A new day, a new year, a new chapter. Hope everyone had a good Christmas and New Years. I also hope this chapter will be enjoyable. Had a lot of trouble writing this one, both due to finding the time to write and the fact it seemed to fight me every step of the way. Overall happy with things so I hope you all will like it as well.

(Note: the title in the chapter drop down has poor spacing on purpose, it doesn't fit otherwise. It's not an error on my or the websites part.)

Chapter 19: Training, Meetings, and Patrols

Tuesday, February 1st, 2011

Vicky saw her home come into view, the lights on and cars in the driveway indicated her parents were home. Whether her sister was home or still at her friends was something she'd have to wait and see. She touched down at the front door and entered inside.

"I'm hOOOoome! " She sang.

She marched in and closed the door behind her.

"Don't be so loud Vicky, your father's in bed." Her mother replied with a hint of annoyance from the steps, midway heading up.

She was in her nightgown.

"Sorry…" Vicky muttered quietly, her face red with embarrassment.

Carol shook her head in exasperation, before resuming her march upstairs.

"Is Ames home?" Vicky asked.

"She got back a little bit ago. She's in her room." Carol answered. "I'm heading to bed. Goodnight."

"Night mom." Vicky replied.

After her mother had fully ascended her steps Vicky followed after her. She went down the hallway towards her sister's room. Though the door was closed she could see the light peaking through from underneath. She stepped in front of it, opened the door and looked inside.

"Dammit! It took five posts again!" Amy exclaimed.

She was currently on PHO. One of the odd things that came from Amy's new friendship, in Vicky's opinion, was her new friend's suggestion for dealing with the stress and exhaustion of working in the hospital, troll people online. Vicky had to admit. It did seem to be helping Amy in a weird way. Whether that would last remained to be seen. Vicky chuckled to herself before stepping inside. She closed the door behind her.

"Got Void banned again?" She questioned.

"Yeah… but I still haven't been able to do it in less than five posts." She answered. "How AllSeeingEye did it in two I'll never know. But I will match it."

Vicky struggled to hold back a laugh and merely shook her head in amusement.

"So how were things at Ana's?" She asked.

"Fine, she just wanted to hangout and show me the progress on her project." Amy answered.

"A project you've still told me nothing about. Mom I understand not even mentioning it, but come ooooon, don't keep your loving and beautiful sister in the dark like this." She whined. "Give me the deets."

"That's up to Ana, not me. Sorry sis, it's her secret project not mine." Amy replied as she turned her chair around to face her sister. "So how was your patrol? Given I didn't need to rushout in the middle of the night to heal some random dude, I'm guessing it was boring."

Vicky pouted.

"I'm not that bad… but yes… it was boring though I did run into a new Independent. You know the girl from the Shadow Stalker video? The one with white hair?" She brought up.

"Yeah, Ana's been talking about her. Said she thinks she recognized her or something. Wouldn't go into detail about it. Something about confirming if things match up or whatever. I didn't feel like prying too hard." Amy replied.

"How would she recognize her? She's a changer." Vicky pointed out as though it were obvious.

Amy just stared at her sister with a dumbfounded expression.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Vicky asked, feeling up her face to try and find whatever she thought might be there.

Amy didn't answer, she merely just stared. Her mouth moved as though to try and formulate a response, but nothing came. After a while she just shook her head.

"You know what not gonna bother. Ain't important enough. So anyways, you met the girl from the video." She prompted.

"Ahh… yeah… but seriously why were you…" Vicky began.

"Just continue with the story Vicky." Amy interrupted.

"Right… Well I meet her and we end up patrolling together for a bit. It was her first real time out as a proper cape in costume and all so I showed her the ropes." Vicky explained.

"Welp, her career's doomed them. Doubt she has a healer on call. Unless that's part of her power." Amy pointed.

"Hey! Have some faith in your sister. I have plenty of experience as a hero and thus am perfectly qualified to instruct a newbie in the ways of being a cape." Vicky replied. "And I'm not that bad."

"Until I see her in action and see her show proper restraint. I'll withhold my judgement. Also yes you are." Amy declared.

"Hmph," Vicky expressed with a pout.

Amy just rolled her eyes.

"So other than being new and doing the world a favor by putting Shadow Stalker in her place, anything interesting about her." She asked.

"Not really. She seemed nice, somewhat snarky, though nowhere near what you are normally like, and was more reserved initially. She's smart though, she's not jumping into the hero business head first but instead is taking her time to make sure she's truly ready. Also it seemed like she kept the full details of her powers to herself and is doing what she can to not out herself as a tinker." Vicky explained.

"Neat, maybe she'll last a bit." Amy noted. "Say… out of curiosity, you wouldn't know how to contact her. Like I said before Ana's been talking about her."

"I've got her number for her cape phone. We're also meeting up for a late night patrol again this Saturday but we won't be going towards Ana's place. I tried to get her to do the boardwalk intro patrol but she said she's waiting on her 'tinker friend' to get her main costume ready. Said the one she had on was just a temp on. Which got a say, for temp, it was really good. Girl's got good fashion sense." Vicky explained.

"I see… I'll talk to Ana and see what she wants to do. Maybe we can work something out." Amy replied.

"Sounds good. Welp, I'ma take a shower and get in my jammies and relax for the night. I'll leave you to your trolling and shitposting. Try not to get banned again." Vicky stated.

"Hmph… I've learn my lesson and won't make that mistake again." She declared, turning her nose up.

Vicky rolled her eyes and went back out the door, closing it behind her.

Saturday…

Rosemary woke up bright and early before the sun had even risen. She let out a yawn as she tiredly got out of bed. She carefully fixed up her bed; re-tucking the sheets, making sure the quilt was in its proper place, and putting the blankets she put on top to help keep the cold at bay were properly on the bed. With that done she stripped out of her nightgown and changed into her kendo uniform. She went down to the kitchen to get a light snack and a glass of water before going down into the basement to her family's makeshift dojo. After finishing her snack, she ran through a basic set of warm ups and stretches. Once she was properly warmed up she took a drink of water before grabbing her bokken and going to the center of the room. Her breathing became steady as she got into a basic starting stance. She began to swing her sword counting in her head for each swing. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10…

'You can slow down a bit, no need to tire yourself out first thing in the morning.'

Wordlessly, Rose complied, keeping the count going as she slowed down. This continued until she reached one hundred fifty swings. She lowered her bokken and took a few deep breaths. She placed the training sword back in its place before grabbing a towel to wipe the sweat away. She put the towel back, grabbed her water for a drink before returning upstairs. She went to her room to grab some casual clothes before going to the bathroom to take a shower. Once that was done and she was in her casual clothes, she went back downstairs to find her mother already in the kitchen preparing breakfast for everyone. Wordlessly she grabbed an apron and joined in helping her. The two worked together seamlessly and without saying a word. Rose was about to speak but stopped herself. You know, now that I think of it. If what Taylor mentioned Kiana said was true, maybe you could give me some cooking pointers. Mei chuckled in her head.

'I think that can wait until your further along in in your training. We haven't even gotten to honkai energy training yet.'

Speaking of which, when are we getting on that? I'ma be honest. Learning how to shoot magic lightning with imaginary energy sounds fricking awesome. I'll be like Bana Ana from GGZ.

'One, probably not since she doesn't use a katana. And two you make it sound way more fantastical than it is.'

Okay… but a good copy of evil death energy from the unfeeling multiverse sounds way darker than I'd like to think of it. And you have to admit, what you all did with it was pretty fantastical.

'That's… fair I suppose. Moving on, to answer your initial question, I'm thinking of Monday. We have till around the start of April so there's no need to rush too fast. You were already at a good level physically and in terms of your combat skills so there's less we have to work on there.'

Aww… Mei chuckled. Rose was about to respond when she heard her mother struggling to hold in a laugh. She turn to her and asked, "What?"

Her mother didn't answer immediately, instead she reined in her laughter before it could burst out.

"Oh… nothing dear, just thinking those lessons your getting with Taylor are gonna be very useful." She answered.

Rose was confused, until she realized what her mother meant. Her face heated up with embarrassment.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" She whined.

Her mother erupted into a fit of laughter.

Later that day…

…

…

…

A series of strings played as the curtain flew open to reveal Kiana clothed in a beautiful ornate kimono. Her eyes were closed. It took a herculean effort from Taylor to not react. Kiana's eyes flew open.

'NOW! After we have heard Glory Girl's side of the story of Tuesday night and the brief interlude of Rose's training progress, let us regale the events again more fully and from Taylor's perspective.'

Two things. One, how do you know about those first two? And two, why do we need to go through what happened last night?

'It's so other's can get a more clear picture of events going forward.'

WHAT OTHERS?!

'After her complete failure to properly leap across the building…'

I know what you're doing, and I'm not falling for it. She yelped as a Tennis ball hit her square in the face.

"You're trying too hard. It has to be natural." Jim instructed as his dog brought the ball back. He chucked another one and it hit Rose in the face causing her to yelp. Their training had only recently started and it was the fifth time she had been pelted. Her displeasure at this was evident on her face.

"Improve and you won't be hit as much. At least until you get to Taylor's level in which you have to work on making it seem natural." Jim explained.

Said girl gave him a deadpan look while Rose looked like she wanted to let loose a flurry of complaints but was holding back. It's all to not get outed. I will do this to not get outed. She said to herself.

'Just do your best. I'll try and make things a bit easier so you can slowly build up your abilities.'

No, taking the easy way has led me down a road I regret travelling. So don't let up on me. We'll do this thing the hard way or not at all.

She felt a whack on head despite nothing hitting her. She let out a "GAHHH!" as a tennis ball hit her for reacting to seemingly nothing. She got the mental image of Mei sternly looking down at her, shinai in hand and resting on her shoulder.

'I'm stopping this right here. I know where that line of thinking can lead and I'm not letting you go down that road.'

Rose wilted under her glare. She yelped when another tennis ball hit her. Taylor snickered at her friend's predicament before a tennis ball hit her in the face. She let out a yelp, less from pain and more from surprise.

"No laughing at your friend's misery." Jim ordered.

Rose smirked. She let out a yelp as another tennis ball hit her.

"Same goes for you." He added.

She actively resists the urge to scream out in frustration. It was after this Kiana decided she could continue.

'From there they continued their patrol. Save for Taylor-chan falling and crushing some guy trying to rob a woman after failing her jump…'

Please don't bring that up again.

'The patrol was largely uneventful. Thankfully our young heroine in training gained some insight from her wise elder in the art of heroism.'

None of those things can in any way remotely describe Glory Girl.

'She… … ah… she… what was going to say?'

Taylor sighed and then got hit with a tennis ball.

Later that day…

Taylor and Rose sat in a booth at Cafe Leblanc enjoying some delectably delicious curry, coffee, and tea. While Taylor was savoring the delicious food, Rose was grumbling and mumbling about Jim's 'teaching methods' as she shoved food in her mouth as though to shove away what she just went through.

"Do you feel better now?" Taylor asked.

Rose stopped eating.

"No, but I feel less bad." She answered before she resumed eating.

Taylor chuckled lightly before taking another bite. She took time to savor the scrumptious curry she'd just partaken in. After swallowing she asked, "How's your… other training coming along?"

"Hmm… oh… pretty good, I'll be moving on to the next stage Monday." Rose answered.

"Good to know. Have you noticed any… changes…" Taylor inquired.

"Hmmmm… well…" Rose began.

She looked around the cafe. It was fairly scarce in terms of occupants. The older man who owned that place was back in the kitchen and the young man was working brewing some coffee behind the counter. Feeling she was in the clear she leaned in.

"Not really, but other than her bust size and height difference Mei isn't really that different from me in appearance. Though her hair has a purple tint that I've just noticed has started to crop in." She explained.

Taylor nodded at that.

"Good to know. Luckily for you that'll be much easier to pass off compared to mine." She noted.

"Still can't believe you got away with that." Rose muttered.

Taylor shrugged.

"To be honest it was pretty easy since most people who knew what I looked like before, I don't interact with anymore. Those that do are in on my little 'secret'." She pointed out.

"That's… fair I suppose." Rose replied.

Taylor was about to continue the conversation when her new phone, which she had picked up earlier in the week, pinged with a message. Taking it out she opened the message. She read it quickly then her eyes went wide in surprise.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

Taylor beckoned her to lean in further and she did so. Taylor leaned in as well.

"Glory Girl just messaged me. She wanted to see if I'd be alright with someone tagging along for our patrol, someone new." Taylor explained quietly. "How should I answer?"

"What do you mean, 'How should you answer'?" Rose questioned in an equally quiet voice.

"Well… I'm nervous about going out with someone I don't know. Glory Girl I at least knew from living in the city. But other than apparently Panacea knows her, I don't know anything about this person." Taylor explained.

Rose gave her a flat look.

"Say yes, meeting new people will be good for you. Also I don't care how powerful we'll eventually get, we need more than two people if our plan to clean up the city is going to work. Whoever this is will be a hero like us so she'll at minimum be on our side and thus be good to get to know." She pointed out.

"That's… I… fine… I'll let her know it's alright." Taylor relented.

Rose nodded in approval as she sat back in her seat. Taylor did the same and began texting on her phone. A thought then occurred to Rose.

"Wait… please tell me you don't use your personal phone for cape stuff." She pleaded.

Taylor gave her a questioning look.

"Of course not. I just don't have any device that connects to my 'cape phone' with me since that might be a give away. To compensate, I set up a system with Ai-chan so when she needs to pass info to me, it looks like a friend is just texting me and vice-versa." She explained.

Which reminds me, she still hasn't answered why she picked the name Ayaka.

'Who knows. Probably not that big of a deal.'

… Yeah… you're probably right.

"Huh… smart. Though I doubt anyone would notice something like you having two phones but better safe than sorry I guess." Rose noted.

Taylor merely nodded at that.

That night…

Taylor fidgeted around in costume atop a roof near the docks. She had gotten there around the meeting time, which was later than she wanted, only to find no one there yet. Figuring everyone else was running late she decided to wait. After a bit of time had passed she began feeling both nervous and antsy. What's taking them so long?

'It's been five minutes. They're probably just late. What are you so nervous about anyways? I thought we were over this.'

Listen, I'm still not the most comfortable with meeting new people and the wait isn't helping.

'You seemed fine with Glory Girl.'

She's an exception.

"HEEEEEEEEEEEEY!" She heard a familiar voice call out.

Speaking of. Astre turned to see Glory Girl descending towards her.

"Hope you weren't waiting long." She expressed as she touched down.

"Nope, just got here a bit ago." She replied.

'Sure didn't make it seem that way a bit ago.'

Shush you.

"Phew… that's good to know. I had actually planned on being here a bit earlier, you know being the responsible senior and all." Glory Girl began.

Don't know if I'd use that to describe you. Astre thought to herself.

"Buuuuuuut… I ended up spending too much time texting my boyfriend." Glory Girl admitted sheepishly.

Astre gave her a flat look of disappointment.

"Don't give me that look. If you had a boyfriend you'd get it!" Glory Girl shouted.

"And how do you know I don't have one?" Astre questioned.

"Trust me I know these things." Glory Girl declared with certainty.

Astre was about to respond when someone else arrived.

"Oh God I hope I'm not too laaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE!" The voice of a girl exclaimed.

The two heroines turned to see a girl who had fallen face first flat onto the roof. Astre's eyes went wide in surprise. Within her mind, Kiana was having a similar reaction. The girl had silver gray hair tied into twin tail drills by two indigo bows.

"Oh good, she's here." Glory Girl noted.

Astre's head snapped to the blond heroine and then back to the silver haired girl.

'No way.'

While Astre didn't voice this exact thought, she shared the sentiment. The girl pushed herself off the ground slightly.

"Bronya was right, having Project Bunny carry me would be easier." She muttered.

'THAT CONFIRMS IT!'

Y-y-y-you never know. Maybe it's a really weird coincidence.

Suddenly a large, largely white with some red and black robot materialized behind the new girl and picked her up.

"Thanks Project Bunny." She expressed gratefully as it placed her on her feet.

The robot nodded. Thanks to this Astre was now able to get a good look at the new girl as she dusted herself off. She wore a indigo buttoned up crop top jacket with a red and black collar, red and off white stripe pattern and the edge of the sleeves and black and gray lining. Clipped to the seam where the sleeves were attached to the main body of the jacket she had gold colored braided thread that looped around from the front to the back of her shoulder. Under her jacket was a buttoned up largely grayish brown with some black striped shirt. Under this was an indigo skirt. She wore long mostly black gloves that went half way up her forearms that were gray at her fingers. Over these were light gray and red metal arm guards. She had a red shoulder guard on her left shoulder. Her legs were encased in near white, gray, and red metal up to her thighs, save for her feet on which she wore red socks and brown shoes.

She also wore a mask that complimented her outfit. Despite the mask, there was one thing that, for Kiana, stood out clearly. Her face largely resembled that of Bronya's.

"Sorry I'm late, everyone had some last minute adjustments to make. Serebrvolk is my hero name. I look forward to working together." She expressed with a cheerful smile and a salute.

At that moment Taylor didn't know what to think. Kiana on the other hand couldn't help but exclaim, 'NO ONE WHO LOOKS LIKE BRONYA SHOULD ACT LIKE THIS!'

And that's a wrap, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Till next time. If you want me to be able to produce more content, please consider supporting me on subscribe star. (search zmanxv and the link is on my deviantart page).