Shina was out for the day, and she direly hoped grandpa would not be too angry and put her in The Room when she got back, besides, she was doing work for the TSAB, the same organization he had worked for. There was nothing to punish there...
She had tried to find that Arthra ship a few hours early, but she could not find it, and as a result, just now she was around about to show up. Grandfather always told her that, for a proper woman, timeliness was extremely important and that, for her own good, she should show up at all appointments hours early. How he must be ashamed of her.
She did admit that she hoped there would be a handsome boy there for her.
She would not, though, forget Chrono. Even though she heard he was involved with another woman, she still loved him and wanted to be with him. Affair or no affair, shame or not, she was determined to see it through.
She clumsily opened the car door due to her odd mood, almost fell out as a result, and started toward the ship.
Meanwhile, Vivio was waiting near the Arthra. She was excited to meet her new teammates; though she hoped that there would be some people she knew on the team as well.
In any case, she certainly wasn't at all nervous. Though if she was, hypothetically nervous, it would explain why she was currently so jumpy.
edited 1st Nov '11 3:41:01 PM by GenericTroper
A small figure sat on the drunken woman's shoulder. She looked, oddly, like a miniature child. And extremely small miniature child. Kimi worried. And worried. And worried. She was usually worried about her master, and moreso when she was drunk. She felt it was a unison device's job to be worried for her master...
Upon spotting Hayate, she stood up and saluted, snapping to attention.
Meanwhile, a little distance away, a certain red-brown-haired ace made her way to the meeting point...
"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up.""Can you please wake Reventón-san for me?" Hayate asked, unwilling to try herself. She'd heard that the last person to attempt this had ended up with a broken arm and had no desire to add to Shamal's workload so early on in the mission. Certainly not before they'd set up properly.
The blonde walking alongside Nanoha seemed to be worrying about something and was airing her concerns to the ace. "Are you sure it's a good idea to let Vivio come along? It's dangerous and we don't even know what's going on! What if this ends up like the Book of Darkness incident or the Jail Scaglietti Incident? She could get hurt!"
All this coming from the Enforcer that had been shot down by Nanoha at the age of nine.
Kimi nodded.
"Yes, ma'am," to tell the truth, she was mildly worried about Avair anyway... which was her usual state. She bent down and incessantly nudged at Avair's shoulder. Though she had little strength even for her small size, she hoped that Avair would feel the nudging if she did it hard enough.
Nanoha smiled at her fellow combat mage. "She'll be fine, Fate-chan. We were younger then she is when we first started out as combat mages. And if it does turn out like the Jail Scaglietti incident..."
Nanoha trailed off for a minute. What had been done to Vivio during that incident had been terrible, but...
"She can defend herself, now."
"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up."Since the Athura had landed on Mid-Childa, it was naturally the focus for the group that would be investigating the disappearances on various worlds.
While Nanoha and Fate were looking for Vivio, they would pass by a bunch of technicians outside, working on various machines and watching the sky.
“Is she incoming?” Asked one of them.
“Who? The Commander?”
“No, Angel. We're running one last high speed test run before offering her as backup to Yagami. Do you see her on senors yet?” The other man shook his head,
“No. Depends if she's running at sea level or much higher up. If she's running at sea level she could be trying to evade our sensors by running low level though the brush.” The first man shuddered,
“Let's hope not. Last time she tried that she blew out over sixty windows from the sonic boom!”
Shina looked over the ship as she walked over towards it. The ship was big and looked like it might be armed. And...it looked like some famous people were here, Nanoha, Fate and their daughter.
She had yet to work out the mechanics of that, but she supposed Vivio was an adoptive daughter.
There would definitely be pressure to keep up in the presence of these people. She just hoped she did not fall behind.
"Kimi-chan, it's too early..." Avair groaned, rousing from her slumber and sitting up. What was wrong with letting her sleep until noon? It wasn't as if she did anything more complicated than paperwork and processing reports, now, there was no need to be on time... maybe they'd let her go if she was late long enough...
Then her mind caught up to recent events: recruitment back onto combat duty, theoretically, and getting drunk (more than usual) in order to celebrate having a use for her device once again. It seemed that, in whatever time had passed between 'leaving home singing' and the morning, she had made her way to where the Arthra's last-minute maintenance and stocking was being completed. Why did it have to be the Commander that saw her wake up/
"I'm so sorry!" Avair apologised, bowing before Hayate and eliciting a nervous reaction from the far shorter female.
After pushing Rein off to one side, probably to occupy Kimi for a few seconds by handing over some paperwork or something, Hayate spoke. "It's OK, just make sure that you wash once we get onto the ship. You stink right now."
"But she's still so young, what if she gets hurt? You only had me to fight and the Bureau was prepared for the Book of Darkness," protested Fate, looking around nervously for another blonde head, "Whatever this is, it's been making mages disappear for an entire year."
Erio straightened his crimson tie and hauled the kit bag up onto his shoulder as he walked onto the dockyard. It had been a long time since he'd worn a regular brown TSAB uniform; He'd spent the last two years working with Caro on the Borderland Nature Conservation Team, and the uniform he'd worn there had been a lot less formal and restrictive. Nevertheless, he was back on more conventional duties now.
Still, being back in that uniform and going back aboard the Arthra certainly brought back a lot of memories from six years ago.
"Yup. That tasted purple."Kimi watched the conversation for a moment, worried as always, before turning to Rein. "Um, hello, Reinforce-san. Is there anything I need to do now?"
"The Book of Darkness was still dangerous, and you were a strong opponent," Nanoha replied, continuing onward towards the Arthra. "And I know it's been making mages disappear. I'm sure Vivio-chan is ready now. She's shown a lot of progress, and she'll be with us and the rest of the team. Don't worry about her, Fate-chan. I'm sure she'll be alright."
edited 2nd Nov '11 12:31:54 PM by AnnoR
"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up.""Oh wow, check out that cute guy!"
"He's so hot!"
"...I wish my boyfriend was even half that cute..."
Mercedes Ironcastle stopped in her tracks for a moment and looked around. She kept hearing girls talking about a cute guy wherever she went, and was beginning to wonder if she had a stalker. Of course, she hadn't realised that the cute guy they were all talking about was actually her. With her short hair and tomboyish physique coupled with the fact that she was wearing a mens' uniform (mostly because everyone seemed to agree she looked better in mens' clothes), she really did look like the kind of guy you wouldn't be afraid to take home to mother. Well, other than the fact that she was a girl, but still.
"...Oh well, guess he must've ran off again..."
She merrily made her way along to the meeting point, seemingly ignorant to the fact that every girl she passed by swooned at the very sight of her. Maybe she was cutting it a little close, but... What was it they said on Earth? Ah, right... "If you're there before it's over, you're on time." There was no point in rushing, after all. It was a nice day, and she hadn't been in Mid-Childa for all that long. She may as well enjoy some of the sights whilst she was there.
...Eventually, though, she made it to the meeting place, and gave her future team mates a cheerful salute. "Hello, all! Nice day, isn't it?"
And so, Shina wound up seeing Erio. She wanted to say something, to introduce herself, to make herself known to him. To Shina, this was definitely the best thing to happen to her today. Tall, handsome, strong...everything she desired in a man.
She walked over to him, looking downward. She wanted to say she wanted to go with him. She wanted to break ranks and ask him out. But her "training" dominated her persona. Her Device pulsed slightly.
And she finally managed to introduce herself, "Umm...hi, uh, I-I'm Shina F-Fairmont...I-I guess we'll be working together now..."
edited 2nd Nov '11 2:20:07 PM by NickTheSwing
Shina gulped, she was sweating! Now? She looked down at his hand and quickly reached out, and shook his hand. Oh how she wanted to hold that hand, and never have to let go.
It was silly for a woman to become like this for every good looking boy, but...
Inside her, she roiled and felt a dark urge. She managed to suppress it. "Oh, umm, nice to m-meet you...Erio-kun." She was by now blushing very heavily.
What were you thinking? She berated herself, You jumped right to -kun, when he probably outranks you. Fairmont or not, you violated protocol.
Shina also felt the awkwardness over this. She could not stop her eyes from looking him over. A nagging voice in her head asked her, Don't you want to know what he looks like without that bothersome shirt?
She retorted to herself, shut up brain!
"So, Erio...what do you think of this assignment? I mean, I know why you are here...you helped in the Incident. But...I'm...not really known."
She was a Fairmont, so maybe Grandpa Zenji pulled some strings, but...
"Ahem..." Mercedes cleared her throat loudly from behind Shina. "Hello! It's nice to meet you both! I really look forward to working with you guys!"
The androgynous girl practically forced handshakes on both Shina and Erio, her grip somewhat tighter than it should be due to her over-enthusiasm. "Hopefully we'll get on greet together, Shina, Erio!"
edited 2nd Nov '11 3:34:46 PM by Moerin
"Just make sure that Reventón-san washes and then goes straight back to sleep. She's probably read the entire briefing already and her presence straight away might scare some of the new girls..." Rein explained nervously before returning to Hayate, who was finished instruction Avair to do the same thing. The two then passed through the now-opening doors, presumably to conduct important checks like 'how ready is the ship for launch' and 'do we have enough tea'.
"But... but..." Fate said, looking nervous—and then she spotted Erio, which was a welcome distraction from trying to explain why she didn't want to take a girl of twelve on an indefinitely long mission. "Erio-kun! It's nice to see you again, it's been some time."
Shina was very, very confused. Boy or girl? What was this before her? Should she be experiencing those odd feelings again?
And this person had taken her hand out of Erio-kun's. She did not know why, but that was oddly flustering her.
"Oh, umm, hello..."
She then noted Fate and introduced herself, "Oh, Miss Fate...hello..."
Should have added a sir or maam somewhere in there, dolt.
Kimi nodded, then alighted on Avair's right shoulder. "Avair-sama, are you ready to go take a shower?"
Nanoha smiled when she saw Erio, and the new female members of the team. It had been a while since she'd seen Erio, and she was always ready to greet new people. "Hello, Erio-kun."
She paused to get a better look at the... both of them were girls(the one took a slightly closer look, and the other was very clearly a girl, just very nervous), before greeting them as well. "Hello, I'm Takamachi Nanoha."
She didn't see her daughter yet... but that was likely because she had yet to arrive, or she was out of sight at the moment.
"Oh, dear. The toad, the monkey, and the dog have all screwed up.""Ah! Miss Harlaown, sir! Miss Takamachi, sir!" Mercedes saluted the two superior officers with great gusto. "It is a pleasure to finally meet you both!"
Even as far away as Omunda, the two had garnered their share of fame, even if Mercedes herself didn't really know that much about them other than the fact that they were pretty famous despite their young age. But still, she at least knew of them, and they had to be a pretty big deal if they were that well known. Besides, she'd heard that Nanoha was from Earth, a planet that had always fascinated her, even if her grasp on its culture was... Not exactly accurate.
“Wait a second now...I got her.”
“Good...where?” asked the second technician as he looked over.
“Uh...” The first man was looking over his sensors and his eyes went wide. He turned and pointed...
“She's ten kilometers...that way”. He was pointing straight upwards. The second man looked up,
“Uh oh...”
The second technician got on the comms.
“Angel, do you read me.” A very dry female voice came back,
“Yes...” Sighing, the man growled,
“Then could you get down here please?” The first man waved his arms and yelled,
“Don't tell her that!”
But it was too late. There was a dull crack from above, and both men ran for cover as Angel landed...right on top of all their equipment. There was a loud boom, and what might have been a slight earthquake (Childaquake?) and as the dust cleared, both men glared at the object of their fustration.
For her part, Angel didn't look that plussed. But then again, she didn't have much of a face for emotions. Just her V-Fin could move to simulate eyebrows.
“What? You told me to land.”
edited 2nd Nov '11 4:18:55 PM by RevenVrake

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All dates are those of the TSAB New Calendar
0074–Avair Reventón goes missing.
0075–The Jail Scaglietti Incident
0076–Avair Reventón resurfaces on Tiannys.
0078–The Mariage Incident
0079–A mage goes missing on Tiannys at the end of the year; the Arthra is saved from scrapping and refitted for the last time.
0080–The disappearances start to spread from Tiannys to nearby worlds, lone enforcers have no luck.
0081–Hayate Yagami is put in charge of a force to investigate the disappearances, using the refurbished Arthra as headquarters.
Personnel kept peering at the Enforcer slumped across a bench, wondering why someone who could easily afford a permanent residence was snoring drunkenly outside the dry dock that the Arthra was currently in. None dared to risk waking the redhead—what sane person would approach a woman who could drink more than half a bottle of Mid-Childan whisky and cheerfully sleep it off? Their prayers, and questions, were answered when a short, cheerful woman with unusually dull brown hair stepped out of a car.
“I know that I asked her to meet me here but I didn’t expect this sort of thing…” Hayate said, speaking to the tiny, white-haired girl that followed her. Today may have been the day that the new force would assemble for the first time but there was such a thing as being too early…