"Man, that's some crackhead shit," Quipped Vic as he and Kazuma strolled around, "Also, your English is pretty good, dawg."
"Thanks," Kazuma nodded, "Years of playing vidya online helped with that..." And he eyed some of the infantry around. US Marines stood on post, smoking cigarettes, laughing and chatting with some of the locals. Ayesha, meanwhile, recorded the area around them with a smile, an AK slung over her shoulder and hanging off her hip and Lita close beside her, puffing from a cigar.
"Recording for posterity?" The Romanian asked as he hefted his PKM closer, grinning. Ayesha shifted the camera toward her and he lifted his middle finger at the girl, causing her to scoff and laugh, before panning around. Several five ton trucks and HEMTTs lay on the sides of the city's roads, Marines and fellow NATO infantry tending to the equipment. Ayesha then filmed herself and grinned.
"Welcome to the Second Special Region Diaries," She chuckled, then turned her camera toward the crew, "Here we see Victor, who just literally flipped the fucking bird my way. Fuck you, too, by the way, mister Pickpocket," which got the man to crack a smile and laugh as the girl panned over to the green-haired shortie beside her and stated, "Lita, obviously, currently doing her best Price impression."
Lita grinned and cleared her throat, then with a gruff voice and serious face, she spoke with a mock Brit accent, "Bravo Six, going dark..." which garnered actual, genuine laughter out of the rest of the escort, including two Finnish girls that'd joined the ranks more to explore the town than anything, and out of the VIP they were escorting around the place.
"And this is our new friend, Kazuma," Ayesha snorted, "Say hi, kid."
The brown-haired, green-eyed kid waved awkwardly, before the Finns grabbed him by the arms and pulled him off the street as a US Bradley rolled forward, carrying stretchers filled with wounded civilians on board. Well, 'wounded'. The sick and the elderly were being taken to be checked by the UN's Military presence in this general area, that being a freshly set-up hospital.
"Yeah, shit's fucked here. It's a medieval town, there's... Wait, Kazuma, I saw a toilet in your place. Is infrastructure like sewers in place?" She panned back over to Kazuma. The boy nodded, to which the girl hummed and said, "I'll be damned. Guess this place ain't so medieval, really..." before they walked past a pair of adventurers who seemed to be eyeing her. She blew a kiss their way jokingly, causing both to stammer and blush, before laughing as they passed them.
"Man, she's really something," Kazuma murmured.
Vic nodded, "That's Aye for ya," before shifting his rifle over his shoulder and watching as a second Fireteam passed by them, giving waves of greeting to the group. United States Marine Corps members, all of them carrying HK417s designed specifically for the Corps. Vic couldn't recall their exact nomenclature, but it didn't really matter at this point. What he did notice, however, was that a couple of the men had beastgirls holding onto their arms.
Lita snorted, then took another puff of her cig and murmured, "No surprise. Women love guys in uniforms..." before humming. She turned to the young man they were protecting, then asked, "Hey, Kazuma, did you ever consider joining the JSDF?" which seemed to get the young man to jump and turn toward her, wearing his surprise on his face like it was a mask.
"Nope. I'm a gamer, remember?" He quipped.
Lita shrugged, "Shame."
One of the Finns, a blonde one, decided to interrupt the normalcy of the chatter by inquiring, "Do you guys think we can call the breast milk from beast women with cat ears 'kitty tiddy milkies'?" which caused the entire platoon, Kazuma included, to stagger. The blonde's friend slapped her on the shoulder, which caused her to grin proudly as she watched sheer confusion plastered across everyone's faces. The way that came out of left fucking field seemed to have left the entire group speechless.
"Aada Heikkala, everyone," Her tan comrade facepalmed, then ran a hand through her somewhat fluffed-up hair and murmured, "I swear, I don't know how I've been dealing with her the past five years of our friendship," before she looked to the gang and said, "Oh, right... Weirdly enough, you guys only know our ranks, but we didn't introduce ourselves. I'm Anni Junttila. Corporal. Call me whatever seems fitting for you."
"Aada Heikkala. Private First Class," The blonde with messy hair spoke, rifle slung over her shoulder, "You'll get used to me."
Vic blinked and murmured, "I'm not sure we wanna, Aada," as he shifted his LMG onto his back. Kazuma, meanwhile, was already dreading the prospects of staying with these weird-ass people. Were they not more functional due to being part of the military? Or were they just as bad as his mismatched party of absolute weirdoes? He guessed he'd figure that out soon enough.
"How much meth did your friend take before our arrival here?" Lita asked Anni, taking a puff from her cig as Heikkala's greenish-blue eyes seemed to peer right through her. Junttila shrugged, to which Lita murmured, "Well, fuck..." while Ayesha let out a short laugh that was a combination of joy and disbelief. Joy at getting new friends, disbelief at the fact there was someone crazier than them on any world out there.
US Army troops passed by them next, women and men. Several vibed to tunes on top of a Bradley, dancing like some emote in a video game while the crew watched and recorded. Probably to send home to their families and tell them that all's well here. The XM7s in their hands seemed repainted for woodland warfare, with greens and blacks instead of various shades of tans and cream.
Some of the men were Rangers, who greeted the people escorting Kazuma with waves and smiles. The group returned the greetings in kind, with Kazuma voicing, "I guess boys will be boys anywhere, eh?"
Vic snorted, "Hang around us long enough and you'll see that this gang doesn't care about gender when it comes to vibing," before giving the boy a light bump in the shoulder. He then hummed and asked calmly, "By the way, you play War Thunder before dropping into this place?" while the rest of the group sighed deeply at that. Heikkala, though, seemed to be grinning still.
"... Please, don't remind me of old trauma," Kazuma pleaded, faking the thousand yard stare of a veteran. The group paused, then the two laughed aloud, followed by the others joining. For the first time in a while... Well, a few days, really... Kazuma genuinely smiled. His Party also got those genuine smiles out of him with their antics, but these guys weren't gonna be so bad. Kazuma snorted, then asked, "They finally add modern MBTs?"
"You kidding?" Lita quipped, "Bastards added the M1A2 SEPv3 just recently... God, the document leaks from that one..."
"What?!"
The group winced and nodded, with Vic explaining, "Yeah, War Thunder forums seems to have a nasty problem with military personnel declassifying shit like manuals and vehicle specs. The SEPv3 is actually number one hundred in the latest stuff added that got shit declassified from it..." which made Kazuma's jaw drop. Vic hummed and stated, "I still remember when they declassified stuff for the TR-85 and everyone laughed at it. Even our Army did, heh. And we operated the damn things."
"I'm genuinely stumped. Why the hell would anyone leak CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS ON WEAPONS SYSTEMS?!" Kazuma demanded, stunned at the audacity and sheer idiocy of humanity yet again. He was already worried about the answer that would come. Seriously, if he knew anything, it was that humanity was idiots, no matter the planet or universe they spawned out of.
Vic hummed, "They wanted to make their in-game vehicle better...?"
Kazuma's jaw dropped.
"The sheer fucking hubris," Ayesha joked. Star Trek nerd? Star Trek nerd. She snorted and told Kazuma, "It's not as bad as what one Chinese player did, blyad. He sent the specs of the most powerful ammo the Chinese ZTZ-99 MBT had at the time! I'm pretty sure the man is now part of the organ donor market..." which got the young Japanese man to wince hard. That was not a fate he wished on anyone.
"Your liver, now. The People's Republic of China to that man," Heikkala quipped, then mimicked an eating motion. Kazuma was starting to wonder how the hell she did not get Section Eighted out of the Finnish military at this point, but he probably didn't wanna know. She added, "Hm. Hey, Junttila, you think we're going to face dragons here? Because I actually kinda wanna see one."
"I mean, if it's anything like Falmart," Junttila shrugged, then sighed, relieved this was a more normal discussion.
Aada snorted, "Should be funny. I still wanna one-up Third Recce and their troops. Maybe bayonet the dragon to death..."
"Well, you're getting tanned," Ayesha shot back, garnering a laugh from the girl. Junttila gave an approving nod, before pausing as the chop of rotor blades sounded off above. Three Black Hawks flew in low, escorted by a pair of Apaches from the Polish Army. She commented, "Looks like the Poles are going somewhere fast today. God bless'em for standardizing to modern US Equipment first..."
A Polish MRAP rolled forward and stopped at the side of the road in front of the infantry. A strange P symbol with two tails poking out from below, shaped like a W, was plastered onto the vehicle, in front of the white and red. Lita hummed and said, "And there's the group we're here to meet..." as they watched a platoon of GROM dismount, led by one young woman with purple eyes and blonde hair that caught a glimpse of them immediately.
She smiled behind her balaclava and pulled it down, before yelling, "Kurwa, I KNEW we were gonna run into you girls!" as she opened her arms, her HK-417 rifle slung onto her back. Ayesha and Lita walked up to and hugged the Polak, who laughed heartily, then looked over to Kazuma and stated, "And this must be our little ward. Konnichiwa, kurwa. Name's Katja Zielinska. Call me Katja."
"Hi...?" He blanked. Why were most women in this group hot, seriously? "Satou Kazuma... Nice to meet you."
"Good to meet you, too," She snorted, then rallied her squad and started speaking to them in Polish. Though one would normally not understand what the words were about, the facial feature shifts and the woman's hand movements told them exactly what this was about. The Polish GROM unit was here to reinforce the Misfits, much like the other friendly units of the group had arrived, from Hungarian Defense Forces, to Romanian Armed Forces and FDF as well.
The amount of swearing told Ayesha and Lita that Katja might've been just a tad happy to see them all. Just a little. A smidge. Hell, the fact her spine still hurt from how tightly Kat had hugged them was probably a decent indication. She took a puf from her half-finished cigar, then watched Katja turn toward them with a grin. She told them, "Alright, my unit's got their refresher. Let's get all of us home, cuz I hear Pali is here, too, and that asshole and I need to have a chat about keeping in contact."
Aye and Li snorted, with Ayesha commenting, "Lead the way, Mama Wojtek."
... Back at the villa, where a good slew of military vehicles had been parked near the front, bivouacs being set up for continuous habitation of the troops and the like, Vesna cooked a meal, humming happily as she did so. They had gas stoves installed with actual kerosene bottles built in, as well as a bunch of safeties. Cooking was much easier this way.
Aqua poked her head over Vesna's shoulder, watching her cook and asking, "Whatcha making?" as she watched the young woman flip a piece of meat that lacked bone on the skillet. The blonde seemed just a tad surprised, turning toward the blue-haired woman with some degree of confusion at first. When she saw, however, that it was one of Kazuma's comrades, she relaxed.
"Oh, hello," Ves greeted with a smile, "Pork and french fries."
"Smells good!" Megumin commented from the couch, staring up at the ceiling and playing with a casing that Dushman had given her as a gift. She peered over the couch's backrest and asked, "Hey, Vesna. Is it true that the guns you use utilize what's tantamount to explosion magic contained in these things to fire their bullets?" to which the girl nodded. Meg smirked and said, "I really wanna try one of your weapons now! Pocket explosion magic sounds cool!"
Vesna smiled and replied, "Perhaps one day..." before looking back at the food she was cooking and murmuring, "Hopefully, we can give her proper gun safety training before she manages to convince any of us to let her shoot..." as she pulled the fries off the fire, then the meat. There was surprisingly enough to feed the Misfits, and Kazuma's party in there, even with the new arrivals.
The Russian continued her cookwork, while Sam entered the place with a tired Darkness who was full of bruises. Sam had wide eyes as she stepped up next to Ves, arranging her tank top and camo pants, before murmuring, "I'm never sparring Darkness again... So many moans..." and she shuddered, which got a chuckle out of Ves. She offered her comrade a fry and the offer was quickly accepted.
Sam gave a thumbs up as she chewed on the food, while a particularly happy-looking Darkness sat on one of the easy chairs nearby, a blissful smile and a healthy red flush on her face. The Chinese lieutenant commented, "I don't fucking know how Kazuma deals with her. That girl's into some of the weirdest shit I've ever seen and I know my own goddamn kinks..."
Ves snorted and blushed, "I understand..."
"I wonder how, genuinely..." Sam sighed, rubbing her eyes. She was about to say something else, before the sounds of thundering, rapid-fire footfalls on the stone floors echoed. Alexi hit the brakes at the door and changed directions, scrambling into the room, with Sam demanding, "What the FUCK is going o-?!" just as Dushman entered the room...
Dushman called out, "COME HERE, YOU FUCKING BULGARIAN NI-" before he slipped on 'something'...
Said something will remain nondescript for the safety of all involved in the telling of this story. Anyways, Dushman had fallen flat on his back and let out a groaning, "FUUuUUuUUck...! What the fUCk did I just slip on...?" Before turning onto his side and feeling the floor. He blinked, then looked over to a blushing Darkness, then up at the bruised Sam and asked, "What did you do to her...?"
Sam shrugged, "I just beat the shit out of her in a spar, man, I don't know..." She then sighed, paused for a moment to process matters, then started again "Wait, don't take my attention away from this," as she pulled him to his feet, "The fuck were you chasing Alexi for? What did our resident Bulgar do to you to warrant you slipping and nearly breaking your spine while trying to catch his ass?" before also casting a glare at Alexi, too.
"Bastard threw cold water over me in the showers!" The Marine shot back. Would explain why Dush was only wearing pants right now. And why he slipped so easily. His feet were bare. Sam planted a palm on her face and shook her head, then waved Dushman off back to the showers and turned to Alexi, who raised his hands defensively as the Chinese woman marched up to him.
Vesna only thought that it was good to see them being this rowdy. It was like back during KFOR, honestly. Back when they were all together and the operation in Falmart hadn't occurred yet. She was also thankful the tension between her people and NATO had been alleviated, what with Ukraine's territory being returned and everything. She had dreaded a genuine war and thanked president Pomorenka every day for that bit of her wisdom.
Megumin hummed and played more with the casing, making it dance between her fingers as she looked over to a calming Darkness, the young woman arranging her sparring clothes by tugging on them and sighing in relief. Meg looked at the woman's breasts and frowned as she looked at herself, then looked to Sam and saw hers weren't much bigger... Sam was still chewing Alexi out hard enough for it to be considered abuse, though to nobody's surprise, since Chinese were apparently known for this stuff...
Obviously, Sam had noticed what Megumin was doing and said, "Trust me, you're still young. They'll grow..." before walking away from an Alexi she chewed out to the point the man was basically a bit of a husk right now. Vesna chuckled, then hummed as she heard the main door open. Upon noticing Vic was the first to come in, leaving his weapons off to the side, the young woman rushed him and gave him a hug and a kiss, which Vic quickly returned with a chuckle muffled by his lover's lips. The rest of the Misfits had come in just in time to witness this sweet little moment and, truly?
... Well, that had to be the most heartwarming thing, the group thought.