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Atlantic City, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Centre, Wednesday 24 May, two hours before supper...
"All of you, welcome back. America is blessed to have you here again!"
"It's good to be back, Mister President."
Magical cameras instantly went off as Josiah Bartlet shook the hand of David Collins, once more in the colourful costume of the Cosmic Cowboy. As the shipgirls — including a slowly-recovering Yūdachi now in a wheelchair — all whooped at the sight of the leader of the Liberty Legion shaking the hand of the leader of the free world, applause broke out from the many people who were gathered there to see this event. Including with them was a certain British arch-mage who led the magical version of the United Nations, who had been joined by his old friend from Russia and his would-be opponent from Japan, not to mention the American magical ambassador to the International Confederation of Wizards. Standing close by was a smiling reporter with glasses representing Britain's chief magical newspaper. "Aren't you concerned, Madame Ambassador?" Rita Skeeter asked Seraphina Picquery, earning her a surprised look from the native of Savannah. "Mister Costilow's return?"
People focused on William Costilow, who was dressed in his red-black-and-gold battle uniform as the Cosmic Arch-Mage (as non-magicals had often called Mister Mystical in all the press releases about him), his red-and-black helmet tucked under one arm; given that the public identities of all the members of the Liberty Legion and the Soldiers of Freedom came out into the open sometime after the Battle of Toronto in 1945, it was ridiculous to appear masked before the Chief Executive himself. "Only certain long-term members of the Magical Congress and those who worked for the Department of Magic at the time we had out disagreements with Master William still resent him for what he is and how he came to be the way he is, Miss Skeeter," the former "magical president" from the 1920s stated, grateful that Albus Dumbledore persuaded the "queen of the quills" to not use her Quick-Quotes Quill while doing interviews at this reunion. "The true nature of the appearance of metahumans confused not just us in the Magical Congress and the Department of Magic, but magicals in many other countries as well, especially those nations with high amounts of mesonium deposits in the soil like Canada and the then-Soviet Union." She gazed on Svetlána Múrometsa in emphasis before she turned back to the Ravenclaw alumnus from Liverpool. "Instead of showing compassion for the struggles they endured to master their powers when there was no textbook or school of training to help them — in the same way Heather Thompkins was forced to learn her magic — we should have been in there right away to help them as soon as they were identified. Not only just to uphold the Statute of Secrecy, but to help them develop as their own community in the overall family of Man. It wasn't until the Protector of All Life established her school in 1954 that such could happen. I'm pleased to note that my counterpart's successors in Québec City threw their support behind that project."
"We've heard rumours the Protector's school has now been fully militarized," a reporter from the New York Ghost then warned.
"I can comment on that, Mister White."
People turned as Josiah Bartlet came over to join them, leaning on his cane. "May I offer my personal congratulations at this wonderful development, Your Excellency," Dumbledore then said as he shook the president's hand.
"Oh, we should be congratulating and thanking Miss Suzumiya, Professor Dumbledore. And Rittmeister von Taserich as well as he was the one who sensed what had happened," the former governor of New Hampshire said. Much to the magical leaders' amusement and the shipgirls' approval, the member of the Liberty Legion native to the Granite State, Concord-born John Davis, also known as the Master of Cosmic Music Trouble Clef, stayed close to his fellow New Hampshire native, much to the private relief of the chief of the president's Secret Service detail, Ron Butterfield. "I'm sure we can get Negako to pass on our thanks to Haruhi when she gets the chance. I'm sure she could also pass on our thanks to the Rittmeister."
"What of the Soldiers of Liberty, Mister President?" the Ghost reporter, Jim White, then asked. "The Canadian magical embassy in Manhattan hasn't got any alerts from the Ministry of Magical Affairs concerning them at all."
"Actually, Mister White, I can answer that," Bartlet said. "Prime Minister Trudeau got the alert from elements of the Specialized Warfare Regiment two hours ago about the return of Doctor Donaldson and his friends back to their homes across Canada. I'm sure right now, that group is being gathered either in Ottawa or Dundurn to commence the debriefing process."
"Doesn't that bother you, Mister President?" the reporter for the Chicago Coven, Samuel Ellis, then asked. "The whole idea of militarizing no-maj-born metahumans into a serving unit in any country's armed forces, even Canada's?"
"I thought it was against the Specialized Warfare Treaty," Skeeter noted.
"It is not when a state of war is declared and the signatory parties agree to allow our Canadian friends to do such, Rita. Which they did," Dumbledore stated. "It's no different than Governor General Johnston's declaration of war mobilizing the Royal Canadian Foresters, the Navy Magical Service and the Seventh Magical Wing; much less His Excellency here using his executive power to mobilize the Magical Corps of the Army or the Magical Wing of the Marine Corps. I also add that all other countries who have sent metahuman students to the School of Specialized Warfare in Clayhurst to be taught by Headmaster Sampson and his fine staff have the right to do the very same thing under that same treaty. While I have no idea about other such formations, I'm sure they're out there performing good work. I'm sure when he feels it right, the President will make his intentions concerning the current generation of American metahumans known." He gazed on Bartlet, getting a nod.
"Well, if he wants us back on duty, we're back on duty," John Davis stated, which made all the reporters gaze expectantly on the amateur composer; before the start of the Second World War, the audio-telekinetic with the power to transform noise into physical matter had been studying classical composition at Granite State College in his hometown, enduring his sophomore year when Pearl Harbour was attacked. "The house elves who watched over my family home in Concord told me how much the DMLE in America and Britain, to say anything of 'W' Division in Canada and the other magical law enforcement groups elsewhere, took real bad hits because of those things these little girls have to fight now." He then sadly gazed on the large bunch of destroyers in the main reception hall of the hospital, who were now intermingling with his teammates. "I can see why a lot of people have problems with what appear to be little kids of all things going out to fight these demons."
"You're not the only one who has such an issue, Iván Artúrovich," Múrometsa said as she gave the younger-looking destroyers a sympathetic look. "Indeed, whatever nekul'túrnyje sprájty forced the dévochki-korábl' to come back as THAT...!"
"They came back and are capable of fighting, Svetá," Dumbledore advised. "Let's be grateful for that at least."
Múrometsa gave him a slightly disapproving look...
"Hey, everyone!"
People's heads snapped around...
"Harry-chan!" all the Japanese destroyers called out.
"Harry! Why didn't you all go back to the castle?!" Dumbledore demanded.
Harry Potter blushed as he and his classmates all came to a stop, many of the magically-born gaping at the sea of incredible costumes standing before them. "I heard Kodachi-nēchan was hurt fighting that cruiser squadron that tried to attack Atlantic City, Professor!" the Boy Who Lived said as he gave Yūdachi a concerned look, earning him a blush from the fourth of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers in return. "Who healed her?! Did one of the repair ships from Norfolk come by?!"
"That wasn't necessary, Harry-chan," Shiratsuyu herself said as she waved to the beautiful unicorn-blessed healer in the green costume with cape standing nearby. "Brodnicki-sensei here made Kodachi as good as the day she was summoned."
Harry blinked, then he turned to stare in awe at the Healer of the Legion before he straightened himself, then bowed. "Sensei, I am in your debt for saving my dear friend and adopted elder sister from sinking and being corrupted by the Abyss."
That made the Unicorn perk. "Magical Life Debt?!"
As the reporters all gasped on hearing that, Mister Mystical focused his eyes and powers on the brave young boy with the strange sig rune scar healing over his right eye. He blinked before he sighed. "You should have told him, Kodachi," he said as he gazed on Yūdachi, then he focused on Fubuki and Mutsuki. "The debt has to be acknowledged; his magic recognized such even if he didn't know. He deserves to know, girls. It's your responsibility to make him understand, girls."
"Harry owes a LIFE DEBT to shipgirls...?!" Skeeter hissed out.
"The teke teke...?"
That was a white-faced Fubuki. "What teke teke...?" Harry demanded...before he blinked as memory came back to him. "That girl that I saw one night at the Naval District shortly after Mum adopted me...?! She was really...?!"
"Her name was Atsuyama Mariko, Harry-chan," Fubuki said in a quiet voice. "She was killed when she was shoved off the platform at a subway station near the Naval District during the panic that befell everyone at the Battle of Tōkyō Bay when a train came by. When Kodachi-chan and I interrogated her after Mutsuko-chan got you clear, we found out she was trying to attack you because she blamed us for not protecting her." She shook her head. "Just another causality in this sick war."
"His spirit has to be purged of the Life Debt's influence," Mister Mystical warned, which made the magicals all gape at him save Yomigawa Tsukiko, who was grimly nodding in understanding. "Could you help him, Amy?"
"I believe so."
People turned as the effective representative of both the Beehive State and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints came up to kneel before Harry. Before he could ask what was happening, Amy Purtell shook her head as a scowl crossed her face. "Yeah, there are a few things from other dimensions that seem to want to latch on you, young man." As people gaped at her, the Mistress of All Realities, Dimension Girl, raised her hand, revealing mist-like energy appearing around Harry. "A lot of it is benign, though...except..." She then reached out towards Harry, making him gasp and the destroyers all cry out...
...especially when the Utahan religious genealogist's hand literally DISAPPEARED into one bank of mist close to Harry's heart, making the students watching this scream in shock and horror at such a sight...
...before they all gasped as Dimension Girl pulled out a ghostly creature appearing to be a girl of about fifteen years of age, with half her body from the area of her waist down totally gone, replaced by some dark fog. "Merlin! What's THAT?!" Draco Malfoy exclaimed as many of Harry's classmates instantly drew out their wands, ready to cast shields in case this thing got clear of Dimension Girl and tried to attack either their friend or their friend's many spiritual big sisters.
Mister Mystical whispered something in a tongue no magical present could recognize, sending a bolt of black energy right into the ghostly creature's head. She shrieked out in agony as the energy literally shredded her soul, causing her "body" to shimmer for a second before it vanished totally from view. Once that happened, people relaxed. "What the HELL was that?!" one of the Secret Service agents who had come with Bartlet to this meeting, Mike McCracken, demanded.
"A spirit-shredding attack, Special Agent," the native of Salem replied, clearly not bothered by what he just did. "It's based on the soulsword concept Major Raeburn learned from her master that's normally practised by that thing that killed off the last of the Black Dragon Society's fighters after Emperor Shōwa called it a day finally in 1945. Even if young Fujiko and Kodachi here did their best to ensure that thing didn't hurt the young man here, it had latched onto Harry for vengeance."
"To hurt us, you mean?!" Hibiki demanded.
"Exactly, Himeko," Mister Mystical stated. "Dave, I'm going to where these kids are based and I'm giving those bases a damned good look-over. Much that I know there are experts there, since there are American shipgirls present..."
"Do it," the Wrangler stated. "Don't go alone, alright?"
As the others in the Legion nodded, the destroyers all exchanged shocked looks...
Somewhere in South Africa, that moment (local time: An hour after nightfall)...
"Alive...?"
"Ja, my Heer. It turns out that Heer Costilow discovered that the last of the Übermenschen had created a highly explosive mesonium bomb and were prepared to destroy the lower Great Lakes basin in vengeance over the many defeats handed to them by the War Hawks, also seeking the destruction of the Liberty Legion and the Soldiers of Freedom. Heer Costilow drew on the mesonium that granted powers to his friends to create a space warp to force the bomb away from Toronto, which made the enemy attempt a premature detonation. They were forced to follow him into the bubble to keep it stable, which froze them beyond space-time until Ritmeester van Taserich discovered what happened, then asked Suzumiya Haruhi to free them."
Hearing that, the middle-aged yet very well-fit silver-haired man with the almost black eyes of an experienced tracker smirked. He was now standing in the living room of his beautiful country mansion which had been expertly hidden from all attempts at locating it by any means possible, either normal or magical. The many animal heads and other curiosities of decades out in the field hunting everything imaginable hung on the walls around him. "Since I did not hear any warnings of the onset of nuclear winter like what befell the dinosaurs, I assume Dame Suzumiya disposed of the bomb and those misguided lunatics who tried to slaughter so many innocent bystanders in their attempt at honouring their late 'Führer'."
"Indeed, my Heer," the smiling blonde woman with the ice blue eyes said as she bowed her head to her current employer and rescuer; Cora Baard had been one of the first Terran-form Avalonians to be freed of Niphentaxian enslavement, many months before Moroboshi Negako began her brutal worldwide sweep to remove the observers of that world from Earth in the wake of the Tag Race with the assistance of Earth's considerable population of adopted Yizibajohei. Of course, Cora and her sisters had been happy to help destroy the observation stations in range of their current employer's home, gaining vengeance for the years they suffered thanks to indifferent "masters" who had fallen like wheat before their employer's weapons and skills. "According to the Elder Mother in Toronto, Dame Suzumiya teleported the bomb and the surviving Übermenschen into space at the orbit of Jupiter. There, according to the chief of the Galactic Federation's observation team currently orbiting that planet, an asteroid-firing cannon had been placed by the Urusian Imperial Round in hopes of 'punishing' all Terrans for their 'defiance' of their 'betters' because of the issue between the Liberator and the 'Goddess'. Fortunately, the bomb went off, killing the last of that group and destroying the cannon. Presently, Hunter Commander Nassur is making a damning report not just to President Lana of Uru but to Crown Princess Lupica on Tofunokoibito. I'm sure that Lady Chancellor Nakkyek will get a report as well from the Hunter Commander, which will make things difficult for the members of the Imperial Round in the future."
A snort escaped the veteran hunter and tracker who had been one of the first metahumans of the modern era to use his skills for more personal gain than doing "volunteer public service" as many of those bleeding hearts who later formed the Liberty Legion and the Soldiers of Freedom had done before the Second World War compelled them to serve their nations as specialized warfare warriors against the lunatics poisoned by ebony mesonium in a mad attempt at matching power for power. While he had been something of a white nationalist back in more ignorant days, Johannes Heribald didn't see himself as a monster. As one of the top-paid mercenaries active on Earth for the past eight decades, the man known more commonly to the general public as the Dark Ranger of the Savannah, the Wildebeest, had been busy. Paid top dollar for his work, which spanned from hunting the most exotic game imaginable for collectors worldwide to actual assassination missions as requested by governments when they felt their own special forces couldn't do the trick, the native of Bloemfontein in the old Orange Free State had been worth every cent, especially since Heribald always loved to pit his own skills against his targets.
And they were considerable...
"They consider themselves more 'civilized' than we?" the tracker said with a sneered smirk as he sipped the beautiful peach brandy his new Avalonian staff had personally prepared for his enjoyment. Taking delight in the sharp yet dry taste, which had been perfected millennia before on a now-dead planet thousands of light-years from Earth, Heribald shook his head. "Even the Vosians. Not that I would disparage this Nassur fellow, of course. His willingness to defy his 'supreme leader' like that after that senseless massacre at Colony Seventy-one..." He shook his head again. "Why in God's name do they number their colony planets? Names give colonies more character in the end!" he rhetorically asked before sighing, then he sipped his drink. "And now their ancient republic is caught in a civil war. And these Urusians? Such a reckless lot if what Negako told me of them months ago is true. Inventing things that have no real place in this existence, especially in the hands of children like your late masters' 'goddess'." He shook his head once more. "It is a pity that the Men In Black no longer exist as an active group. I would have gladly taken a job to remove that brat from this world and spared Negako all the trouble in the end."
"With the presence of the adopted Yizibajohei on Earth, I doubt that even Ōgi would have dared try to stop you, my Heer," Cora stated before she took a deep breath. "My Heer, you would wish to know of Dame Brown."
That made the hunter perk. "Mary Josephine is alive and well?"
"Ja, my Heer. She is now in Atlantic City with the remainder of the Legion, having gone there to meet with President Bartlet. The magical media are there now: Daily Prophet, New York Ghost, Chicago Coven and several other papers."
An amused chuckle escaped Heribald. "The Daily Prophet? Ah! Professor Dumbledore is there, you mean."
"As is Fregatkaptein Yamamoto's child."
"This 'boy who lived', you mean?"
"Ja, my Heer."
A smirk crossed Heribald's face. He often had a contentious relationship with the South African Ministry of Magic over the years, especially when it came to the times magical creatures had crossed into the Wildebeest's gun sights. Thanks to the "loyalty stone" system which had been placed over the future republic's territory when the British took it over from the Dutch after the Napoleonic Wars, most of the magical lore of the native tribes had been lost and the country's wizarding population had become almost a clone of the United Kingdom's. Such had been maintained even after South Africa became self-governing in 1910; unlike Canada and Australia, the great union at the bottom of the Dark Continent didn't possess the exotic magical and metaphysical threats either of the other dominions possessed. Because of that, the Wildebeest became the first non-North American metahuman of any stripe to attract magical attention when he first became known in the early 1930s. Attempts by aurors to capture and "de-power" him failed multiple times, which made him as feared among those fools as Gellert Grindelwald himself, even if the Dark Lord of Europe had never come so far south in pursuit of his "greater good".
Thanks to the efforts of Grindelwald's valiant warrior witch brigade, South Africa was forever freed of London's magical influence in 1942. Once they understood the true extent of what had been unleashed on them, the Minister for Magic hired the Wildebeest to kill British pureblood leaders who had commercial interests in Africa. That had been a well-paying job, earning Heribald the Grand Cross of Zikali in 1945 after the war ended, much to the helpless outrage of surviving lords of the "mother Wizengamot" who felt it their "duty" to "civilize" the magical "savages" regardless of their skin colour. Even more, the ease by which Heribald had been able to sneak into magical mansions to do his work so stunned European wand magicals that they elected to retreat further into their enclaves and leave the metahumans who had survived that damned war alone, even if their native countries wouldn't properly establish "specialized warfare" personnel until well into the early years of the Cold War.
Yet he himself hadn't survived that war unscathed.
In many ways, the Dark Ranger of the Savannah had something painfully in common with the Hunter of the Mi'kmaq.
Johannes Heribald and Martin Larsden, both expert trackers and killers, had fallen in love with "civilian" metas who donned beautiful uniforms to fight the good fight and defend those who couldn't defend themselves from all sorts of threats.
Both men had lost their beloveds at the Battle of Toronto.
Oh, had Heribald ever ENJOYED hunting down escaped Nazis after that war.
Even if none of them had been involved in the creation of those monsters that had taken poor Mary Josephine "Mary-Jo" Brown from him, the Wildebeest had been quite happy to make those racist fools understand in the last moments of their lives that their poisonous beliefs no longer had a place in a world that was becoming more complex by the day, especially in the wake of the end of World War Two and the invention of things like the atomic bomb and computers.
And now...
To know the farmer from rural Alabama who had become the Angel of the Heart of Dixie, Ariel, survived that battle...!
"You can arrange for transport, Cora?"
"Of course, my Heer," Cora affirmed with a delighted smile...
Atlantic City, the Cesare mansion on the Boardwalk, suppertime...
"Yous all eats goods! Mistress will be most upsets if you don'ts!"
The crowd of destroyers all chuckled in embarrassment before they proceeded to do what the chief elf serving Valerie Cesare just ordered them to do. After the interviews with magical newspapers had been done at the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Centre, normal reporters got the chance to visit and meet with the Liberty Legion and get some choice interviews. Of course, anyone who was magical and subject still to the Statute of Secrecy had been allowed to get clear before anyone who wasn't in on that secret arrived; Albus Dumbledore had ensured that Harry Potter and his friends would be transported by phoenix back to Hogwarts for a late bedtime while Yomigawa Tsukiko, Svetlána Múrometsa and Seraphina Picquery were transported back to their places of work with the help of some friends of the British arch-mage's phoenix familiar, Fawkes. Once the President and his advisors managed to board a new version of Marine One — it was a Dynajet tilt-jet transport that had been built by Avalonian-Americans after the Niphentaxians had been cleared out of the States and was fitted with all the defences necessary to keep the Chief Executive safe — everyone had come down to the Cesare mansion to get some food into them. Naturally, all the elves that had been purchased by no-maj-born admirers of the Legion during the Wars of Liberation had flocked to the beautiful townhouse to make sure their masters were fed, along with their pretty sea angel guests.
Watching the destroyers as they all chowed down, one of the two battleships, one aircraft carrier and two light cruisers who deployed to the shores off New Jersey to deal with that one cruiser squadron could only smirk. "It's a pity we couldn't get a hold of a ton of these little guys to help feed us," the namesake of the Golden State herself mused as she sipped an old-fashioned milkshake. "Yeah, Jane's elves sure help out at Kitsap and all that, but they're hers..."
"I'm sure we could persuade some of our Canadian friends to help out, Kathy-san," Tatsuta mused as she sipped her tea. "Much that certain elements of magical society can be quite bothersome at times when it comes to that useless statute of theirs, others are waking up to the truth and moving to help out in whatever way they can. Even here in America, despite all the problems that certain elements of the magical government throw up from time to time. Like with Ida-san's fiancée."
Jersey snarled on hearing that as Enterprise and Tenryū shook their heads. The carrier then blinked before she looked outside onto the porch, where Yamato was standing, gazing out at sea. Some of the members of the Legion had been quick to notice as well. "Is your friend alright, Commander?" Cesare herself then asked as she came over, accompanied by David Collins.
"Yeah, she seems really bothered about something," Mary-Jo Brown, a pretty blue-eyed brunette farmer from Gadsden near Birmingham who was often seen as one of the poster girls for the Legion due to her wholesome looks, then asked.
The second of the Yorktown-class carriers hummed, then she nodded politely before she headed out onto the deck, coming up to slip her arm around Yamato's. The battleship gazed down at her, then she sighed. "I don't mean to be rude," the first of her class quietly said. "But I detected Onē-sama here not so long ago. Why didn't she contact us when she came here? I doubt she would have shirked from battle if it presented itself, Yvonne." She then shuddered. "Is she...?"
"Chill, Yasuko," a strange woman's voice then declared, making both Yamato and Enterprise gasp in shock before they spun right to see a smiling nuclear-powered missile cruiser standing nearby, a phoenix perched on her shoulder. "Your sis is cool," Long Beach then assured her. "Turns out the magical squares in Manhattan tried to pull some bad mojo on a friend of mine, then we had to get him somewhere safe where the squares couldn't get back and hurt him some more."
Yamato blinked. "Er, Yvonne...?"
Enterprise sighed. "Battleship Yamato, this is nuclear-powered light cruiser Long Beach, the only Vietnam War-era ship to come back to duty as a shipgirl, now serving as personal shipgirl hit-girl of President Bartlet."
"Call me 'Cass'," Long Beach said as Yamato seemed to cringe on hearing who this cruiser had been as a warship.
"Her real name's Naomi Haight-Ashbury, by the way," Enterprise then teased.
Long Beach moaned. "C'mon, E! Don't be a square...!"
"This is a NUCLEAR ship?!"
That was William Costilow, who had come out immediately on sensing the powerful presence that just teleported in. As the phoenix perched on the cruiser's shoulder chortled before she vanished in a flash of fire, Long Beach looked over before she grinned on seeing the raven-haired middle-aged investor and part-time rum-runner standing there. "Holy! The first dude to really see the Astral Plane for what it really is! Put 'em there, man!" she said as she walked over to shake his hand.
Costilow blinked before he gazed at Enterprise. "Commander Swanson?"
Enterprise sighed. "She was nuclear-powered. They had reactors as part of the Manhattan Project to create the plutonium needed for atomic munitions. When she became a shipgirl, the Canadian magicals converted her to mesonium fuel."
"I assume that was because of limitless energy potential and reducing the need for fuel oil."
That was Professor Matthew Gardner, a native of Santa Fe in New Mexico who had been a scientist at the University of California at Berkley who worked under the famous Ernest Lawrence concerning the development of the cyclotron. Gardner had developed atomic-manipulation powers during his time in California, donning the black-and-white costume of Phase Master when he felt ready to be a mystery-man. The raven-haired, dark-eyed native of New Mexico hadn't been the only person involved in both the Manhattan Project and serving as a mystery-man protecting North America, Enterprise knew; a Canadian scientist from Saint Catharines near Niagara Falls named Neil Donaldson had been a member of the Soldiers of Freedom as the Master of Energy, Captain Electron. "It was, Professor," she answered. "But over time, it was discovered that maintaining anything other than a carrier or a submarine on nuclear energy was expensive. As to how Cass here came back..."
"That's easy to explain," Long Beach said as she waved Enterprise down. "When Mama E and the others from the Land of Maple Syrup went out to wipe out the nuclear fuel and weapons in the ships the Abyssals went and wrecked in Blood Week, some magical squares from Manhattan took my hull, towed it out to sea just beyond Vancouver Island and sank it, thinking that would keep the Abyssals away from wrecking magical communes. Something weird happened when Mama C had to come along and deep-six my wreck, then I came back as this." She waved to herself in emphasis as Yamato moaned and Enterprise shook her head. "'Course, that's when the Astral Plane called out to me and told me why God brought me back this way, so I went to Papa J to tell him what was going down, then he told me to go spread free love everywhere I went."
Gardner's eyebrows arched before he gazed at his friend. "Did you understand a word of that, Bill?"
"Hippie-talk is rather unique, Professor," Enterprise said as Yamato giggled. "Put simply, Cass believes it's her duty to go out and win over the Abyssals with love instead of hate." As both Gardner and Costilow, not to mention a good number of their friends, all gaped on hearing that, the carrier added, "Since that runs against what most of the Abyssals believe is proper, they all ended up calling her the 'Crazy One' in return. They RUN from this girl whenever she shows up!"
"If they get too square with groovy folks, I waste 'em," Long Beach admitted with a shrug. "Kinda sad to do that. It ain't their fault that they turn out that way. When you check them out, Papa B, you'll see what I'm talking about."
Costilow sighed. "I think I might."
"You'll get your chance, Sensei," Yamato warned, making the Cosmic Arch-Mage look her way. "A child-form princess named Hoppō was adopted by my fleet's secretary ship, Nagato, after both Yvonne and I rescued her when she was betrayed by several of her fellow installation princesses three years ago. If you really intend to come to Japan to make sure other surprises like what you discovered concerning young Harry-chan don't come to harm us, you'll be meeting her soon enough. Onē-sama — my sister Yonaga — knows of another that she discovered with Chennalton-sensei's help a year ago. There's a third one named Trista who's based near Hamburg now, at the magical school on an island off the estuary of the Elbe."
"The Trischen School, you mean?" he mused. "Linn Heinrich of the Black Maidens went there. She was part of a war golem project that was run to wean Grindelwald's army away from using reanimated corpses all the time."
"We know about them, sir," Enterprise noted. "Two have actually bonded with Luise von Bismarck and Maria von Tirpitz."
"Much to Maria-san's despair," Yamato teased. "The 'lonely queen of the north' is not so lonely anymore." She then giggled.
"It's good she's discovering free love," Long Beach sagely noted, which made the others gaze on her. "Being alone all up in that fjord for all that time after losing her sis like that, ready to do her duty for the goose-steppers even if the Kriegsmarine was about the least goose-stepping service in all of the Wehrmacht, then forced to deal with little ones like the ones Miss V's cool dudes are feeding right now." She gazed inside the large living room as the destroyers continued eating as well as intermingling with members of the Legion. A smirk crossed her face before she gazed once more on the two metahumans. "We're the sum of the dreams of all our builders and crews, Papa B, Doc. I served in the time of the Summer of Love..."
"In protest over a war, I take it," Costilow mused as he gave her a knowing look.
"What war?!"
That was David Collins. As people quieted down, Long Beach sighed, shaking her head. "Right! You folks all got the express train past the Cold War right to today," she declared. "Put very simply, things between us and our Russian brothers soured big time after you all tripped out of the scene to get rid of that bomb the goose-steppers tried to use on Hogtown. It wasn't Big Mistake Number Three but a ton of little wars all over the planet. The one that affects me the most was Vietnam."
That made people perk. "Weren't the Vietnamese allowed to be independent?!" Cesare asked. "They had this really nice guy who ran the anti-Japanese resistance in that country! Sure, he was a communist, but he was a nationalist first..."
"Uncle Hồ, you mean?" Long Beach asked before she nodded. "Yeah, Miss V, he tried...but everything he did to keep the country together got torn apart because of the whole capitalist-versus-communist bad scene that you folks might remember from back after Big Mistake Number One. The country got ripped apart and a lot of good kids got drafted into fighting Uncle Hồ's troops and dying over there for no real reason. It just got so crazy that too many just didn't want to do it."
"It happened at the same time as a big social revolution hit society," Enterprise added. "A lot of things that came into vogue in magical society a century ago became accepted in normal society during the 1960s while Vietnam was being fought."
"That black angled wall on the National Mall, you mean?"
That was the District of Columbia's representative in the Legion, Paul O'Kane. The only African-American in the Legion despite his Irish family name, the policeman from the southeast side of Washington became the Steady Fighter, Steadfast, when his powers came out to the fore in the mid-1930s. He was often the target of white supremacists who didn't care for a BLACK man having such powers, but found himself often defended by his friends from the states of the old Confederacy, who had nothing but the highest praise for the butcher's son. "That's the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, Sergeant O'Kane," Enterprise noted. "The names of the people from America who died or went missing in that country up to the last pullout in 1975 are marked there. It was..." She gazed on Long Beach before shaking her head. "A very bad scene from start to end."
"Yeah. In a way, you guys fought and helped win the last truly righteous war," the cruiser added.
"Was it that bad, Paul?" Mary-Jo Brown asked.
O'Kane blinked before he sighed, then he smiled as Mutsuki handed him a cup of coffee, nodding his thanks. "Just after I got back to the house, I did a flight around town," he admitted. "Saw it there. Was the most stark thing I ever saw in my whole life. So I dropped down to look at it. One of the folks who works for the organization that helps keep the place neat and all that..." He chuckled. "Well, after she got over the shock of me being there, she told me about her brother. He's on the wall."
"I take it we didn't win that war," Bryce Carruthers mused.
"No, Mister Carruthers," Enterprise stated. "It was a textbook example of the WRONG way to run a war, especially since the people who fought for Hồ Chí Minh were determined to bring the country back together and drive the foreigners out no matter how much it cost in lives. First the Japanese, then the French, then us. When I read about that war after I came back...!"
"That explains it."
Eyes locked on O'Kane. "What do you mean, Paul?" Cesare asked.
"The lady that gave me the tour," the policeman from the southeast side of Washington stated. As people nodded him to go on, he said, "After I told her that I was coming here to check up on everyone else, she hugged me." That earned him dropped jaws. "She told me she was happy that none of us were involved in that war. It was one bad thing after the next, especially with the way the politicians bungled it up; that's what she said to me." He sighed. "Maybe when we get the chance...?"
"In costumes?" Jane Kesler asked.
"Is that a good thing to do?" Brown wondered.
Eyes locked on Collins. The Texan law enforcement officer took a deep breath. "No matter what, they fought and died for the country. We always respected that." He gazed on Enterprise. "I hope, Commander, you'll teach us things so that we don't end up hurting people who don't deserve it. Especially if they have a relative who's name is on that wall Paul just told us about."
"It'll be cool, Ranger Dave."
That was destroyer Johnston. "She's right," New Jersey said. "People will realize you folks are seventy years out of date on stuff, especially with the way people look at each other these days and what's seen as right and not right to say to other folks. You're really no different than a lot of us who came back after being sunk during the war or scrapped after it was done. They'll cut you a whole ton of slack, especially when they found out why you disappeared over Toronto in '45 in the first place."
"We still have to beat the Abyssals, Kathy," Heermann warned.
"We'll do that, too!"
Everyone laughed...
Yokosuka, the Naval District Headquarters, that moment (local time: Thursday 25 May, breakfast)...
"Light carrier Shōhō, reporting back for duty, Secretary Ship."
Nagato smiled as she returned the raven-haired ex-submarine support ship's salute. "Welcome back, Shōhō-san," the battleship returned. "Have you been briefed on what Negako-san's last host did in the wake of your 'sinking'?"
The shipgirl legally now known as Takasaki Shōko blushed. "Hai! Both Negako-sama and Ataru-kun explained everything." She then perked. "I didn't see your son near your quarters when I was brought here from Tomobiki, Reiko-san..."
"He's currently attending magical school right now, Shōko-san."
That made the carrier's eyebrow arch before she nodded. "Magical...?! So it was magic that Harry-chan possessed! It explains some of the things that happened around him before I deployed south for Operation MO. Is he going to Dejima?"
"No, Hogwarts."
That made Shōhō frown. "That's...disappointing."
"You had magicals serve as part of your crew, Lieutenant?" Gotō Kiichi asked from his place at the head of the room.
The former submarine tender nodded. "Hai, Teitoku. Two were actual members of Yomigawa-gensui's research group that helped liberate the Chinese from the influence of the Europeans in 1937. They both died when I was sunk at the Coral Sea." She then gazed on Saratoga before a tender smile crossed the young carrier's face. "Even if your sister acted to destroy all around her, she didn't succumb to some of the more bestial things Abyssals have done before the major went to deal with her, Dionne-san. I hope she and the others that were at Torokina are able to be summoned back properly now." A shudder shook her. "Would I be considered a Category 'D' case because I came back this way, Reiko-san?" At Nagato's shocked look, Shōhō smirked as a shrug rolled her shoulders. "I heard your sister call Kei-san that shortly after she defected from the enemy with Anna-san's help, Reiko-san. I would assume Kisaragi Kyōko-chan is considered the same even after what Ameretāt-san did."
Nagato gazed on the light carrier for a moment, then she sighed. "Iie. You would not have been released from Negako-san's care if you were still deemed a danger, Shōko-san. And there's no need to keep that concept a secret anymore. Everyone found out about it when Kyōko-san came back to us the first time when we were dealing with that infestation in Ironbottom Sound." She then blinked as Shōhō jerked. "Something even my future sister-in-law disapproved of?"
Shōhō nodded. "H-hai! That place..." She took a deep breath. "From what we learned, twenty-five millennia ago when the Black Tear of the Stars empowered the Undying Lord and he forged his alliance with the Great Beasts, that was a scene of battle between his friends who claimed that area as theirs and one of the nastier of the Old Ones. I don't recall what relations you have with the Slayers and their friends, but this devil was vicious, despised by most of his kind. The spiritual stains of that battle is embedded in the underlying bedrock of Ironbottom Sound, Reiko-san. I doubt even what Gayle-sensei and Darlene-sensei did after your forces returned to Japan would have permanently removed it. None of my group at Torokina wished to go there even if we gladly hunted and destroyed any Abyssal who came into being from that general area and got out into the open." At the shocked looks crossed the faces of everyone else in the room, Shōhō sighed. "It was necessary."
"Antibodies..."
That was Akashi, who was seated nearby, sipping a cup of tea that Niiyodo had made for her. Beside her were Ryūjō and Jun'yō. "What does that mean, Sensei?" Gotō asked as people gazed upon the lead of her class of repair ship.
The pink-haired repair auxiliary shook her head. "It's a weird thought that just came to me when Shōko-san here explained what her group was doing concerning those Abyssals that remained active even after Australia and Sundown went there to clear out that area after we came back from the second phase of Operation MO, Teitoku," she said. "If what Dionne-san's sister and the others there did was to remove any direct demonic influence from the sea given what Shōko-san just said..."
"There are multiple types of Abyssals, you mean," Nagato mused.
Akashi nodded. "It's a possibility."
Silence fell over the room for a moment. "Wonderful! Just to make our lives more complicated than they already are," Gotō breathed out. "Arisa-sensei, bounce what you just heard from Shōko-san off Lincoln-daitōryō when he comes to visit today. What would his thoughts be about this?" As Shōhō gaped in shock on hearing that the famous Rail-Splitter was now in Japan, the senior commander of the country's shipgirls took a deep breath. "Much that we know we can trust you in this matter, Lieutenant, the politicians will insist on a firm 'hand' over you until you've proven yourself. To that end, you and your sister will both deploy to Sasebo. You will form the Fourth Carrier Division between yourselves and Taihō, then combine with the Sixth Carrier Division to form the Second Air Fleet under Yonaga's overall command." He sighed as a weak squawk escaped Shōhō on hearing THAT name. "Yes, I'm aware of how Abyssals view Yonaga, but it will be done, Lieutenant. Get over it!"
Shōhō shuddered before she nodded. "Hai, Teitoku...!"
Sympathetic looks came her way from the other shipgirls in the room...
Sasebo, Kōkai Junior High School, that moment...
"Tadaima."
"Okaeri nasai!" many voices chimed back.
Moroboshi Ataru perked as his mind registered that cold voice, then he looked over as the fifth of the Yamato-class walked into the old school lunchroom. His ki senses had picked up the phoenix that had transported his great-uncle's ship from America back to Japan. "Nothing bad, I hope," he said before smiling as Roma leaned over with a cornetto spread with honey to place into his mouth. "Was it Cass that needed your help?" he asked after munching down the bite he took.
"Not really. I can say that those fool conservatives in the Magical Congress are busily weaving the hemp rope to hang them all off a yardarm with, Ataru-san," Yonaga said before she perked as a pastry with a touch of honey hovered before her face. She then looked over to see a smiling high school sophomore seated there. "Makoto-san," she breathed out, though she was happy to allow Hyūji Makoto to lean over to allow the cornetto to be placed into her mouth. After she took her own bite, she then gazed on the third of the Littorio-class battleships. "La benedizione di Dio al nobile chef," she then said in beautiful Italian, making Roma gasp in shock. "Be with any of the Ryūseizen for a time, Roberta-san, you learn to be a polyglot."
Roma blinked, then she smiled. "Ringraziamenti eterni, mio Capitano," she said as she bowed her head in return. "I pray it's not too rich for you. Given what sort of rations your crew must have lived off on for seven decades and more..."
"I'll make sure she's fed right, Roberta-san," Makoto declared with a wink.
Laughter escaped the others in the room. Save for Akagi and Kaga — who were here as emotional support for their just-returned sisters — all the shipgirls who were seated at the table were assigned here. "Forgive my asking this, Yoiko, but whatever did young Naomi need that required YOUR help?" Arizona then asked as her own would-be special boatswain's mate, Matsuhara Keiko, held out a strawberry crostata for her to eat. "If she's as powerful as Captain Smith and the others..."
"Unlike myself or any of the Ryūseizen, Naomi-chan isn't blessed by the Great Beasts or was built magical from the keel up, Sonia-san," the carrier stated before biting into the pastry her would-be lover held out for her. "In addition, her existence is known to disagreeable elements of the Magical Congress. It was agents affiliated to those people that took her old hull from Puget Sound and sunk it off the coast of Vancouver Island, requiring Patricia-san to destroy it with her Mark XLVI shells. The combination of plutonium radiation, mesonium and magic is what made Naomi-chan become what she is now. Since her crew were involved in that dratted war in Vietnam, she became the 'shipgirl flower child' she emerged as."
"Well, from what Sonia's told me about young Naomi, she is doing her own part to win this war," Mississippi stated as she bit into the serving of pastries Roma had prepared for everyone. "And striving for peace is always an honourable thing. Did you or yours ever encounter Naomi, Tomomi?" she then asked as she gazed on Kaga's just-returned sister and her friends.
Tosa, Tōgasa, Minako and Ashitaka blinked before they blushed. "Not in an intimate matter, of course, Joanna-san," the first of her class of battleships said, which made her sister gape in surprise at her. "Kei, much that most of those like us always saw her as the 'Crazy One' when she decided to spread 'free love' to all those she encountered, Naomi-san is touched by forces that are truly beyond even our comprehension." She then sipped her tea. "She came upon us when we were visiting Saint Maria Christos, being intimate with our lovers and missing Makoto-chan and her peers; this was nine months ago."
"We were in Nerima at the time," Makoto confirmed.
"Indeed. While I knew I couldn't duel her unless I was VERY lucky, she assured me that you and your friends were in a safe place striving to seek free love and not what Murata forced you into becoming." Tosa then sighed before she gazed on her own lover, Matsuda Sawako. "I suspect deep down, Naomi-san understood what was developing between my beloved and myself even if it was forced by that maniac in the first place. Believe me, Yoiko-san, when you get your hands on him..."
"Invite us to the party," Tōgasa snarled before she smiled as her own lover Horiguchi Junko leaned over to kiss her cheek.
"So why were you scared of her, Onē-sama?!" Akagi demanded.
The battlecruiser who would have been named "Amagi" blushed...before she blinked, then she gazed on Kaga, her own eyes wide with shocked disbelief. Knowing how much Tosa's sister loved her own sister...! "Kei, haven't you bothered...?!"
"They're not ready for that yet, Tokiko!" Kaga hissed out, her eyes tearing.
"Not ready for what, Kei?" Pennsylvania hissed.
"They are ready, Kei."
The converted Tosa-class battleship gazed on the fifth of the Yamato-class for a moment, then she sighed. "I pray so, Yoiko."
People blinked, though many winced on hearing the guilt-driven pain in Kaga's voice...
An hour later...
"You're saying that Abyssals were some type of NATURAL DEFENCE against ALIENS?!"
"In essence, Sawako-san, that is the case," Kaga stated, trying not to smile on seeing her future sister-in-law grip her own sister's hand tightly; no matter what might happen to Tosa now, the nurse clearly didn't care for the idea of her lover going out to fight alien monsters. "As those who have spoken of this subject to Ataru-san or Negako-san know, our solar system is at the nexus of intersecting alien spheres of interest." She indicated the map of the local cluster Ataru drew on the blackboard in one of the classrooms close to the cafeteria. "To the galactic 'north' of us, the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios and the Six Churches of Zephyrus, one of the inheritor races of the Fourth Sagussan Republic. To the galactic 'west', the Imperial Houses of the Seifukusu Dominion, who actually had control of space around Earth up to about a thousand years ago even if our planet itself was not invaded as our system-mates on Neptune (now Triton) were. To the galactic 'east' is the Ipraedies Empire, a smaller, less-experienced yet very ambitious version of the Seifukusu. Wedged between all three are the minor states of the Galactic Federation of Planet-states; Uru and Phentax Two are two members of the Federation. Farther out to the galactic 'east', the Confederation of Vos and the Royal Kingdoms of Yehisril, the other two great powers in the cluster beyond Noukiios, Zephyrus and Dominos. Beyond the local cluster, we have powers like the remnants of the Goa'uld, their former Jaffa slaves and other races encountered by America's Stargate Command. I believe Michiko-san would remember O'Neill-taishō speaking to Yvonne-san once about them when the Urusians came to our system a year ago to 'invade' us."
"Why is our planet so interesting to aliens, Kei-san?" Makoto asked as San Francisco nodded in confirmation.
"The Power Jewel, Makoto."
That was Hayashi Kanami, who was seated beside Taihō. Also present at this meeting were Prinz Eugen, all five Sekihō-class aircraft carriers recently summoned to duty in this very school building and the four Mogami-class cruisers who formed the Seventh Cruiser Squadron. "Hai, Kanami-san is right, Makoto-san," Kaga stated. "Outside Yiziba itself, Earth has the largest mesonium deposits in the galaxy thanks to Raeburn-shihan's possessing what has been often called the 'Keystone Jewel'. Because it was said to the first Jewel empowered by the Seekers to be placed on a planet capable of developing life, it became a lodestone for other mesonium fragments, especially the 'black tear' meteor that later empowered Rittmeister von Taserich, not to mention the deposits all over the planet that allowed metahumans to rise in the 1930s akin to how the Dawn of Power began on Yiziba two millennia ago. Due to that, those who are attuned to mesonium were attracted to explore this world. One of them is Ataru-san's spiritual patron, Keiseri of Sagussa, who came to visit Earth a hundred millennia ago. He later became known as the 'Master of Entropy' in the creation myths of the Fourth Sagussan Republic our Avalonian friends know."
"Who was he, Ataru?" Eugen asked. "When you fought on the Tarōzakura Hill yesterday, your other-self said your master's old laboratory was buried deep under that hill. Given how Haru's old 'friend' hated you seizing it..."
Ataru smirked. "It would be useless to me, Rinnie. The Third Republic Sagussans were quite genetically different from the race that succeeded them. From what Onē-sama concluded, they had evolved beyond the need for bodies..."
"Like the Organians in the old Star Trek series, you mean," Suzuya noted.
"Same idea, Suzuko-san. But when he moved to 'seed' Sagussa with a successor race to bring new life, his friends balked at the whole idea and moved to stop it. That proved to be the final Götterdämmerung of the Third Republic. And it wasn't just contained in a physical sense of the term. It was a fight that spread beyond the normal limits of known space-time into other dimensions, leaving big gaping holes in the dimensional walls when it was all said and done with. Thanks to that, those beings Buffy-san and her friends call the 'Old Ones' came to Earth. We all know thanks to friends in Sunnydale what happened next."
"Literally Hell on Earth," Pennsylvania noted. Much that she wasn't named after the home state of the elder Slayer or many of her friends, she had fans in Sunnydale, even among the undead population. Margaret Penn even had a standing invitation from Liam "Angel" O'Connor to come to Los Angeles after her release from Navy service to come work at Angel Investigations. "So what happened next, Kei? How the hell does that lead to what you and your sister were turned into?"
"A long process, Margaret-san," the carrier warned, which made many of the people in the room laugh. "As the alien demons began to stake out their places on Earth, other forces arose at the same time. Yoiko here is blessed by one."
"The Great Beasts," Arizona concluded.
"Exactly. And a war beyond imagination raged over the planet between the Old Ones and the Great Beasts in a see-saw way for many thousands of years, with thousands of humanoids suffering as a result. Some evolved into the so-called Powers That Be, the so-called 'enemies' of the Old Ones." Here, Kaga snorted. "They were more interested in keeping a 'balance' instead of removing the 'infection' that the Old Ones presented to Earth. This was sensed by Raeburn-shihan's Jewel."
"Then the Black Tear came to Rügen," Tōgasa finished.
"Rittmeister von Taserich," Akagi breathed out.
"Exactly, Anna," Kaga stated with a slight smile. "A tipping agent that inherited cosmic levels of power that the Old Ones couldn't HOPE to counter. Since the Old Ones had been responsible for the slaughter of his home village on Rügen, he focused his attention on them. The Great Beasts sided with him since they sensed he was 'home-grown' and not an 'alien'. However, as the Great Expulsion occurred, the Rittmeister discovered that too many demons had become fatally addicted to the energy of faith that their worshippers on Earth had given them. From that came the End Treaty, which forced the demons to forever decamp from Earth, but allowed them to continue to entreaty with normal humans in a controlled circumstance."
"That's when Lord Rjazán' got involved, right?" San Francisco asked.
"Exactly, Michiko-san. He was the guarantor." Kaga then took a deep breath. "Because of all the energy that got tossed around in the Great Expulsion, humans began to mutate in certain ways. The first magicals arose at this time, as did all the near-humanoid species such as the Veela, the Kobaloi and the Dweorg whose descendants we all can thank for helping build the Ryūseizen. Then came ten thousand years ago, when the first alien invasion of Earth in THIS dimension occurred."
"The Goa'uld," Ataru noted.
"What in God's name are they?" Tennessee wondered.
"Alien parasites, Alexandra-san," Yonaga answered with a scowl. "In physical form, they are aquatic serpentine creatures about a half-metre in length. They have the ability to possess any other creature by inserting themselves into the body and seizing control of the mind via the spinal cord. Long term possession effectively kills the host's soul and taking the body for itself. When they emerged from their homeworld at the time Kei-san just spoke of, they made use of members of a reptilian race known as the Unas to serve as host bodies. On coming to Earth, their supreme king, Ra, then discovered Homo sapiens sapiens and decided that they would serve as better hosts. Thus, they elected to become 'gods' to humans, using their advanced technology to make themselves seem as such to beings who simply had no means to confirm otherwise." She then smirked. "One man could sense the truth about them. And he was simply too powerful for any of the 'gods' to deal with."
"The Rittmeister again," Roma mused. "Sacra Maria, he must have been busy!"
"Yeah, but he was just one man, Tesoro," Ataru noted. "Until he got a 'son'."
"Master Hosan," Mogami concluded.
"On the nose, Momoko-san. The Goa'uld got their tails brutally kicked off Earth by Ojii-san and his son, then the Seifukusu — who were breaking out into space at that same time — swept in from Dominos to rub salt on the wounds. But since they had seen Ojii-san and his son in action, the lords of the Imperial Houses at the time decided it was smart to leave Earth alone while it developed its own technology without outside interference." He then sighed. "Other races weren't so lucky."
"How bad?" Eugen wondered.
"Oyuki-sama's people were forced to decamp from Neptune to Triton a millennia ago because the planet just was poisoned too badly thanks to over-industrialization, Rinnie," he answered. "The Urusians' knowledge of their very own history and culture before their planet was conquered was totally wiped out, which forced them to adopt from the Seifukusu wholesale when they freed themselves nine centuries ago. Vos weathered it the best; the Confederation actually came together as one government to toss off the Seifukusu. Other planets..." He shook his head. "They're not really important in this conversation. Of course, by the time Vos was getting out there, so were Noukiios and Zephyrus. Yehisril came a little later."
"As time went on, the 'minor' powers began marking out their own places in space," Kaga finished. "However, over the years, the various powers took interest in Earth. Unlike other worlds, Dominos left us alone. I'm sure people asked 'Why?' So they sent observers to infiltrate our societies to learn more. Of course, while a policy of non-interference and avoiding 'first contact' was pursued, their presence here was detected by certain powers. The Rittmeister, Master Hosan, those of the Rittmeister's 'students' who came to master some elements of the mesonium 'gifts' he gave them, not to mention high-powered magicals such as Dumbledore-kōchōsensei's old teacher, Nicolas Flamel. Then the Niphentaxians discovered us."
"What happened, Kei-san?" Arizona's lover asked.
"They became addicted to replicating Earth society and culture as soon as they fully came to understand us, Keiko-san," the carrier answered. "While they did pursue a strict policy of non-interference to ensure the 'purity' of their social observations — thus weren't any real threat to the natives — they then made a huge mistake about a century ago, around the time Raeburn-shihan became the Protector of All Life." She then shuddered. "They violated the END TREATY!"
"The Avalonians," Yonaga breathed out.
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"The Avalonians were enslaved and brought to Earth as assistant observers," Arizona stated. "Many must have died, usually because of a war somewhere. Since they have mesonium in their blood, their mortal remains flowed into the ocean..."
"And ultimately created creatures that would avenge their deaths from the spiritual wa of the oceans themselves, powered by the mesonium in the environment," Kaga finished. "Hai, Sonia-san. Thus came the Hungry Ones..."
"The sea leviathans," Yonaga explained.
"The ones Patty and her sisters fought?" Pennsylvania asked.
"Same, Margaret-san. Once peace was achieved, the creatures — if they weren't destroyed by Erin-san and her sisters — went dormant. Then came the Second World War. And an evolution NONE of our galactic neighbours desired to see develop."
"Metahumans," Ataru breathed out. "Shades of the Dawn of Power."
People winced as they instantly imagined how someone like Redet Lum's father Redet Invader might have reacted on getting THAT type of intelligence. Many shipgirls and their human friends who knew Moroboshi Ataru personally knew also of his second adopted sister, Moroboshi Tariko. Born from the life energy that had been forced into his body after his time being split into twins thanks to Sakurambō Hayao and Ataru's "wife" eleven months before, allowed to live in a cloned Terran-form Avalonian body, she was Gifted with the power of the Trickster of the Great Show of Life on Yiziba, Coyote; among aliens, she was known better by the native translation of that name, Tuyuki. Thus, save for the recent summons, they all knew the story of the World of the Forge where the Power Jewels had been created three billion years before. "In the wake of World War Two, alien observers began to support efforts by neighbouring powers — mostly the Urusians and their allies in the Federation — to try to locate non-magical metahumans and destroy them," Kaga stated. As people gasped, she then shook her head. "The Niphentaxians refused to go along with it at first since it was direct interference in Terran affairs. Point to them. But they did nothing to stop it either. The Avalonians who were enslaved by them didn't care deep down for such things happening...and that eventually flowed into the sea. Which planted the seeds of beings such as myself and Onē-sama, not to mention Anna's sisters. Then came the two big spiritual events in recent years that reverberated across the planet and made us truly live."
"Which are?" Mikuma asked.
"The attempts by the Goa'uld to invade Earth through the Stargate that the Americans discovered in Egypt after the Great War, Miki-san. As we know, that started in 1997. That was soon followed by the collapse of the Sunnydale Hellmouth in 2003. Both events created massive shockwaves in the very wa of the whole planet. Earth was being threatened. Aliens were trying to force their will on us. Since the Hungry Ones weren't suited for that sort of combat, something better was needed."
"Abyssals."
Heads snapped over.
"Abigail!" Arizona gasped on seeing Iowa standing there.
Kaga sighed. "You remember now about your lost gun crew in 1989, my friend?"
Gasps escaped many there. "Sacred Buddha! You were infiltrated, Gabby-san?!" Kumano croaked out in horror.
"Yeah, I was!" the lead of her class snapped. "But he meant no harm!"
"Those of us in the Atlantic wouldn't take the chance!"
Eyes locked on Kaga. "Is he with you now, Gabby-san?" Akagi asked.
Iowa shook her head. "No. He was Seishin-Urusian, Anna; Aruka Ran's race." As people nodded in understanding, she sat down, then took one of the doughnuts on a nearby tray to nibble on it. "His belief structures are pretty different than what we're used to, so he didn't come back when I was summoned at Kitsap. He was part of their democratic reform movement led by Seq Rei's mom Yedris. He was here STUDYING American society to help bring democracy to his people and wanted to understand the proper relationship between the military and the government since his people had been ruled by a junta for two centuries." As people gaped, she nodded to Ataru. "Ataru can tell you this, guys! Not all aliens are bad! Many mean us no harm! My gunner meant no harm! He was happy to serve in the Navy until he got killed and his friend got blamed for it!"
"But those that attacked you wouldn't know that since they weren't as mentally developed at the time and would only see an alien 'virus' infecting your hull that needed to be expunged immediately," Yonaga finished. "Did the magicals who came to 'sanitize' the scene and make your crew forget what had exactly attacked you off Puerto Rico realize the truth?"
Iowa snorted, a bitter laugh escaping her. "Not in a million years, Yoiko! They never knew about the SGC even before it was finally shut down after the Men In Black were lost in the first big attack on New York City. They never suspected something like aliens until the Tag Race went down last year and Negako began doing the sweep of the planet with the help of our Yizibajohei like the Wakefield twins out of Sweet Valley and Kasuga Ayumu to get rid of the Niphentaxians." She smirked. "Loved to see the looks on their faces when they learned that." As her starry blue eyes teared, she shook her head before Yonaga's hand landed on her shoulder. "Damn...!" A sob then escaped her. "He meant no harm! No harm at all...!"
Another hand landed on her other shoulder. She looked up to stare at Kaga's sympathetic face. "I grieve with your loss, Gabby. And I am so sorry that happened in the first place." She then shrugged. "Only excuse I can give..."
"As Yoiko-san just said, they weren't as sentient or sapient as they later evolved into being," Akagi finished with a helpless shrug. "So when chances came, Abyssals went after ships that had aliens travelling on it to remove the 'plague'."
"Which would have been alright hadn't various magical ministries misread the whole damned situation and decided to treat this as a 'magical' issue that had to be 'masked' from normal view," Eugen finished. "Just like they did back in the 1930s when the first mystery-men came out. But this time, they were fighting the spiritual power of the OCEANS, which was way beyond their capabilities." She shook her head as she then thought about her precious pet tatzelwurm, Matilda, whom she rescued on her first visit to Europe as a shipgirl, then kept safe from agents of the Austrian magical ministry who wanted to remove the creature from normal view. "Since the Abyssals were effectively smart animals, they lashed back, hurting the magicals in a way not even the Übermenschen could equal. The fighting increased and increased, with more normal people being killed..."
"Which led to Blood Week," Ataru finished.
Silence fell as people considered that...
...before a voice called out, "Just like the 'Nam."
Heads snapped over...
"Hey, Cass!" Ataru greeted.
"Hey, A-man! Peace, everyone!" Long Beach called out as she walked inside, making Tosa and her battlecruiser friends all cringe as they sensed the powerful aura of the Crazy One. "Sorry I missed the big reveal in the end."
"How is John-san?" Yonaga asked.
"He's crashing at the 'Morny, hiding from the squares who made him hurt Papa B and his friends through the magical pig squad," the nuclear-powered cruiser said as she walked over to pat Iowa on the shoulder. "Wasn't your fault, Gabby."
"He was still part of my crew, Cass," the battleship protested.
"It was his time to return to the Astral Plane," Long Beach advised. "'Sides, if the A-Man's and the Earth Child's big project with the Crystal Folk plays out big-time, you'll be able to take his ashes home to his parents on Uru."
Ataru awked, making people gaze on him. "They're not ready," Roma warned.
"What project?" Akagi asked.
He looked at them, then he sighed. "Can we say 'Shipgirls in SPACE'?"
Silence.
More silence.
Still more silence.
Then...
"Are you SERIOUS?!" Arizona demanded.
Ataru winked. "No! That's Harry-chan's godfather, Sonia-san!"
Moans escaped everyone from the bad pun...
...before a beeping noise from nearby made Ataru's head snap over. "Damn! Who's calling?" he wondered as he got up to tap the iPad-like device that was sitting on the teacher's desk nearby. Looking on the screen, he sighed. "Shit!" he hissed out before he tapped a control, allowing a holographic projection to fall on a drawn-down movie screen set off to one side of the classroom. "Ohayō, Nassur-san! It's been a while! What brings you back over to our part of the galaxy?!"
People looked over, then gaped on seeing the handsome brown-haired man with the blue-eyes, well-trimmed moustache and beard and the elegantly tapered ears — shaped in a different way than a Niphentaxian or an Urusian had it — now seated in what appeared to be a starship command bridge somewhere. Much to the surprise of all the shipgirls, he was dressed in a blue uniform similar in cut to what Starfleet officers wore in the second to the seventh Star Trek movies from before the turn of the millennium, a golden cygnet insignia on his left chest over his heart. "Hello, Ataru-san," the man said, his mouth moving differently from what was being heard, indicating a universal translator-like system was now active. "Sorry to call you in. Some sort of strategy meeting you're involved in?" he then asked as some of the cruisers in the room began to chatter.
"More like a little confession on Kei-san's part here because of what really sort of goosed this war we're involved in now," Ataru admitted as he gazed on Kaga before he focused on the independent Vosian bounty hunter. "What's up?"
"When we met on Okusei after Negako-san and Tariko-san were allowed to live their lives, I briefed you on Rei's uncle and his friends," Nassur stated as a wry smile crossed his face, earning him an annoyed groan from Ataru on being reminded of the Imperial Round. "They decided to finally make their move once they learned how much they had been blindsided because of what the Avalonians would do to them once you freed them after you persuaded Kyech to go along with it."
His eyes closed. "What did they try to do?"
"Well, for people who claim Earth culture is beneath them, some were obviously fans of your animation. Uchū Senkan Yamato, to be exact. Specifically the first season of which, where the Seifukusu lookalikes tried to wipe out life on Earth."
"'Space Battleship Yamato'?" Yonaga wondered.
"I'll explain later, Yoiko-san," Ataru promised before he shook his head. "So they wanted to bombard us with asteroids to get past Elizabeth-san's wonderful screening system, you mean?" At Nassur's nod, the younger man shook his head. "Great...!" He then blinked before he gave his "wife's" former combat teacher a knowing look. "I assume because you're as cool as a cucumber about this, something happened that put the total kibosh on what those inbred morons wanted to do?"
"Courtesy of a mutual friend of ours from Nishinomiya," Nassur affirmed.
That made Ataru blink before he smirked. "Same time the Liberty Legion and the Soldiers of Freedom got back?" he asked.
"Very same time," Nassur affirmed with a return smirk before he sobered. "Ataru-san, I have to warn you, their return back..."
"Will be a drop in the water in comparison to what I am prepared to unleash on those idiots if they don't back off once and for all time, Nassur!" Ataru snarled as his left eye began to glow. Roma instantly was at his side as she squeezed his shoulders in reassurance to calm him down, which made him take a deep breath, though the darker side of his mind was in full control now. "Nassur, you tell Yethis and his fools this," he then said in that metallic voice that was the herald of a tonne of pain for whoever earned his ire. "You tell them that all their attempts at hurting people on Earth since LONG BEFORE the Tag Race were stopped by the Abyssals! Who all turned out to be a NATURAL reaction of the very BIOSPHERE of Earth itself to ensure such alien PARASITES would not harm life on this planet!" As Nassur gaped at him, Ataru smirked. "And if THAT doesn't finally make those animals back off or make Lana's supporters kill them, warn them of what else happened on Okusei concerning my OTHER sister! I WILL ask her to go to Uru and reintroduce them to what happened two centuries ago! Is that what they want?" He shook his head as the glow in his eye faded. "I will do it, Nassur-san."
The Vosian gazed at him, then he sighed. In the last year or so, he had got quite a number of letters from his former student and her best friend concerning the last host of Earth's first true artificial intelligence. He had been sworn by the Dragonspeaker to total secrecy over the matter because of the temporal paradox situation unleashed by Nengmek'i at the Onishuto Cathedral. Remembering all the gushing words from Lum about him and contrasting them to Shigaten Benten's constant insults concerning the man, the former psi-tracker could only shake his head at the irony of it all. Neither Lum nor Benten had really known the true Moroboshi Ataru...until he came down on them like the meteor shower that was the translation of his family name and showed them how blind they had BOTH been. Such had devastated Lum and shaken Benten to the core of her very being, never mind what had happened to their other friends like Ran or Oyuki.
Sadly, Fate had other intentions for the man he was looking at now.
"I will pass that on."
"Arigatō," Ataru breathed out as he moved to cut the call so he could go somewhere and vent out his anger at THIS development. "Oh, would you keep an eye on Lum for me, Nassur? The instant some idiot blames her for helping 'bring' Tuyuki back, her standing among her people won't be worth a scrap of paper. Much that I fell out of love for her, she still was the only friend I had in Tomobiki. That still matters to me now regardless of all her lies to me in the past."
Nassur blinked, then he nodded, a light smile crossing his face. "I'll do that."
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
Additional creator list for members of the Liberty Legion and the Soldiers of Freedom, plus one former adversary/ally:
Trouble Clef (John Davis) — created by Jason Cooke
Dimension Girl (Amy Purtell) — created by Steven Saint Thomas
The Wildebeest (Johannes Heribald) — created by John Herbert
Ariel (Mary-Jo Brown) — created by Francisco Garcia
Phase Master (Dr. Matthew Gardner) — created by Mike Cheung
Steadfast (Paul O'Kane) — created by Richard Hango
As an aside, Headmaster George Sampson of the Canadian Forces School of Specialized Warfare (CFSSW) is named in salute to the principal of Hero High from the Saturday morning mixed live action/animation series The Kid's Super Power Hour with Shazam, created by Funimation and broadcast on NBC during the 1981-82 season. In this story, he was an infantry soldier of the Royal Canadian Regiment and veteran of the Second World War who developed his physical strength during the Italian campaign and was one of the members of the 3rd Canadian Specialized Warfare Unit (3 CSWU). He is ranked a lieutenant colonel even if 3 CSWU is not an active element of the Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada (SWR of C).
Patronymic noted in this part: Iván Artúrovich — John, son of Arthur
Translation list: Nekul'túrnyje sprájty — Uncultured sprites; Dévochki-korábl' — Plural of dévochka-korábl' ("fleet girl"); Heer — Literally "Lord" and normally translated "Mister"; Ritmeester — Afrikaans way of saying the German "rittmeister" (ride master); Dame — Literally "Lady" and normally translated "Miss"; Fregatkaptein — Frigate Captain, equal in rank to a Navy commander (NATO code OF-4); La benedizione di Dio al nobile chef — God's blessings to the noble chef; Ringraziamenti eterni, mio capitano — Eternal thanks, my captain; Götterdämmerung — Twilight of the Gods; Sacra Maria — Blessed Mary.
The Order of Zikali is South Africa's version of the Order of Merlin and was instituted in 1942 as an open show of permanently washing away all "British" influence on local magicals. It is split into three levels, from highest to lowest: Grand Cross of Zikali (GCZ), Star of Zikali (SZ) and Medal of Zikali (MZ). The Order of Zikali is named in tribute to the dwarf wizard who appeared in the famous Allan Quartermain books by H. Rider Haggard.
Shipgirl introduced in this part:
JAPAN
THG Shiratsuyu — Hamamoto Miroko