STRIKE WITCHES

Boy Meets Witches

Episode 3: Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help

Steve awoke in his bed, for once, feeling better than he had since coming to this world. He knew Yoshika and Lynnette (or Lynn as she had asked him to call her.) considered him a friend. He knew that what happened next in the series, it was around the point where Gertrude nearly gets herself killed. He was trying to decide weather or not to intervene but it seems like he was already becoming a part of their family, so it seemed like intervening was inevitable.

He decided to get up and start his day. He came into the kitchen to see Yoshika and Lynn had made breakfast. He heard Perrine bitching to Yoshika about calling Mio, Sakamoto.

He walked up behind Perrine and hit her on the head with the back of his fist causing her to crash onto the floor.

"Perrine," he said sighing, "when are you goanna get it through that thick head of yours that Mio would discipline Yoshika if she was doing something wrong? Besides, you shouldn't be pushing officers who are of a lower rank around. Leave…that…to…ME!" he said right next to her ear causing her to run off.

"Steve," Minna said.

"Yes commander?" Steve responded like a child who was trying to play the innocent card.

"When are you going to be a little less rough with Perrine? She keeps on complaining she getting headaches."

"Please don't pull me in today Steve, I have a headache!" He heard a familiar voice say,

"Arrgh!" Steve cried as he went down to his knees.

"You ok Steve?" Yoshika asked running over to him.

Steve was breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his head. He couldn't believe he heard those words again. After so long he thought he had gotten over her.

"I'm fine! (Fast breathing) I'm Fine." He said as he got up to leave.

"Hold it right there, Steve!" Minna said.

Steve turned to look at his commander.

"Just what was that about?" She asked.

"Nothing! I ah… just remembered a bad dream I had! That's all." He said walking away backwards. The minuet he was out of the room, he turned on his heals and booked it.

"Something's wrong." Minna said sitting back down crossing her arms.

"Your not his mother, so why do you care?" Shirley asked

"I was one of the first people he saw when he woke up. I saw in his eyes my reflection, it seemed to claimed him down after a while."

"Ah."

Steve was sitting outside by a doorway. He fumbled with his lighter and cigarette trying desperately to calm his nerves down. He finally lit it. He took a deep breath in and exhaled smoke. He leaned his head back and slumped down, thinking about his past. His train of thought was broken when he heard two strikers fly overhead. He saw it was Gertrude and Erica.

"She seems to be slower than usual." Steve said joining into Minna and Mio's conversation.

"Yes, she's usally such a-" Mio started

"Perfectionist. I know." Steve said cutting Mio off.

"She's not goanna crack soon?" Minna asked.

"Crack?" Steve questioned. He took the cigarette out of his mouth flicked the ash off and put it back in.

"Under pressure and do something…like get herself-" Minna fumbled with her words

"Killed?" Steve responded

"No, not as far as I know."

"Steve any information you tell us would be very helpful." Mio stated looking at Steve trying to get him to slip up.

"I've told you this once and I'll tell you again. If I were to tell you what happens then there are a few things that could happen:

One, because you are know what's coming you prepare for it, you deal with the situation when it arises, and everybody lives on as if you didn't know about the situation to begin with.

Two, because you know what coming you prepare for it, but a different situation arises which catch's you off guard, and alters events in the future.

Three, you jump the gun and people who should not get hurt, get hurt and may possible die."

"That makes very little sense." Minna said looking like her brain was about to exploded.

Steve sighed and put his cigarette out.

"Let me try again. You know what's coming, but it doesn't happen, because something different happens, which completely changes the original plot of the story."

"That's better." Minna said

"Still, is there anything we should know about what's going on with Gertrude, she is one of our aces." Mio questioned.

Steve growled, "It is not any of your fucking business Mio!"

"Steve! Watch your mouth." Minna said.

"I'm sorry Minna, but damn it all to hell. If I tell you what's to come it may change the future."

"Maybe for the better if the war ends quicker."

"GOD DAMN IT! By the time the movie came out the war was still going on, even after the movie ended. I will not tell you what happens to your futures, but I will tell you this Mio Sakamoto. I do know that one-day Mio, you will put your life at rise and Yoshika will have to save you, but at the cost of her magic!" Steve shouted, it looked like his body was about to catch on fire.

Mio and Minna looked at him, shocked at what he had just said.

"Of Shit! Now I've done it!" Steve said turning pale and dropping to the ground.

"How soon?"

"Not telling, I have already said to much!" Steve said trying to hold back his tears.

Mio unshielded her sword and held it at his neck

"How…soon?"

Steve sighed, pushed the sword away from his face, gripping hit hard enough to make him bleed, standing up his hand glowed orange as it healed. He walked back inside.

"STEVEN!" Mio shouted.

"Not for a few more months, I would say about six or seven months, I really don't know. Trust me, you'll know when the time comes." Steve said walking away.

He decided to let the events that were supposed to unfold, unfold. He went to his room, closed and looked his door, turned his lights off, closed the curtains, laded down and fell asleep.

While he slept, Gertrude was healed by Yoshika and saved the day. Steve awoke to a knock on his door. Groaning he spoke.

"What?"

"Um Steve, Minna wants to see you. Please report to Minna's office at once." He heard a timid Lynn speak.

Steve groaned getting out of bed, not even bothering with putting on his skinny jeans or shirt.

Lynn was waiting out side Steve's door in her night attire. She squeaked when his door opened suddenly. Steve walked out in just his boxers and proceeded to Minna's office. Lynn couldn't help but blush.

Minna was leaning against her desk dressed in a pink robe. If Steve were wide awake he would have blushed, but he woke up on the wrong side of the bed (literally), and had been woken up at an ungodly hour, (It was 10:32 P.M., he went to bed at around noon).

"What do you want?" Steve asked.

Minna sighed and took a sip of her tea.

"Steve, tell me the truth, the honest truth." Minna stated

"Ok?" Steve questioned

"How are you feeling? I noticed today that you suddenly went into a cold sweet. You never seem to lose your cool, yet some how it seemed you had a nervous break down. What's wrong?"

Steve was stunned, even though he was a guy, Minna still considered him a member of the Witches and top it off: she was considered about his well being.

Steve sighed, he figured he could at least tell her the story his true-love.

"Back in my world when I was in middle school, there was a time when all I wanted to do was to play guitar and make out with girls. I had been with a few girls before, but all that changed when a new girl transferred into my girl from another school. I knew I liked girls but the minuet I saw her, I could have sworn, time stood still. This girl must have been an angel descended from heaven. She had a dark brown hair and the most beautiful brown eyes I had ever seen. When I finally got the courage up to talk to her, she had already been asked out by almost every boy in our school, and she rejected them all. It turns out when she saw me time stopped for her too. I knew that even though that we were in 6th grade, we wanted to be with each other forever. We became a couple, what was odd though was I was famed for being caught making out with girls, but she and I never made out in public, we actually did more than just make out in private, we saw movies together, ate dinner together, and went to the beach."

"Sounds like you were really in love." Minna said.

"Ya, I had never been happier. She came from a good family; she had a loving mother and a father who taught her all kinds of things. She had everything going for her… But it seems life has a funny sick way of completely fucking you over."

"Come again?" Minna asked tilting her head.

"Just two days before we were to finish 8th grade. She and her family were hit by a drunk driver right out side the school, I was there and I saw everything. She looked so…frail after the crash, I rode with her all the way to the hospital, I spent the next three days waiting in the hospital, waiting for the doctor to tell me, and she wanted to see me… That never happened. On the fourth day my friends and band mates came to look in on me, as they told me she would be fine, the doctor came out with a sad expression on his face."

Minna was speechless.

"She had just died, after three days of fighting, she had given up, and had left me all alone. I was so miserable I took the acoustics guitar I had with me at the time and slammed it against the side of a pillar. The body shattered into hundreds of pieces. I didn't do anything but sulk all summer long. I didn't play guitar again till Christmas time of my freshman year in head school, when I was dragged on stage and forced to play, but by then I was in danger of being forced to repeat my freshman year and I was smoking and drinking heavily. In fact it wasn't until after the Christmas vacation had stated that I saw what drinking was doing to me. My hair was starting to become bleach blonde. It was then that I figured out that I needed to change my life style and I quit drinking and cut my smoking down to were a 24 pack of cigarettes could last me a month."

"So why the break down?"

"I heard her voice today."

"Oh my god!" Minna stated

"What was her name?" She asked.

"Michaela, Michaela Patterson."

"I see, dismissed."

He turned around and left her office.

"Oh Steve, don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it."

"Thanks, I will see you tomorrow for breakfast." Steve said.

Minna was in a tight jam. Even though Steve was not from their world, this was not the first time she had heard of such a girl. The brown hair, eyes and the boys of every age asking her out, reminded her of the secret 12th member in their outfit, that even Mio didn't know about. She wasn't really a member, but she was considered one. She had never told Minna her name but told her to call her Shadow, Even though she posed an average amount of magic, she seemed to be quieting knowledgeable about their world. She even had a picture of a young dirty blonde boy; she claimed was her true love. Could Shadow and Michaela, could they be the same? She pulled out the note she had found and decide it was time to pay this Shadow a visit, with out Steve for obvious reasons.