Alright, here comes the next chapter in "Strike Heroes".

Now, as usual, let's cover the reviews:

fuji92: I'm sure Eila will come around...but then again Roland has to gain her trust first. As for the awkwardness, this pair of chapters might be one in which Roland's sanity will truly be put to the test.

Anyways, it's time for the next chapter...

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Chapter 7: Fast, Big, Soft (Part 1)

You know those moments that you wished you didn't want to do anything at all? How you simply wanted to just lay back down and forget that the day (and for that matter, the world) didn't simply exist?

What, too deep? I'm just pointing it out because today was going to be one of those "I don't wanna do anything" days. Then again, I think it's worse. What's worse that a day like that? Well, let me tell you...

I was barely waking up when I heard a sudden crash from a few rooms down. The crash sounded like it was close, but then again maybe having watched the anime made me actually imagine it as being louder than it really was.

"What the hell?" I asked myself as I jumped out of bed in my sleepware. With amazing reflexes for having gotten up without stretching at least, I ran out from my room and to Yoshika's room, where I found Lynette standing there in her sleepwear.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Yoshika, what's going on in there?" Lynette asked as she opened the door and walked in, me following close behind her.

When we looked inside, Lynette and I found Yoshika's face on the floor as her legs were kicking in the air. I think she was crying in pain, which made me mentally face palm myself, though her cries were muffled due to her face being still pointed into the floor. Suddenly, Yoshika flipped over and crashed onto her back, making Lynette and me flinch.

Ooh, that's gotta hurt, I thought as I grimaced.

"Are you alright?" Lynette asked as Yoshika rubbed her sore rear. "Can you move?"

"Um…I'm fine," Yoshika told us plainly. "I fell."

"We could tell," I deadpanned. We rushed in to help you out, and you claim that you just fell? For no reason?

Lynette and I rushed over to Yoshika and knelt down as she added, "I had a dream about us."

"Really?" I asked. I saw that she was looking at Lynette, so I was out of the dream. A good thing, if I thought about it.

"What was it about?" Lynette added.

As if she had seen something terrifying, Yoshika suddenly blurted out, "It was nothing, I don't know, I can't remember!" She grabbed her blanket and, as she threw it over herself, added, "Isn't it funny how you can just forget? Oh, and I swear I didn't see anything…"

Now why was Yoshika...

I realized what Yoshika had probably dreamed about: I realized it the moment she looked at Lynette after the Britannian girl asked her about said dream.

The young auburn-haired girl had dreamed about breasts.

When Yoshika looked up again, she saw Lynette smiling at her. I was simply shaking my head as a smirk crossed my face.

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Soon, Yoshika, Lynette, and I were walking down the hall, each of us fully dressed.

"It's funny…" Lynette said as she turned her head to look at Yoshika. "You never stop working, do you?"

"Huh?" Yoshika asked in defense. "What?" She waved her hands from side to side in defense. "Of course I do, silly!"

"I mean last night. You were dreaming that we were in formation together."

"Wait, we what?" Yoshika thought about it very quickly and added, "Oh, yeah. Yes, we were training. Me, you, and Roland-kun. That's all we were doing, flight training. Yep…"

"I know, that's what I mean. You're training even in your sleep, no wonder you're good. But, um, hopefully after yesterday you can get some real rest. We just fought the Neuroi, so you can forget about fighting them for a while."

I stopped and looked out the window as the others walked past. While I knew that Yoshika wouldn't have had a dream about me when it included Lynette, I couldn't just rule it out. One reason would be that my presence could have changed the dream. The other could be that Yoshika's dream was never really explained if I remembered right, though the reaction I recalled from the Fuso Witch toward the Britannian Witch could make my current version possible. That, and there went the whole "Roland-kun" name again. Why is Yoshika calling me that now?

Moving on to what Lynette said about the Neuroi...how did I look at the Neuroi? After the first real fight with them, I thought that they would be like the Aparoid, especially with the core. However, were there any other types, like land-based or even, heaven forbid, water-based types?

Suddenly, I heard Mio call Yoshika followed by something about amusement.

Eh, doesn't involve me, I said to myself, seeing as I didn't exist in the original.

CRACK!

I was about to walk off when Mio said, "Lieutenant, I would require your appearance as well."

"Um, sure?" I asked uncertainly as I came to a complete stop. Why was I wanted?

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Yoshika quickly nursed her bruised head from Mio smacking her with the scabbard of her katana before asking, "We're going to the beach?"

"That's right," Mio informed us. "We leave tomorrow morning. We'll be going to the eastern coast of this island."

As Yoshika cheered for the apparent good news, I looked at the reactions from the others.

"Uh, Yoshika?" I asked the young Fuso girl. "I don't think that's the reason we're going, though it sounds nice."

Ultimately, I realized that the reason we were heading to the beach was for training, especially if we needed to train at any location, primarily those of an aquatic nature. After Yoshika nearly got in trouble with Mio again, Minna told us to meet back here at ten hundred hours tomorrow. She then asked me and Yoshika to relay the information to Charlotte and Francesca, Charlotte's last known location being the hangar. Before we went, however, Minna told us that we wouldn't be training the entire time. In fact, she suggested that we pack a swimsuit. Soon, Yoshika asked Lynette to come with us as we pardoned ourselves, and we set off to find the girls in question.

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"What do you think I should do about a swimsuit?" Lynette asked Yoshika as the three of us walked down the hall toward the hangar.

"You don't have one?" I asked. I thought everyone had a pair in case they went to the beach or something...

"I do, but it's from last year. I'm worried it won't fit anymore."

Yoshika stepped in front of Lynette.

"Whoa, so you got bigger then?" Yoshika asked, surprised.

"Um, yeah, but not the way you think..." Lynette replied quickly.

"What about you, Roland-kun?"

I blinked.

"Me?" I asked rather stupidly as I pointed to myself. "If by swimsuit you mean something along the lines of what you girls could be wearing, then I'm not even going to dignify that with an answer..."

"I know that, silly. I mean, do you have something you can use?"

"Of course..."

As we stood there, a sudden explosion from around the corner erupted, forcing Yoshika to hug Lynette tight. I simply rocked from side to side as I recovered from the noise in my ears.

"What was that noise?" Yoshika asked.

"I think it came from the hangar," Lynette tried as an answer.

"Let's go!" I ordered.

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The three of us entered the hangar and found Charlotte sitting down on some of gripping device designed for securing Striker Units, her animal features active as she had her Striker Unit equipped. As far as I could make out, they were those of a hare's.

"Shirley!" we all shouted out.

Charlotte turned her head to face us and waved at us.

"Yo! What's up guys?" she asked. "Getting into trouble?"

"Did you have anything to do with an explosion earlier?" I asked as we approached the orange-haired girl.

"Oh, are you talking about this?" Charlotte pointed at her Striker Unit, which was open in some areas, before making a white glow around her and closing up the Striker Unit completely. "Now check this out."

She stood up and let the grip grab the Unit as she started up the device, being lifted up slightly as her clothes blew in the ensuing wind. The noise emitted from the Striker Unit was deafening, making all of us cover our ears.

Well, except Charlotte herself, who was probably used to the noise.

"Oh wow," Yoshika shouted over the Unit. "It's really neat and noisy!"

Pressing a few buttons, Charlotte said, "Yeah, it's looking good. Maybe I should adjust the acceleration on the front a little bit."

"Shirley?" Charlotte looked at Yoshika as the young girl waved her right hand.

The next set of dialogue between Yoshika and Charlotte were made at about the same time, though what set it off was me trying to say something. However, with the noise being too loud, I couldn't even hear myself.

"What? I can't hear you!"

"It's really loud! My ears hurt! I can't…"

Charlotte cut power to the Unit, and soon the results became clear: Lynette was exhausted and ended up being caught by Yoshika, who then yelled really loud, "Can you please turn it off?"

Of course, this had different reactions for both Charlotte and myself: I had uncovered my ears to relish in the silence but had to re-cover them in order to save them from Yoshika.

"Are you trying to blow my ears out?" Charlotte asked, annoyed as she unplugged her ears.

Yoshika covered her mouth with her right hand. "I'm so sorry! But…what is this thing, and what are you doing in the hangar? You could really hurt yourself!"

I took a quick look at Yoshika.

"You're worried that she'll hurt herself?" I asked the Fuso Witch.

"Why are you guys yelling?" we heard a voice say.

The four of us looked up and found Francesca lying on a beam up above, a sort of blanket with the flag design of her homeland on it.

"Lucchini!" Charlotte said in surprise.

Francesca yawned and added in an annoyed tone, "Did you come in here just to wake me up and put me in a bad mood, 'cause if so congratulations." She then jumped down from the beam and landed softly, surprising even me.

"I'm so sorry!' Yoshika apologized.

"You mean you can sleep in the hangar with all that noise around you?" Lynette, who had recovered by now, asked.

Francesca nodded. "Yep, 'cause it happens all the time."

"It does?" Yoshika asked. Turning to Charlotte, she added, "So does that mean you're down here a lot? What are you working on?"

"I just finished modifying the Striker's engine," Charlotte said, who was now standing in front of us, the open hangar door shining light inside and past her.

"You modified the whole engine? What does that mean?"

I looked at Yoshika. She didn't just ask what she just asked, did she? And how the hell did Charlotte get from Point A to Point B without me knowing it?

Charlotte looked at us before replying with, "I'll be happy to show you. Come on."

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"What does modification mean again?" Yoshika asked as we all stood outside.

"It means I've adjusted the energy allocation of the magic engine," Charlotte explained.

"And by allocation you changed the amount of energy we use for attacking and defense?" Lynette asked.

I only stayed silent: I wasn't a Striker Unit mechanic, or any sort of mechanic for that matter. In fact, all I did was wave my index fingers in the air as I traced the conversation back and forth between the girls.

"Yep, you got it," Charlotte replied as she slipped on some goggles.

"So what part of the engine did you enhance, Shirley?" Lynette asked.

"I enhanced the speed."

"Ready?" Francesca, holding a box that was a speed monitor, asked.

"Right." Charlotte looked down the runway.

We all watched as Charlotte floated there for a few moments before Francesca gave the cue: "Go!"

As Charlotte took off down the runway, I wasn't paying any attention to the conversation around me. I was busy thinking about the fact that the lieutenant looked great taking off down the runway.

Suddenly, I blinked as I ran that thought back through my head.

Aw crap! First Minna, now Charlotte…who's next?

Maybe Mio or Lynette…

Oh cut it out! I thought to myself quickly as I shook my head. I even gave myself a light smack on the back of my head.

Man, I have to figure out what goes on inside my head sometimes...

After a while, Charlotte went up into the air and started accelerating.

"Whoa, I can't believe she's still accelerating," Lynette commented after a while.

"Yep, seven hundred and seventy," Francesca agreed, giving Charlotte's current speed. The young girl kept on reading the speed until she reached eight hundred kilometers per hour, a new record.

Wow, I said to myself. I wonder if she can give my Striker Unit a tune-up…if it's at all possible...

Soon, those of us on the runway started running back toward the hangar as Charlotte flew above us at a slower rate.

"That's amazing!" Lynette said.

"Awesome!" I shouted in surprise.

"Shirley, you've set a new record!" Francesca stated.

"Alright!" Charlotte said before losing control of her Striker Unit and falling on us.

When I checked on my situation at that moment with my aura, I noted everyone's locations: Yoshika was lying on top of Charlotte, her hands touching the orange-haired girl's breasts. Lynette had landed on Charlotte's right side while Francesca faced her from the front.

Me, well…where I was, I wasn't sure whether I should be freaked out or not currently.

Suddenly, Charlotte announced, "Let's get something to eat."

And...I think I fainted.

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Later on, after I spent a few minutes unconscious from the trial's conclusion, Charlotte, Francesca, Lynette, Yoshika, and I were in the hangar simply hanging out. Yoshika and Lynette were going through a book that belonged to Charlotte while the orange-haired girl tuned her Striker Unit, which she nicknamed "Merlin". Francesca was sitting on the platform where the insertion points of the Unit were pointing. I was simply practicing lifting spare parts with my magic.

"What is all this?" Yoshika asked as she turned the page.

"New record achievement of Glamorous Shirley," Lynette read at the top of a page.

I, having been behind Yoshika as I was practicing, looked over the Fuso girl's shoulder and read the title myself.

"Hey, Shirley?" I asked as I stared at the cover. "What are you doing in a biker magazine?"

I knew the answer, but I had to stay in character as much as possible.

"I don't know," Francesca tried. "I think it's because she used to ride bikes before she became a pilot."

Charlotte turned to look at us as she took a hamburger she was holding with her mouth away.

"Have you ever heard of the Bonneville Flats?" she asked in a muffled tone.

"Bonneville?" Yoshika asked.

Charlotte swallowed what she had in her mouth. "Yeah. It's a flat made of salt as far as the eye can see, right in the middle of Liberion."

"Wow, I've never heard of that place before," Lynette said.

"I might have," I said as I looked at her. "Isn't that where people go to set land speed records?"

Charlotte replied with, "I'm not surprised. It was kinda like a holy land for us speed freaks. You could say that article's the reason you're graced with my presence today. The day it was written, I was told about these Witches that fly at the world's fastest speed with magical engines. I went home that day and applied to enlist in the military, and now I'm here in a hangar working with you two ladies and Roland."

At this point, Yoshika and Lynette were sitting in front of Charlotte while I leaned on the nearby table as I listened.

"That's great," Lynette said. "So on your days off you try to break your speed record with the equipment you're working on here?"

"You have the top speed, that's so amazing!" Yoshika said in awe. "But if you're already at the top, how far will you have to go before you're satisfied?"

"Never thought about it," Charlotte said. "Huh…the speed of sound. I wanna exceed Mach One someday."

"Good goal," I encouraged. "Especially with the equipment being the way you made them. I think you'll be able to do it."

"Wait, what do you mean by the speed of sound?" Yoshika asked.

"It's the speed at which sound travels," Charlotte and I said simultaneously. We looked at each other afterward before I added, "Well, I don't recall the exact speed. Do you, Shirley?"

"At about twelve hundred kilometers per hour," Charlotte supplied.

"Ah."

"Do you really think it's possible to go that fast?" Lynette added. "The numbers almost sound made up."

"Who knows?" Charlotte asked as she stood up. "I don't. But if we don't chase after our dreams we'll lose them forever." She winked before hanging her goggles up on the Striker Unit. "'Kay, that's all I got for today." She then turned to look at the girls and me. "Hang on a sec. You guys came in here for something, what was it?"

Yoshika and Lynette looked at each other as they suddenly didn't remember why they came there in the first place. Even I was aware of what I forgot.

"Oh no! We forgot!"

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Everyone except Francesca (who was napping currently) stepped out of the hangar, me stepping out last.

Yoshika had just told Charlotte that we were to meet at ten hundred hours tomorrow, something Charlotte was looking forward to.

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh," Yoshika added. "To train somewhere else?"

Charlotte turned around and looked at us. "To see you in swimsuits."

This got a shocked reaction from the girls while Charlotte winked at me.

"I'll, um…I'll see what I can do," I said simply. What exactly was the norm for a guy around this time period?

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Francesca's POV

I opened my eyes slowly as I sat up and stretched, yawning as I did so.

It really felt good to be able to nap almost anywhere. I had decided to sleep on the stand that held Shirley's Striker Unit, which wasn't too hard to do considering my size.

Anyways, I looked around the place and noticed that Shirley, Yoshika, Lynne, and Roland had left the area. Which meant that I was alone.

Then my eyes fell onto Shirley's goggles, which were hanging on her Striker Unit. Thinking quickly and with the agility of someone my age, I jumped over the Striker Unit as my right hand grabbed the goggles and pulled them off as soon as I landed. I then turned around and looked at the goggles with glee.

CRASH!

What I heard next scared me: I turned around and saw that the Striker Unit had tipped over when I got the goggles and had landed on the ground of the hangar. What was worse was that the little things inside it had decided to come out as the Striker Unit had opened up after the crash.

Oh...my...Shirley's going to kill me if I don't do something about it!

Thinking quickly, I got to work getting the Striker Unit's parts back inside it, trying my best to put it together. It took me about an hour to do, and even then I was hoping that I put it together again the way it was before it fell.

Before anyone got more suspicious, I raced out of the hangar, but I accidentally collided with someone, who grabbed my shoulders as I stumbled back.

"Francesca," I heard Roland say as I looked up and saw that it was the Ground Witch himself. "There you are! Shirley looked worried about where you were, so I thought I'd see if you were in here still. Guess I was right..." He then looked inside the hangar and then looked at me with a slight frown. "Did something happen in there?"

"Uh, nope!" I said quickly as I shook my head. "Nothing happened!"

He tilted his head to his left before straightening it and saying, "Okay...I guess I'll take your word for it right now. I just thought I heard something crashing as I was coming. Come on, it's time to eat."

"Alright!" He let go of my shoulders, and we walked to the dining hall, me skipping and him just walking. I even skipped around him a few times as we went.

I really hope he doesn't think anything's suspicious...he did say that he heard something crash, and if I'm unlucky he could tell Shirley about it...

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There we go. The next chapter is up and running.

Probably a fitting way to end this particular part, but maybe I could do better next time.

Anyways, please read and respond. Thanks.