Chapter 4

February 13th, 1945 - Dresden, Germany - "Human" Dimension

The flaming ground lit up the sky as if daylight. Both Barkhorn and Hartmann were horrified to notice that the big bombers with Britainian insignia were causing the firestorm down below. These big clam shell doors would open at the bottom, some sort of round devices would drop from them, and a few moments later the ground would be on fire.

"Why are they catching the city on fire?"

"I don't know! Where'd Britannia get so many big planes? I thought aircraft production was restricted to fighters and striker units only."

"Is Britannia hiding something from us?"

The next event tore directly at the core of Barkhorn's moral code. There was a little girl, no more than six years old on the ground. A woman, presumably her mother, was sticking her head out of some sort of outside cellar door and gesturing for the little girl to get inside. The mother looked up, saw the large Britannian aircraft overhead and quickly dragged the little girl into the cellar. There were still people living in the city! She couldn't help but think of her own sister back home.

Quickly screaming for Hartmann to keep an eye out, she decided to take things into her own hands. Skillfully matching her speed to that of the bombers, Gertrude flew close to one of the bomber's cockpits, and tried to get attention. The pilot was too busy monitoring the instrument panel, while the copilot seemed to be sleeping. She decided to knock on the glass.

Flight sergeant Arthur White looked towards the sound of the strange knocking noise. He was met with the sight of a young lady flying with some sort of apparatus on her legs. He quickly shook his copilot awake.

"JOHN! JOHN! GET UP!"

His copilot, sergeant John Wilson, slowly arose from his slumber.

"What is it now? My turn to fly already?"

"LOOK UP!"

The copilot stared right into the eyes of the young woman above and to the right of them. She looked angry, and more worryingly, was armed.

"Arthur... Could you try to wake me up again. I appear to be dreaming."

"I'm not going crazy, am I? You see it too, right?"

"If you don't mind, I'm going back to sleep. Flying girls? Heh." John let off a chuckle and slowly dozed off, leaving Arthur to deal with the situation alone. The bombardier was looking downwards and was oblivious to the situation. The gunners? Perhaps they saw the girl too. Arthur asked the dorsal turret gunner if he could corroborate his observation. Another, blond haired girl joined the first.

"You don't happen to be seeing what I'm seeing, right?"

The gunner, being situated behind the girls and looking right at them, (creating the same effect as looking under a girl's skirt), simply replied with, "I've got... err.. quite the view." At this point the gunner was blushing profusely.

In the meantime, Gertrude was trying to signal that there were still people living in the city. Even with a flurry of pointing and charades, Arthur was still unable to decipher the message. The bombardier interrupted with, "BOMBS GONE!", as the Lancaster started to climb. Gertrude and Erica watched on for the inevitable. The bombs hit the same cellar door that was open and active just a few moments before. The two witches could only hope that the occupants were safe.

The two witches broke off the Lancaster to collect their thoughts.

"So these strange aircraft aren't neuroi."

"Why would they have been built? You'd think Britannia would have told us about this."

The 501st's base was in Britannia, so if these aircraft were in fact Britainnian, the witches figured they'd just have to follow one to reach home. By this time the bomber they had made contact with was already quite ahead, so the two witches increased speed to meet up with the Lancaster.

There was a problem. The tail gunner, without a view of the top or sides of the plane was unaware of the meet-up that had just happened. When he saw two glowing figures trailing the Lancaster, He immediately readied his weapon and took aim. The witches kept on getting closer and closer, blissfully unaware of the inevitable.

The tail gunner squeezed the trigger. Both Gertrude and Erica were caught by surprise.

"Why are they firing at us?"

"Should we fire back?"

A bullet whizzed by Erica. Her training kicked in, causing her to ready her weapon.

"I'M ENGAGING!"

Erica zoomed forward, firing as she went. The Landcaster started to jink around and started corkscrewing. Barkhorn, while not wanting to hurt another human, nevertheless cocked her weapon and followed suit.

"Bloody Hell! They're firing! The damn Jerries are actually firing!"

"Fire back!"

John was jolted awake by the sudden presence of gunfire. "Arthur... wow... you wouldn't believe the strange dream I just had. There were these flying girls, and-"

"I'm glad that you're awake. Those flying girls are now shooting at us."

"WHAT!?"

The once sleepy Landcaster was now fully alert. The dorsal gunner, who was once blushing at the sight of girl's underwear, was now peering at those same girls. This time, he was aiming to kill. He fired off another burst.

"They just don't stay still!"

Gertrude poised herself for a close in engagement. She dived on the Lancaster, guns blazing. The dorsal gunner responded with fire of his own.

"Engine fire!"

The plane's right most engine burned a bright red. The Lancaster started to lower in the sky. The dorsal gunner aimed carefully, and fired a quick burst. Barkhorn received a hit to the stomach. She started to fall from the sky. Erica almost had a heart attack.

"TRUDE!" She dived and caught her falling comrade. This wasn't the first time Trude was hit. Vowing revenge, she emptied her clip into the tail gunner's large aircraft then dived into what seemed to be a storm cloud. Still carrying Barkhorn, Erica dove after the bomber. The storm cloud seemed awfully familiar...

Inside the stormcloud, the crew of the Lancaster were constantly being jolted around. Flashes of lighting were seemingly getting closer and closer. All hell then broke lose.

"SPEED DROPPING!"

"ALTITUDE! WE'RE FALLING FAST!"

The two pilots darted through the instruments, trying to find some sort of cause for the sudden stall. When they looked up to see out the windshield, they were blinded by a bright blue light. Even with closed eyes, the light penetrated through. When their eyes opened, they found themselves flying over a peaceful sea in broad daylight.

"Where are we?"

"Why is it suddenly daylight?"

September 28th, 1944 - Britannia - "Neuroi" Dimension

Erica awoke still grasping Gertrude, who was unconscious. She was flying low level, and above the ocean. She could see the quite familiar Britainnian coast in the distance, giving her hope. She was finally home! Erica increased speed, grasped Trude tighter and prepared to make a landing. What will they say? Surely no one would belive them when they claimed they saw large Britainnian aircraft firebombing a city.

Erica and Gertrude's landing was greeted with a mass of witches and ground personnel. Gertrude was promptly whisked off to the medical bay while Erica was bombarded with questions.

"Where were you?"

"Why is Barkhorn hurt?"

"Are you okay?"

Erica did the best she could to answer the flurry of questions.

"I don't know where I was... We were attacked by some sort of large aircraft... Yes, I seem to be fine."

Wing Commander Minna asked a question which made everyone fall silent:

"Did you happen to see Mio or Charlotte?"

Erica sighed, and let out a disappointing "No."

The sound of an approaching aircraft interrupted the flow of questions. All eyes turned to the sky. The more trained ears immediately recognized the sound of Merlin engines. Perhaps it was a passing flight of spitfires. The feint dot appeared on the horizon, growing bigger and bigger until the crowd could distinguish a tail and wings. The strange aircraft circled around, lowering altitude. It matched Erica's description of the aircraft she saw perfectly! The landing gear came down, and it made a flyover of the castle before seeming to make a touchdown on the mainland. Everyone marveled at the sheer size of the plane, slowly moving back to questions. Minna decided to meet this strange aircraft in person.

"Is everyone alright?" Arthur looked to the back of the plane. They had just landed in what seemed to be Britain. They did however, fly over a castle that wasn't on any sort of map or chart they had of the area. The crew burst the door open and fumbled out, where they were met by a jeep carrying a red haired woman of seemingly high military rank. Next to her, was a male driver. The woman went straight to business.

"Good day sirs. What are your names and where are you from?"