Haggard sighed as she finished another lap around the formation, clearly unimpressed with Iowa's speed. "When is Atlanta getting here?" She asked warily with a thin line of impatience, glancing up and down the far horizon.
San Juan's attention was peaked and she set down her sonar headset, "well that's a first, you actually *want* to see my sister." She chided, with teasing sarcasm, adjusting the frequency of her headset.
Haggard gave her deep laugh, "Yeah, but it's going to be funny!" she answered, stealing a quick glance at Iowa.
"What's going to be funny?" Hailey interjected with confusion.
"Atlanta's going to be sooo pissed," Haggard giggled, "after Iowa got arrested and all."
Overhearing the conversation, Iowa gave an sulking and angry glare towards the trio, particularly at Haggard, who, for her part just returned her trademark shit eating grin. San Juan laughed quietly to herself, glancing over the two offending Shipgirls.
"I can't possibly be the first shipgirl to have had trouble with the police, besides, I was in the right!" Iowa defended, arms thrown up in exasperation, "tell them Ushio," she cried immediately looking slightly regretful and the quiet shriek of alarm the Japanese ship let out at being outed.
San Juan shrugged, "first I've heard of it happening."
Haggard, looked dubiously at the light cruiser, skidding closer to her and thinking slightly about her comment until a look of recognition passed by her face, "you just got summoned." she announced factually.
San Juan returned her sonar headset and crossed her arms, now clearly interested in the destroyer, "yes and now I'm extremely curious who got arrested." She replied, grinning wrly.
Hailey giggled lightly again, "well, there was Hipper getting thrown through a bar wall." she remarked offhand.
"But she was smart enough to bail out before they caught her." Haggard retorted.
"What about Hood?" Franks interjected from the side, moving into the conversation with surprising quickness.
Haggard let out a guffaw at the comment.
"Did she ever get arrested though?" Hailey asked, greeting her sister.
Franks shook her head, "No, after she punched the second police boat, Geoergie managed to talk her down."
"Wait." San Juan cried difinitively, mimicking a referee's gesture "timeout. Hood punched a police boat?"
"Two police boats," Haggard interjected proudly "and a schooner."
"Right! Duh, you wouldn't have heard." Hailey proclaimed excitedly. "Apparently Hood came back in the middle of the Thames during some parade on tower bridge and thought she was still dying, she punched some schooner she came out next to and sank it."
"Then the cops came!" Haggard added excitedly.
"Right," Hailey added, clearly joining in on Haggard's energy, "they sent a few boats and a helicopter, which freaked her out even more and started a chase, she ended up driving through one of them and punching another in full view of the parade. luckily King George managed to get herself into the river and talk her down before she remembered she had cannons."
San Juan was silent for awhile, gazing with a steady nod at the pair of destroyers, "That may be the best story I've ever heard." She deadpanned with eventuality.
"It's on youtube." Franks interjected quietly.
"Yeah it trended all over, there are some funny remixes of the footage too."
Iowa laughed lightly at the edges of the conversation, "now I don't feel so bad about my summoning."
Giving a curious grin, Haggard turned to the battleship, churning her screws in the water to move in a more confrontational position , "why? What happened to you?"
Iowa's grin died instantly, "nothing interesting," she lied with little subtlety.
"Come on Iowa, you can't do that," Hailey admonished, "we saw you covered in flour or something."
Ushio finally pulled herself into the group, meekly attempting to make eye contact with the light cruiser who led the formation, "um-excuse me." She began
Iowa waved her away as she made her slow turn away from the convoy, trying to hide herself, "no, I don't think I was-"
Haggard took a smug expression, crossing her arms to compliment her we grin and began matching speeds with Iowa, going ahead reverse a few meters in front of the battleship, making direct eye contact and matching pace with the early battleship.
"Hey Iowa." Haggard asked in a smug tone. "What happened on your summoning."
"Hey so- I think Atlanta is coming soon-" the battleship poorly attempted to avoid.
"I'm tracking on radar, she's close to reaching the horizon." Haggard dismissed, "but that doesn't answer my question."
Iowa gave a desperate look around in the unsympathetic faces of the other Shipgirls for assistance, instead receiving equally eager demands for an answer. "I got summoned in a bathtub."
Ushio gave a nervous and unsure dance behind San Juan's back, raising her hand unsuredly in an effort to decide whether or not to give it an attention grabbing tap.
"That raises more questions than it answers."
"It was Lieutenant-Commander Mitchell's bathtub."
Haggard laughed, "Still doesn't answer most of my questions, but it is hilarious, so I'll give you that."
Iowa grumbled something under her breath. Giving a judgemental glance over the assembled Shipgirls until her eyes meet the nervous and unsure expression of Ushio, holding herself behind San Juan. "Hey, Ushio, is something wrong?" she asked with genuine concern
Forced into the limelight, Ushio gave a startled gasp, before working to compose herself with considerable effort. "I-um" she began, before taking a deep breath, "I saw something on my radar."
San Juan laughed lightly, "yeah, I spotted her a few minutes back. that's just 'lanta, she's always a bit early."
"But she's alone." Ushio replied, shooting a worried glane in the contact's direction.
San juan's grin faded at the revelation and she gave an unsure look towards the horizon, "ah, shit that's right. She's bringing Stewie." San Juan gave a quick analysis of her charges, "we've got one unknown contact," she affirmed, pointing towards the horizon rather than giving a bearing.
"What's the plan?" Hailey asked, her radar dish on her gear now spinning up to identify the target more thoroughly.
"Well, we're not here to fight the odd Abyssal contact," San Juan announced, she reached into her rigging and pulled a large cardboard tube, unrolling the map contained within. "Right." She announced, "we've got a more direct route to the objective if we head there straight instead of trying to regroup with Atlanta and her escort. I propose we head up there to that way to try and avoid our unknown."
"can't we just fight them?" Haggard demanded, raising her five inch turret in the air like a war standard.
San Juan gave an incredulous gaze, "We're not even sure what it is, I'd rather have Atlanta be a bit delayed then roll up on an Abyssal Yamato with Iow-" San Juan caught Iowa's expression with a flustered look. "Without heavy enough firepower to take her down." She recovered, "if we head on a straight course, we've got enough distance to lose our pursuer in the Archipelagos"
"right!" Haggard announced with false conviction, "was going to suggest that."
Franks gave her sister a skeptical look with hints of admonishment, but said nothing.
"Let's get a patrol pickett set up, one destroyer on each flank and the front and back, me and Iowa will support from the center."
"Right!" Came a chorus of affirmatives
The formation scattered, each ship, assuming their given place as the course began to change on a more direct route to their destination.
San Juan, pulled up a second headset, from the depths of her rigging. with a concentrated expression uncharacteristic of her normal jovial self, and began tapping in Morse code, the rhythmic taps replacing the earlier jovial conversation, leaving Iowa with little to distract her from the thin and dirty stream of belching black smoke that wafted from the distant horizon.
When Iowa looked over to the destroyers, she noted already they had their own tasks that they were undertaking with surprising diligence. Haggard and Hailey, mostly focusing on the sky, apparently pursuing the enemy was a carrier the pair of them scanned the airspace of their respective flanks. For her part, Franks seemed dead set on ensuring that the enemy ship was monitored, her green eyes nervously set dead center on the smoke cloud.
Iowa herself watched the thin trickle of smoke for quite some time, eyeing the stream with curious eyes in an attempt to guess distance and direction, after several long minutes guesstimating, she called out to the destoryers.
"Hey Fran?" Iowa called after mulling her thoughts over for several minutes.
Franks gave a startled look as her stare down with the enemy was broken. "Huh?" She managed to let out.
"Do you know the enemy's heading?" Iowa finally asked, "I've been watching for awhile and haven't seen the smoke grow or shrink much."
Franks gave a look of momentary confusion, before answering
, "Me neither," she replied, returning to her watch, "I think they're heading the same way as us."
"Which is fantastic," San Juan interjected dryly, her headset now replaced by a pair of binoculars from whatever real she drew her equipement from
"At least we'll have cover," Franks suggested quietly, "we've got the Archipelagos closing up front."
"And if any battleship fights us in there, it'll be Suritago's less dramatic sequel," the cruiser announced, dryly tapping her torpedoes.
"Suritago?" Iowa asked, expression unsure and reference completely missed
"We'll fuck their face with a gratuitous amount of torpedo based ordinance," the light cruiser announced dryly, bringing her binoculars back up to watch the enemey
Iowa' expression abandoned none of her uncertainty but took on a look of minor disgust at San Juan's expression. "Ah." Was all she managed to exclaim.
Franks, apparently unconcerned with San Juan's statement, still gave a nervous look at the black cloud,
"But it looks like she's avoiding the islands, in favor of open water." San Juan announced, handing her binoculars to the battleship present.
The thin wisp had continued onwards, stalking the formation from the benefits of clear water.
"What does that mean?"
"Well, given they're alone and obviously interested in us, I'd say the mysterious Abyssal friend that's been harassing the destroyers is back."
"Should we be worried," Iowa asked, a twinge of doubt in her voice.
"Nah." If whatever it is is afraid the engage four destroyers, I can't imagine her wanting to pick a fight with a larger group." San Juan replied, "still though, it's clearly interested in our mystery friend, we'll have to keep an eye on it"
Iowa gave a glance towards the islands, encroaching on the group, "it's going to be hard to do that with these islands here."
San Juan laughed, tapping the dish attached to her rigging, "radar," she replied, in a teasing fashion, "honestly not sure how you function without it.
The battleship hesitated briefly before offering a shrug for lack of a response and gave one last look before the black smoke was hidden behind the islands of their destination.
I