The 'friendly' match between Count High School and Tarczay High School was likely to be anything but, given the longstanding rivalry between the schools.
The overall team commander, known as Goulash, dismounted from the Krupp Protze staff car used by her school, along with Rétes, her tall vice-commander. Above average height, slender, with grey, almost lilac-tinted hair done up in a braid and piercing deep brown eyes, Goulash was normally an imposing figure. Her second in command was taller still, but with a friendlier face, a small mole on her right cheek, and her chestnut brown hair tied up into a ponytail. Together they made their way over to where the cape-wearing commander of Count's team was already waiting.
Some of the tanks on both teams were still moving to their start positions, so the sound of heavy engines and tracks in the near distance did not unduly disturb the speakers. Some far away voices, chanting something that sounded like "Lero! Lero!" were more unusual, but no one paid them any attention.
"Marina," Goulash nodded in greeting to her opposite number. "Thank you for giving us the opportunity to avenge our defeat from our last match together."
"You're always welcome!" said the short girl with the strangely pointed ears. "And please, call me Marina-chan!"
"Hmph!" Goulash replied, ignoring the request.
"Lero! Lero! Lilliburlero!" went the previously distant voices, sounding louder than before.
"Hey, since this is supposed to be a friendly match," the girl from Count said. "Shall we have a hug and a kiss?"
Goulash took a step back, instinctively clapping a defensive hand to her neck.
"Stay away from me you leech!" she snapped at Marina.
"Aw, why so nervous Goulash?" Marina asked with a smile, before changing the topic. "Feeling lucky today, are you? Shall I see what your future holds?" she offered. She produced a pack of cards from her pocket and selected one at random.
"Ooh, 'The Lovers'!" she said triumphantly, holding the card up for Goulash to see. "Do you have someone special in mind today Goulash? Now you definitely should give me a kiss! Destiny demands it!" she teased.
"Lero! Lero! Lillibullero bullen a la!" came the chanting voices, much louder and clearer.
Goulash, who had been about to retort to her opposite number, turned to face the direction of the strange interruption.
"What is that?" she asked no one in particular.
Cresting a rise, as if in answer to her question, the source of the noise revealed itself in the form of three tanks with their hatches open and students' heads poking out. The lead one was an angular olive-green thing, the likes of which Goulash had never seen before, while the following pair of grey ones resembled her team's Toldi light tanks.
"The devil he hoisted her back on his hump,
And back up to earth with her he did jump!" the approaching girls bellowed out, to a tune being played by a redheaded girl with a fiddle who was actually sat atop one of the turrets.
"What the Hell?" Goulash demanded, turning to Marina who looked equally baffled.
Taking advantage of the confusion, the hat-wearing Count commander slipped the remaining 77 'The Lovers' cards of her tailored pack back into her pocket before walking forward to stand next to Goulash, scratching her head at the unusual sight.
The odd-looking lead tank halted and a door - an actual door - set in the front of it opened to emit a short girl with red hair in twin tails who was sporting a green uniform complete with some sort of large floppy cap.
"Hello Goulash!" she thundered as she came bounding over.
"Who is that? How does she know my name?" Goulash urgently asked Rétes, flinching slightly.
"I have no idea… wait… haven't we seen this lot before?" Rétes conjectured. "Didn't we end up in a massive brawl with them!?"
"Oh f… you're right!" Goulash exclaimed.
"Friends of yours?" Marina asked with a voice like treacle.
"Shannon, isn't it? What do you want? Can't you see we're about to start a match!?" Goulash demanded of the redhead.
"Exactly! And that's why we're here; to be your allies! Sorry we're a bit late," Shannon explained, which explained nothing.
"Allies!?" Goulash said, aghast. "Look, I remember you kept emailing me about a composite match, and…"
"And you said you weren't able to for your next match, or the one after, or the one after that!" Shannon beamed. "So I kept track of your team's fixtures diary, and this is the match after that one, so here we are!" she triumphantly concluded.
"Last time we met you things ended in a punch up!" Rétes pointed out, as Goulash stood there, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Yeah, awesome, wasn't it!? My, you girls are tough!" Shannon replied with a huge smile. She hopped from foot to foot, mimicking some boxing moves while grinning her broad grin, which caused Goulash to actually recoil slightly from her.
"Look," Goulash began with an exasperated sigh. "We're all set here and about to begin; we can't add you to our team just like that! We…"
"Ahem!" Marina interjected by poignantly clearly her throat.
"What?" Goulash snapped, rounding on her.
"I think you'll find…" Marina said in an oily-smooth voice. "That under the official Sensha-do rules, and as demonstrated in the famous Ooarai - UST match, only the opposing commander can raise objections to reinforcements being added immediately before a match."
"But surely, not if a side doesn't want reinf…" Goulash spluttered but was cut off.
"Those are the rules," Marina said with wide-eyed and very feigned innocence.
There followed a few moments as the judges, who were standing to one side, frantically thumbed through their pocket books and several other guides, but finally they all nodded that Marina was indeed correct; only the commander of the opposing team could object to reinforcements being added right before a match was due to start.
Marina smiled smugly at Goulash.
Goulash stared back at her for several seconds. "And…!?" she finally asked.
"And I have no objections," Marina smiled, flashing her teeth at Goulash. "I'm sure that you and your… allies… will get on famously!"