You Can't Go Home Again (Part 1)...

Author's Note: Okay, perhaps a bit much with Saratoga going all "Momboat" over her daughter here? Well, what is found on the wiki about Saratoga puts her as having an "onee-san" personality with her fleet-mates. How much more would she be caring (and even loving) with her children, the Essex-class? With her Wo-class daughters? Eventually, I think it would be this way.

Special thanks to PyrrhicSteel for his notes about Firestorm and Hypocenter.

Oh, and again tried to edit this beforehand, so...

With FBI Agent Charles Bryce

"EVERYONE INSIDE RIGHT NOW!!" somebody bellows from outside the conference room, causing everyone else to stop whatever they are doing (in some cases the "doing" was something akin to "bickering") and instead stare at the door to outside.

Some more discussion could be heard from the other side of the door, but because of the door's thickness, it was unintelligible.

"Was that the Cowboy?" one of Agent Bryce's coworkers from the FBI blinked. "Boy! At a guess I believe he's finally gotten tired of Super Karen the PI?"

Agent Bryce--not the biggest fan of that somewhat narcissistic private investigator himself--still gave a less than playful swat to the coworker's shoulder and gives a stern look to the FBI coworker woman in question. US Marshal Smythe had been correct in stating Katie Harmon could be useful to their need, attitude problem or no attitude problem so for NOW at least Bryce wouldn't spoke any wheels by adding more fuel to the fire to this somewhat dysfunctional operation.

Heading towards the door he's greeted halfway with the sight of various people shuffling through the doorway and rather hurriedly into the room, with the "Cowboy" (a somewhat unimaginative nickname the US marshal from Texas had accepted with some rye humor) leading up the rear shaking his head.

"Janson," Bryce whispered fiercely after giving Saratoga a quick nod of at least passing welcome before turning back towards Smythe. "While more than happy to see the shipgirl here, even IF she had brought a cellphone into here, what the hell was that?"

With a gesture first at the door into the conference room and then at Saratoga's cellphone, the FBI agent made clear that the question involved more than merely one thing. The first was of course asking what the shouting outside was about. The second question Agent Bryce had a sinking feeling he knew the answer was involving a wayward Wo since everyone HAD been expecting the Abyssal to contact Saratoga again. He just wanted to cover bases on the second before jumping to conclusions and thinking this was some kind of boneheaded repeating of what his idiotic "wonder boy" agent had pulled not less than a few hours ago with his non-secure attempt to search the internet during that earlier teleconference.

He respected the shipgirl enough to not jump to conclusions like that and start reading her the riot act, thanks.

"Whoever just asked that question," a young-sounding woman interrupted whatever the somewhat vexed marshal is about to say "That would probably be due to me, Trinitite. Aircraft carrier of the former Crossroads Fleet"

"Who happens to be using Deputy Katie Hanson's cellphone to make this call," Janson Smythe added drolly as Bryce and the others in the room gape at the voice on the other end of Saratoga's smartphone speaker. "And by God, you're not going to . . "

Bryce was too busy sputtering and turning somewhat pale to be able to anything intelligent to the mix at this.

Just what the ACTUAL F*CK?! If this was just the way to end one's career, this latest fuckup!!

If Smythe wasn't just yanking his chain here, at least the smartphone that Trinitite had swiped from Deputy/Private Katie "Super Karen" Harmon wasn't ONLY able to broadcast into to the clear blue, just for anyone with the tech to listen into here. With a simple swipe of a built-in app onboard, the encryption could be easily switched on.

By somebody's paranoid forethought, each of their government-issued smartphones had built-in encryption kits for just these . . .well, somewhat similar occasions like this. Lord knows that he'd never heard of any cases out there that the FBI (or any alphabet agency) had ever had THIS happen with this kind of quarry!

But talking about fuckup!! Just moments ago he'd answered the very deputy's last phone call into the base, asking about that Walmart lead! And what would you know!! That lead? OH! This meant that the "false" lead about Trinitite being there wasn't so much as yet another failure. Not yet a mistaken sighting which was Shangri La being out and about! That was good, but not really good enough considering that said "not false lead" Trinitite might just BE at Walmart, if Harmon had gone to that store it did not mean that the case was DONE and over. Even IF Shangri La could be contacted (discretely) to turn back around and drive BACK to Walmart, this could still turn into something VERY ugly. For obvious reasons, this had to be played carefully else anyone at Walmart might have to pay a very heavy price for their poor luck of being in the wrong place at the wrong time, even IF Abyssal/ Kanmusu combat was a physics problem while on dry land! Too many innocent civilians would be the price all the same!

Let us not talk about the blowback by public reaction afterward, please!!

"Mother? TRINITITE?!" a third young female voice just then had to make her presence known, being able to see Saratoga and (somewhat) hear both shipgirls. "Trin! How are you here? You got summoned back as well by the Navy too?!"

"Sister?!" a fourth female voice adds to this, recognizing Trinitite's voice despite it barely being audible from her end of the teleconference. "You're back as well?"

Trinitite, being stuck with only the speakerphone on her end cannot see her sisters, but can d*mn well recognize those voices anywhere, even IF it has been too long since last she'd seen them before her sisters had died in battle.

But with the Momboat . . .er . . .with Saratoga?

With Saratoga...

Turning, the red-headed shipgirl known as Saratoga (formerly the Abyssal Jellyfish Princess) and sees on the large screen television two faces she thought to never to be able to see again. Despite both shipgirls now having light lavender hair (before having been white) and lightly tanned skin (vice albino white), she'd know those faces anywhere. Instead of the glow of eyes of blue and orange, they now had a case of heterochromia; orange and blue eyes. Despite that . . .despite them being Essex-class shipgirls (albeit with a decidedly Wo-class touch) . . .she knew her daughters.

And they knew her! And the shock was making her feel more than a bit light-headed here.

"Hypocenter," Saratoga whispered softly, tears forming in her eyes as her knees felt a tiny bit weak. "Firestorm"

"Hey!" US Marshal Smythe says as he swoops in to hug the redhead slightly in support. Ignoring Firestorm's and Hypocenter's questions, he instead holds the aircraft carrier shipgirl steady. "Hey, it's okay. Easy!

"Let's get her a seat and can we get Trinitite patched into here somehow so we don't hafta worry about violating any stupid secret squirrel sh*t?" the marshal continues with his Texas twang thickening slightly at points, looking about him in vexation. "I mean I sure as shootin' hate to be doing any d*mn jail time after this is all said and done, even IF it works out without any death and fire thanks!!"

"Yes," Saratoga nods to herself distractedly while touching a built-in fingerprint reader on her cellphone" Just let me just punch that icon in the shape of a squirrel wearing the fedora and trench coat and . . "

Saratoga had actually laughed at the icon, after learning about where the phrase (and thus the icon) came from. Now, it didn't even cause her to blink. She was a bit too busy being emotionally overwhelmed by other things, you know.

With a little bit of hassle, Trinitite manages to activate the encrypted teleconference feature on Private Investigator Katie Harmon's smartphone (with a bit of aid from Katie by way of her fingerprint after Trinitite "requested" she do as much). Plugging her smartphone into a port in the teleconference machine on the desk before her, all were treated to a somewhat goggle-eyed Trinitite and Katie Harmon staring at an audience on the left half of the large TV screen, both seated in the back seats of a car of all things.

While the other half was dominated right now by the now by both the Kanmusu-ized Abyssals, looking rather eager for something in the way of answers. That and REALLY wanting to reach out and help their crying mother here from the soft words of comfort and concern from their end of things.

Trinitite would do the same if she wasn't so confused at this latest befuddling thing! Why were her sisters HERE? How were they here and like THIS? Had the Firebringers done the same . . . No, the one known as Murray (a voice and face she'd not soon forget from that damnable first time she'd met her back on the Pacific Lilly) had let slip her sister had shown up by an accidental summoning. Supposedly in Japan, since that was where her mother was.

She was still in Japan, right? She wasn't sure as to why her mother wasn't in the same room as both Firestorm and Hypocenter (looking like Kanmusu be damned, those were her SISTERS Deep d*mnit!), but it wasn't like . . . she'd somehow gotten BACK to America in the hours since last they spoke, right?

That would be insane.

Oh Trin, if you only knew. If you'd only knew.

"Hypocenter!" Saratoga whispered, looking up at the screen. "Firestorm! My brave, lovely daughters"

Hypocenter, Saratoga remembered Jellyfish having noted Hypocenter being the most 'normal' looking of the three dear daughters when first summoning her. The shipgirl now still possessed the hangar deck catapult that came with several earlier Essex-class ships but is a late war long-hull configuration otherwise. Since that catapult kinda awkwardly launches aircraft out of the side of the ship into unpredictable turbulence, she found it about as useful as they did in that World War (not very).

Though, now recalling some of the things she'd learned during the last teleconference in Japan? The damage those captured fairies had revealed while being interrogated from what they'd witnessed whilst in the air before Trinitite had made landfall? With all that damage done to her deck, Saratoga would bet good money that Trinitite would kill for one right now, considering the state of her flight deck.

Her poor injured Wo...!

....

Oh yes, Saratoga has gone full Momboat here!

Firestorm, Saratoga could see it even in her new "shipgirl" rigging. Her fiery daughter had NOT been "gifted" with that dual-purpose 5-inch/38s that the Essex-class normally used. Instead? As an Abyssal, that had been replaced by the cruiser-grade 8-inch/55 guns Saratoga was launched with. And now she still had those 8-inch/55 guns. Okay, that technically makes her a better service combatant, but Firestorm never really experienced service combat and complained about her lack of long-range AA quite a lot. THAT part Saratoga had been able to recall about her daughter. At least her former self (that bitch!), had been kind enough to notice!!

...

Memories.

Memories of her as the Jellyfish Princess reared their head, making her recall how she'd only gone through the motions as a mother. Giving out ice cream, and not anything really more real.

Damn her former self for doing that! Damn her!!

Feeling her heart almost break, she swore to herself that in this time. As this person, she was NOW. She was going to be . . .their mother in truth, heart, and soul.

And besides, even if she had been willing in mind to not acknowledge them as her daughters . . .her heart was in total revolt. IT would not allow anything less!

Turning eyes to Trinitite, she felt her heart melt. All this way from Bikini Atoll...

"Trinitite," she smiled, crying softly. "My brave little Wo-class!"

"But . . .Mother!" Hypocenter blinked, not having been fully read into this part of the 'program'. "Isn't she also a shipgirl like us now?"

"I mean it isn't like . . . what in the f*cking Deep?" began the somewhat brash and bold Firestorm, only to stumble to a stop when Trinitite's eyes light up in all their Abyssal Orange and Blue glory. "B-but I saw you take that hit with the missile and burn!"

Hypocenter knew that she was the most collected of the three sisters. Trinitite thought that her sister was a perfectly capable flagship, and she's done well in the past, but Hypocenter had admitted to herself she often takes far too long to make a decision and COULD sometimes be too indecisive when trying to consider a problem. But that said, she felt herself to have been pretty good at thinking clearly under pressure, despite how long she deliberated! Oh, and she was the shyest of the three because of that, but that was as an aside and not important to the here and now.

Still, while she had stuck with the Jellyfish Princess throughout the entirety of the Battle of Bikini until a salvo from Nagato ended her she was willing to bet her newly earned "paycheck" (money, what a fascinating concept!), on what Trinitite had done had hit her even harder than that bloody be d*mned salvo!!

"You'd died!" Firestorm sputtered, almost unable to believe what she was seeing her with her own eyes. "I saw it"

Firestorm, she admitted even herself to be a lot more impulsive than her sisters, and often wouldn't be the flagship for their expeditions because she didn't really have the patience to deal with other Princesses. That is what she'd recalled of her old life and accepted it. Oh, and she was so VERY Unafraid to call out friends and otherwise out on their bullshit, leading to some... heated discussions between her and ships from other fleets during convoys. She smiled at some of those times. Memories. Good ones, those.

But Not good memories about her last ones of Trinitite! She recalled it too vividly. She'd Completely lost it when Trinitite went down to the lucky missile in the battle of Bikini, drifted out of formation to help her before sinking to a carrier strike.

Trinitite? Her eyes burning like that? They were basically stating that for whatever confusing reason why her sisters might have become Kanmusu (or at least Kanmusu-ized Abyssals), Trin still was still very MUCH an Abyssal.

"It was her crew's skills in damage control," Smythe said, deciding to at least make the first attempt to break the silence. He did remember his briefings about how Trinitite had survived.

1. "Sara taught her well, you know. You all know that"

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