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Partway between Oum and Sol (Tōkyō time: Tuesday, ninety minutes to midnight; Washington time: A half-hour after breakfast; Denver time: A half-hour before dawn)...
"Damn...!"
For the Wise Lone Sage of Yiziba, THIS was not very welcome news.
"That's going to make Apophis go totally berserk, Liz!"
While saving a life — No! TWO lives! — from the ravages of constant exposure to naquadah radiation was a good thing, forcing a Goa'uld queen to become an Avalonian of all things...!
"Let him go berserk, then," Elizabeth Wakefield coldly answered him.
Isaac Thomas' eyebrow arched before he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He had instructed his crew to tap into communications so that President Josiah Bartlet's briefing to the world concerning the Goa'uld and what America had been doing vis-à-vis the "children of the gods" — exacerbated when one of Nirrti's rivals tried to charge Earth in hopes of getting his hands on Redet Lum of all people, which forced shipgirls from around the Pacific rim to respond to such a move — had begun in the West Wing, though certain key players had yet to be introduced to the world. Once the link was opened between Earth and the Normandy, the native of Queens got an update through Hasegawa Chisame's information networks concerning what certain American shipgirls had done which resulted in a rather uncontrolled first contact meeting between the Children of the Gods and the True Heiresses of Sagussa.
"This is one hell of a fight scene seed, Liz," he then warned.
"You think I don't know that, Isaac?!" the Wise Sage of the Circle of Thought demanded. "You DID read what Zeditron Industries was involved in concerning stolen Goa'uld DNA and how they hoped to clone that thousands of times so that they could heal their CEO from Berchart's Syndrome, I hope."
"I did! I did!" he affirmed as he waved his fellow hyper-genius polymath down. "I'm sorry, Liz, but I'm foreseeing a lot of trouble in the future because of what Commodore Dewey forced on Amaunet and this other one her people captured. If Apophis hears his wife's become Kal'ma Ra'kalach of all things, he'll come full barrel to Earth to 'avenge' her! That shielding system isn't set up to deflect ha'tak, not to mention how he could try to access things through Colorado Springs or P'yŏng'yang!"
"Doesn't her baby deserve the chance to be raised properly by his mother?!" she countered.
"You would...care for my child...?"
Isaac relaxed in his chair inside his quarters as Elizabeth swung her PAA's viewing screen to reveal an ashen-faced woman who could be mistaken for a Polynesian hadn't he known better about who had served as DNA template for the new body of the woman that badly wounded Daniel Jackson's heart three years before on Abydos. She was seated with another woman in rather plain robes similar to what had been worn in ancient Egypt millennia ago. Said woman resembled Lieutenant Claire Tobias, the USAF security forces officer who had been based out of Saint Christina's Hospital in Seattle working for the National Intelligence Directorate on stolen alien technology obtained via a THIRD Stargate provided for them by the Goa'uld. Many of whom were now possessing Tobias' co-workers.
No doubt, the new commodore of America's shipgirl forces ordained the native of Richmond submit to allowing her DNA to be used to allow Athena's old subordinate a chance to live a new life.
And a FINAL life at that.
"What child do you speak of, My Lady?" Arachne demanded.
"She gave birth to a harcesis, Mistress Arachne," Isaac answered.
That made the namesake of the legendary Greek weaver who challenged and fell to the fury of the goddess of knowledge recoil as if she had been splashed with acid. "ARE YOU MAD?!" she screamed, bolting up only to be restrained by one of the newly-Gifted destroyers who had come back to service recently. "You KNOW bearing a harcesis is forbidden! What were you and Apophis THINKING?!"
The adopted Abydonian slumped. "It was in the heat of the moment, Arachne..." she confessed in a voice of ashes, knowing she was more vulnerable than ever in the presence of the Orak'nou of all races...especially with the accursed creations of the Healer of Destruction herself from five millennia before having come back to defend the Tau'ri homeworld against all comers. "I was trapped within Yametha's own body for over a YEAR by the time Sha're came to my husband's attention after Ra was slain by Jack O'Neill and Sha're's husband. I was so desperate to have children, I forgot myself..."
"Fortunately, Madame Oma Desala was willing to protect Shifu from Heru'ur, Madame Amaunet," Isaac reported, making Amaunet look up at his image over Elizabeth's PAA, her eyes wide with hope. "Once Heru'ur is killed or made to see reason — the former, I'll wager — you could reunite with your child and raise him. Share your body's blood and the naquadah that's been driving too many of your people insane will be expunged by the injection of ra-naquadah to make him effectively an adopted Kal'ma Ra'kalach. That should also allow him to better control his urges because of what the memories he absorbed from you and your husband would do to his own mind. Wouldn't you desire THAT?"
The namesake to one of Egypt's primal goddesses gazed wide-eyed at the native of the Big Apple before a wry smile crossed her lips. Suddenly, laughter exploded from her, making the scientist captured by Julia Dewey's squadron of shipgirls in Seattle hours before gape in shock. "Oh, how much I keep forgetting about your kind, Doctor!" Amaunet exclaimed. "Your past-self was a woman...!"
Isaac's blue eyes twinkled as he moved to slip on his special goggles to allow him to link into his ship's systems. "Something that happens in ninety-eight percent of Named battle-lines, of course."
"Speaking as a woman myself, ladies, this would ultimately be the best choice for all of you," Elizabeth spoke up. "Telchak sold you a damaged bill of goods all those years ago when he copied the Anquietas' healing device concept to make the sarcophagus work. Constant exposure to the naquadah powering that infernal thing has been eating away at your very BRAINS all these years!"
"Why do you think those such as we STOPPED doing that to ourselves, Amaunet?"
Isaac smiled. "Master Selmak. Well met to you, sir."
"And to you as well, Master Isaac," the being within Jacob Carter hailed as Elizabeth turned the PAA around to reveal the aged face of the father of the woman who developed the computer programming necessary to make use of the Stargate four years before. "My thanks as always for your support to the Council and our allies. How goes your project concerning the World of the Grimm?"
"You may tell your council on behalf of the President of the United Republic of Remnant that the Grimm are no more and Salem is dead," the New Yorker replied, making Selmak's jaw drop in surprise. "Still, as I did personally warn you sometime ago, the area where Remnant's Stargate is located is too badly infested with naquadah that's been mutated into a form that could effectively kill anyone from longtime exposure...if not make a SECOND Salem. I don't think the people of Remnant would appreciate THAT."
Selmak nodded. "I will inform the Council of that, Master Isaac."
"'Salem'?! Isn't that the Tau'ri-like witch that was cursed by the rabid Ancients?!"
That was Arachne. "Indeed she was, Madame Arachne," Elizabeth answered with a tired sigh. "The 'Ori' as those idiot death cheating religious nutcases love to call themselves!" As disgusted snorts escaped the others in the main meeting room in Cheyenne Mountain, the native of Sweet Valley added, "That's a fight scene or two way in the future. We've got nastier fish to fry right now."
"The Shatan'af, you mean," Amaunet noted.
"The very same. We're just sixty or so hours away from banishing everyone from the worlds of the Galactic Federation off Earth for a long time to come." As Selmak nodded in approval, the Wise Genius gazed at the being who was now possessing a friend of her great-grandfather. "Master Selmak, Madame Danu, Madame Anat, I STRONGLY suggest you and your people consider becoming Kal'ma Ra'kalach sometime in the near future. Even if you've all personally stopped using the sarcophagus at the levels people like Yù Huáng do, the damage to your minds and current forms is still there and could still come to bite you hard in the future. Then, you'll be able to live out your lives properly and gain true immortality as Madame Amaunet effectively did not so long ago with her son."
"For that, we must speak to our friends in the Council, Madame Academician," the voice of the namesake of the mother of the Tuatha Dé Danann affirmed from somewhere off screen. "If we're once more going to rely on the benevolence of the Children of the Sun Crystals, we must do so in the same way we once did to their ancestors on Sagussa all those millennia ago."
"Agreed," her friend who was the namesake of an ancient Semitic war goddess said.
Silence fell before a tired "Agreed" escaped Amaunet.
Isaac nodded. "You've probably saved your people, gentlebeings..."
Washington, the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room in the West Wing, that moment...
"...as you can see by this map of the galaxy, to date, we've explored four hundred and fifty-five planets across what Star Trek fans would designate the 'Alpha' and 'Beta' Quadrants of the galaxy through the Stargate network," Admiral Percy Fitzwallace explained as he indicated the projection of the Milky Way galaxy with multiple target points littering the "southern" half of the swirling massive formation of stars. "Among these worlds, sixty-five of them are uninhabited, sixty are inhabited by alien species and the remaining 330 are inhabited by descendants of Earth taken off the planet by the Goa'uld before five thousand years ago, when Rittmeister von Taserich and Master Hozan teamed together to drive them off the planet. Also, we've made contact with the four main local powers who make use of the Stargate system: The Confederation of Vos, the Royal Kingdoms of Yehisril, the Imperial Houses of the Seifukusu Dominion and the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios." He indicated those four entities after the galactic map was blown up to show the area immediately around Sol before he turned around to face the crowd of reporters in the room. "I'll take initial questions at this time. Mister Concannon?"
"Do the Urusians or their allies in the Galactic Federation make use of this network, Admiral?" Danny Concannon asked. "If so, could they have used this network to probe through to Earth before launching their tag race-slash-invasion last fall that had to be dealt with by Moroboshi Ataru?"
"No, none of the Federation worlds make use of this system," the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff answered. "As for the reason why, I suspect it was because a thousand years ago, the Seifukusu had conquered this whole strip of planets leading from our system to the outer edge of current Vosian territory close to where Yiziba is. Since they made use of the Stargate network as an ancillary transport system to rapid deploy from world to world, it's without a doubt that when planets such as Uru were liberated or simply let go by the Imperial Houses, they elected to keep the Stargates shut down. As a matter of fact, Uru's Stargate is located on an airless minor planet at the edge of the Oniboshi star system called Katte; this is where their maximum security prison is located, sort of like our Alcatraz."
"Follow on question," the chief correspondent for the Washington Post added after the New Jerseyan nodded on seeing his hand raised anew. "Can Yiziba be accessed though such a system and did Miss Katabarbe make use of such a system during her recruiting drive to have Terrans become Yizibajohei?"
"No, unfortunately not," Fitzwallace answered. "To give you the reason why since she has memories of Goa'uld attempts at using the Stargate that was placed on Yiziba, I'll ask Captain Katharine Hyde to speak about it." He then gazed in amusement at the reborn second of the Iowa-class battleships.
The adopted native of Camden and Philadelphia chuckled as she took the lectern. "Much that the 'person' — if I can say it that way — that had this body before it became my new hull last night did see the lar'beke try to make use of that system, they simply couldn't do it. According to the Doctor..." — by now, the reporters in the room knew who exactly the shipgirls present at this briefing meant by that term — "...the reason the blamed thing couldn't work is that Yiziba is so gorged with meson radiation that the naquadah that powers the Stargate simply couldn't work. Even more so, according to Captain Swanson's admiral, attempts at modifying the Stargate by some of her past-selves to have it run on meson can't let it link into the original system, so it's simply more convenient to use PAAs..." — here, she held up the paperback novel-sized device she had been given on her Gifting — "...to go from planet to planet. Unless you're speed demons like Commander Toyama and her sisters from Korea, who could actually warp themselves to other worlds if they have to. Personally, I haven't tried that yet."
"Ditto here! I'm not being stupid!" Kathy's sister Abigail Lewis — "Gabby" to her friends — added as she waved her hands in a "no way, José" gesture. "I've already had to get an effective Purple Heart because of what happened to my Number Two turret in '89. I'm not interested in getting one for real."
"Question there, Captain," Bill Kentworthy of the Wall Street Journal spoke. "Are you prepared to make a definitive statement concerning what happened that day in 1989 and what caused the explosion?"
The reborn USS Iowa glanced at her commander-in-chief, getting a nod from him. "Put simply, it was a horrible training accident, Mister Kentworthy," the adopted native of Des Moines and Brooklyn declared as her glistening blue eyes misted over. "My crew put too many powder charges into the centre rifle in Turret Two. All this crap — forgive my French — about one of my gunner's mates causing the explosion because he was suicidal is the biggest load of horse crap — again, pardon my French! — I've ever heard. Whoever came up with that sea story was trying — as my captain at the time warned when he was relieved of duty — to rush an investigation without wondering how the crew would take it. If you've seen the video on YouTube where people did a tour of my interior, you'll understand what I mean."
"Do you support any sort of legal action being taken?"
A tired sigh escaped the first of her class of fast battleships. "I'm no JAG officer, sir. All I care about is that my crew and their families get whatever proper justice they deserve in the end."
"Captain Hyde, have you been aboard the starship modelled after you?" Mike Love of U.S. News and World Report wondered. "And are those ships ready to deploy in case something happens and the Urusians protest the Japanese government expelling Miss Redet and her friends from Tomobiki?"
"No, not yet," Kathy spoke up as the other reborn battleships who were present all grinned or laughed. "I hope to do that soon. According to Captain Kenworthy — she was Fanshaw Bay, the flag of Taffy Three, by the way — the engineers and staff on that big spacedock opposite Mars are ready to man her and the other SBBs in case the horn-heads and their pals decide to be totally stupid."
"Are you satisfied with her current weapons layout?"
A laugh escaped the Black Dragon as her elder and younger sisters patted her shoulders. "Damn right I am! I'm glad the Avalonians remembered I was shipping Tomahawks and Harpoons after I was recomm'd in '82. It'll be hard to get used to using hull-mounted missile launchers in lieu of Mark 143 ABLs and Mark 141 Harpoon launchers, but I can put out quite the punch if necessary."
"Nothing like what a space destroyer can do now, eh, Dragon?" Rita McNair noted.
"Damn straight about that, Mo!"
Laughter filled the room. "Captain Austin, is there any news about your sister? Much less Captain Rowland's or Captain Owings' sisters or the other warships used in the Crossroads tests?" Bobbi Hamblin of PBS inquired of the oldest battleship that had been Gifted currently present, who was proudly wearing the ten gallon hat that came with her new fighting uniform on her salvaging and Gifting.
Emily Austin shrugged. "Right now, Ari and Okie are with Utah and Arkie scanning around for Yorkie, Nev and Sylvie," the adopted native of Houston and Newport News affirmed. "So far, no go. We're lucky that a lot of the girls that were sent to Bikini were later sunk as targets so we can get them. As to why they didn't come right away like others did...!" She shrugged. "Honestly, I can't say."
"And how do you like how they redesigned the starship Texas?" Love asked.
A laugh escaped her. "Well, I can understand why they wanted to get rid of my Number Three turret amidships, so that 'me' now kinda looks like Okie did before Pearl. At least I won't have to worry about getting used to space torpedoes since I was built that way back before the Great War."
Bruce Grey of Al Jazeera's English language service got his turn. "To any of the shipgirls: Do you feel a little rushed being forced to prepare for an effective battle against what could be seen as totally unknown odds like this, ladies? No chance for exercises or any other sort of preparatory work?"
People exchanged looks, then Kathy sighed. "It don't matter."
"Can you explain that, Captain?"
"There's a huge potential threat against all of Earth," the reborn USS New Jersey declared. "Yeah, loads of us are just now getting back into commission. But E and Beachy and those who came right after them — not to mention all those elsewhere who came after little 'Buki was found by Hinako during March break — have had time to think this out and come up with what they would need to do to kick the horn-heads and their pals off the planet. Basically, we're in a situation like what the starship Enterprise faced after her big refit that you saw in the first Star Trek movie. Just like Admiral Kirk told Scotty when the news of that big probe came to Starfleet Headquarters: Ready or not, we're sailing."
Fitzwallace nodded in approval. "And if we can cut in now, I think it's high time we tell you all how this started in the first place," the senior military officer of the United States declared, making the reporters look around in anticipation. "If Miss Cregg can ask Miss Saeru to come on in and tell us a story, we can get it done so she can go home and go to bed since it's pretty late in Japan right now."
"I WILL write a note for her teachers, of course," Bartlet then joked.
Laughter filled the room at that quip from the president...
Fūka-jima, that moment...
"Akane...?"
A moan escaped the reborn dictator of Damgatuto as her caramel eyes fluttered open. "I just...had a horrible...dream...!" Higurashi Akane breathed out as she reached up to rub her forehead...
...before she blinked. "Where am I?"
"My classroom, Miss Higurashi."
Hearing that voice speak with its mix of middle Canadian English and Małopolski Polish accents, the native of Beppu looked to her left before her cheeks slightly reddened. "Sensei..."
Grigori Wyszynski chuckled. "You had quite the shock sometime ago when Miss Takanashi interrupted your passionate encounter with Miss Greer," the native of Oświęcim and adopted native of Gatineau near Ottawa mused as he reached over to gently squeeze the younger woman's shoulder before he helped her into a sitting position on his desk. "Don't worry about you two opposing each other on the battlefield, though. Her love for you rather overrides the feelings your past-selves would express to the other because of situations that no longer apply to either of you. Especially now of all times."
Akane gazed upon him before she jolted, then turned around. "Miyu!"
Before the adopted San Franciscan could react, the Dark Warlord of the Centre leapt off the desk to swamp her up into a warm embrace; the combat gynoid based on Shōzoki technology had been seated at one of the students' desks in the room. An embarrassed awk escaped Miyu Greer after she was hugged by the woman she had been ordered to target earlier this evening before she blushed, her arms moving to return Akane's embrace. "I...am alright, Akane..." Miyu gently stated before she looked to her right. "Naoko didn't hurt me. She transported us here and contacted Sensei right away."
Akane pulled away to gaze upon Miyu, then she leaned in to give her a tender kiss on the lips, one the latter was willing to return even if the unreality of the moment still bothered her, never mind the rather blaring silence from many of her internal processors. The weapons that had been fitted in her body on her construction were sitting on another desk, a sheath having been provided for her Maria sword.
After a minute of their lips caressing the other's, the Ōita-nin slowly pulled away. "There's a lot more where THAT comes from, Miyu," she coyly declared, winking suggestively at the other woman.
An awk escaped the adopted Californian. "Akane...!"
"What?"
"I was ordered to kill your Child and cripple you!"
"And I would have had to stop you," Akane calmly stated, clearly not bothered by that confession. "And then I would have had to kill your father for presuming he had the right to treat you like a disposable tool, which would have become a fight scene seed for sure since the rest of your silly Foundation wouldn't care to be blinded like that given how close to the Festival of Fūka things are now."
Silence.
Miyu gaped wide-eyed at her. "How do you know all these things?!"
A matter-of-fact gaze answered her. "It's called 'telepathy'."
More silence.
"You read people's minds?!" Miyu exclaimed.
"Of course! I found it insanely weird that these orphan things began popping up all over the place on the island as soon as I bonded with Hari, so I wanted to know what was going on. Kōchō-sensei was a big fount of information, as were a few others here in the Academy, including your father. Believe me, when I found out what the Foundation planned for Alyssa-chan, I almost killed him right there!"
Still more silence.
Miyu blinked. "Why...?"
"Excuse me?! How old is Alyssa-chan, anyway?"
"She is eight."
"Same age as Saeru Hinako-chan, right?"
A confused blink answered her. "Why mention Saeru Hinako?"
"Sorry, Miyu!" a new voice cut in. "Hinako made me not tell you."
Miyu's head snapped around. "Ojō-sama!"
Instantly, the combat gynoid was sweeping her young charge into her arms to hold her close. As both Akane and Wyszynski smiled at how quickly the normally-stoic Miyu became a doing elder sister for the adopted daughter of the current chairman of the Searrs Foundation, the "older" woman moved to carry the quite popular elementary school second-year student over to the desk she had been using. "Are you alright, Ojō-sama?" Miyu tenderly asked. "It's well past your bedtime..."
"I was awake already watching the news from the White House," Alyssa answered. "They're speaking now about how the shipgirls got new bodies from the Forge World and how Hinako's big sister was going around helping people to become metahumans. Hinako was going to talk to the media now when Minako came by to tell me what was going on with you and Akane." Here, she waved to the doorway.
Miyu looked before her jaw dropped. "Sawada Minako...?"
"Well, if Naoko-chan came back, why shouldn't I?" the woman with the shaggy bob-cut crimson hair and the chestnut eyes noted as she stepped into the room. Like Takanashi Naoko, the third-place finisher of the Zenkoku Bishōjo Seifuku Grand Prix contest from the navy town of Maizuru near Kyōto was in a form-fitting sleeveless battlesuit, this one pure white from neck to toe save for black belt and boots, a red heart insignia embossed with a duelling rapier in black over her cleavage. This, Akane knew, marked her as the Master Escrimer of the West, Ditetumr'ba ("Fencer"), a deadly duellist with all forms of edged weapons; such was backed up by the beautiful mesonium-forged rapier in its sheath hanging over her left hip. "Wow! You got great taste in potential lovers, Akane-chan!"
Akane and Miyu awked as Sawada Minako gave them a thumbs-up, winking at them. That made Alyssa blink. "You didn't tell me you were dating Akane, Miyu," she then noted.
That made the adopted Californian gargle before she raised her free hand to wave off the younger girl's curiosity while Minako snickered before she perked as her empathy picked up a couple more people approaching the classroom. "You got the creep, Naoko-chan?" she then called out.
"Hai, hai," the voice of the Cosmic Protector of True Life answered before an elderly man in rather stately priestly clothing for a Ukrainian eastern Catholic cleric — thus, was able to get around obvious questions concerning how he gained a daughter of all things, adopted or no — was telekinetically thrown into the chemistry professor's classroom to smash face-first into the floor. As Akane willed her tonfā fighting elements into existence, footfalls heralded the arrival of her oldest female friend, who had an amused smirk on her face. "He didn't care too much for me interrupting his attempt at calling his bosses to warn him about you, Akane," the first place South Area finisher noted.
"Oh? What did the stupid umale lo'obir'ba try to tell him, Naoko?"
"That you were obviously Gifted — though he didn't know what you were — that you enhanced your cute kitty cat friend and that he warned that the possibility was there that more 'Valkyries' may be Gifted as well," Takanashi Naoko stated as she walked over to slam her boot onto Joseph Greer's head, making the "priest"/AI expert gargle as he tried to fight off the reality warper's power.
"Oh, trying to spoil the script. Right, right," Akane breathed out...
...before her own clothes shifted from her Linden Baum costume into a black sleeveless jumpsuit, that decked with evergreen belt and boots, frilly gold epaulettes hanging over her deltoid muscles and golden collars with a very intricate insignia there indicating some sort of high military rank. On her upper chest was an ovoid shield with some sort of animal on it, that over crossed golden machetes; such was the old republic crest of Damgatuto, both Minako and Naoko knew. As Alyssa gasped in awe on seeing her guardian's would-be lover put on such a cool uniform, Akane knelt before the struggling Greer. "Well, we can't allow him to spoil the script too much, especially with the world finding out about the lar'beke now. Naoko, if you and Minako-chan are now part of the League..."
"Every one of us who were kidnapped were Gifted as such..."
Naoko awked as Akane suddenly appeared in her face. As Greer gargled after the latter slammed her boot on his head — that making Alyssa giggle while their host sat, gazing with amusement at the antics of the young ones in his midst — the reborn dictator snarled, "You — were — KIDNAPPED?!"
"Hai," the reborn nature lover from the western equatorial continent — which was where the vast majority of her battle team spiritually hailed — trilled as she gave her old childhood friend a nonchalant look. "It was the rimrae umale who were behind it," she added. "You guys took care of them already."
Akane slumped. "Then why didn't you contact me, Naoko?! I'm known to be Gifted!"
"Oh?! And reveal that the League had come back?!" the Cosmic Protector asked as she gave the other woman a knowing look. "If you're talking about fight scene seeds, Akane...!"
A hand went up. "Um...excuse me!"
Everyone looked at Alyssa. "What is it, Alyssa-chan?" Minako asked.
"What's this 'league' you're all talking about? Why's it so important?" the "golden angel" of the Fūka Academy's school choir wondered as she lowered her arm. "Hinako never said anything about that."
"The Unending League..."
That was a wide-eyed Miyu. Staring at her would-be lover, Akane spun around to gaze on Wyszynski. "You told her, Sensei?!" the reborn dictator demanded.
"Miss Higurashi, you know better than that," the Polish Canadian scientist advised.
Akane blinked before she gazed intently at Miyu, making the combat gynoid blink as her cheeks reddened. The two newcomers were also looking at her. "Yeah, she's pretty much pre-Gifted already," Minako mused. "At least you won't have to worry about the Dragoness' spell interfering when you two go through nesting season and you can give Alyssa-chan some little sisters of her own."
"AWWWWK!"
That was a now-frozen Miyu. As Alyssa brightened at the idea of getting little sisters of her own, a voice sputtered from the direction of the floor, "Th-that's...not...p-p-possible...!"
"Oh, it's possible, Joseph," the veteran of the Specialized Warfare Regiment of Canada answered, his own eyes glittering with something that made Naoko gaze in curiosity at him before her own eyes widened in stunned realization. "What you people in the Foundation failed to realize when you had your daughter constructed was that the instant you incorporated fully organic flesh into the techno-organic structures that allow a Shōzoki AI to operate with human behaviour, you gave her the ability to absorb mesonium from the surrounding biosphere. All it required was the necessary augmentation to her programming — which I had access to thanks to a former co-worker — to help her adopt so she could anticipate ALL of Alyssa's needs. It was also quite easy to see her properly pre-Gifted, of course."
As Miyu stared wide-eyed at her true benefactor, Greer turned a very interesting shade of grey. "Y-y-you're...one of...th-th-THEM...?" he gargled. "You want to help bring that l-l-LUNACY here to Earth...!"
"'Lunacy'?"
That was Naoko. As Akane and Minako backed away, the Cosmic Protector stepped off the "priest's" head, gesturing with her hand. That saw Greer telekinetically lifted off the floor to float in mid-air, his arms and legs being twisted back into VERY unnatural positions. "You call US lunatics?!" Naoko very calmly asked as she turned around to stare intently at her current prisoner.
"Let me tell you what TRUE lunacy is, 'Father'," the Ōita-nin coolly declared, her blue-green eyes glowing. "Lunacy is being kidnapped by a widowed alien farmer who wanted to 'rediscover his youth', then accessed a bioroid factory of all things in hopes of making replicas of a very large pack of pretty girls...but because he was a stupid fool, he got the REAL PEOPLE instead!"
As Akane gasped while staring wide-eyed at her oldest female friend, Naoko crossed her arms. "Lunacy is being caught in a conspiracy by one of the freaking lar'beke of all things — Tok'ra or not! — in hopes of engaging in an act akin to what would be called GRAVE ROBBING here on Earth!"
Ignoring the shudder from the Dark Warlord of the Centre on hearing THAT, the reborn nature lover pulled Greer down so she could glare into his eyes. "Lunacy is an organization who should have gone through its death scene ages ago — after forgetting what it had been founded to do back in the days of Charlemagne to deal with magicals who strayed WAY beyond the borders of the reservation! — to try to impose some stupid 'golden millennium' on humanity as a whole...and hope to trick some idiot atona into playing along with that, especially when they turn around and offer up a CHILD of all things to be that atona's MATE!" Here, she indicated Alyssa before looking away. "And you have the guts to stand there and call US lunatics...?" she snarled before moving to sit on Wyszynski's desk.
"Would you want to see Alyssa-chan become a CHILD BRIDE, Miyu-chan?" Minako asked.
Miyu shook her head. "No."
Greer screeched. "MIYU! EMERGENCY PROTOCOL...!"
"That all was removed from her."
The "priest" gasped as Wyszynski focused on him with those all-knowing eyes. "Do you think I'd allow you to treat your daughter as a mere puppet, Joseph?" the native of Oświęcim calmly declared...
Back at the White House...
"Hinako!"
"Ah! Akemi-san!"
People turned to look as the Orchid Nova that was the eighth of the Ayanami-class destroyers in her first life came down the West Colonnade from the place where she teleported to Washington from Ōmure-jima in the Palm Room, she escorted by Zoey Bartlet and her bodyguard, Molly O'Connor. "A-ri-ri?! Zoey-san?! What are you doing here?! Shouldn't you be in university?!" Saeru Hinako demanded.
The Georgetown senior laughed as she leaned down to warmly embrace the Spirit of Innocence who was one of her most favourite Yizibajohei; such being understandable given how much good that the native of Niigata did wherever she travelled. "Wasn't going to miss your big premier, Hinako!" the youngest of the first daughters of the United States declared as O'Connor nodded in greetings.
"Okay! Okay! Stop squishing her, Bookie!" Ashikaga Akemi called out, making a shooing motion with her hand. As Hinako gave the normally hotheaded shipgirl an annoyed look, the adopted native of Ōsaka added, "She's got to look pretty for the shitty dolts in the media to fawn over, remember?!"
"You ever thought of going into protection work, Commander?" O'Connor wondered.
A shrug answered her. "It's what I've been doing since I got into this new hull of mine in April," Akemi wryly answered before she perked as the door leading into the Press Briefing Room opened, revealing C.J. Cregg. "Showtime, huh?" she asked, getting an affirming nod from the Ohioan.
Hinako smiled as she reached the doorway before she blushed as people rose to give her a round of applause. "Ah! Stop that! You're all making Hina blush!" the youngest of Tariko Katabarbe's and Moroboshi Ataru's sisters called out, waving the reporters and other people in the room down while she was escorted to the podium at the west end of the space. "Hina's no one special! Stop that!"
"You'll forgive us if we disagree with that, Hinako," Josiah Bartlet called back.
He got a huffed look from the young cosmic empath. "Kōchō-sensei!"
Laughter escaped people there as the applause finally died, then reporters took their seats. "Um, question, Hinako!" Sondra Torres of the Christian Broadcasting Network then called out, earning her an annoyed look from Cregg. As Hinako gazed her way, the reporter wondered, indicating the girl's sleeveless battlesuit, "Is THAT the normal style of uniform worn by people of your age on Yiziba?!"
Hinako blinked, then looked down at herself. "Hina's not bothered by it, Sensei! All of Hina's sisters and Onē-tama and Onii-tama and lots and lots of other people on Yiziba wear this! This is normal!" she asserted, waving to herself before she hummed. "Sure, Hina can dress traditional like this..." And here, her uniform changed to the more traditional sleeved style in a flash of light, making people gape at such a display of both power and technology. "But Hina only dresses this way if she goes into very cold places like up in the Arctic visiting Túndra-san or visiting Yoiko-san where Ō'oji-tama and her crew were trapped all those years!" And with that, she shifted back to her normal sleeveless suit.
"Aren't your parents worried about that sort of thing?" the reporter pressed.
"No!"
Akemi snorted. "Just to assure you folks, the heel don't exist on Yiziba that could hurt Hinako-chan. You're all calming down right now, right?" As some of the reporters exchanged surprised looks, the photokinetic shrugged. "That's her empathic aura. It's always turned on to make people calm and relaxed when they're close to her. There are very few folks on Earth who can't be affected by it."
"What happens if you run into anyone like that, 'Bono?" Kathy Hyde wondered.
A steely look answered America's most decorated battleship. "If they try to hurt her, we get to show them some Imperial ways of making them regret that mistake before we sent them to their ancestors, Kathy-san." As people shuddered on hearing that, she added, "Ways that'd impress Yoiko-san a LOT!"
"Akemi-san!"
She slightly jerked as Hinako gave her an annoyed look before she shrugged, earning her some laughter from the reporters and the staff. "They're awfully protective of you, aren't they?" Danny Concannon then wondered, sitting back in his chair. "Is it because you're the one effectively responsible for bringing them back and transforming someone like the commander here into that."
He waved to the Orchid Nova in emphasis. "Hai, Sensei, Hina can say that," Hinako affirmed. "Hina doesn't like it when new shipgirls immediately ask Hina if Hina's their admiral, though. Hina's no admiral. Oji-san here's an admiral." She waved to Percy Fitzwallace in emphasis, making America's senior military officer blush at being pointed out like that. "Hina just wants to be their friend."
"Then why is it they've been known to address your brother as their admiral?" Katie Witt of the Wall Street Journal wondered. "That's been reported many times, even by your brother in his YouTube blog." She focused on Akemi. "Commander, can you explain that? Given Admiral Fujita has returned..."
"Admiral Fujita's our tactical commander whenever we have to defend Japan or Earth as a whole against outside threats," Akemi affirmed. "And I have to personally admit — as I'm sure you all know about me by now — that he's no 'Kuso Teitoku' as I'm very fond of calling officious jerks — REMFs as you'd call them here — like that who screw up and cost people their lives by bad choices." As people winced on hearing "shitty admiral" thanks to her battlesuit's omniversal translator function even if she used the Japanese term, she added, "He's one of the better ones...especially since he joined Admiral Yamamoto and many others, both in the Navy and the Army, in trying to protest any move to launch an all-out war against America in the first place, knowing how strong you people really were."
"Where does Ataru fit into that situation, then?"
"Ataru's our moral and spiritual admiral," Akemi answered. "After all, look how much Captain Hyde here changed last night." She waved to the second of the Iowa-class battleships in emphasis. "As I recall, women never served on her during her times in commission. Even if she's had women aboard her since she was made a memorial — usually those Sea Scout troops like the group that were aboard last night when Rose, Maddie and Kistiñe went to Camden to wake her up — what would she really know about being human and all that? We're the same way. Sure, we have the memories of our crews and our builders — that's part of the 'MSSB' that tends to haunt all of us one way or another — but can we really go forth by ourselves to live as human beings now, metahuman or not? Never happened."
"That still doesn't answer Katie's question, Commander. Why Ataru?" Torres warned.
"I'm getting to that!" the adopted native of Ōsaka stated, her eyes hardening. "Sure, many folk would say after seeing Ataru's blog that Hinako and her sisters did the lion's share of helping us become really human since she first salvaged Fujiko back during March break. But if there's one thing that unites ALL the sisters on that island, it's their love for their brother. Yeah, Ataru's grandmother was pretty much sick with grief over losing her husband like she did — which ended up badly affecting twelve families around the turn of the millennium because she didn't care a damned bit for that loud-mouthed abusive moron Ataru wishes was NEVER his mother! — but the sisters got over that real quick and bonded with him after they first met. We got carried along for the ride and NONE of us regret that fact."
In Tomobiki...
"I WISH I NEVER HAD HIM!"
KK-KKLONK!
"SHADDUP SHUTTING UP, YOU WORTHLESS TRAMP!"
Back in Washington...
"You're in a personal relationship with him, aren't you?" Sondra Torres asked.
"Damn straight I am! But do you want to speak of details in front of her?"
The CBN reporter jolted at the Orchid Nova indicated the Spirit of Innocence, earning her some laughter as Emily Austin sent her a VERY disapproving look. While Josiah Bartlet and his staff shook their heads at how easily the normally short-tempered destroyer was playing up with the conservative reporter, Danny Concannon quickly cut in, "Commander, many of you have said that the spirits of your lost crews loudly approved of your being salvaged and Gifted as you are. Can you sort of elaborate on that? I'm aware that Japanese beliefs state that one's essence remains effectively in place where he or she died even if they're honoured in a shrine or temple elsewhere, but how did YOUR lost crew react when Hinako came along before the start of the current school year to salvage you?"
Ashikaga Akemi hummed. Even if she didn't care for reporters, she knew Concannon was heads above the normal run of press pukes that ran around like rabid dogs in America. "Well, I can tell you first that I didn't lose as many as records state. As you probably know by now, there were special battleships with metahuman crew active in both world wars who secretly moved to save 'dead' crew from sunk warships to protect them from soul-sucking sea monsters that make Gojira or other kaijū in those tokusatsu movies that have been put out since the '50s look like mice in comparison. One of those kaijū was in Manila Bay when Akina and I got sunk by bombers from your side, so the crew of one of the Ryūseizen had to work overtime to BOTH get the 'dead' out of our hulls AND kill the kaijū simultaneously!"
"And Akina is...?"
"Kumasaka Akina; destroyer Akishimo of the Yūgumo-class. She hasn't come back yet."
"She's a sleepy-head," Saeru Hinako affirmed.
"Still, with four of those girls back now and two more coming late tonight our time, we should see the rest of them come back soon," Akemi finished, a wry smile turning her lips. "Not to mention all the kami of those who were never built, but just got reborn in Korea thanks to one of Ataru's friends there. They'll serve in the Korean Navy now, just like all of Toyama Sumie's half-sisters do."
"She being Shimakaze, right?" Katie Witt asked.
"That's right."
"Speaking of which, have you been aboard your namesake?" Mark O'Donnell of the New York Times wondered. "How would you grade the performance of the Pongp'ung and the Samuel B. Roberts when the Goa'uld attacked while Hinako was on Bikini helping salvage Commander Lamson and her friends?"
A shrug answered him. "They did pretty good for their first deployment. Mijin and her sisters are pretty raw skill-wise. Sumie's trying to teach them things, but given she can be quite the scatterbrained dolt when the 'need for speed' overcomes her, it's hard. Fortunately, those starships our Avalonian friends built are all practically idiot-proof. You have to be a SPECIAL kind of stupid to wreck them!"
Laughter filled the room. "You still didn't answer Mark's question," C.J. Cregg warned.
"Right! Right! Forgot!" the eighth of the Ayanami-class affirmed, waving the press secretary down. "I helped sail the Akebono out of the spacedock once she was finished; it was the anniversary of my commissioning in '31. Nice private place to go to whenever I need alone time with Ataru."
"Akemi-san! No mushy stuff!" Hinako scolded.
More laughter escaped the reporters there. "Do you feel confident to command her in case the Urusians elect to protest the plan to remove Miss Redet and her friends from Tomobiki and Earth, Commander?" Bruce Gray asked. "Given how powerful she has appeared to be in the past..."
"She's a puffer fish."
He blinked. "Excuse me?"
"A puffer fish," Akemi repeated. "You know. Type of tropical fish that swallows a tonne of water to make it look real big to scare off predators?" As people nodded, the Orchid Nova crossed her arms. "The whole garbage last fall were the umale being puffer fish to scare off rivals from investing Earth. Problem with that approach is that there are ALWAYS bigger predators running around who wouldn't get scared and eat the puffer fish. Why do you think they're so scared of the Yizibajohei? They pulled that 'we big and advanced, we invade' crap on Yiziba twenty-seven decades ago, then got practically stomped into protoplasm shortly afterwards. Much that it's not the least bit fair to hypnotize KIDS even younger than the little fireplug that's Redet's cousin into being mortally scared of us..."
"Which is child abuse, plain and simple," Emily Austin sternly added.
"Amen to that, Tex," the adopted native of Ōsaka affirmed with a grim nod. "Well, those dorks acted like little kids who got caught drawing with crayons on the way, then got spanked hard back then. Now it's time to remind them that they can't pull that crap on innocent people. How bad we'll spank them?" She shrugged. "Depends on the idiots who run things out of Onishuto."
"There are a few people who need a good spanking," Hinako dryly noted.
"You mean Frost Girl's dad?"
"Hai! Hina remembers Oyuki-san telling Lum-san she was going to make her people stop dumping snow on Earth unless it was to where Túndra-san or his friends who like snow live. But NO! They just keep on dumping it all over the place! No wonder Miyuki-chan's so mad these days!" Hinako added.
"As in Commander Fukushima Miyuki? The destroyer Miyuki?" Concannon confirmed.
"Hai, Sensei!"
"Miyuki's known as the 'Cosmic Blizzard' back on Yiziba," Akemi added. "You ever wonder about those sudden snowstorms that came at people around the world, then vanished; these things happened after Ataru's birthday? That was Miyuki sending snow back to Triton, usually dumping it all over their capital city with notes telling the idiots there they didn't have a dumping permit on Earth." As people laughed at that comment, she added, "You'd think they'd get a damned clue after the TENTH time Miyuki did that! But NO! They're just as all-out stubborn as the horn-heads!" She smirked as she leaned back against the wall of the briefing room. "They'll get a lesson about that soon enough, though...!"
"Hina wishes it doesn't happen," Hinako noted. "But Hina's not sure it won't."
Grim nods all around. "Speaking of extra metahuman abilities, how exactly did you train to make use of your photokinetic powers, Commander?" Bobbi Hamblin wondered. "Given how easily you cut down so much at the end of the Pseudo War if witnesses' reports of what you and your friends did are true..."
Akemi's amethyst eyes glowed, making people gape. "Akemi-san! Don't scare them!" Hinako then scolded before she yelped as the Orchid Nova reached over to rub her forehead, her eyes going back to normal. "Akemi-san! That's not funny!" the Spirit of Innocence snapped, wagging her finger.
"Relax! Relax!" the adopted Ōsaka-jin affirmed, waving her down. "To answer your question, it all goes back to the fact that I was the FIRST of my class who was salvaged," she said, facing her questioner. "Back at the start of April, Hinako's friend Isaac Thomas was busy doing a special project on a planet named Remnant, which was infected by soulless monsters called Grimm. They were set loose there by religious nut jobs who broke away from the Anquietas, the people who built the Stargate network in the first place. Since they were so hyped on that naquadah garbage that fuels the Stargate, the Grimm were next to impossible for normal folk to kill. So they needed some really heavy firepower to help with extermination. Given my ship name means 'Daybreak', they decided I was the best to help out."
"How rich was the hunting, Commander?" Gray wondered.
"You couldn't leave the big cities without running into herds of the damned things coming out of the woodwork," Akemi affirmed with a bloodless smile. "It was one REALLY target rich environment."
Hinako snickered on hearing that...
Partway between Oum and Sol, that moment...
"'Really target rich environment', she says...!"
Ruby Rose perked on hearing her sister's comment. "What do you mean, Yáng?"
The Raging Berserker snorted as she sat back in her chair. Everyone from both Teams RWBY and JNPR — plus Ruby's would-be girlfriend Penny Polendina — were relaxing in the main lounge on the Normandy watching the press briefing at the White House, they seated alongside their teacher and all of the Camelot Wondercolts. "You didn't see Akemi in action like we did, Rubes," Yáng Xiǎo Lóng noted. "During the time you were with Jaune, Nora and Ren heading over to Haven before the big get-together happened, people were trailing you to make sure those who'd stop you would get tripped up. She was at the head of the charge all the time. Not a single Grimm made Miss 'I'll Call Everyone "Shitty" If I Want' blink before she would turn them into ashes with those eye beams of hers."
"Yeah! It really got crazy in places," Blake Belladonna noted as she nibbled on a tuna fish sandwich. "The couple of times we ran into members of the White Fang that were still loyal to Adam and Akemi was there, she would toss them around like they were rag dolls. Even some of Salem's most powerful fighters like Hazel Rainart were literal nobodies when they came across Akemi."
The Warp Mistress winced as she recalled meeting the most physically powerful of Salem's inner circle of allies during the Battle of Haven when both teams of huntsmen finally reunited after months apart. Given how the man could easily make himself immune to pain thanks to infusing dust into his body, it took a LOT to bring the likes of Hazel Rainart down. However, given how strong a shipgirl was — even a reborn destroyer like Ashikaga Akemi — it didn't surprise the native of Patch that the profane eighth of the Ayanami-class ships could have beaten the likes of the dark-haired titan.
"Yeah! No wonder he got so upset when he found out you two were Gifted," Ruby then mused...
...before a beeping noise came from the control panel on the table. Isaac Thomas tapped a button to allow the main screen to become a split image while muting the noise from Washington. "Well, hello there, stranger!" the Wise Lone Sage then called out on seeing the very fashionable woman calling from the headquarters site of Renaissance Industries in Vale City. "This is a surprise!"
"Hey, Boss!" the cheerful voice of the leader of Team CFVY greeted with a wave of her hand. "Heard from Mimir that you've shifted course to head to the planet of umale horn-heads. What's going on?"
"The First Patriarch of Yaminokuni decided to send a 'dowry' of fast-growing mushrooms to Uru, Coco," Weiss Schnee answered. "Isaac felt it was only right to head there first to make sure everything would be fixed up by the time Lady Tariko's 'wife' is finally sent home in a couple of days."
"So how are things on Remnant, Coco?" Yáng wondered.
The woman who was Gifted as the Human Legion, Buolem ("Phalanx"), almost within a day of the Fall of Beacon groaned as she leaned back in her chair. "Well, the party's FINALLY over!" the fashion-conscious Valean replied. "Thank Oum for that small favour at least! We're all getting the transmission of King..." — here, she caught herself, blushing — "Excuse me! President Bartlet introducing Little Sunshine to the people of Earth! Bet Ruby doesn't like the idea of being able to go to Earth now that the umale are going to be screaming for help to get those mushrooms out of their biosphere!"
Here, her chocolate eyes focused on Ruby's silvery orbs. "Yeah, I'm bothered by it, but what can you do in the end?" the younger huntsman team leader lamented with a shrug. "If there's a fight scene brewing and there's no one claiming it for himself or herself, go check it out and see what you can do. Especially if it turns out to be a biological warfare attack like what this old fool did to those people!"
"So now that the party's over, what happens next?" Renée Gerrard asked.
"Back to basic day-to-day life for everyone," Coco responded to the former French exchange student who became the Glittering Skywalker on the mass Gifting of the Wondercolts years before. She perked as the sound of a door opening echoed from off screen. "Oi! Got through to everyone, guys!"
Footfalls heralded the arrival of the other members of her team of huntsmen. Like Coco, they were in their normal "civilian" clothes in lieu of their battlesuits; while the existence of the homeworld of "the One Above the Gods" — as the first incarnation of the Goddess Who Walks Among Men had been hailed by Remnantians after he easily banished the Two Brothers out of this dimension when they threatened to either totally enslave their "worshippers" or completely kill them off — was now well-known thanks to the actions of the master of the Normandy and those from Earth and Yiziba who came in his wake, there was no need to parade around as such in public. "Hey, Velvet!" Blake called out. "How are things with everyone back on Menagerie? I haven't heard from my parents since before I left Atlas."
"Actually looking up and up," Coco's old junior huntsman school classmate affirmed, her beautiful leporid upper ears twitching with amusement. "That's pretty much thanks to what YOU did when you made that speech before the general campaign started against Salem after everyone got back together in Haven, Teach," Velvet Scarlatina added as she pointed at Isaac. "I guess effectively saving all of Mistral from such a mass attack by the Grimm proved that even an 'alien' could be trusted."
The native of Queens chuckled before sipping his tea. "Well, it helped that the leadership of the Mistral Council was more than willing to listen to me after Pyrrha made her open debut as Polarity." Here, people turned to gaze on the four-time Mistral Regional Tournament champion who had "died" during the Fall of Beacon only to pop up alive, well and empowered as the Warper of Metal months later alongside the gynoid she "killed" during the Vytal Festival. "Since Pyrrha's father had such sway over the Council, he was happy to convince his peers that being more open and accepting of Faunus — which WAS pretty much the norm even if people wouldn't support that vote-wise at times — was the best thing to do, especially with both Blake and Monica backing what I was doing."
Laughter echoed over the hyperspace link between the Normandy and Remnant. "Yeah, that would pretty much convince anyone to go along with it," Velvet noted before she thumbed off to her left. "I see Miss Potty Mouth Shipgirl is actually behaving civilly in front of the press. Shocking!"
"Akemi's not a total tsundere, Velvet," Flora Sanford advised. "It's only when she's close to someone who's totally incompetent that the 'Kuso Teitoku' insults come flying out of her mouth."
"And President Bartlet is NO 'shitty president'," Lance Silva added.
More laughter escaped the people speaking on this as Isaac noted Akemi sneezing into the palm of her hand. "So what about you people directly? Glad to be able to settle down and help get Beacon back on line again?" the Wise Lone Sage then asked the four members of Team CFVY.
"Damn straight we do!" Yatsuhashi Daichi affirmed with a nod of his head. As Velvet squeezed his shoulder in support, the man who was now He Who Fogs the Soul, Dumnuor'buo ("Amnesia"), added, "Though Headmistress Goodwitch isn't sure now as to what to do for the freshman initiation classes this year. Much that the option to have people become effectively Nameless is there..."
"Too many want to be Named instead," the Mistralite's freshman initiation partner from over two years before who had become the Mobile Weapons Factory, Gasyuo R'buorim ("Olltáirgeacht"), finished. "Personally, I don't blame any of them since becoming Named guarantees 'self-training' thanks to the memory download that comes with the Gifting — which makes things way easier for the headmistress and the professors — but we don't want a situation like what happened to Kim Hyegyŏng's Gift seed after King Tan'gun passed away in the wake of the War of the Second Banishment."
"What did happen there, Velvet?" Fox Alistair wondered.
"It was held by His Majesty's successors as monarchs of Kuorim until the Dawn of Power," the Valean leporid therianthrope who gladly supplied weapons and ammunition to her teammates answered. "Never was reunited with the Great Crystal like the other Gift seeds active at that time were."
Nods twitched her friends' heads. "How do you see it, Fox?" Tara Silva wondered.
The Vacuan of the Kenyte people who was now the Blind Swordsman of the East, Lalole ("Zatōichi"), hummed as he closed his eyes in contemplation. "There still is a small undercurrent of mistrust when it comes to Faunus in certain areas of the planet, Tara," Fox warned. "Which is understandable."
"Adam, you mean," Blake noted.
"Sadly so. Remember how badly Isaac trounced him in that duel in the warehouses in Vale?"
The raven haired felinoid therianthrope smirked. "Fox! I was there, remember?!"
Laughter escaped people at that dry observation from the former fighter of the White Fang. "Right, forgot!" Fox breathed out. "Well, no matter what, Adam became even MORE hell-bent when it came to imposing his own dream on Remnant as a whole. That hurt people in certain places when we were too busy dealing with more important issues, so some lingering resentment is still there."
"Understandable. Unfortunate, but understandable," Isaac concluded. "You can't change centuries of attitudes overnight, even after the main thing that had haunted society on Remnant was forever eliminated. All it needs is time and constant vigilance against any sort of racist flare-ups." He sat back in his chair. "Speaking of leaders, how's James settling in as a peace-time leader?"
"It's...rough," Fox affirmed. "Even if I stayed blind after I was Gifted..."
"Which I still can't figure out WHY that happened," the New Yorker lamented.
The Vacuan waved him down. "For Oum's sake, Isaac, don't worry about it! I'm long used to it," he assured his teacher. "Still, I can 'see' things that tend to escape other people's notice. You're still a popular man here, Isaac. If you didn't deliberately write that code in the Constitution which forbade aliens from becoming President, you'd have been voted in instead of the general."
"Isaac wouldn't run for office anyway!" Ruby asserted. "He's having too much fun being the wandering lone genius going around helping people like he's done since he was Gifted." She then perked before looking at him. "Maybe that should be your new tag line, Isaac. 'Wandering Lone Sage'. Chiyo changed her battle-name from 'Cerebral Child' to 'Prodigy' at Ayumu's suggestion, remember?"
"I'll think about it," the blond hyper-genius polymath affirmed with a sigh.
"Speaking of being elected, it's a good thing that a president is only allowed two terms in office, just like Professor Bartlet," Jaune Arc noted as he reached over to gently grasp Pyrrha's hand. "Could you imagine being vaulted into office like that, then be told that you can stay there all you want?"
"With OUR fame?!" Nora Valkyrie blurted out. "None of us are like Professor Bartlet's predecessor from that real big worldwide war the shipgirls were involved in when they were actual warships!"
The others nodded before a hailing beacon echoed from Vale. "Oh, Monica's calling in from Atlas. She went with Rei to visit Flynt and Neon," Coco called out. "She wanted a chance to talk to you guys."
The part of the screen showing the briefing in Washington then changed to show a view of the quarters shared by the members of Team FNKI, one of the civilian huntsmen teams affiliated with the Atlas Academy. Awaiting the callers there was a pretty pink-haired feline therianthrope — thanks to her furry tail — who was in her new huntsmen's uniform as part of Team FNKI. "Hey, guys!" Neon Katt hailed.
"Hello, Neon!" Weiss called back. "Where are Monica and Rei?"
"Just stepped outside for a moment..." Here, the Speed Kitten, Rutoume ("Speed Demon"), looked left as a door swooshed open in the background. "Hey, guys! Everyone's calling in from the Normandy!"
"Yo, guys!" Flynt Coal called out as he swung into view of the camera with two other people.
Neither of which were his teammates, the others noticed. "Where are Kobalt and Ivori?" Isaac asked.
"Where else?! The Battlezone," the leader of his team who was also the All-in-One Marching Band, Mikroe Umdyuo ("Bebop"), answered as he crossed his arms. "Price of being Gifted later than we were, remember? They didn't get in on the action until near the end of the big push against Salem and Omega, so they need to bleed off some of their own aggression against people who can fight back."
"Whoa! Post-Gifting Shock doesn't last THAT long, guys!" Phoebe Pitts declared.
Laughter echoed over the airwaves. "Have you spoken to Father recently?" Penny asked.
"Yeah, Penny, he's cool!" the dark-skinned dust trader's son affirmed. "Busy with Miss Maria still working on improving those new cybernetics Doctor Light designed for her eyes." He perked. "Oh, got some news for you, Weiss. Your brother was happy to help re-finance Father's trade shop."
That made the Mistress of the Eternal Ice Fires breathe out. "Thank Oum for that! I thought that he'd still act more like Father did before his working alliance with Doctor Watts was exposed."
"He seems to be mellowing out quite a bit, Weiss," Neon noted. "I guess Winter and the general are stepping in to help him grow into his place. He's even gone so far as to ask Blake's parents for help in humanitarian assistance when it comes to helping Mantle recover from all those years of depression."
"Did you do that, Monica?" Yáng demanded.
A throaty chuckle escaped Blake's first lover as Monica Khan leaned down by Neon's shoulder to gaze on the blonde native of Patch. "It was actually quite easy once some of your father's economic advisors had a chance to talk to Whitley, Blake," the daughter of the second leader of the White Fang asserted, her own tail whipping in amusement. "Personally, I think he's got a crush on one of them."
"Oh? Who?" Blake wondered.
"Emily Fajardo," the would-be field healer who later became the Healing Tigress, Mitu Erba ("Doctor Aílurous"), answered with a sparkle in her eyes. "Trifa's sister."
That made the raven-haired woman gape. "Emily?! She was as radical as Trifa!"
A sigh escaped the dark-skinned touch-healer. "Her parents were nearly killed in that mass Grimm attack on Menagerie after everyone started to go all out on Salem's forces a couple months ago. They were saved by Fukushima Mayako and her destroyer division when they were sent to Remnant to do sweeps of territories we weren't covering. Emily was a lot more accepting after that."
"What about her sister, Monica?" Isaac asked.
A shake of the head responded. "As hard-headed as Adam himself, Isaac."
Sighs escaped people on both ends of the communications link. "How are you doing, sis?" Yáng asked.
A shy look escaped the woman who looked as if she could be the blonde huntsman-turned-high level FISS-type's own twin...save for her hair being styled in a shaggy ponytail, said blonde mass decorated with stripes of azure blue in those locks similar to what Weiss had been blessed with at birth. In addition, she was currently in a form-fitting armoured suit patterned after that of the Reploids from the Mega Man series. Fortunately for Monica, who had taken considerable interest in Rei Xiǎo Lóng the instant she had first learned of what had been created by the Sidine-born AI known as Omega, the underlying body was fully human even if Yáng's adopted sister was structurally still a gynoid.
"I am...adjusting, Sister," Rei curtly answered. "Much that I am personally glad that I no longer have to pretend to be Omega's loyal servant, it is still difficult to adjust to peacetime."
"Tell her about Neo, Rei!" Velvet urged from Vale.
Yáng tensed. "What about her?!"
"Neo Politan is currently moving to reform her late patron's criminal organization to ensure the needs of those on Remnant which could not be fulfilled legally would be seen to, Sister," Rei answered.
People on the Normandy blinked. "That's not surprising," Rebecca Skylark noted. "She was trained by the Amon Clan after she was Gifted to sharpen her skills to Moroboshi Negako's level. She also trained with Kiryū Kazuma while she was on Earth recovering from the death of her old boyfriend."
"Crazy as this will sound, she's calling her group the 'Torchwood Syndicate' in Roman's honour," Coco added. "Which is understandable. Given how much he helped her evolve after she was made mute..."
The voice of the leader of Team CFVY trailed off. "Yeah! It's such a shame Roman never discovered his Semblance before he was killed," Ruby noted. "So what's Neo doing with her group, Rei?"
Rei lightly smiled. She only expressed true emotions when she was speaking to her template, her template's sister or Penny; because her creator had made use of Penny's original gynoid body as her own before she allied with Salem some months ago, the former field commander of the rogue army of Replicants who came to Remnant to fight alongside the Queen of Darkness had inherited the adopted Atlesian combat gynoid's speech patterns. "I do not understand why Neo Politan would do such a thing, Sister," she confessed. "Much that she, as Danzatrice, was commonly seen as a heel on Yiziba, the need to organize something that flies against the proper maintenance of law and order is illogical."
People fought back snickers on hearing that. "There is always the need to get things done fast and dirty, Rei," Isaac advised the gynoid he helped free from Omega's control as a way of trapping the Sidine-forged being into hoping she could conquer Remnant once Salem was forever disposed of when Hallowe'en came on Earth. Before she awoke to the truth of her being, Rei behaved as if SHE was Yáng Xiǎo Lóng thanks to VERY accurate memory scans of the Raging Berserker made in secret by the rogue AI. "At least Neo has the knowledge of her first life's experiences in Kutotuto to keep things 'civil' in the underworld from now on. I doubt James or the regional councils will have to worry too much about it."
"She could also sweep up what's left of those gangs who allied with Salem through Cinder and her pals to get them under control," Monica noted as Rei gazed upon the animal polyglot healer. "Even if the Grimm are gone, the spiritual footprint of their existence is buried deep in the soil of the planet; that's what Lady Yonaga warned when she and Lady Enterprise last visited after Salem was killed."
People nodded. "Yoiko and Yvonne are cosmic shipgirls," Phoebe warned. "They can see things even reality warpers like me would have trouble understanding. If they think the Grimm can come back..."
"Indeed, Phoebe Pitts," Rei stated. "Salem and Omega are gone, but the amount of naquadah in the soil of Remnant is critically high in too many places despite efforts of those like Neville Longbottom to cleanse the soil with transplanted Yizibajohei plants. The Grimm could arise again if someone is able to manipulate the naquadah in the soil in the correct manner to create new flocks." She sighed as a very human look of weariness crossed her face. "None the less, there will be those who will desire to cause trouble. Because of that, my war is not over. I have to focus on ensuring the peace Remnant has needed for so long will remain for many years to come." A look of regret crossed her face. "I will lament such as she was an ally in the war, but if Neo Politan and I must battle..."
"Hey! Hey! Cool off, Rei!" Flynt scolded. "Stop being so damned serious, girl! Even you deserve to relax...and you did as much work to bring all this to a stop as that one teacher at the magic school Hinako's sister goes to did when that death cheater Voldemort started his first rebellion."
"Speaking of which, Neville, Rose and their friends have been pretty quiet," Coco noted. "We know that Hinako's sister hacked off that bitch Umbridge's head a couple days ago when she tried to attack the sisters and the shipgirls on Promised Island. When's the big fight scene with Voldemort?"
"That's up to Rose and Thérèse, Coco," Isaac affirmed. "Always remember..."
"It's their fight scene!" everyone else chanted.
"So what's going on now that the horn-head's been swept away by her fiancé?" Neon joked.
"Is this Enoshima girl causing issues?" Yatsuhashi wondered. "I heard she and her pals had a fight with the Undersiders right after Lady Tariko's brother got out of that crazy school of his."
The Wise Lone Sage smirked. "Well, other than the growing levels of despair among Lum's fans that Junko can feed on — not to mention some very available targets for Tōko to eliminate to whittle down the influence of this Division One group that hurt Tariko in the first place — it's all quiet. You've probably seen the list of new Giftings, haven't you?" As the people on Remnant nodded, he reached up to squeeze the bridge of his nose. "Much that I DO understand what made Sophia do what she did on Monday night on Ōmure-jima, she should have kept in mind Mukuro and the others who formed the Remnant of Despair — and apologies for the pun! — back on their Earth are living here as well."
"Sophia Hess requires to learn proper battle discipline," Rei warned.
"And she'll learn eventually, Rei," Isaac finished.
"I can understand why she did that, though," Ruby lamented. "Sophia saw a threat and moved to end it. Trust me, guys, if Junko goes crazy like she did when she caused the Tragedy, we'll all stop her!" She winked at the callers from Vale and Mantle. "That's what heroes do, remember?!"
"So speaks Taylor Hebert," Monica lamented.
More laughter escaped the others save Rei, who had fallen back to her normally guarded neutral expression. "I will go now to ensure nothing improper is happening in Sector Nine, Flynt Coal."
Flynt looked her way as the gynoid walked out of the room before he gazed on her template. "Man, what is wrong with her anyway, Yáng?!" the leader of Team FNKI demanded, thumbing after Rei.
"Agreed! She's always so serious," Velvet lamented.
Yáng chuckled. "Me and her are as opposite as it gets in personality, guys, but we BOTH enjoy fighting," the Raging Berserker declared. "She's just more focused 'cause she's a titemyu." She then waved her hand. "So now that our visit to Earth has been preempted for a time, what about you guys?"
People back on Remnant exchanged looks. "Maybe in a couple of weeks," Monica answered. "We still have a lot of work to do in getting things to settle down finally."
As the Remnantians on the Normandy nodded in understanding, Coco added, "Still, keep us posted on what's going on when you get to Uru, though. If you need some help, we'll be there in a flash!"
"We're always combat ready!" Penny declared as she wrapped an arm around Ruby.
Laughter once more echoed over the communications links...
To Be Continued...
WRITER'S NOTES
With thanks to Dr. Tempo again for writing the first draft of the last scene here.
Stargate SG-1 character and situation notes: A harcesis — as Apophis' and Amaunet's son Shifu (who first appeared in the second season's ninth episode "Secrets") became — is a being born of two Goa'uld via their host bodies' natural reproductive process; in this, the combined memories of both parents are downloaded into the child, including some VERY damaging secrets that no System Lord worth his/her salt want released. Yametha was the high priestess on Chulak who bore Amaunet's true body until she bonded with Sha're Jackson in the pilot episode "Children of the Gods". Oma Desala first appeared in "Maternal Instinct" (twentieth episode of the third season). Heru'ur first appeared in "Thor's Chariot" (sixth episode of the second season). The Ori as a whole were the "Big Bads" of the series' last two seasons. As for the total number of worlds explored by Stargate Command as explained in the White House press briefing by Admiral Percy Fitzwallace, I came up with the number after calculating the number of planets explored by SG-1 up to the third season's fourteenth episode "Foothold", then multiplied by the amount of contact teams (there are nine at this point) before rounding off.
The West Wing character notes: Bill Kentworthy first appeared in the pilot episode of the series; he was the one who interviewed Sam Seaborn concerning a caustic comment Josh Lyman stated in a television interview sometime before. Mike Love (his family name is my invention) first appeared in "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc" (second episode of the first season). Bobbi Hamblin (her family name is my invention) first appeared in the pilot episode. Bruce Grey and Sondra Torres (their family names are my invention) first appeared in "The State Dinner" (seventh episode of the first season). Zoey Bartlet was a background character throughout the series, first appearing in "The Crackpots and These Women" (fifth episode of the first season); the nickname Ashikaga Akemi (THG Akebono) gives her, "Bookie", is in reference to her Secret Service call-sign, "Bookbag". Her Secret Service bodyguard Molly O'Connor first appeared in "Commencement" (twenty-second episode of the fourth season). Katie Witt first appeared in "The Short List" (ninth episode of the first season). Mark O'Donnell first appeared in "Shibboleth" (eighth episode of the second season). Note that the reporters' work places mentioned here are my invention; none of them were ever identified in the television series.
The video mentioned by Gabby Lewis (USS Iowa) concerning the tour of her interior where the issue of the turret explosion in 1989 is spoken about can be seen on YouTube; look for the title "Exploring OFF LIMIT Areas WW2 Battleship USS Iowa" in the search engine.
Translation list and source language: ABL — Armoured Box Launcher (English abbreviation); Małopolski — Lesser Polish (Polish); REMF — Rear echelon motherfucker (English abbreviation); Tokusatsu — Literally "special filming", a type of live-action film with numerous special effects, especially use of scale models (Japanese); Olltáirgeacht — Mass production (Irish).
Sawada Minako (Fencer) is another character from Zenkoku Bishōjo Seifuku Grand Prix; she also made the transition to the Find Love dating simulation game series. Atop being the third place finisher of the whole contest, she was second planet in the West Area finalists from the Kansai area.
The one shipgirl mentioned in this part:
Kumasaka Akina-chūsa DNTK (Tennō Heika Gunkan Akishimo [KK-242])
She takes after her Kantai Collection interpretation, of course.
RWBY character notes: Issues concerning the Gifting of people from Remnant like the members of Team CFVY (Coco Adel [Phalanx], Fox Alistair [Zatōichi], Velvet Scarlatina [Olltáirgeacht] and Yatsuhashi Daichi [Amnesia]), two of the members of Team FNKI (Flynt Coal [Bebop] and Neon Katt [Speed Demon]) as well as Neo Politan (Danzatrice) have or will be covered in the side story Of Giftings and Semblances. Hazel Rainart first appeared in "The Next Step" (first episode of Volume Four). Flynt's and Neon's teammates Kobalt and Ivori briefly appeared in "Sparks" (fifth episode of Volume Seven); their family names have yet to be mentioned in RWBY. Monica Khan (Doctor Aílurous) is my character, first appearing in Of Gifts and Semblances. Rei Xiǎo Lóng is Dr. Tempo's character, who will have a more detailed back story appear in a future side story sequel to OG&S.