit. Their dad wasn't lying when he said it was a hard choice. They had narrowed it down to three. As to make sure they put all doubt out of their dad's mind, they decided to all say the same one. They spoke to each other for minute and came up with an answer. "This one," they said in unison and handed John their candidate choice's sheet." John looked at it for a bit and said, "Okay, as all of you said it, I'll go with it. It does seem like a good choice too."

They came out of the bedroom and went to the large entry/ living room. They told the Johnson's that they could either stay or come with them to make the announcement. They decided to stay in the room, feeling like foreigners in a distant country, they felt a little intrusive. And so, they left John's room and went to the Main control room. John then made a ship wide announcement." Could you all come to main room 1 in 30 minutes for some important announcements? Dock the ship on spot and put it on temporary autopilot. Thank you." He then told them to follow him to main room one. When they entered, they couldn't believe their eyes, it was a huge concert like auditorium. John said, "It's for music nights or just when we need to gather ect…" The room was huge. John explained that the space in here was enlarged by magic so it was actually smaller on the outside than on the inside. He told them to sit right in front in the seats next to two seats he said were usually reserved for himself and his second (Amy).

By the time thirty minutes was up, almost every seat was filled, all eyes on the podium up front. All the crew was they're waiting for what was to come. When everyone got situated, John spoke, "Ah hem, excuse me, I have bad news and good news and some other news after that. First off, I regret to inform you that as you all know, an unknown attacked our sections general, General Ferro and his ship yesterday, leaving the crew and the General hurt and the ship in ruins. They all made it out alive so that is good, but unfortunately, due to injury, General Ferro has been forced to give up his position as General and retire from active duty." Everyone looked around and then the muttering began. "SO," John started again, "Because of this there are a few changes. And they are not necessarily bad. The council has decided the new General already. In my opinion, he is defiantly the best guy for the job. So as of now, you should all call me General Cross, though I won't hold it against you if you don't, you know how much I hate that formal stuff." Now even louder murmurings were going around the room. John continued up once more, "And now, that I am the new General, the position of Captain Commander is vacant so I guess I will have to fill it. It took me a while, I had some good candidates but in the end, I decided the position should go to Amy Verona." At this, Amy blushed so hard that her face resembled a tomato. She didn't know what to say. John then continued his string of announcements, "So Now that I have chosen the New Captain Commander, again, we have an open position. It's like the domino effect. Fill one, empty another. As for the new captain, it is customary for Amy to decide, as she is the previous one. And for my final announcement, as I am a general, as is tradition, my previous Crew, or you guys as I should say, are now my private crew for my personal ship. We will be moving into the brand new ship, the proto-type Artimis in three days. It is supposed to be state of the art so I hope you don't mind too much. That is all, please go back to your stations, thank you." He stepped down from the podium and everyone started to file out. He walked over to Amy and said, "Could you come to my office." She said yes, still blushing and she followed him out. John told his kids to be back in his room at one and that they could explore the ship until then or use the training room or something.

The kids went around the ship while John led Amy to what would what was his office. "Okay, as this is now technically your office, I think you should sit at the desk." Amy blushed and said, "No, that's okay, I like the couch better." He decided not to argue, seeing as she was the true owner of this ship anyway. "Okay Amy, I need you to first chose a new captain soon. I know this is all so sudden but we are under a deadline. So we don't have much time. Do you already have someone in mind?" Amy thought for a second and said, "Yes as a matter of fact. I think Rodger would be the good choice, if you agree." John replied, "Amy, it is your call. I am not asking for an opinion, I am asking for a choice. Whoever you chose will become the one to take your place. SO you want to chose Rodger." She thought for a second and said, "Yes." "Good then, that's settles. Now for the second part and again, this is your choice entirely. Do you want to come with this crew and be on my personal staffed ship or do you want to remain with the Asura and captain it on your own with Ferro's crew, who will be reassigned to this ship when we move to the new one. So which will you chose. You have time so you don't need to decide right now but I need it by-," Amy interrupted him mid-sentence. Then she said to him, "I already know. It isn't a hard decision to make. If all my friends are going, then so am I but on one condition." "Condition?" said John, confused. "I still get to call you cap-i-tan." John relaxed, "Okay, but not in public or in front of my wife, ok?" "Ok cap-i-tan sir." She was about to walk out when John said, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to give you this." He pulled out two envelopes. "One is the invitation to my New General's party and the other is the promotion salary bonus you get for going up a rank. Why not get something for the party." She blushed a little more and left the room.

John went back to his room where everyone was. "Okay all, I think it's about time for us to be heading off. I was just told that we are within the teleport range for this ship. I wish we could just teleport ourselves back home but it is impossible from in any T.S.A.B. vessel and since there is some of us who couldn't yet; I guess this was the only option. Sakura was about to speak when John continued, "And it was impossible to use a portal on Fretica because there were still a good deal of dimensional interference left. It was just that it had dissipated enough for the ships teleport beam to get through. But that's that so I guess it's time to go." They headed for the teleport room where Rodger was. John, knowing he didn't know yet walked up to him. "Congratulations." Rodger looked confused. John continued, "I guess Amy hasn't got a chance to tell you. She chose you to fill her spot so now your Captain Rodger. And to celebrate, here" he handed him two similar envelopes like with Amy, "Ones a promotion bonus and the other is an invitation to my party. This ship or what ever they give you as this one I'm told is done for is yours now. Do some good with it." Rodger didn't know what to say. He always wanted to command his own ship and right her he was being given the chance, "Thank you General Cross sir." He teleported them down on pretty much the exact same spot they started this entire ordeal.

"Okay, we made it. Now wasn't that fun," he said in a mock tone. "Oh yeah, I said that you three," he pointed at Nanoha (with Lance as a ferret), Sakura and Chrono, "would be home almost 30 minutes ago, you better hurry home and remember, if they ask, you were at Lee's cousins house and say you had a good time." Sakura and Chrono knew how punctual their parents were so Sakura grabbed Nanoha's hand and teleported straight behind her houses gate where no one would see while Chrono did the same to his house. "Okay then, lets go back." They walked with the Johnson's as they lived right next door to each other. When they got back to their houses, they said by and went into their respective dwellings. When Lee got into the house (he went in first), his mother almost squeezed him to death in a hug. "Lee, you alright, nothing hurts, you all better, good. When your father called, he said you were in bed from working too hard and I was sooo worried that you'd hurt yourself." "All good mom, see," Lee said to confirm it. They all entered the house when their mother said, "Oh yeah, by the way you two," he looked at Lee and Sarah, "your summer homework arrived in the mail yesterday, there is quite a bit, they needed boxes to send it so you might want to get started, okay." Lee and Sarah looked at the rather large boxes of homework. They both were thinking the same thing, "I think I would rather fight all the Saren stones 5 times over than do this."

Knowing that they would never find enough time to finish it otherwise, they decided to start on their homework with their free time. Sora, who was in college didn't have homework so he decided to take pity on his younger siblings and said that he would help. They both sighed in relief. More Lee than Sarah because Sarah was extremely smart but the sheer volume of the homework was enough to give the smartest person a headache trying to do it all. What Lee liked about Sora was that he was a bit of a perfectionist. As such, when he said he would help you, it really meant that he would do it for you as he was one of those "my way is the best way," type people. And with Sora's help, they got about an eighth of it done by dinner (A HUGE achievement considering how much they had gotten.)

Dinner that night started quiet, they were about to put the plan into action. It was decided that Sarah, whose idea it had been, would say it. She was waiting for her mother to pause for a second because she was the type of person who would probably choke on their food from this type of news. When she paused to put more smashed potatoes on her plate, Sarah started, "You know Mom, something really surprising happened while we were away." Mary looked at Sarah, "Really, what?" "Well, while we were at the training Base, a chain of events happened throughout the T.S.A.B. that Led to the retirement of a general." "Really?" said Mary. "Yes," Sarah continued, "and they already chose daddy as the new General." Mary dropped her fork at this. She got up and gave their father a big hug and a kiss. "Why didn't you say anything, a General, that's big, that's really big. It is big, right?" "Sort of yeah." This continued on for about 5 minutes. Though they had been married for almost 23 years now, they still acted like newlyweds sometimes. Then John said, "Yes, I am now a General and there is going to be a party next Friday in celebration of it. All the General's and their Adjacent's will be there and Council Members and a bunch of important people. And you are most defiantly invited to the party along with the whole family." Their mother then started to say stuff like what she was going to wear and if they should get Lee a new suit and Sarah a new dress and so on and so forth. This continued throughout the whole of dinner.

When dinner ended, Lee went to his room. He decided to get a bit of fresh air and decided to step out onto the deck. The rest of his family was already in their rooms. Then he got a mental call, "please, do not be frightened" and a girl with long blond hair tied into two long trails appeared out of no where on the deck with him. Lee recognized her instantly, even though it had been a long time. "Fate Tesstorosa," he said, jumping back and half-released Haruno as a Sword. "What are you doing here?" he said. "Please, I did not come here to fight you," she said. Lee felt the honesty of her words and put away deactivated Haruno, who changed back into a marble. "So what did you come for then, I hope it isn't to ask for the stones because the answer is already no." Fate then said, "don't worry, I couldn't if I wanted to. They can't be given even if you want them too. They are not something you can steal either. I just need to ask you something." Lee kept on feeling more and more relaxed but kept his guard up, "Okay, shoot." "If you do something bad to do something good, is that wrong?" Lee had to think for a bit, "I really don't know the answer to that one. Why did you ask that?" Fate looked at him. Lee could really see quite a bit of sadness in her eyes. Fate then said, "I will tell you this. I am not collecting the Saren stones for myself nor do I know what the person who I am doing it for wants with them. All I know is that I would do anything to make this person happy." Lee thought for a bit longer. Then he said, "Well, I don't think this is the best answer to your question but if I had to give you an answer, it would be that something good shouldn't require you to do something bad first, otherwise, the good deed is sort of canceled out by the bad one, making it like it never happened." "Thanks Lee," said Fate and with that, she disappeared. Lee went back inside and lay on his bed for a while, thinking about what Fate had said. He pondered the answer he had given to her question, wondering if it was the right one.