"A-hoy hoy! Shamrock School for Girls Sensha-Do team, this is Shannon speaking!" Shannon grabbed a hold of the large telephone and placed it in her lap as she leaned back in her chair with the receiver held at her ear, causing a bundle of mops and brooms leaned against the wall behind her to fall over. Clare winced at the noise and looked up from the paperwork she was inspecting, but Shannon paid neither it nor her no mind, and instead remained completely engrossed in her conversation with whoever was on the other end of the phonecall. Clare couldn't help but feel a slight sense of discomfort and worry as the conversation went on, seeing a childlike, beaming glint of wonder slowly start to build in Shannon's eyes.
"Really?!" Shannon exclaimed and leapt to her feet, knocking her chair back and causing even more mess and noise behind her. "Of course we'll take them! … No, thank you! They'll be much appreciated! Tomorrow! Yes… Yes… Yes, gladly! Tally-hoo!" With that, she slammed the receiver back in its place in a wide, theatrical arc, and returned the phone to the small table that was her desk.
"Who was that?" Clare asked with feigned nonchalant, not even raising her eyes from the papers she were reading.
"St. Gloriana," Shannon beamed. "They're giving us two tanks!"
"That's nice of the-... wait, what?" Clare asked, and looked up at Shannon with shock, convinced she must have misheard.
"They're giving us two tanks!" Shannon repeated, shaking from excitement. "Isn't it amazing?!"
"But… but what did they want in return?"
"That's the best part!" Shannon cheered. "They're giving them to us, Clare! For free!"
"You have got to have misunderstood that, Shannon…" Clare said incredulously. "There's no way they're just giving us two tanks like that…"
"No, I made doubly sure," Shannon said swiftly. "They're giving us two brand new, never before used, end-of-war tanks! They were literally giving them away! It's more than we could ever have dreamed of!" She rounded her 'desk' and grabbed Clare in a tight hug, gleefully jumping up and down.
"Then… what… were… they…?" Clare groaned out as she broke free of Shannon's embrace. "The tanks, I mean?"
"Oh! It's marvelous, Kira, they were a pair of… a pair of… they were…" For the first time since answering the phone, Shannon slowed down and held back much of the gleeful energy that had possessed her, and thoughtfully stroked her chin as she looked down at the floor and racked her brain. "I guess I forgot," she said after a few seconds, smiling sheepishly and scratching her neck. "But I know they began with a V! And it's St. Gloriana, so they're definitely British!"
"So… let me get this straight…" Clare said scrupulously. "You're telling me that St. Gloriana Girl's Academy are giving us, Shamrock, a pair of never before used Valentines just out of the goodness of their hearts?"
"I know!" Shamrock beamed, and grabbed Clare's hands. "Isn't it amazing?!"
"Right… amazing…" Clare said and rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "It certainly amazes me, that's for sure…"
"Oh come off it…" Shannon chided, and clapped a hand on Clare's shoulder. "Stop looking a gift egg in the basket and be happy for once, won't ya?"
"Miss Shannon," a green-haired girl in St. Gloriana's striking red uniform said, holding out a clipboard. "Sign here, here, and there, please."
"Gladly!" Shannon said with a cheerful smile, grabbed the clipboard, and jotted down a series of squiggly lines that could only with great difficulty be called signatures. "Here you go!"
"Thank you," the green-haired girl said, and did a small curtsy. "St. Gloriana thanks you for your cooperation." She swiftly turned and nodded to her companions, who soon boarded the helicopter with which they had brought the large red shipping container and took off, leaving Shannon with her new tanks and a team standing by eager to give them a spin.
Or rather, that was what the team was supposed to be doing.
"SHUT UP AND PAY ATTENTION!"
Silence immediately fell over the dozen or so girls that had, up until that moment, been hollering and messing around in front of the container, and the slightest sense of order took hold.
"These are our new tanks!" Shannon said boastfully and gestured towards the container.
"But there's no treads on it?" Laune asked, causing a wave of sniggering to spread among the team.
"QUIET!" Shannon cried out, and rubbed her temples. "The container isn't the tanks, you dimwit! The tanks are in the container!"
"Oh… That makes a lot more sense…" Laune nodded.
"So! Maigue, Tolka, if you would do the honors?"
The two girls walked up to the large set of doors on the container and, with a fair bit of groaning and heaving, pulled them open, exposing the Valentines within to the light of day. Or, at least, Shannon thought they were Valentines, but the tanks in the container definitely didn't look like any Valentine's she'd ever seen before. The two tanks were squat and almost deformed-looking, with what almost looked like a metal bra strapped across the front of its hull.
"What… what are they?" Annalee asked, and cautiously walked over to look more closely at the odd tanks. "They kinda look like… like Matildas, I guess… except…"
"Who cares what they are?" Maigue shrugged, and climbed up on the hull of one of the tanks. "This pecker's gotta pack one hell of a punch!"
"Well, it's important!" Shannon snapped back, and put her hands on her hips. "Dalua! Fetch the book!"
"I know what it is," Tolka said quietly, squirming slightly as all attention fell on her.
"You do?" Clare asked. "So… then what is it?"
"They're…" Tolka mumbled, "They're two Valiants…"