With Georgia:

I came out of the bushes, having snapped out of my fairy-controlling fugue. My little girls were alive but trapped, the hanger they'd gone through now full of a massive-mouthful of Re. And I needed to get them out!

Chitose joined me, helped along by Hakone as she clutched at her shoulder, where a nasty looking hole with blackened edges was all that remained of her 5" gun there. "Damn, you alright ChiChi?" I asked, a little concerned.

"ChiChi-?" Chitose shook her head, "yes, I'm fine, it looks far worse than it is, luckily it didn't hit the magazine underneath, or I would be a lot worse off."

"She took a hit directly on top of the turret from a 5" packing HE from the looks of it, mum!" Hakone said distractedly, still supporting the Tender even as she tried to wave her off.

I grinned as I waited for the two ships to catch up, "Mum, huh?" Hakone froze up, before looking over at me shyly, "about time, was getting tired of all the 'Georgia' this and 'Georgia' that, calling your parents by their names is just weird." I finished.

Hakone smiled, "Thanks mum!" she twisted to Chitose, leaning in to give her a side-hug, "you too, other-mum!"

We continued onward while Chitose did a rather swell impression of a tomato, "I dunno, I think I'd be more of the 'dad' to be honest," I said, "I'm not nearly responsible enough to be the mother, right Chitose?"

*Distressed Chitose Noises*

"Yeah, exactly!" I continued, ignoring the floundering Japanese woman, "and I provided the sailors! So I'm definitely not the mum!" I finished. Hakone thought about it for a moment, before nodding in agreement.

"Makes sense."

Any sputtered response from Chitose was cut off as we finally broke through the mulched underbrush, only to see Lao on her knees, crying over the still-form of Anne as Diane looked on helplessly.

"Oh no..." I sprint-hovered over, before practically jumping out of Scooter, landing next to the pair of ships. "What happened," I said, all business now.

Lao looked over, tears in her eyes, it said something about the state that she was in that she didn't even flinch on seeing me, "S-She saved me, a-and then, the Re..." words failed her then, and she simply gestured at the football-sized hole going through Annes gut. "S-She shot her! From behind. The o-only reason I'm still alive is Diane got her attention, then her tail went fucking insane and ate her!" She finished.

I kneeled down next to the Frigate, putting my hands on her back as I leaned in, looking into the hole as I responded distractedly, "That was me."

Lao paused in her crying, looking over as she rubbed at one of her eyes, "W-What?"

"Gimmie a minute and I'll tell you," I said, turning this way and that as I struggled to get a good view into the damaged area, "Friggen depth perception can kiss my ass," I said, before flipping up my eyepatch, the eye, frozen in-place, still helped, as I craned my head to look into the edges of the hole.

"I'll never get used to how much bigger it is on the inside," I muttered, looking into the ruined remains of a cavernous boiler room, where Annes fairy's were already swarming the wreckage, putting out the few small fires that had managed to start. One of them looked over and nearly dropped the fire extinguisher she carried as she saw my (comparatively massive) face peeking in through the massive hull-breach.

"Holy jesus ya scahred the bloody root out of me! Fahkin' fair dinkum mate!" The fairy said, in a hilariously thick Australian accent.

It took me a second to parse the words.

"I... sorry?" I said.

The little fairy saluted, "Dont wawrry about it, we just stahrted on repair, engineers ahah wawrkin' ta get the bloody powah differential back on track, but we'll be pushin' the bloody othah boilers ta the bloody limit ta get Anne mobile agayyn."

I looked at my wrist, at an imaginary wristwatch, "Uhm, I think it's about nine-thirty?"

The fairy just shrugged, before, "No dramas admiral fahkin' too right, mate." she wandered off.

I raised my head, slowly putting my eyepatch back on as Diane kneeled down next to me, clutching her side, "Is Anne going to be alright?" She asked worriedly.

"I... think so?" I said, scratching my head.

"S-Shes not dead?" Lao said in a small voice, I looked over. The Frigate looked at me, dawning hope in her eyes, I gave her a thumbs up.

"Nope!" I grinned, "She's got more than one set of boilers! She just can't move right now. I think."

Lao scooted over, taking her turn to look into Annes gaping wound. "I...more than one boiler room?"

I shrugged, "When I was piecing her together from spare parts, her original boiler room was torn to pieces." I pointed at some faint weld lines creeping up Annes back, "her torso was from a Wo-Class fleet Carrier that Chitose stabbed to death."

Lao's eyes grew wide, before looking over at Chitose, who had just joined the group. "She what!?"

I continued, "Well, not 'to-death' but it made it so she wasn't trying to murder us anymore and we could toss her into the drink. So just as well," I looked over at Chitose, "You used a jagged piece of her own hull, didn't you?"

"A shard of her own outer-bulkhead, yes," Chitose twiddled her fingers as Lao looked at her in awe, "Ah, I didn't really have anything else to hand at the time, so..."

"so cool..." Lao shook herself, before looking at me, "So, what does that have to do with her construction?"

"Well, because the boiler room was so borked, and because we only had a bunch of smaller Admiralty 3 drums boilers from a bunch of I-class's, I basically put them in wherever there was space for 'em." I shrugged, "She only had like, about a third of her boilers in there." I thumbed at the gaping hole in the woman's gut.

"Amazing, I would never be able to survive damage like that." Diane said, "All of my boilers are packed together inside my Citadel, it's a significant amount of protection, but should it ever be breached..." she winced, rubbing the massive dent in her side.

"Hey, that doesn't look too good, are you going to be ok?" I said worriedly.

Diane winced a little, before nodding. "I will survive, though I may need to replace some of my portside citadel armor. It is horribly dented inwards, the maintenance compartments next to it are practically pancaked!"

I nodded, "Well, we got the materials handy for that, though you'll probably have to go under for a while." I gestured at the Re-class distractedly, before my one visible eye widened, "Oh shite!" I got to my feet, hurrying over to the forcefully self-cannibalized Aviation Battleship.

"Georgia?" Chitose asked.

"Gotta get my girls out! They're trapped inside!" I said distractedly, coming up on the wreck, "Now, how the hell do I...?"

"Trapped inside? What do yo-" Lao's eyes went wide, even as I snapped off one of the Tails massive teeth, "Your SEALs are still in there?!" she said incredulously.

"How do you think I made little miss 'put-a-hole-in-Anne' eat herself?" I said a tad aggressively, as I used the sharp tooth to punch a hole into the tail's 'head', "I Assumed Direct Control of one of them, then usedher to connect to the tail's controls once they cleared the bridge staff." I widened the hole I'd made, getting confirmation from my girls that it was in the right spot, "I'll tell you one thing, it was pretty friggen weird to not have any limbs but your mouth."

Lao opened her own mouth, as if to say something, but just left her jaw hanging as I withdrew the tooth from the hole I'd made, letting five little black-armored girls scurry out of the tail's forehead. I let them jump onto my open palm before bringing them up to my face.

"I'm so proud of you girls." I smooched em on their adorable little heads, one by one as they struggled to avoid it, as Chitose patted a shaking Lao's shoulder consolingly.