Alright! Here comes the next chapter in Strike Heroes! I'd clap, but you wouldn't be able to hear it. :)
Alright, review-responding time...
fuji92: Sorry about the foreboding thing. I thought it would at least set the idea that Roland receiving the prototype was no mere coincidence...or is it? It's great to hear you say you're looking forward to the next chapter. I'll try not to disappoint.
Cabbage cabrera: The idea of the watch housing the Striker Unit came to me from sources like Joe's V-Watch in Viewtiful Joe. The thought came to me when I thought about the fact that the average Witch in the 501st (excluding Sanya for her skirt) wore nothing for the lower body. I then thought about the fact that the non-magic users (males serving in the military) wear their uniform. It was then I realized that I had no idea how a male Witch would be able to solve the problem concerning the custom. In Roland's case, he's a male...and a magic user (as stated, he states that his condition was between "rare" and "valuable"). Add in the fact that he's from a different world...and the idea of having to take his pants off just to pilot the Striker Units would have seemed terrifying for him. Fortunately for him, he has the watch containing the prototype Striker Unit, though he already piloted his first normal Striker Unit. Oh, and Roland also doesn't seem to like the idea of his Striker Unit's "pants-or-not" statement, as indicated by him stopping General Weiss once the comment was made and adding in the fact that he was never going to just turn into a girl.
Whew, that was a mouthful (not literally)...
MrWolfDog: I am well aware of the fact that the "HP" means "Hi-Power". I covered it in my last entry, but thanks for letting me know either way.
Warmach1ne32: It's great to hear that you like the story, but I'm not sure what's missing yet either. The best I can do is keep going and see it something pops up. Oh, and I did read that guide once I read the review, so I have at least a new resource to look back on if needed.
Without further ado...let's move on to Roland's first contact with the rest of the Strike Witches!
XXXXXXXXXX
Chapter 3: You're Not Alone (Part 1)
Last time, Lieutenant Roland Sage witnessed the death of Commander Hannah Ellios and destroyed the Neuroi responsible for her death. A week after what he called the Ascension incident, he is scouted by Wing Commander Minna-Dietlinde Wilcke for the 501st Joint Fighter Wing, collectively known as the Strike Witches. Now a member of the wing, Roland has a few things to learn when it comes to life inside the base.
Will Roland be able to survive his first few days?
XXXXXXXXXX
It was the day after the ceremony that officially made me and one other Witch (a female) honorary members of the Strike Witches. Which was odd considering that I did have my part at the same time as the other Witch.
Actually, I should say somewhere in the very early morning. I think around 0100 hours, and the only reason I was thinking of that number was because I was up at that time.
For some reason I had dreamed of that very incident that killed Commander Ellios, and I felt that I was going to have that dream a lot.
I hadn't been too close to Hannah Ellios, as I stated, other than her being my commander while I was on the Ascension. It wasn't until during the funeral that I learned a bit about her: she had been one of the first Witches to fight the Neuroi (I think the first active Witch was Mio Sakamoto, a major who coincidentally was a part of the Strike Witches), and she had been a part of a group of teams that had tried keeping Gallia safe from the Neuroi. While that failed, her squadron had managed to try their best to escort as many people as possible to safety.
I fell back asleep, though it was only a light sleep. Sadly, I was woken up at about 0455 when I thought I heard something.
I got up and walked up to the window, opening it and letting the air flow into the room. I stuck my head out a little and breathed deeply. I could feel a little relieved as I looked out at the sea. The salty air really did something for me, as I leaned a little more out the window.
I stopped myself before I did something I would regret and pulled myself back into the room. I wasn't trying to unconsciously die, was I?
I was disturbed by some voice that sounded jealous or something.
"Ergh, that is not okay!" she said.
Slightly irritated that the comment had interrupted my peace, I walked up to the wall at the head of my bed. Forming a fist with my right hand, I knocked on the wall.
KNOCK KNOCK.
"Hey, can you keep it down please?" I asked the voice.
After saying that, I lied back down and got a little more sleep.
XXXXXXXXXX
Sometime later, I was walking over to where I could eat breakfast when, not paying attention to where I was going while listening to my stomach growl, I accidentally bumped into someone. The reaction I had was to grab the person's shoulders to keep them steady.
I soon looked at the Witch I bumped into. She was rather young, about fourteen if I had to take a guess, and her attire was odd. She wore what I could call a seaman's shirt that was probably one size too big; essentially, a white long-sleeved uniform with blue cuffs, blue on the edge of the bottom of her attire, and a blue collar. She had brown eyes and what I could call auburn hair that was short. Underneath all that was a dark blue one-piece swimsuit.
"Sorry!" she said as soon as she got a look at me.
"It's alright," I told her. "I wasn't really paying attention. You okay?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
As I let go of her shoulders and she backed up, I was aware of someone behind me. Turning around quickly, I saw that it was none other than Minna.
"There you are, lieutenant," she said rather cheerfully. "I take it you got some sleep?"
"Hmm?" I asked. "Oh. Yeah, I did."
"Good to hear." Taking notice of the other girl, she added, "Oh, I see you ran into our other new recruit. Lieutenant, this is Yoshika Miyafuji. Miyafuji, this is Lieutenant Roland Sage, also known as the Ground Witch in case you know about that."
"The Ground Witch?" Yoshika asked.
Nodding my head, I said, "Yep. That's a nickname I got for the fact that I usually fought without a Striker Unit. Plus, I was in the non-Witch branch of the Liberion armed forces for a while."
"That's amazing!"
"Well, I'm glad you think that," Minna added. "We better get you introduced to the others. They're waiting for us in the briefing room."
"Right!" Yoshika said cheerfully.
"Yes, ma'am!" I told her as I saluted her.
XXXXXXXXXX
Soon, we were walking into the briefing room, and I was amazed at the turnout: it was one thing to see it on a television screen, but a whole new experience to actually see it for yourself. I think the entire group was in here for this.
When we were comfortable with where we were standing at the front, Minna clapped her hands to get everyone's attention before saying, "Your attention please. Good morning. Quick announcement: if you hadn't met them yesterday, these are our new recruits. Major Sakamoto brought one from the Fuso Empire while the other one came from the United States of Liberion. This is Yoshika Miyafuji…"
"Thank you for having me," Yoshika added. "I'm looking forward to meeting all of you,"
"…and Lieutenant Roland Sage."
"Pleasure to meet you all…I guess," was all I said.
Hey, you try finding something good to say when you're staring at a room full of cute girls…though from my memory only three of them were within my age group of eighteen to twenty years of age.
"Miyafuji's rank is Sergeant, which makes her the same rank as you, Lynne, so do you mind helping her and Roland settle in?" Minna added.
The one named Lynne gasped before saying "Okay,"
Lynne had a white button-up shirt under a light gray vest. Both were covered by a black jacket. There was also a green tie around her collar. She had light tan hair with gray eyes. If I remembered correctly, she also had green and gray striped socks.
"Good," Minna said. "Now, all the documents, clothing, rank, insignia, and identification you need are in here." She gestured to two packages, each with a Walther PPK pistol.
Yoshika grabbed the Walther PPK off of what she assumed was hers and politely handed it back to Minna, insisting that she didn't need a gun. I simply handed mine back with the fact that I was already in the possession of a Browning HP.
After this, Mio chuckled and made a comment about us being fascinating to watch, something I agreed with mentally. We have a girl who doesn't like the fact that she has to handle a gun right now and a guy who can foretell the future of this group a lot better than most people, though I can't be certain of anything now.
Suddenly, one girl stood up, shouted "That's it!" in irritation, and stormed off while everyone (including me) watched. She had on what I would consider a blue military jacket with a white scarf tied under her collar. She had on glasses with oval-shaped lenses, had blond hair that reached down to her shoulders, and what I could only assume were hazel-colored eyes. She was one of the oddballs of the groups, having a pair of black tights covering her panties and legs.
"Well," Minna remarked, "I certainly wasn't expecting that to happen. I guess individual introductions will have to wait 'til later. You are now dismissed."
Everyone who was at a table stood up, and I looked at each of them.
Why did I suddenly have a feeling this was going to be a trying experience for me?
XXXXXXXXXX
As if having predicted it, I instantly backed away from Yoshika as the latter began having her breasts touched by a girl with black hair and aquamarine eyes. She wore a white long-sleeved jacket, and she had blue-and-white striped panties on.
"So?" another girl asked as she put her left hand on the podium that was nearby and leaned in a bit. She had what I could consider a brown jacket on with a light yellow collared undershirt and a green tie. Her blue eyes seemed to match her hair color naturally, which was orange.
"Consolation prize," the girl checking Yoshika personally replied.
"H-hey!" I shouted quickly, that familiar blush on my face. "Can you give a guy some warning before you do things like that?"
As if no one heard me, a third girl said, "Lynne's are so much bigger."
I snapped my head to her. She had a sky-blue jacket (my approximation), light silver hair, and purple eyes. She wore gray tights and was grinning at the other sergeant.
The one named "Lynne" could only blush in embarrassment as she leaned in and put her head low.
The orange-haired girl laughed, making me return focus on her as she said, "You could never compete with this," while lifting her breasts slightly.
If all this didn't make me blush madly before now, I was really doing it this instant. I also gave myself a face palm.
Yoshika was also shocked by this, holding her own pair as the girl behind her yawned.
"Hi there," the orange-haired girl said after a while, extending a hand. "My name's Charlotte Yeager. I'm a flight lieutenant from the United States of Liberion. But you can call me Shirley."
"Hi," Yoshika said as she and I shook one of her hands each. Unfortunately, both of us felt our hands getting a tight grip from Charlotte's, though I was having an easier time withstanding it. Especially as I had just come out of training.
After the handshake, Charlotte added, "You need to eat more if you expect to get bigger."
"Oh boy…" I groaned as Yoshika and I watched the young girl from earlier place her head on Charlotte's chest as she hugged the lieutenant, yawning and saying, "I'm bored."
"I'm Eila Ilmatar Juutilainen," the girl who referred to "Lynne's" breasts as being bigger than Yoshika's said as she held up her sleeping comrade. "Suomos Air Force Ensign. This is Sanya Litvyak, an Orussia Army Lieutenant."
The sleeping girl being held by Eila had deeper silver in her hair than Eila herself, and she wore a white jacket with what he could call a dark gray strapless vest attached to it. There was also a skirt attached to the uniform, and Sanya had dark gray tights on her legs.
"Uh…hi," I said, smiling slightly.
The girl hugging Charlotte took some time to look at us and add in, "Francesca Lucchini, Romagna…"
Honestly, I lost her somewhere, but when I picked the sentence back up I knew that she was an ensign.
"I'm pleased to meet all of you," Yoshika said as she bowed.
I simply gave a thumbs-up as I added in, "I might get used to everything around here."
Mio, who stayed behind to monitor the conversation, said, "Alright, that's enough of the introductions. Time to get ready for duty. Lynne, Sage, and Miyafuji will begin training this afternoon."
"Aye-aye, major!" I said as I saluted.
"Ma'am!" Yoshika replied as she stood tall.
"Excellent response." Mio said to the little Fuso Witch before turning to face "Lynne". "Lynette, begin by showing Miyafuji and Sage around the base."
Lynette, as she was called just now, looked up and said, "Uh, yes ma'am. Okay."
Yoshika and I approached Lynette as she stood up and came up to us.
"I'm Yoshika Miyafuji," Yoshika told her as she walked up to our guide.
"Roland Sage," I said calmly as I joined her.
"Thank you so much for helping us."
Lynette blinked briefly before saying, "It's my pleasure. My name's Lynette Bishop."
XXXXXXXXXX
The first place we went to was the kitchen and dining hall, and boy was Yoshika excited.
"This is the kitchen and dining hall," Lynette informed us. "As far as cooking goes, we have a main cook. However, we sometimes get everyone to make their own ethnic cuisine."
"Cool," I said. I was actually going to like it here.
As Lynette and Yoshika entered the kitchen itself, I stayed behind and looked at the table. It was large enough to accommodate about twelve people, which was perhaps the entire wing. It also looked rather…unique, with the candlesticks and all that. Plus, there was a set of lights on the ceiling.
Yep, I was actually going to enjoy it here.
Looking at the table suddenly reminded me of the people I left behind in my world. I wasn't too sure if I could ever return there, but maybe my experience with fan fictions where people insert themselves into a strange world they know about could be of use here.
Anyways, I think I was thinking a little too long, for I was snapped out of my thoughts by Lynette, who had grabbed me by my right shoulder gently.
"Lieutenant Sage," she said. "You alright?"
"Huh?" I asked as I turned to face her and Yoshika. "Oh yeah. I'm totally fine. Just thinking, that's all."
"Thinking of what?"
"It's…it's nothing." I shook my head. "Can we move on please?"
Lynette nodded. "Sure, Lieutenant Sage."
XXXXXXXXXX
Next was the spa, which was odd for two reasons: one was the fact that, if I remembered correctly, it was originally for girls; the other was what Yoshika and I saw inside there.
Apparently Charlotte had decided to relax in there, and well…
I think you can figure out the rest.
After that was the shooting range, where Mio and that girl that stormed out were around. I don't think the girl liked Yoshika a whole lot, I'll tell you that. Now if only I could remember her name…
XXXXXXXXXX
We were standing under a tree as we watched a group of photographers taking snapshots of a girl with short blond hair and gray-blue eyes. She wore a black uniform jacket that was buttoned up all the way, with a light gray collared shirt underneath. Near her was a dark-brown-haired girl with brown eyes. This girl wore a gray jacket with a black ribbon tied around her collar.
"Hey," I said, pointing to the one getting photographed. "Who's that?"
"Lieutenant Hartmann," Lynette replied as she bit into a hamburger (we had decided to get some lunch since we weren't too busy). "Her shoot-down count just hit two hundred recently."
"Two hundred?" Yoshika asked quickly. "That's amazing!"
"Captain Barkhorn, next to her, shot down two-fifty, and Commander Minna's count is a hundred and sixty. Without them around, we would have lost this place to the Neuroi long before you two came."
"You guys sure have been around a while," I added. "I'll give you that…"
"Not only that, they have special magical abilities and are protecting many people's homelands at the same time. Witches are really amazing, huh?"
I looked at Lynette. "I guess they are. I have a lot of catching up to do then."
"I guess so. Come on." Lynette gestured for us to follow her. "I've got one more location to show you two."
XXXXXXXXXX
"Whoa," was all I could say as we looked out at the view that was at the top of the base.
"This is the highest point," Lynette informed us.
"So this entire island is the base?" Yoshika asked.
Lynette nodded her head. "Correct. We're right off the Strait of Dover. Looks rather small from this distance. And…" Lynette pointed to our right, and we looked at the direction indicated. "…if you look there, you can see Europe. Unfortunately, the Neuroi have most of it under their control."
I was sad as I thought about the situation.
I have no home here? I thought to myself. I should be more concerned for those who have no home to return to.
"Very well…" I said finally as I nodded my head. "I promise I'll do whatever it takes to help you guys free all of Europe from the Neuroi."
Lynette smiled slightly before asking, "You're the Ground Witch everyone's been talking about, right?"
"Yeah. How did you know about that?"
"I have a few friends out there somewhere. One of them worked with you during the Ascension incident."
I blinked. "Lieutenant Kayley Nova?"
When Lynette nodded in agreement, I was struck dumb: I was working with a friend of Lynette and I didn't even know? Then again, where did Kayley come from?
XXXXXXXXXX
"Now, the next thing we need to do is get you trained in the Striker Unit equipment."
Such were the words of one Mio Sakamoto as we started on our training regiment with the Striker Unit. We were standing in the hangar, near someone's Striker Unit.
"Uh, major?" Lynette asked quickly. "How is Roland going to train in the use of a Striker Unit?"
"Commander Minna already told me of his Striker Unit," Mio stated. "He'll show you what it is when we start."
"Major Sakamoto," a familiar voice said.
I saw the same girl from before, the one that stormed out of the briefing room, enter the hangar.
"Permission to assist our new recruits?" the girl said with a slight smile.
"Permission granted, and may I say I am impressed," Mio praised. "Good to see you're volunteering your time."
The girl looked slightly embarrassed before saying, "Well…I'm happy to help, and I figured that it might be easier to work in pairs."
Or a trio in this case... I thought to myself.
"Good thinking, Perrine," Mio replied.
We looked at Perrine, who started to introduce herself: "I'm Perrine Clostermann, lieutenant of the Free Gallia Air Force. I've been under Major Sakamoto's care for a very long time now. You should know that you're very lucky to have me accompanying you."
"Oh, thank you so much," Yoshika thanked as she bowed. "I promise to do my best."
I simply nodded.
Perrine simply huffed and turned her head away from Yoshika.
Somehow I found myself glaring at Perrine. I wasn't exactly sure I was liking where this was going to go…
"Alright," Mio said quickly. "Everyone, get into your Striker Unit."
"Roger!" we all said.
I was the first one to enter mine, though I couldn't exactly call it "entering". More like "creating" the Striker Unit around my legs.
It looked like today was the day I would find out how much I needed in training.
XXXXXXXXXX
Around sunset, Yoshika and Lynette were lying on the ground, panting in exhaustion. Perrine, Mio, and I touched down softly near them, me panting slightly. The Striker Unit really expended my energy quickly, but endurance training was paying off a little.
"Worn out already, Miyafuji?" Mio asked Yoshika. "Well, it's your first day. That's to be expected, though I didn't think your magic control would be that sloppy. You need to work on your baseline stamina too." Turning to me, she added, "Sage, your stamina's fine, but based on what the commander told me your magic control needs some work, especially your barrier."
"And I suggest that you start working on these things right away," Perrine added in. "Otherwise, you'll continue to be a nuisance." Perrine turned her head and added, "Honestly, I think you'll be better off going home."
That last comment earned her a glance from me. I did not just get thrown into an alternate version of Earth and given these powers to be told that I would be better off going home by the likes of Perrine...did I?
Mio chuckled and said, "She's a novice, Perrine. This is her first day. Don't be so hard on her."
Wait, what about me? Man who received his powers about four months ago standing here...
Perrine mentioned something about perfecting a combat technique, and soon Mio and Perrine flew off, leaving me to watch over the tired sergeants after the major told them that they were done for the day.
Just to try making the barrier stronger, I focused until I could see the blue magic circle in front of me. There were a bunch of foreign letters around the edge, and three smaller circles were orbiting it around the edges, their centers following the bigger circle's circumference.
However, I could only hold the barrier for three seconds before the drain from it forced me to lower it. The action left me panting harder.
Deactivating the Striker Unit around my legs, I fell onto the runway chest first, panting hard. I propped my arms under me and pushed off so that I was on my hands and knees.
Mio was right: magic control was going to need a lot more work. But how much? And how long do I have before something dangerous pops up, given that the plot will probably deviate from the original at some point?
XXXXXXXXXX
We've hit the end of the chapter.
Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I wanted to simulate the anime with the breaks set in. Part 2 will be up next, so don't fret.
Please read and respond. Thanks.