Briefing room
The Commander and Task Force Alpha were discussing their current situation. From Royal Navy, Warspite had replaced Prince of Wales as the task force's second battleship, Kaga was filling in for Akagi while she was on the Dominatus. Things had not been going that great for Azur lane currently. The 'Hearts and Minds' plan had mixed reactions from Nico's men.
It seemed many of the higher ranking staff were firm fanatics of the Commodore's ideals, meeting any interactions from the kansen with cold, formal and straight to business talk. It left very little room for the ship girls to interact with them beyond what the men wanted, without looking suspicious.
Fortunately the common rank and file were much easier to sway to Azur lane's side, while nervous and a little scared at a first, it seemed the men were gradually warming up to the cute women around the port, helping out in the stores, cooking food, playing games and sports, some brave souls even worked up the courage to start dating a kansen. The officers had tried to discourage most of this, but one glare from the Commander, or some of the scarier ship girls, made them back off quickly.
But of course, things hadn't gone perfectly. Both men and kansen alike, had to be arrested to not cause too big of a rift between the two factions. In one particularly bad incident, San Diego had taken offence to something an officer had said, and got into a small scuffle with him and the men under his command, Hornet, Arizona and Helena had to hold her back, before the red headed cruiser started breaking bones, just for getting her singing insulted.
The Commander sighed as he explained how Azur lane stood against Nico's fleet. Captain Jackson had updated him about Akagi, while he was happy his girlfriend was doing well, he couldn't stop thinking about why Nico wanted a kansen on his ship when he hates them. It just gave him a horrible feeling in his chest thinking of Akagi alone on that carrier. But for now, he had to focus on the other ships around him, until he could think of a way to get her back.
"Well...thats how we stand, any questions?" The Commander asked the room. The task force members all just had annoyed or concerned looked on their faces. Ever since Nico arrived, all their plans to fight the Siren were effectively put on hold. They knew the real enemy was out there across no man's land, but they were stuck dealing with this rat in the trench, it was quickly heating up everyone's temper. Bismarck then stood up and made the kansen's feelings quite clear.
"Commander, the longer we continue to tolerate that foolish Commodore, the greater the risk of loosing territory to the Sirens, I believe I speak for all present when I say: He needs to go." The German battleship declared bluntly. Everyone nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm. The Commander looked down at the floor in shame, he knew Bismarck was right, everyone was frustrated and the Siren threat still hung over this whole thing like a giant sword of Damocles.
The Commander held his head up and locked eyes with Bismarck, making it clear he wanted her to take what he said next seriously.
"I completely agree with you." He responded with a low tone of voice, Bismarck's eyes widened a little in slight shock, but she otherwise kept her composure. The other ship girls gasped a little at what the Commander could be implying.
"I'm done being locked down by the Admiralty's fear, this whole episode has done more to compromise humanity's well-being than the Red axis conflict ever could! I'm done with telling you to restrain yourselves, I'm done with that stupid fleet out there AND I'M DONE WORKING WITH THAT BASTARD NICO!" He suddenly roared, some kansen then screamed as the Commander flipped the huge desk in front of him in a fit of rage.
"Fuck this kid gloves bullshit, once I leave this meeting, I'm telling that asshole to get the hell away from Azur lane, or I'm locking him in the cells for the rest of his life!" He growled, needing to take a moment to breathe.
Cleveland then stood up, a little freaked out by the Commander's anger. "Wait...w-what about the Admiralty? W-won't they be angry with you?" She asked, concern and little fear layering her normally confident voice. The Commander laughed a little manically at that, concerning the kansen a further.
"Let them be angry! They need to learn that you guys are people, not just war machines, if that means I have to tear up their rule book to force them to see that, I'll happily do so!" He calmed down a little and held a fist over his chest. "Nothing will ever be more important to me than you guys, Azur lane is the only line of defence against the Sirens and they will respect us. If they don't then we'll MAKE them respect us!" He shouted passionately.
The kansen looked at each other after that speech, before nodding and smirking at the Commander with fists over their own chests. The Commander then started rousing up the kansen with a series of questions.
"When the Siren come for humanity who will stand their way?"
"Azur lane!"
"When the ocean runs red with humanity's blood, who will be there to stop the bleeding?"
"Azur lane!"
"When mankind fights back against Siren tyranny, who will lead the charge?!"
"Azur lane!"
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
"AZUR LANE!"
U.S.S. Dominatus, a few miles from Azur Lane HQ.
Captain Jackson was watching the horizon from the carrier's bridge, a preoccupied expression on his face. He had numerous crew members asking him why Akagi had disappeared inside the Water pounder lab all day. He hadn't heard or seen from Nico ever since he took the fox woman in there either. All he had been told was that they needed to tow her hull now, since she couldn't see it properly to steer it. The captain just hoped the Commodore didn't do anything stupid, if Akagi got too angry at him she could tear the ship apart. Suddenly, his comms officer looked over at him, a shocked look on his face.
"Sir...w-we've got trouble!" He told him, his voice quaking in fear. Jackson raised an eyebrow at him confused, but then went wide eyed as he could her faint yelling and panicking from the officer's radio.
"What the hell is going on?" He demanded to know.
"The Commander has declared martial law on the island! Our men are being rounded up by the kansen!" The comms officer yelled, freaking out at the notion of super strong beings attacking his fellow men. Jackson tilted his head, not entirely convinced by that statement. Before leaving the docks he noticed many kansen being friendly with his crew and even the security forces Nico had offloaded, he knew something wasn't right here.
"ALL of them?" He then asked. The comms officer looked at him confused, not sure how to reply. "Are you sure its ALL of our men being captured?" He asked again.
"Uh...I'm getting unconfirmed reports...some of them are... helping the ship girls?" the comms officer couldn't believe what he was hearing from the radio. "I'm getting a transmission from Captain Varennes...he wants to talk to you sir." He added, completely bewildered by this turn of events.
"On speaker." Jackson ordered. After a few button presses, the radio screeched into life. "Captain Varennes can you hear me?" The carrier captain called into the device.
"Loud and clear, I suppose you want to hear what happened over here?" Varennes asked jokingly.
"Very much so old friend, what's going on?" Jackson replied.
"The Commander finally snapped is what's going on, any sailer who refused to follow him over the Commodore has been incarcerated, he's heading your way with his best ship girls Captain, looks like he's after Nico in force now!" Varennes explained.
"Shit! If Nico tries to fight back we're screwed! Get out of there Captain! I'm telling the fleet to-" Before Jackson could finish, he saw Nico climbing an outer staircase to the carrier's flight deck. What caught his eye was a glowing black cube in Nico's hand, and the commodore's new attire. He watched as Nico power walked to the ship's bow, the cube glowing ever brighter.
"What the fuck...Varennes...I think Nico has a plan of his own, hes got some kind of...black box thi- FUCK!"
Jackson was interrupted by a huge wave of purple light erupting from Nico's cube. The energy was so strong, it smashed through the glass of the ship's bridge, everyone inside, including Jackson, shielded their face from the hailstorm of glass from the explosion. Once the glass was all blown away, they all watched Nico in a mix of amazement and horror; He was holding his arms wide open, like he was performing some kind of ritual. The black box hovering a few feet in front of him.
"No longer will humanity cower in fear of the ocean, we will take the power of the sea for our own!" Nico bellowed, as white, shining fractal pattern bloomed from beneath his feet. His face twisted into a demented grin as his suit started powering up, the same glowing white light as the pattern under him, shone from all over his body, he threw his head back and laughed evilly as the glow intensified.
A giant column of white light suddenly shot up from the symbol beneath him, leaving only the dark silhouette of his body visible as the pillar of light impaled the clouds above the carrier. The whole spectacle emitting a loud droning noise. Captain Jackson and all his crew had to look away to save their eyes, not being able to witness their commodore's transformation.
"Oh my god Nico...what the fuck are you doing..." Jackson muttered as he shielded his eyes.
"Sir...we've got a sonar contact...off starboard..." One of his men announced, also trying to cover his eyes from the light.
"Thats hardly concerning right now lieutenant! What could be more important than this ungodly light show?!" Jackson yelled at him.
"Sir...it just appeared there...I haven't seen anything like it...and its huge..." The man explained to Jackson.
"Sir, look over there!" The Comms officer yelled, pointing into the sea on the carrier's starboard side. The bridge crew all watched as the water's surface's rippled and sloshed around something beneath the surface. Then it was broken by something rising up from beneath them, a ship's bridge, then more worryingly...ice...a giant ship...made of ice and steel.
"I...I know what that is...HMS Habakkuk...some project the British abandoned long ago!" Jackson breathed out, stepping back from the window as he watched the ice ship raise up and above his carrier. Once it had finished rising, it suddenly fell back into the water, causing a huge wave that pushed the Dominatus away, threatening to capsize the now dwarfed American ship.
It was then the light column around Nico narrowed, before finally vanishing into the Black box. Jackson hung his mouth open in horror, even from this far away from the Commodore, he could tell Nico himself now looked very different. His hair had changed colour from his original brown to a bright white and his eyes were glowing a menacing purple colour. But what was most alarming to Jackson, was that he now had fox features just like Akagi. He had nine long white purple tipped fox tails billowing out from behind him, his new fox ears followed the same colour scheme, tall and triangular.
"Gentlemen! I give you the future of warfare!" Nico yelled, even his voice was somewhat different, resonating with a dark, evil power. He somehow hovered off the ground, becoming level with the Dominatus bridge and looked directly at Jackson. He gave the man a monstrous smile, before summoning what looked like icicles between his fingers, the same way Akagi would manifest her paper planes.
"Let them come, not even Azur lane can stop this kind of power." He darkly announced as he threw the icicles. They exploded in mid-air and became Seafire fighter planes covered in ice, Nico started laughing evilly as the Habakkuk hull started launching more planes just like them, until the sky above the fleet was a giant cloud of icicle covered planes. With the sound of their props and Nico's manic laughter, Jackson couldn't do anything but fall to his knees.
"What have we done...?"
Water pounder lab.
Akagi was just starting at the ceiling from the table she was still trapped on. Her eyes puffy and red from crying constantly. After Nico left she had kept trying to summon her rigging, not to escape, but to deliberately hurt herself from the electricity shot into her. The fox woman hated herself for giving Nico the power of a kansen, no matter how involuntary the action was, she still saw herself as responsible. Now he was going to undo everything she had worked so hard to achieve and it would be all her fault. Even if the Commander somehow survived Nico's plans, he'd never look at her the same way again.
"Commander...I'm so sorry...I deserve to be scrapped for this...I'll understand if you don't want me any more...dear sister Amagi...please forgive me...I tried...I really did try...to be good!"
Akagi was about to summon her rigging again, but then she noticed something happening to the lab. Professor Cameron was monitoring a computer that showed some coding. While he was working, time seemed to suddenly stop. Everything was frozen, an intern pouring a cup of coffee, some people stopped speaking mid-sentence and a dark atmosphere hung over the lab. An all too familiar voice was then heard by the fox woman.
"Well hello again Akagi~" A sickly sweet voice called to her, layered with a robotic hum as she spoke. Akagi was then greeted to Observer Alpha's face, from her perspective she was upside down, leaning in from behind her. Her tall black, cat-like ears blocked the light from the lamp above them and her golden eyes watched the fox with predatory glee.
"You let humans capture you? This must be so embarrassing for you!" Observer giggled, tilting her head at Akagi. The red kitsune just looked away from her, this was the last person she wanted to see right now, even Nico would have been more preferable.
"J-just go away...leave me!" Akagi hissed, closing her eyes tightly. Observer pouted her lips, faking offence as she walked in front of the table.
"Oh don't be like that~ that's no way to greet an old friend." She teased, with a wave of her hand the table whirred into life and propped up Akagi. The fox woman glanced at Observer from her new position, noticing she was hovering on her octopus-like rigging a few feet from her. "I was surprised to see you trying to change yourself over the last few days, you must REALLY love that Commander of yours to do something that drastic." the Siren playfully jested.
"That's none of your business, I was done working with you when Orochi was destroyed, we don't have anything else to discuss." Akagi spat at her. Observer just smirked at Akagi with half lidded eyes.
"Well yes, Orochi's destruction was a terrible shame, but life goes on." Observer replied in a blasé tone as she looked around the lab. "I must say, working with this 'Nico' person is really boring, he just wants power, command of Azur lane, blah blah blah..." she then added with a uninterested inflection.
That piqued Akagi's interest and she fully turned to look at the Siren. "You?! You gave Nico Siren tech?!" She yelled, getting enraged with her. Observer then looked back at her with a grin.
"You only just worked that out? Come on Akagi you need to think faster than that~ he he!" Observer giggled. Akagi just hissed, no more than now did she hate that she was still restrained, if only because she couldn't try to strangle Observer. The Siren's smirk then faded into a more melancholy look and she looked down a little.
"But in all seriousness, Nico is more evil than you realise, even I cringe just thinking about what he's doing up there, ugh!" Observer stated, shuddering a little as some unpleasant thought crossed her mind. Akagi looked at her in confusion, her anger deflating somewhat.
"What are you talking about?" The kitsune asked. Observer looked back at her with a serious expression on her face, one that put a little fear in Akagi.
"Nico isn't just stealing kansen power, he has a kansen's soul locked inside that suit he's wearing." The Siren proclaimed ominously.
A short scream was dragged from Akagi's mouth from the sheer horror of that revelation. N-no! You're lying! Thats too horrible to be true!" Akagi exclaimed, wriggling in the restraints.
Observer narrowed her eyes, dead serious in her tone. "The whole reason those water pounders are unstable, isn't because the mental cubes destabilise, the kansen trapped inside tries to escape the pain of her powers being stolen." She explained. "That black box I gave Nico fully restrains her, wasn't my idea before you ask, even I have morals; but the Creator was intrigued by the concept and told me to oversee it." The Siren added wistfully, sighing a little.
"Just when I ran out of reasons to hate you..." Akagi told her darkly, still trying to break free of the table.
"Anyway working for Nico is boring, so I watched you for a while, then I saw THIS little gem!" Observer then held out her hand and created a small portal above her palm. Through the portal, Akagi saw her duel with Wales, when she had demonstrated a power that saved her life and allowed her to win. While easily crushing Wales' rigging and arm.
"I have to say Akagi: This is far more interesting than Nico's water pounder project, so much so that I want to offer you another deal, don't worry you don't need to betray anyone this time~!" Observer giggled again as she demanifested the portal.
"No, whatever it is I refuse! I don't care!" Akagi told her. Observer, again faked being offended and made a shocked face.
"Aww! But I was gonna help you escape!" She complained in an exaggerated childish tone. "Just hear me out... please?" She put her hands together and leaned her cheek on them, trying to look as cute as possible.
Akagi thought about it for a minute, before sighing and looking back at her. "What do you want?" She asked, feeling defeated.
Observer yet again giggled and summoned a black box, making Akagi scream again. "NO! Keep that thing away from me!" She yelled, shaking and convulsing on the table out of terror.
"Oh relax, this one won't hurt you; trust me~" Observer told her with a wry smile. "Just listen: Agree to call upon the power you had in that duel and I'll let you out those restraints, don't you want to save the ship girl Nico is leeching his power from?" Observer asked her, knowing she wouldn't dare say no to that.
Akagi went wide eyed in fear, she had no idea how to do that, she also thought back to how she almost killed Prince of Wales with that power, she was acting purely on instinct in that state and couldn't remember anything about it. "Look...even if I wanted to...I don't know how...it just happened by itself!" Akagi replied honestly.
"That's not a problem, this will help you unlock it again when you're ready, you remember how to use a black box right?" Observer teased as she played with the object in question between her hands. "I'll sweeten the deal even further: for every minute you show me that power, I'll let you talk to Amagi, the REAL Amagi." She added.
"Shes dead, you really think i'm that stu-" "You can't kill a kansen Akagi, not really." The Siren interrupted, Observer then demanifested her rigging and straddled the fox woman's bound body, seductively caressing sides. Akagi tried to knock her off by shaking herself, but the Siren just tightened her thighs.
"I have ways of hacking mental cube coding, I do it in order to receive data from deceased kansen, So I can use my technology to send your data into that realm, so you can meet Amagi despite her being dead."
She then whispered right into Akagi's ear. "We both know how much you want to see her again, don't lie~" Observer then suddenly teleported off her and back onto her rigging where she originally was.
"So...we have a deal?"