We made our way to the hospital to meet Phantom Wing with orders from my grandmother to bring them straight to the mess hall for some breakfast first. Both teams’ Trainers would wait there for us, and we would eat breakfast while they filled us in on the day’s itinerary. When we arrived at the hospital to collect our friends, they were waiting in the lobby.

The differences in the Woodward girls were immediately noticeable and now there was no mistaking Fawn’s Fay ancestry. Before she had been somewhat tall, slender, and pretty with slightly pointed ears but could pass as human by keeping her ears covered. Now her bright blue eyes bore slit pupils, her pretty face seemed softer and yet more angular and her ears were longer, much more pointed, and tilted backward along the sides of her head. She was also almost as tall as Autumn now and possessed a similar lithe figure. With those looks and her golden hair now loose, Fawn was going to be a Fay heartbreaker.

Kyra hadn’t grown quite as tall as her adoptive sister but the sheepkin looked a lot bulkier. It wasn’t all from muscle though since her body was covered from her neck to her wrists and ankles with soft-looking white wool, as if she was covered in a cloud. She appeared self-conscious about it though and tried to cover herself constantly by tugging at her ill-fitting dress.

I tried not to focus on it as I smiled at the members of the newly expanded Phantom Wing. “And how are you all today? Kyra, Fawn, you’re both looking great.”

“I don’t feel like it,” Kyra complained. “I haven’t been able to shear my wool in over a day and it seems to be growing faster now.”

“At least Marti was able to find something that was able to cut it, Sis. We can get you sheared later tonight and if the wool is that much stronger now when it’s still growing, just think about how durable the cloth we weave from it will be,” her sister encouraged as she placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, and if it’s that strong then you have built-in armor,” Karin offered.

The sheepkin girl sighed but nodded. “You’re both right, I guess. Taking a shower with a coat of wool is just aggravating. It takes forever to dry and I never feel truly clean afterward.”

“Would some breakfast cheer you up?” Lisbet asked. “We’re taking you guys straight to the mess hall to eat and then we can go on the tour. There are so many cool things to see here.”

Breakfast did indeed cheer Kyra up. Although she was like Lisbet and Peter and couldn’t eat meat, there were a large number of vegetation meal options in the food dispensers for them to try. The veggies also looked and tasted fresh, which improved her mood considerably. Meanwhile, Autumn introduced Orchid and Fawn to the guilt-free meat options.

None of them had really seen any of the new technology except for the improved veetols and the medical equipment in the hospital rooms. The various versions of Marti that had watched over them (and drove them slightly crazy) during their stay in the hospital had brought their meals to the Woodward’s shared room while the four original members of Phantom Wing cared for their new teammates. So they were in awe when we showed them all how to use the food dispensers and Risha explained how they worked.

Maryn sighed and looked longingly at her empty plate as we all finished our meals. “This is even better than the food at The Rusty Halo, and it was so fast and easy. I’m not sure how I can go back to eating the stuff at the academy after this. Cooking in the field when we’re eventually on missions is going to suck too. I sure hope that one of you is a better cook than I am.”

“Don’t worry about it, Maryn. By the time we’re in classes at the Angel Academy, the academy will have been moved here to Woodbury Base and we’ll still be eating here in the mess hall,” Autumn said with a grin.

My grandmother was trying to act all business but she was trying to hide a smirk as added, “As for meals while you’re in the field, the MISTs that you will be learning to pilot for your missions do have food dispensers, along with various other equipment and instruments that you might need on missions.”

The eyes of every member of Phantom Wing were now on my grandmother. “Wait, really?!” Kyle blurted out.

Maryn shook off a pensive look and nodded. “Yeah, now that I think of it, I did see something similar when Risha showed us around the MIST. She just didn’t explain much of the equipment to us.”

“That is because I wanted to surprise you when you had your first meal here,” the Avatar teased with a grin. “Just kidding. I thought that it would be best to save all of the technical stuff until you were ready to start training on them.”

“Speaking of training, there are things that we will need to discuss about that before taking you for a tour of the base,” Kelsie said in a serious tone while looking at Phantom Wing. “Abby already gave me the tour yesterday and last night Sira and the Archangels made some decisions regarding the special operations teams, and Phantom Wing and Storm Wing in particular, since you’re all raw recruits.” Then Phantom Wing’s Trainer turned to give my grandmother an expectant look.

The first Angel looked at each member of both of our teams for a moment before she continued to speak. Once she did, her tone was just as serious as the Foxkin’s. “Right, several of those decisions were regarding equipment to be used in the field since special operations teams will often be in long-term operations and far away from any Angel reinforcements if things go sour while you’re on a mission. We’ll discuss those later. The other decisions were regarding your training as Angels.”

“What do you mean?” Heather asked with a nervous expression. She wanted to be an Angel more than anything. She’d made that clear to all of us and she was still afraid sometimes of having that dream somehow slip between her fingers.

“You won’t be training much with the other recruits. You’ll be training harder than them and most of your combat and mission training will be done in the field or simulations, either apart or with one another. Kelsie and I will teach most of your lessons, and Sira will have lesson plans available for us on all of the general subjects so we can teach you whether we’re on base or in a MIST. Those of you who need it will still have the lessons in reading, writing, and other mandatory subjects and some of you will have other lessons as well,” our Trainer explained.

“What kind of other lessons?” Kyra asked uncertainly.

“Snow and Maryn will have lessons on leadership, diplomacy, and combat tactics and I’ll be teaching Heather and Orchid the finer points of being a sniper. Heather will also have lessons on alchemy, chemistry, and biology, while Lisbet has lessons on engineering, explosives, computer systems, and mechanics. Fawn and Kyra will be learning everything in the base’s database about old-world textiles, clothing, makeup, and the art of disguise. You will all be learning about stealth and tracking as well and giving each other lessons on your own peoples and cultures, as Autumn has already been doing while teaching Heather and her other teammates about the Fay,” my grandmother explained, causing several raised eyebrows amongst us.

Kelsie leaned back in her chair and sighed. “You never know what situation you might encounter as long-range scouts and special operations teams. This is even truer since this is a relatively new idea within the Corps. We want you all to be ready for anything by the time your three years as students are up.”

My grandmother nodded in agreement. “Now, I think we should be ready for that tour, but first, I believe that Sira left something for Kyra and Fawn when she was here with the moving teams during the night.”

‘Yes, she left them in the armory by the women’s barracks,” Kelsie agreed. “Shall we start there then?”

We all waited for my Grandmother to open the armory door. When Sira was last in the base AI core she had restricted the armories to officer use only and both Maryn and I still needed to have our hand prints added into the system, or that was what Risha told us anyway. Maryn was a little surprised that we were considered officers even though we were still recruits but my Grandmother explained, “The two of you are a special case due to the nature of your teams and the training you will receive. You have also proven yourselves to be both mature and responsible. You don’t let being Wing Commanders go to your heads, you treat it as the responsibility that it is.”

She placed her hand on the screen beside the door and after a moment it beeped and the door opened. Kelsie stepped inside and took what looked like a belt with a sheathed longsword, handing it to Fawn. Meanwhile, my grandmother smiled and said, “Fawn, that is the R-15 Cobra. You can go ahead and interface with it. It takes a dexterous hand to use that weapon so we don’t see them issued all that often. In its long-range mode, it is a large laser pistol similar to Autumn’s Light Foil, though slightly bigger. In its current mode, it is something known as a whip-blade. It can be used as a regular longsword or extended into a bladed whip to devastating effect.”

Fawn took the blade from its sheath and stared at it in wonder. “Yeah, you’re going to need some practice before you’re ready to use it as a whip in battle, especially when working with a team. Sira seems confident that you can manage it though,” Kelsie added as she offered Fawn the belt and sheath for her new weapon.

“Our mother uses one of these,” Fawn said in hushed awe. Then she seemed to snap out of it and took a steadying breath before returning the blade to the sheath and making as if to put on the offered belt.

“Best just set it aside for a moment, Fawn. You would just have to remove it in a moment anyway,” my grandmother told her gently. The blonde Fay nodded and merely held it for the moment as the first Angel turned to her sister. “As for you, Kyra. With the added durability of your wool, Sira would like you to take on a similar role as Snow. Maryn will be your team leader but your team needs a frontline fighter that can turn the tide in a battle. That will be you. With that in mind, Sira has issued you the S-11 Scimitar.”

Kelsie stepped in the door for a moment and returned with a large sword, it wasn’t as massive as my Goliath but it was easily larger than any other sword that I had seen in the Corps. The blade was maybe a head shorter than that of the Goliath and not quite as wide either. It was also single-edged rather than double-edged, had a curve to it, and looked like it was made of Razorwing metal to lighten the weight and increase durability.

“This is… lighter than I thought,” the Sheepkin mumbled pensively as she took the weapon in hand.

“Yup, I thought it was just because I’m that strong but Razorwing metal is pretty light. I’m still learning to use a sword this big myself, but I’ll be happy to help you where I can,” I offered with a smile.

My grandmother gave me a nod of approval before turning her attention back onto the younger of the Woodward girls. “Sira said that the passive nature of your seed-borne gift drains most of the extra-dimensional energy that you draw on, leaving you unable to do much more than use mode-shift, so an energy weapon like Snow’s was out of the question for you, Kyra. Like Snow’s Goliath, the Scimitar hasn’t been used by Angels before, mostly because until now we had no way to reproduce the ammunition for it in sufficient quantities. Its other mode is something called an assault rifle and you will be able to create ammunition for it in the food dispensers. Your NCI will have the information on the ammunition that it uses and the general use of your weapon.”

I figured that that would be that and we would be moving on to start the tour but my grandmother made no move to leave the armory and cleared her throat to ensure she had everyone’s attention. Then she said, “Due to the nature of your training and the work that you will be doing for the Corps. Sira and the Archangels have decided that all members of special operations teams should have a holdout weapon. Autumn and Snow already have the S&W LRX-7 pistol and each of you will be issued the same.” She and Kelsie moved to the rack of familiar pistols and then handed one to each team member who didn't already have one, along with two spare clips.

Once everyone had received a pistol, Kelsie gestured to the metallic egg-like objects on one of the lower shelves and said, “You will also each be getting a HESS armor unit since we can’t guarantee what types of situations you might be sent into. They will act as body armor, camouflage, and protection from harsh environmental conditions.”

My grandmother picked up where the other Trainer left off, adding, “We weren’t going to start issuing these yet but you need to start training with all of the equipment that you will have available on any given mission, and that includes the HESS. Once Rose has decided on three new members for her team, they will be receiving similar equipment. Until we have enough HESS units for all members of the Corps and our support crew, we will be issuing them on a case-by-case basis, so please try not to show them off.”

“Umm… before any of you let your NCIs interface with those things, you should make sure that you’re not wearing anything that you don’t want to lose,” I cautioned the others as Maryn started to reach for one of the eggs. Maryn’s hands stopped short and she and the others quickly started removing anything important to them.

Maybe I should have also warned them about the eggs turning into silvery goo and crawling along their bodies until they were completely covered. My team was of course prepared for that since they had seen what happened when I accidentally interfaced with mine, but most of Phantom Wing ended up shrieking in surprise, and that included Kyle and Peter. The only one who hadn’t was Orchid, who was nearly as laid back as Fawn. Maybe it’s a Fay thing.

Soon though, they were all properly outfitted and had their weapons and other gear on over the HESS. That was when Maryn approached me with a very displeased expression on her face. “You could have warned us about that too,” she said with a very definite pout.

“Yes, I could have,” I agreed with a smile. “But then watching you all wouldn’t have been near as fun.”

I thought it was gonna eat me alive, “Peter grumbled.

“That stuff goes everywhere too, I’ve got it in places that I didn’t even know I had places,” Kyra agreed. “And it feels weird over my wool.”

Once everyone stopped complaining, we continued the tour. It went as quickly as a tour of a place the size of Woodbury Base can go, which is to say we were showing them around until lunchtime. They were freaking out about a lot of the stuff that we showed them and there were a few surprises for us as well.

For example, my grandmother informed us that the administration building would be the new home of the Angel Academy, or at least the portion that involved classroom lessons. More physical training would be done in the simulators, training yard, and shooting ranges. The latter two would have them often training alongside veteran Angels but that would only show recruits where we needed to improve or give us goals to strive for.

The tower certainly caught the attention of Maryn’s team. They all looked up at it in awe, and that awe only increased once Risha explained that the tower was the central emitter for a hardlight shield large enough to cover the whole base during Demon attacks or seed storms. Kyra and Fawn weren’t really sure what we were talking about though and unlike their new teammates, neither had seen me use the shield mode of my weapon. For now, it was enough for them that if could keep the base safe from Demons and seed storms.

The Woodward sisters were absolutely fascinated by the boutique booths though as we finished the tour with the former shops. I guess it wasn’t too surprising since they had owned and run a clothing shop before joining the Corps. The pair was so fascinated that they were still looking at all the clothing and fabric options at one of the booths outside of what Risha claimed was a former clothing shop while the rest of us were getting hungry and ready to head back to the mess hall.

They, and the rest of their team, became especially giddy once I told them about how our NCIs could download various outfit designs from the booths and change the appearance of the HESS to match. When I gave them a demonstration and Risha mentioned just how many various outfits our NCIs could store in the HESS’s onboard memory, they were over the moon. I didn’t think I’d ever get them to leave that place again.

The Woodward sisters were currently looking in interest at something that was listed as a French Maid’s uniform, something that Risha was obviously imagining Heather in from the way she was looking from it to the former princess, and back again. I couldn’t blame her, Heather would look sexy in something like that. Risha would too. I couldn’t really see me or Autumn in something like that though.

The distraction of imagining such things wasn’t enough. I was getting so hungry and we had shown Phantom Wing practically everything but the insides of the officer houses. My grandmother decided to take action after my stomach growled loudly in protest. “Fawn and Kyra, you girls will have plenty of time to familiarize yourself with the uniforms, fashions, and fabrics of the old world. In fact, Sira has a special project that she’d like your help with if you don’t mind putting some time in when you’re not training,” she told the pair.

“What kind of project?” Fawn asked, her blue eyes lighting up in interest.

“A secret one,” the first Angel teased. “We can discuss it more later. Sira is willing to offer you something for your help though. From what Risha has said, this building used to be a clothing shop. We would be willing to let you and Kyra have it as a business outside of your duties with the Corps if you’d like.”

“Really?!” Kyra asked excitedly. “We still have to live in the barracks though, right?”

“You don’t have to, Maryn and Snow both qualify for officer housing. Snow already has a place that she is sharing with the rest of her team. What Maryn decides will be up to her of course,” my grandmother advised.

“I was offered one of those officer places but I don’t need that much room,” Kelsie said with a shrug. “I’m staying in the underground living quarters near Abby and Raven. If you choose now, Maryn, you’ll get your choice of places.”

“Risha found a great place for us,” Heather stated with a smile at the AI. “There is a nice three-bedroom place next to ours that’s almost as big though.”

“There’s six of us though,” Maryn said with a pensive frown. “I guess we could bunk in pairs and put two cots in each room.

“Or the two of us could share a bed,” Orchid suggested flirtatiously as she latched onto Maryn’s arm and purred. “You know, for company. I know that we’re not allowed to do anything more… yet.” I just smiled and shook my head. Fay girls are certainly forward, though I was pretty sure that Maryn was enjoying it as much as I did Autumn’s attention. She certainly hadn’t said no yet, she just got awkward and blushed most of the time and I figured that she’d get over that soon, just like I did.

“You could do that and the boys could each have their own room. It is sort of what we’re doing… we just need a much bigger bed,” Risha informed them while waggling her eyebrows. “Wink-wink, nudge-nudge, say no more. Kyra and Fawn can always share the living space above their shop. There’s plenty of room for the two of them up there. The shop isn’t too far from our place either.”

In the end, Phantom Wing decided to go along with Risha’s suggestion, much to Orchid’s glee. With that out of the way, we headed back to the mess hall and a wonderful lunch. Once we were all pleasantly full and I was able to think clearly again, we showed Team Phantom to the house next door to ours and Risha gave them a tour and showed them where everything was since she had easy access to the floor plans. We ended up showing them how most of the old-world appliances and other devices worked as well, just as Risha had shown us when we first got our place.

Kyra and Fawn had come along and, even though the pair wouldn’t be living there, they paid attention to those lessons as well. Risha said that they would probably find some similar things in the home above their shop. If they found anything that they didn’t see in Maryn’s house then Risha said they could contact her through their NCIs and she would help them get familiar with things.

Finally, we made our way to the simulator training room where my grandmother and Kelsie were waiting. They wanted to have Risha put both of our teams through some vigorous training on the MIST and the REVs, and our Trainers would be joining us so that they too knew the basics of the vehicles. Phantom Wing had to go through the basic tutorials on the vehicles still, so they wouldn’t be able to join us in practice simulations or race mode yet but I was hoping that they could get familiar enough to do so tomorrow morning. We might only be spending a few hours in the simulations this afternoon but with the time variance, it would be like putting in an entire half day of training, something that perplexed our new training buddies greatly when Risha explained it using her techno-babble.

By the time we were all out of the simulation, we were mentally and physically drained. My team was kind of used to it by now but knowing about the time variance doesn’t make you feel its effects any less. My grandmother and Kelsie decided that we had put in enough effort for the day and we headed to the mess hall to eat dinner together. After that, we all went our separate ways and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

The members of Phantom Wing still had some things to do to make their new homes comfortable before they went to bed for the night but we had no such things to worry about. So with Risha’s encouragement, we all got comfortable in the living room intent on watching a movie. Risha said that it was the first of three movies based on a book called The Hobbit. She figured that we could watch them over the next three nights and then move on to the Lord of the Rings movies.

That was the plan but we ended up staying up much later than we should have to watch all three movies. Autumn really liked the Fay girl in it, and I thought that she reminded me of her. Sadly, there were no Catkin, or Animen at all that I saw. I’d never seen a Dwarf until then, the last of those had left Misota many decades ago from what my grandmother said.

“It is strange that the archives of the old world have such stories when so many Humans hate our kind,” Autumn said thoughtfully as we cleaned up the remnants of our snacks and drinks before preparing for bed.

“There were no Devilkin or Animen there though. I wonder where this Middle Earth was, probably far away from Misota,” Karina said thoughtfully.

“I’ve never seen those varieties of Demons either,” Lisbet added. “Nor birds that large, those were scary, even if they seemed nice. I hope we never have to face a Dragon like that, the Fenris we faced was scary enough.”

“It was so sad that the Dwarf king died, I don’t think I could have stayed there after losing a friend like that either,” Heather put in with a sigh.

Risha let out a sigh of her own as she shook her head. “Guys… it was fiction. None of it was real; it was all costumes and CGI. It looked real but it was all kind of like those illusions that our Trainer can make, it didn’t happen. These movies were made long before the seed storms or seed-borne came around.” She paused and appeared pensive for a moment. “Though I guess those myths it was based on could have themselves been based on something real. Maybe this is not the first time that the Darkness has come to our world and left its mark.”

“So that whole movie was a big fat lie then?” Autumn piped up. I should have known that would bother her. Fay have trouble with lies and deception and they don’t really approve of it in others, which was why she had such a problem lying to the other students about our discoveries in the ruins.

“No! It was all for entertainment. The whole point is to watch and lose yourself in another world. To see amazing things and forget your own dreary life for a while,” Risha attempted to explain. “Come on, let’s all go to bed, you all need sleep.”

I remained quiet as we all headed upstairs to follow Risha’s advice. Lisbet and Karina headed to their rooms but Heather held back while Risha and Autumn held an intense discussion on the fine line between entertainment and deception. We were halfway to the bedroom when she asked with a concerned look on her face, “Are you okay, Snow? You’ve been quiet since the movie ended.”

“I’m just thinking,” I admitted quietly.

“About what?” she pressed as she leaned over and squeezed my hand in hers. I must have been more distracted than I thought. It wasn’t often that Heather would make the first move on something that affectionate. She was still a bit unsure of herself and I think that she didn’t want to push us away like she had wanted to back when she was pretending to be a bitch.

I squeezed her hand back and leaned against her as we followed Risha’s and Autumn’s voices to our bedroom. A sigh escaped my lips before the answer tentatively followed. “About war. All of those groups wanted something valuable. We may not have heaps of gold and gemstones, but we are sitting on the most advanced technology in Misota, maybe the world. Your parents and the nobles want that technology badly. They want more than that. We can’t let them have it; they would abuse it like they do their power over others.”

“Yeah, they probably would,” she agreed with a solemn sigh. “They’re used to getting what they want and I don’t think they’ll give up easily, even if they do get Eden Base. If they find out what we have here, they’ll want it too. It’s not just the technology either, they want more land too and they’ll eventually drive the Seed-borne out of their homes or kill them to get it.”

I nodded, having thought of that as well. “So we either hide what we have here, fall back, and let them think that they’re getting what they want or we fight them. Grandmother says that if we can build up our forces, we have the best chance that we’ve had to turn the Demons back since the fall of the old world. We can’t afford to give that up so our decision is obvious. We can’t afford to fight two enemies and sacrifice the chance to defeat our true enemy.”

“Sounds like you have it all thought out,” the pink-haired Fay said as she squeezed my hand again. “So what’s bothering you then?”

“I’m just worried about what we might have to lose to win. The Dwarves lost their king and others in a desperate attempt to stop the enemy that they didn’t see coming until it was too late. Who will we lose if the same thing happens to us?”

“We won’t let that happen, Snow,” she assured me. “We’re Angels; we were created to fight against evil. We’ll fight the Demons and eventually, we will win. If the lesser evil decides to get in our way, we’ll win against them too. Because we need to and because we’ll do it together. Your grandmother said something in one of the stories that my mother once told me about her and I didn’t realize what it truly meant until after you saved my life. ‘We either stand together or we fall apart.’ The nobles are all in it for themselves, they aren’t unified. If it comes down to war, they’ll stab each other in the backs or run away when things get too tough. We’ll still be standing long after they have fallen at our feet or to their knees.”

She was right; I couldn’t let myself start worrying about what-ifs. If the time came then we’d do what we need to. The only real way for us to prepare for all of the maybes that the future might hold was to train to become the best Angels we could be. For that, we would need sleep. “You know, you’re sexy when you’re wise. Let’s go join the others in bed,” I told her as I kissed her on the cheek. Then I pulled her along toward the bedroom, well aware of how her cheeks were bright red.