Hey everybody, sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. Real life got in the way for a while. If this chapter feels short it's because this is a setup chapter for the first action of the story, so get ready for that. But otherwise I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope you'll come back for the next one. Here is the fanfic.net link:

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/13973223/3/

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Chapter 3

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Thomas yawned as he entered the main gates of his high school Monday morning. Frankly, it had been a long weekend for him. The majority of his Saturday consisted of settling the girls into their new home and going through the files that Commander Howard had left for him. There were over a hundred files, and each one read like a highly detailed personal file. It took him all the way until dark to get through them all. Later that night Nimi had informed him that the majority of the Ironblood ships would remain in Germany until Azur Island was ready to receive him as commander. The rest would be stationed on the island base and be ready to provide assistance. When asked which ships he could count on for assistance Nimi just shrugged and said she didn't know but that she would try to find out. He also didn't get a lot of sleep as he woke up in the middle of the night to find Laffey asleep in his bed and had to kick her out.

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Sunday was a bit better but still tiring. The morning proceeded without incident, then Atago decided that they should go to the beach to show off their skills. So, they all piled into Thomas's truck headed down to the beach. They were able to find a quiet section where there wasn't anyone around. When Thomas got out of the truck he noticed the Atago anchored just off the shore.

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"Isn't the Coast Guard gonna be a bit curious about a warship just sitting there?" Thomas asked.

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"Nope, because it's still property of the base so they think it's just running sonar tests." Atago explained.

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Thomas nodded in understanding as he watched the younger girls run towards the water. When they were about two feet from the water, Laffey, Javelin, and Nimi leapt into the air and generated a blue glow around their bodies. When the glow subsided, their rigging had manifested, Laffey holding her spotlight, Javelin holding the weapon that shared her namesake and Nimi held a metallic shark head that seemed to be alive with a double barrelled gun turret in its mouth.

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Thomas thought that they would dive into the water but instead, they landed on top of it as though it was a solid surface and began to skate across it.

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Thomas watched them skate around for several seconds before he felt a set of arms wrap around him and he was lifted into the air. He tilted his back and looked up at Atago's smiling face.

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"Hold on tight Shikikan." she said before she and Belfast launched into the air and deployed their rigging before landing on the ocean's surface and began skating towards the anchored cruiser. Thomas was shocked at how effortlessly Atago was able to carry him in her arms. Her strength definitely didn't match her figure, but that made sense to Thomas since she wasn't human.

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"Hey, I'm impressed that you can carry me Atago, but is there any place to sit? My feet are kind of dangling here." Thomas asked Atago.

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Atago moved one of the hulls of her rigging closer to them and placed Thomas on it so that he was sitting on the gun turrets. Thomas noticed that not even the uneven distribution of weight seemed to affect her.

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'Wow, she really is stronger than she looks. They probably all are.' Thomas thought.

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It only took a short time before they reached the hull of the Atago, all of the girls jumping onto the deck and began making their way to the conning tower. Thomas opened the door to the bridge to find it clean and tidy. He guessed that this is what it looked like during both World War 2 and the First Siren War, with some noticeable differences. The steering wheel for the ship had been removed from the bridge, which once again made sense given who's ship it was. Also, some of the display screens had been upgraded to be used with the upgraded sonar and radar systems that the navy had installed. He walked to the center of the room and looked out the windows to see a large wide view of not only the beach and coastline, but also the calm ocean all the way to the horizon.

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"This is where you'll command the fleet Shikikan." Atago said. "That is, if you decide to use me as the flagship. If not, all of the others in the fleet have the capacity and equipment to be used by you, Shikikan Maxwell."

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"I've been meaning to ask this, but what about hulls for the rest of you. I don't know the status of the destroyers' hulls but I know that Belfast is docked in London." Thomas inquired.

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"We can summon our hulls at will, whether or not it is actually elsewhere or still existing." Belfast explained.

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THomas nodded in slight understanding. They stayed on the Atago's bridge for a while longer while Thomas checked the monitors and familiarized himself with the space before they returned to the beach to go home. Unfortunately he had to carry Laffey to the truck as the short bunny girl had fallen asleep the moment they reached dry land.

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"Sorry about that commander, Laffey used to be a night operations destroyer." Javelin explained. "I guess she never recovered from tiredness from then."

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"It's alright." Thomas said as he put Laffey in the truck. "I had to carry my sister to bed many times before when we were younger."

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"Do you think we will meet your sister and parents?" Nimi asked.

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"Probably." Thomas replied. Truth be told, he hadn't really thought about that since the rest of his family was on the opposite side of the country, but eventually they would come home. Thomas decided to put it in the back of his mind and worry about it later.

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That night was the first night the nightmares came. Thomas found himself outside a burning building. He didn't recognize it nor what was going on. He decided to walk away from the building and search for the girls.

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"HELLO?" He shouted.

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"IS ANYONE THERE"

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"ATAGO, LAFFEY, BELFAST, ARE YOU GUYS HERE?"

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As if to respond to his questions, an explosion tore through the sky. That was when he realized he wasn't in front of some lone building, but that he was in some sort of compound, all of it ablaze. He tried backing away, but he tripped over something and fell on his back. When he looked at what he tripped over, he saw that it was Javelin's gloved hand protruding from a pile of rubble. Blood seeped from the bottom of the pile.

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"Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." He panted as he scrambled away from the makeshift tomb.

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He tried looking around for the others again, but the fires were too bright and the smoke too thick to see anything. Then Thomas heard a whistling sound and looked up to see a ball of extremely bright light heading straight for him. Before he could react, it slammed into the ground next to him, engulfing his vision entirely.

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It was at that moment that Thomas's eyes shot open and he bolted upright in bed. He was panting heavily, and he was covered in sweat. It took him a second to realize that he was still in his room, and that what he just witnessed was a nightmare.

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As he calmed down he reached for his phone to check the time. 5:48am it read. Since he had to get up at 6 anyway he decided to just get up anyway. He was able to get showered and ready for school before the girls woke up. He wished them a good day and headed off to school.

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He yawned again as he made it to his locker and retrieved his textbooks.

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"Hey Tom." A voice said behind him.

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Thomas turned around to find Maria standing there looking at him.

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"How was your weekend?" she asked.

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"It was boring." Thomas lied. "Just sat around the house and did nothing."

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"Ah, that sucks. You should have called me over." Maria said.

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"Didn't you spend your weekend with Anthony?"

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She sighed in response.

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"Trouble in paradise?"

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"No, it's just that Tony can be an asshole sometimes." She said.

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"More like all of the time." Thomas said under his breath. It seemed that Maria didn't hear.

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"He acts like he's single and has even flirted with other girls while we are on dates, with their boyfriends there too." She ranted

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"How do you put up with him when does stuff like that?" Thomas asked

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"You put up with him." Maria countered.

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"Yeah, but I'm not dating him. Honestly, you should stop dealing with him if he's going to act like a jackass." Thomas said. He hoped that this would be the start of Maria realizing that Anthony sucked as a boyfriend.

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Maria scowled and was about to tell him off, but the bell for first class rang.

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"Look," She said. "We have our rough patches without a doubt, but we do truly love each other and we'll work it out. So please just accept that." And with that she walked away towards her first class.

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Thomas sighed before he closed his locker and trudged to his first class. He had a feeling it was going to be a long day.

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Several Hours Later…

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Thomas opened the door to his house and stepped inside. Coincedently enough, Javelin happened to be walking through the foyer at the same time and came up to greet him.

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"Hey Commander Maxell. Did you have a good day at school?"

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"Not really if I'm being honest. Right now I just want to change into some comfy clothes, take a nap, and enjoy the rest of my evening." Thomas answered.

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"I would hold off on those plans, Master." said a voice.

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Thomas and Javelin turned to see Belfast coming up to them, her cellphone in hand.

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"What is going on Belfast?" Thomas asked.

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"I just got off the phone with Commander Howard. We've been given our first mission. We set sail immediately."

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Thomas sighed once again.

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"This day just keeps getting longer."

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To Be Continued...