KanColle isn't mine. Doesn't stop me from wishing it was.
AN: I had initially thought about making this a humorous kind of story, and I may still keep it that way, but I realized that due to the nature of Carter's girls, their pasts were inevitably going to get certain degrees of dark, so I'm not sure how harsh the mood whiplash may get as the story progresses. I will guarantee this though, I'm not CURRENTLY planning any character deaths. :trollface:
So, uh, yeah, this took way longer to get out than it should have. I would blame work, but I've had tons of time to do it still. I can only really apologize for being lazy.
Memories are a strange thing. They come and go as they please, often bringing joy or sadness. No matter how painful the memory, the worse pain is in never remembering. The girls at Rotuma have a unique pain however, that of trying to forget they have nothing to remember.
"This isn't my sister." The scathing words were spat out by an angry and confused cruiser. "Admiral, you said you'd summoned a Pensacola. This... thing, isn't Salt Lake City."
"Pensacola, she said-"
"I don't care what it said, it isn't my sister."
The subject of the discussion stood by passively, showing no emotion, giving no response to the verbal abuse being directed at her. She had introduced herself only as a Pensacola-class upon her summoning, not giving a name. It was simple enough to assume she was Salt Lake City, the second Pensacola, the other half of the two ship class which had yet to be summoned. The reaction which was occurring upon introducing her to her assumed sister was not the expected result.
"Pensacola, please, stop, I'm sure there's jut some sort of misunderstanding," the Admiral pleaded with the cruiser. "Stranger things have happened on summoning, and we may just need to check with the other cruisers to see if she belongs to their classes."
"No, Admiral, that won't work," Pensacola said with an edge of steel to her voice. "Let me tell you something, that thing gives me the same kind of feeling in my gut as when I see an abyssal, that same feeling of disgust. I don't think you understand how hard it is for me to stand here and not be getting ready to blow that thing away with my guns. Whatever you people summoned, you need to deal with. I doubt everyone will have the same degree of restraint when it comes to this thing."
.
The vehement rejection by Pensacola, and the later arrival of the real Salt Lake City with the next summoning, sparked a storm of mass speculation over who, or what, the mystery cruiser was. Both Pensacolas denied having any idea who she was, with Pensacola threatening physical harm is they ever brought her near them again. The Northamptons tried to stay as far away from her as possible without being obvious about it, but Louisville was helpful enough to point out her gun turrets were of New Orleans vintage. In turn, Quincy was adamant about the mystery cruiser's superstructure being that of a Pensacola-class, which brought the initial investigation to a halt.
Inevitably, as knowledge of the strange cruiser spread, so did the rumors, not helped by an off-hand statement from Pensacola which related the feeling she had around the cruiser, and the way the Northamptons, and shipgirls in general, avoided her. Prominent among the rumors, and building on the way the mystery cruiser seemed to be a combination of different ship classes, was one claiming that the summoning had gone horribly wrong, and that they had somehow summoned an abyssal princess. Reactions to the rumor were, surprisingly enough, mixed among the shipgirls. "The potential princess wasn't trying to kill anyone, and it meant there was possibly one fewer princess to encounter while sortieing, and she may even be willing to help with princess level firepower," was the line of thought among those who saw it as a potential advantage. They felt the problems of working with the mystery cruiser could be overcome in light of the potential advantages. There was another group of a more instinctive, "it feels like an abyssal, kill it with fire," attitude regarding the cruiser, as well as the usual wait-and-see group.
There were efforts to quash the rumors, especially regarding the cruiser potentially being an abyssal princess, but all rumors were still treated as potential theories as to what the cruiser was. After all, when it comes to dealing with "Sparkly Magical Shipgirl Bullshit", all possibilities must be accounted for. That meant tests of several kinds, all bringing about results which didn't answer any of the questions everyone was asking. The mystery cruiser was a shipgirl as far as the tests could tell, but she definitely was not any kind of shipgirl which had been seen before. There had been cases of prototype ships or ships scrapped before launch being summoned, but this was nothing like that. A further obstacle was the near blank slate the cruiser had arrived as. Nothing in regards to memories or personality which could provide an insight into who or what the cruiser was could be extracted in one-sided interviews.
Progress remained at a standstill in regards to learning more about the cruiser for several months, however during that time, Wichita, a bit of a mashup cruiser design herself, had managed to begin socializing the cruiser to a degree where outright hostility had at least been replaced with begrudging tolerance of her presence on base. Among the most important parts of Wichita's work was giving the mystery cruiser a name, Midlothian, which, while not one of the names of any cruiser which had served with the US Navy during the Second World War, still fell within the naming conventions of US cruisers, being the name of a city in Texas, as well as several smaller communities in the United States. Being a sole ship of her class, Wichita adopted Midlothian as a substitute sister of sorts and, as a result, the strange cruiser began to pick up elements of Wichita's personality as her own persona was forming, though in a mirrored fashion. Where Wichita was easy going and light-hearted, Midlothian was businesslike and serious, and the resulting minor tiffs and arguments which started to break out did more to help build Midlothian's image as a normal shipgirl, rather than the oddity she had arrived as. Nevertheless, the instinctual dislike most other shipgirls felt ensured Midlothian remained an outcast at the naval base.
The change which ended this situation came from among the veritable horde of American destroyer shipgirls, in the form of one Gearing-class destroyer, who claimed to bear the name of a Wickes-class four-stacker who had already been summoned. An attentive young ensign had picked up on the discrepancy and also had the presence of mind to bring the existence of another odd shipgirl to attention of the authorities handling Midlothian's case. There was great interest in Cole, especially concerning why she had arrived with a fully formed personality and identity, whereas Midlothian had arrived as a blank slate. It was decided to move Cole into the same tiny unit occupied by Midlothian and Wichita, where the interactions between the two odd ships could be observed.
"So... you're Midlothian, that cruiser everyone has been talking about?"
The pause between the question and the response from the heavy cruiser is at least mildly unsettling for Cole, while Wichita glances between the two.
"Yes, I am heavy cruiser Midlothian. And you are... a destroyer, yes?"
A noticeable look of pride spreads on Cole's face, as the destroyer leans forward in obvious excitement.
"Oh, and don't you know it! But not just any destroyer! I'm a Gearing-class, the best of the best!"
"The Fletchers might disagree..." Wichita mutters, loud enough for Cole to hear, but the destroyer doesn't seem to miss a beat.
"There's some heroes in our ranks, y'know, like Laffey!"
Midlothian cuts off Cole before she can go any further. "Laffey, the second, was an Allen M Sumner, not a Gearing, Cole."
"Ah... oh..." the destroyer managed to stammer out, her demeanor dropping quite sharply. An almost palpable aura of disappointment begins to grow around Cole, causing Wichita to intervene.
"Well, to be fair, the Sumners are just shorter Gearings, and are a bit older, so you could say they're all just your older sisters by class," the heavy cruiser says with a grin, which inexplicably, is both comforting to Cole, and irritating to Midlothian.
"In any case, this isn't what we're here to talk with you about," Midlothian said, cutting off any further tangential discussion.
"Ahem, uh, yes, let's cut to the chase," Wichita adds, casting an apologetic sideways glance to Midlothian. "Cole, I want you to tell us anything you remember about your service."
"My service? Like, as a shipgirl, or as a ship, 'cus if you mean the second, isn't that kind of personal?" Cole replies, looking at Wichita with a slightly puzzled expression on her face.
"Yes, we'd like to hear about your previous life, Cole," is the answer to the destroyer's question, delivered by Midlothian.
"Uh, sure, I guess I can tell you about it," the Gearing-class says, a bit hesitantly. "I was... uh... t-this is embarrassing, I'm drawing a blank on my own history for some reason. I should know this, why can't... why can't I remember?"
Midlothian and Wichita share a knowing look between the two of them before getting down to business handling the increasingly agitated destroyer.
"Cole, you didn't have a past life, not as far as anyone can tell. You're in the same situation as I am," Midlothian says, bluntly stating what she wishes to convey.
"Goddamit, Midi, I thought that look we shared meant we were going to do this smooth and steady!"
"Wichita, this isn't a night with your boyfriend."
"Wat."
"Nothing." Midlothian coughs. "Cole, you aren't one of the vessels commissioned by the United States Navy. You're like me, an anomaly."
"No no no no, all my sisters-"
"Cole, have you been paying attention at all since you've been summoned? None of the girls you call your sisters even speak with you," Wichita says with unexpected force, cutting off the panicky destroyer. "The Navy is going to be separating you from the rest of the force. They're doing the same with every shipgirl they find who's the same as you and Midlothian."
"What are they going to do with us?" asks the destroyer. "Scrap us? Experiment on us?"
"I don't know. We're being sent to some backwater island, that's all I know," Midlothian responds.
The Rotuma training grounds were normally empty at this time of day. Instead, two destroyers were about to be put through their paces, hopefully so they could set aside their disputes and become a functioning destroyer division. Both destroyers stood at the starting platform, going through preparatory stretches and movements, while the other shipgirls and kanmusu of Rotuma stood by on the pier.
"Loosen up a little, Fubuki."
The special type destroyer couldn't help but jump slightly. "Ah! Midlothian-senpai, I didn't realize you were there."
The Pensacola raised an eyebrow. She's saying she didn't realize I was here? When everyone is here? This some kind of Japanese quirk or something?
"It's alright. I heard what the Admiral said about Akebono. If that's true, then she and Cole should get along fine. Once they get the initial spat out of that that is."
"I'm just embarrassed that she's causing problems already," Fubuki sighs resignedly.
Midlothian is only half listening to Fubuki when she catches a glimpse of the torpedo launches on Cole's rigging. "Oh god. Cole went and did it."
"Eh? She did what, Midlothian-senpai?"
"She swapped out her Mark 15 torpedoes for Mark 17s," responds the cruiser, not taking her eyes off the Gearing. "They're, and I'm going to be frank about this, pretty much equal to, if not better, than your Type 93s."
"How so?"
"They're powered by Navol, concentrated hydrogen peroxide, so they don't leave a trail in the water, just like your torpedoes, but they don't need to be charged by an oxygen generator before being launched. Their warheads about the same size too. They never were used during the war, but there was a stockpile of them, so I guess Cole took it upon herself to start using them. She probably wanted to upgrade her torpedo performance in preparation for working alongside you guys. She's a smart kid."
Eh? So Cole-san was actually planning ahead for when we got here...
"Ready to get your ass handed to you, Bono-chan~?" Cole asks with a taunting lilt.
"I'll shut up that fat mouth of yours you shitty American," the Ayanami-class responds.
"I heard you only call things you love shitty, Bono-chan~. I'm flattered."
"Are the two of you ready?" Midlothian shouts from the pier.
"Yes ma'am, destroyer Cole is ready to sortie!"
"Destroyer Akebono, ready to sortie!"
"Very well. Begin!"
Yeah. A cliffhanger. I'm sorry. Sort of.