Twoearle would have preferred to be by Aisana's side until she was back on her feet, but unfortunately she was on a team of superheroes and had important things to do. Things like finding and closing the portals connecting Earth and Catyu to Locale. She would have done it alone, but there was always the risk of their being an elemerian present to guard the portal, so she decided to bring along someone else just in case.
Souji was busy getting excited over all the new twintails on board, Aika didn't trust her pet psychopath to be by herself and so was always being shadowed by that monster, and Erina was helping the maids set up some kind of school to start educating the former antiwarriors. That left Twoearle with just one option.
"What do you think they're doing now?" Isabella asked, chewing her fingernail fretfully as she started out the cabs back window at the receding Tail Cruiser.
Twoearle could only sigh. "Probably just working out."
Isabella didn't seem to hear her. "I don't like leaving those two alone together."
"I'm sure Aika can handle it."
"But what if they're talking about me?"
Twoearle pinched the bridge of her nose. "At the moment I don't think you're very high on Aika's list of priorities and I doubt Yamato even knows your name."
Her words seemed to pass in one ear and out the other. The young teenager continued to fret on the back seat of the cab.
This is gonna be a long drive. Twoearle grunted with annoyance.
Her dropship had been shot down in the last operation, meaning that to travel domestically they now had to use domestic transport. Locale was an advanced society, so getting a flying cab to pick her up wasn't very difficult. The sheer indifference of the people of this world was such that they were perfectly happy to drive a car out to where the Trail Cruiser was landed as long as it was part of their day job.
The cab driver didn't even comment on Isabella's cat ears or her tail. He just accepted their money without a word and obediently followed Twoearle's instruction as she followed her sensory devices to the portal that the elemerians had constructed.
The city they passed through was in ruins, with smashed towers, apartment blocks, shopping malls and businesses ripped apart. Yamato and Aika had not held back with eachother even slightly in their battle and it showed, with a massive crater that had a diameter of several hundred feet now dominating the city landscape. Twoearle could only stare dejectedly out the window at the state her home town was in, and even worse, the state of its people. Their homes had been destroyed and countless lives had been lost. Wailing, anger, politicians giving speeches promising to rebuild and get justice for the victims.
There was none of that.
Just a new, very large colony of now homeless people who shrugged their shoulders, scavenged up what possessions they could and wandered off to find somewhere else to live. The streets were filled with the faces of hungry, unwashed men, women and children with nowhere to go to, that seemingly didn't care at all. They just waited around bored, uncomfortable but unwilling to do anything about it.
Twoearle shuddered, and decided that discussing Isabella's teen hormones might not be so bad after all.
"I thought you were over Aika."
"I am!" Isabella immediately objected.
"Then what's the problem?"
"I still want Senpai to think about me! And spend time with me." Isabella slumped into her seat dejectedly.
"...If it helps, I don't think she wants to ignore you." Twoearle pointed out. "It's just Yamato will probably kill all the other antiwarriors if she's left alone with them."
Isabella was definitely smart enough to know intellectually that Twoearle was speaking the truth, but that didn't help her feel it emotionally.
Eventually they arrived at what looked like an old power plant of some kind, with large smoke stacks and ugly square buildings, surrounded by a chain link fence with signs that read 'CONDEMNED. STAY OUT.' It was where the signals were coming from, so Twoearle paid the cab driver to wait for them out front while the two of them headed inside.
It was lucky she brought Isabella along, because inside they found a small team of ultiroids operating the device. They panicked when they saw the Warrior, and were quickly dispatched by Tailpink.
Only half interested, Twoearle browsed the computer for a while and skimmed the reports that were written on it. Among them she found a map of where they had buried all their elemera stock piles across the planet. She saved that file on her helmet's computer, before moving to begin shutting down the portal.
"Does it work?" Isabella asked.
Twoearle shrugged before sending a drone through to double check. It came back with a photo of several confused looking ultiroids on the other side.
Twoearle showed it to Isabella. "You want to go deal with them?"
Isabella transformed into Tailpink before walking through. It took her a while to come back, longer than Twoearle would have expected to deal with some mere ultiroids. The scientist was just starting to get worried when Tailpink reappeared, a bright smile on her face.
"Hey, I just had a great idea!"
Twoearle raised an eyebrow. "I don't think any idea that comes from your little mind can be that great, but I'll humor you."
"This portal connects to Nekonawa on Catyu!"
"...Alright, and?"
"And beaches!" Isabella rolled her eyes. "Look, we can't leave until the dropship is repaired, right? And that'll take days and the droids will do most of the work."
"...True." Twoearle conceded.
"And while that's happening, we can take a break from space travel and war while working on our tans! I don't know if you noticed, but our ship doesn't have any sunlight so we're all looking kinda pasty right now."
Her enthusiasm was to the level where Twoearle would have felt guilty telling her no. After a while she sighed, and decided to make it someone else's problem. "Look, we can pitch your idea to the others, but I don't think they'll go for it."
"That's a great idea." Aika said approvingly, while Erina nodded in enthusiastic agreement.
Souji furrowed his brows in confusion. "Is it?"
"Absolutely." Aika said emphatically, and Isabella looked very pleased with herself.
All the original members of the group were in the bridge, Souji, Aika, Twoearle and Erina, along with the newer members Isabella and Liz. The final person present was Yamato, who still wasn't allowed to be unsupervised. She sat sulking in a chair next to Aika while occasionally glaring at Liz whenever they happened to make eye contact.
For her part, Liz looked like she was sweating bullets. It didn't seem like she completely trusted in the group's ability to control her former tormentor just yet.
The rest of the group didn't notice, still wrapped up in their discussion.
"Look, I don't mind the idea of a vacation, but what exactly will this accomplish?" Twoearle asked.
"It'll be fun!" Isabella declared, and Erina nodded.
"More importantly, it'll be a good way for us to bring the new girls onboard." Aika pointed out.
"Ohhhh." Souji mouthed.
Aika explained for Twoearle who still looked cynical, "Look, I'm not exactly interested in forcing them to fight for us like the Elemerians, but we also can't abandon them here on Locale either. We need them to want to join us if we're ever going to trust them with their tailsuits again, otherwise it's just more mouths to feed on the ship."
Erina clapped her hands excitedly. "I've wanted to do a proper spa day with you guys for ages!"
"Oh, we can definitely do that." Isabella smirked. "We can go to my family's villa, it has a hot spring and everything!"
"Ooooh." Erina looked delighted.
"Look, this sounds nice and all." Twoearle raised her voice. "But we're not going to buy their loyalty with a weekend vacation."
"We're not buying their loyalty." Souji interrupted. "We're trying to become friends, and to do that we have to spend time together."
Aika nodded with agreement. "But we don't want to force this on them, the best way for us to do that is to not make it mandatory. We extend the invitation, and whoever wants to come will. They'll have a good time, and hopefully realise that they're better off as friends with us, than slaves to the elemerians."
Twoearle didn't have any serious problems with the idea, and everyone else seemed for it, so she simply shrugged in the end. "Alright, if you guys think this is a good idea."
Isabella looked to Liz. "Do you want to invite the other girls for us?"
"Uh, sure." She looked anything but sure of herself. Almost by habit she glanced at Yamato to double check if that was okay, but only received a cold glare in return. She quickly looked back to the rest of the table. "I'll go get that done." Then hurried out the door.
"So, what are we going to do with our problem child?" Twoearle tilted her head at Yamato, who grit her jaw hatefully.
"Don't call her names." Aika warned Twoearle with a scowl, before looking at her ward, consideringly. It took her a few seconds to come to a decision. "Take some time to think about it, and then let me know if you want to come, okay?"
All Yamato did was narrow her eyes suspiciously, like she was expecting some kind of trick.
"I guess that settles it, then." Souji announced. "The Twintail Warriors are having a vacation."
Isabella was the one who had to organise almost everything. She quickly called her father to let him know the situation and that she was back on Catyu. For his part, he was delighted to hear from her that she was safe, and happily let her use the villa. He even sent her enough money to pay for everything they might need, which Isabella promised herself to use all of.
The Villa itself was beautiful. It was three stories tall with a massive garden full of winding paths and exotic plants, and even had an artificial river running through it complete with a waterfall and sapphire blue lagoon. It had dozens of bedrooms, easily able to store the entire crew of the Tail Cruiser even with all its new members. Each floor of the Villa had a balcony with a view of the beautiful Nekonawa beachside and chairs for sunbathing.
The whole property was maintained by a housekeeper and a groundskeeper, who lived in the small town nearby and were hired to do the same for several similar properties. Isabella had been here before, but it had been so long that she didn't remember it very well. In order to be a good host, she took the time to familiarise herself with the grounds after collecting the key from the housekeeper.
It wasn't long at all until everything was prepared, and she received word that the antiwarriors had responded to the invitation with overwhelming enthusiasm.
In just a few hours, the foyer was packed with chattering teens, who looked at the arrayed wealth with open delight and curiosity. The group was full of energy, looking ready to rush off and do their thing at any moment, but still they waited for permission. Isabella suspected it was a leftover from Yamato's harsh discipline, and couldn't help but wonder who was expected to give them orders, when the two most dominant personalities around, Aika and Yamato were both still aboard the Tail Cruiser. After a while they looked to Liz, who looked to Erina, who then looked to Isabella.
The native catian revelled in the power and authority she had for a few brief moments, and pranced up the stairs to where she stood over everyone.
"House rules: the royal suite is mine, and don't break anything. Now let's all have fun!"
Erina applauded with excitement, and very quickly the antiwarriors joined in.
After that they dispersed, rushing off to claim beds for themselves, leaving just Souji to carry everyone's bags. Seeing the pile of work he'd been left with, he simply shrugged and picked up the first two.
The Tail Cruiser was mostly empty at the moment. Mikoto and Sato had a few more things to ferry through the portal, while Twoearle had two patients that would have to make the trip separately from the rest of the girls. Maria was awake from her coma these days, but with broken limbs would have to enjoy their trip from the comfort of her wheelchair. On the other hand, Aisana could walk by herself, but until her fingers healed she couldn't operate any machinery.
Her robotic assistant, Mega Neptune Mk II, would have to do that for her, though the lumbering machine was rather clumsy.
Twoearle wheeled Maria down to the waiting cab, where Mrs Mitsuka was already there, ready to leave.
That left just two people aboard the ship who had chosen to stay behind.
Aika and Yamato.
This was another humiliation to her. Being made to follow at Clever Rat's heels like some kind of pet was bad enough but then she threatened to drag her before the other antiwarriors and show her off like a caged animal! Yamato seethed, hating her situation but unable to do anything about it.
The thing that confused her most was why Aika who was so clever would ever think that Yamato would choose public humiliation over private? Whatever insidious forms of torture Aika had in mind, Yamato would always choose that over showing weakness in front of the girls.
Yamato followed behind Aika, glaring at her back with open suspicion. Whatever the Twintail Warrior had in store for her, there was no way it could be worse than the things she had already endured.
They came to a door with writing on it in a language that Yamato couldn't understand without the help of her black bracer's universal translator, but she could guess at their meaning fairly well. The door was covered in blinking red warning lights and hazard signs. Totally unfazed, Aika stepped through and held the door open for Yamato who followed through to find a strange array of tools and equipment.
Inside there were long metal bars with black disk shaped weights strapped to each side, pulleys with handles strapped to weights, conveyor belts that led nowhere, and all manner of other strange devices like large rubber balls and brightly coloured hoops.
What kind of sick torture room is this? Yamato wondered as she looked around.
"Here, put this on." Aika said and handed her a set of skin tight, stretchy clothes. "I borrowed these from Isabella, they should fit you."
Yamato's eyes narrowed, but she did as she was told, her tendrils quickly whipping off the hospital robe she was in and replacing it with this new outfit.
Despite Yamato following the instructions, for some reason Aika clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Yamato looked down at herself in confusion, wondering what the problem was.
"You use your powers for everything, so your muscles are dangerously underdeveloped." She shrugged. "Whatever, we'll work on that."
Now this thug was insulting her directly?! Yamato scowled, determined that whatever followed she would not blink. No matter what, she would never allow herself to be broken again! Do your worst, Clever Rat. This time, I'll be the victor!
"Stooohp." Yamato squealed, breathlessly. "Stop, I'm gonna die!"
"No you're not, just one more!"
Her thighs burned, just like her abdominals ached. Along with her shoulders, biceps, forearms, calves, and other muscles groups Aika had given the name of that Yamato hadn't known existed but pained her nonetheless.
"I can't!"
"Yes you can! This is the last one, then break!"
Face screwed up in agony, Yamato saw no mercy coming and had no choice but to raise the puny metal weights once more. Her underarms shrieked with protest, and a horrible animalistic grunt blew past her lips along with a spray of spittle before she finally completed the motion. She would normally use her powers to help, but every time she tried Aika immediately noticed and stopped her, leaving Yamato no choice but to persist.
The worst part of all of it was no matter what exercise they worked, Aika would demonstrate it effortlessly, like she wasn't even trying. Given her monstrous strength, she was almost certainly not straining even a little bit. Meanwhile Yamato was reduced to a teenage puddle on the ground, with barely the strength to raise herself up let alone challenge the beastly girl.
Aika glanced at the clock. "Huh, it hasn't even been an hour." She then looked down at her victim. "But I suppose that's a good start."
Yamato swallowed, and breathlessly. "Start?"
"Yeah, we'll have a hearty meal with lots of protein, and then rest up, and tomorrow we'll see if you can last for an hour and a half."
Yamato's stomach plummeted, and tears welled in her eyes. She just barely bit back a defeated sob, and leaned her head against the cool deck of the ship. "I changed my mind."
"Hm?"
"I want to go to the beach."
Aika blinked. "Oh, are you sure?"
"Yes. Please. Take me to the beach."
Aika considered for a few moments before shrugging. "Well, alright then." She shrugged before going to start packing up all the equipment they'd been using.
Yamato stared up at the roof, and thought to herself, Anything is better than this.
Unheard by her, Aika walked away murmuring to herself, "I'm sure they'll have a gym at the Nakatomi villa anyway."