Disclaimer: at this point, I doubt it's still neccissary to say that I don't won Strike Witches

5. Complications

Wolf had managed to convince Dick to let her have the weekend off and convinced Commander Wilcke to let the others have the weekend off too. Most of them had accepted Wolf's invitation to the pub; Trude, Major Sakamoto and Commander Wilcke were the only ones to decline. Perrine had declined at first too, but Wolf had brought her around.

"Here we are," Lynne said as the car stopped, "The Generals Dive. My brothers go here sometimes."

"How'd it get the name?" Wolf asked, it did not look like a place a General would visit, more like a place he's go out of his way to avoid.

"I don't know," Lynne admitted as the others parked behind them.

"C'mon," Wolf said as she took the lead and walked to the pub, "let's go have some fun."

The inside of the establishment was filled with smoke and a number of depressed looking men nursing mugs of lager, there was also a pool table and a darts board. At least the bar was kind of clean compared to the rest of the place. What sort of brothers does Lynne have?

Wolf walked up to the burly bartender with some impressive chops, "Evening, could I open a tab?"

"Sure," he said gruffly as he cleaned out a mug with a rag, "I need a name though."

"Wolf."

"A full name. And perhaps a real one, too."

"That is my name," Wolf said patiently, she would have given him a piece of her mind but she didn't want the drinks watered down, "WolfKaufmann."

"Ah, a Karlslander. Been in Britannia long?"

That gave Wolf an idea, she leaned closer to the bartender, "listen, see those people milling about over there?" she waved her hand at the other Witches, "there's more Karlslanders and a Liberion in that lot too, and they're know for their drinking. You give me a little discount and I'll be more inclined to buy more drinks for them."

The bartender laughed, "Nice try kiddo, but no. You pay the same as everyone else."

Wolf grimaced and went back to the other Witches, "I opened a tab, so ask for whatever you want and put it on WolfKaufmann. First round is on me, but keep track of all your drinks thereafter, you can give me the money latter. Except for Yoshika, Eila and Shirley; they drink free."

The Witches dispersed and after some time, Wolf found herself playing pool with a now very friendly and talkative Perrine. The Gallian had taken a real liking to lager. "… I be as friendly and polite as I possible can," Perrine muttered as she tried to line up a shot, "but still, the others make fun of me. Why is that? I go out of my way to be nice and they be mean."

"You just need to relax a little more," Wolf said, leaning on her pool cue, "people don't like being told that they're doing something wrong-"

"But how else will they know that they need to improve their etiquette if someone doesn't tell them?"

Wolf lined up her own shot and glanced at Lynne and Yoshika, they were talking to some men, but it seemed innocent enough. Wolf returned to her conversation with Perrine, "Maybe they don't want to improve their etiquette? How would you like it if someone was hounding you all the time?"

Perrine's eyes widened angrily, "What? Th-that's just…" Perrine slumped on her pool cue, "You're right…"

Wolf glanced back at Lynne and Yoshika, where the men seemed to be getting rowdier. One of them started stroking Lynne's shoulder and she brushed him off, and then he grabbed her. "Hold that thought, Perrine, this is about to get fun."

"What are…?" Perrine started as Wolf walked over to Lynne, Yoshika and the men.

"Get off her!" Wolf growled as she pushed the man away and stepped between the man and her comrades.

"This isn't any of you business," the man who had grabbed Lynne slurred before trying to push Wolf out of the way.

Wolf grinned, this is what she had been waiting for. She grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and threw him to the ground. His friends got angry and lunged at Wolf. She threw the first of them into the bar, and smashed a bottle over the head of the next. The third one hesitated just long enough for Wolf to kick him onto a table of soldiers having drinks. In no short time, the pub was a battlefield.

"Isn't this fun?" Wolf yelled as she hauled the last of her comrades, Francesca, over the bar to keep them from the fighting.

"Fun?" Shirley exclaimed, "This is chaos!"

"I know," Wolf said with a smile before jumping back over to rejoin the fight. People seemed to be coming in off the street to join in. Shouldn't be long til the police show up.

After hurting four more people, Wolf jumped back over to bar.

"I'll pay for this," she reassured the bartender, "Don't worry I'm good for it." She leaned back against the bar with all the other Witches staring at her, "Don't suppose one of you wants to hand me a drink, I'm starting to work up a thirst."

Eila pushed Perrine to the side before someone fell where the Gallian had been sitting.

"Where are the police?" Hartmann wondered aloud.

"You sure none of you want to join me?" Wolf offered, getting a bottle of brandy off the shelf and taking a quick, throat burning, swig, "There're still plenty of guys left to hurt. It's lots of fun."

Someone grabbed Wolf's shoulder and hauled her onto the counter. Wolf grabbed his head and threw him down to where the other Witches were, shouting, "Deal with this guy!"

Every one stopped at the sound of a single gunshot. They all looked to the source of the loud bang. Commander Wilcke, Major Sakamoto, and Lieutenant Barkhorn stood in the doorway, the Commander with her handgun aimed at the ceiling. Major Sakamoto had her sword drawn, and the Lieutenant simply had her fists up and ready for a fight. "The police will be here in one minute," Commander Wilcke announced, "I suggest you leave before they get here."

There was a mad rush for the door and about forty seconds later, the Witches, the bartender, and the unconscious were all that remained on the premises.

The Commander lowered and holstered her weapon. "Lieutenant, restrain Sergeant Wolf."

"Wait, what…?" Wolf began before Barkhorn twisted her arms, pinned her to the counter, and handcuffed her. "What the hell!"

"Consider yourself lucky," Barkhorn muttered just loud enough for Wolf to hear, "I'd have had you court marshalled."

000

Perrine awoke, her head pounding, clothes wrinkled, and mouth tasting of vomit. "What happened?" she wondered aloud as she got out of bed.

"Good morning," Yoshika chimed from the door.

"Argh, don't talk so loud," Perrine moaned, "My heads about to explode."

Yoshika giggled. Does she find my pain funny? "Why you…" Perrine flinched at her own voice, "Argh, what happened to me?"

"You had a bit too much to drink," Yoshika said as she placed her hands on Perrine's head to begin healing the headache.

"I don't remember anything."

"That's probably for the best. Things got… embarrassing last night. All done."

"Thanks," Perrine muttered before pushing Yoshika away and beginning on her hair. "What happened last night?"

"Wolf wanted to take us to the pub, and most of us went. Me and Lynne were talking to some nice people who started getting pushy, then out of nowhere, Wolf threw them to the floor. After that, she pulled the rest of us over the counter and started beating people up. It was pretty bad until the Commander, Sakamoto, and Barkhorn showed up and arrested Wolf-"

"Wolf was arrested?" Perrine didn't know why that shocked her, but it did.

Yoshika nodded, "She's in the brig right now. I've never seen the Commander that upset before."

Perrine harrumphed, "I'm sure you're just exaggerating. Now get out so I can get dressed."

After getting dressed, Perrine went to the dining room.

"You feeling okay?" Shirley asked with a cheeky smile as Perrine sat down.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" Perrine answered with a sniff.

Francesca appeared in front of Perrine, "Because you were drunk as a skunk!"

Perrine sniffed and ignored them. I'm going to kill Wolf.

000

Wolf paced up a down the cell, hands behind her back. When she had been taken in, her watch and bayonet had been confiscated. They bayonet she could understand, but the watch? She smelt Dick coming before she heard him, he had a very different odour to everyone else on the base. "Did you talk to the Commander?"

He looked at her and shook his head, "You really screwed to pooch. I did manage to get your sentence reduced to two and a half months. Only two months with good behaviour."

Wolf walked over to and slumped on her bed. "So my sentence has been reduced by two weeks, four with good behaviour? That's the best you could do?"

Dick pointed his cigarette at Wolf, "Don't be so bloody ungrateful. Considering that I ain't a lawyer and the Commander is more pissed than Major Sakamoto on a bad day, I think I did a pretty damn good job, even if I did have to pull rank when the Major protested."

"Don't s'pose I can get my watch back?"

Dick sat on the bench in front of Wolf's cell, "You know, Barkhorn and Eila were there too, oh, those two were angrier than anyone. I'm pretty sure Barkhorn wanted you shot. I think Eila did too."

That surprised Wolf; she had expected that sort of coldness from Barkhorn, but not Eila. "Why did Eila want me shot?"

Dick shrugged, "Something about putting everyone in unnecessary danger, especially Sanya."

Wolf sighed, "probably means both the Major and the Commander are going to come have a talk with me. Don't suppose you could leave a packet of cigarettes."

"I thought you didn't smoke," Dick said with a raised eyebrow.

"If they're both coming to talk at me, I'll be driven to it."

"Alrighty Golden Eyes," Dick said as he got up and fished both a lighter and a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket, "Just don't get caught with them, hmm? Hell if I'm going to have the Commander and Major breathing down my neck."

Wolf caught the package, "thanks."

Dick left, and as expected, the Major turned up a half hour later to have a 'chat'. It was the expected kind of stuff about discipline, being a role model, etcetera, etcetera. Wolf had turned off after the first ten minutes. After the Major finished her one hour rant, she left. Wolf expected the Commander to show up within the next hour, but she didn't. The only people to show up were Yoshika and Lynne bringing her meals. For five days they were the only people Wolf saw, until on the sixth day, the Commander finally showed up. And with a smile no less.

"Hello, Sergeant."

Wolf looked at her suspiciously, "Hello Commander."

"I guess you expect me to talk about what happened at the pub?"

Wolf looked her CO in the eyes and nodded.

"Well I'm not going to; I think the Major said everything that needed to be said about that." Commander Wilcke's smile disappeared and her face become stone, "I want to talk to you about your parents."

Wolf took out the cigarettes and lighter Dick had given her and lit one. This was her tenth since being imprisoned, but at least she didn't cough much anymore when she smoked.

Wolf had hoped that would rile the Commander, but it didn't, "Do you remember where we left off? About them trying to look for you? They looked for little over six months, but you were nowhere to be found. Once they returned to Karlsland, from there, they did their jobs, were soldiers. Every time they got leave they would look for you, at least until the Neuroi showed up. Then, they just stayed, didn't use their leave, just helped people when they could and fought the Neuroi."

"How do you know all this?"

"Like I told you before I fought alongside your father and mother. You were all they talked about most of the time-"

Wolf cut off the Commander after taking a long drag from her cigarette, "With all due respect, ma'am," she began calmly, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, "that's complete and utter bull-fucking-shit! No acts like that, absolutely fucking no one! I don't care if they were bloody angels that had fallen to earth, no one does that."

The look in the Commander's eyes was the only thing that betrayed her desire to slap Wolf, she knew that comment was out of line, but she didn't care.

"Did you know that your mother spent her dying breath asking me to find you? Just think about that," was all the commander said before departing.

Wolf stared after her, tears streaming down her face, expecting more, and then sat on her cot, she still had another nine weeks and one day in the brig.

000

After Wolf was released, everything went on as usual. She helped Yoshika and Lynne with the cooking and cleaning, got trained by Dick, talked with Shirley when they did maintenance on their Strikers, argued with Perrine, it was all as if nothing had ever happened.

One particular afternoon, while Wolf had just finished up her maintenance, the air raid sirens blared. Within seconds Shirley and Wolf were in their strikers, their weapons in hand. Seconds later the Major and Lynne arrived as well. They all took off and the Major began issuing orders, "300 metre class. Wolf, you cover Lynne while she snipes from the rear, Shirley, you're with me, we'll stay between the Neuroi and the other two. We need to keep it occupied until the others arrive. Remember, these types like to split up, so watch each other's back."

"Yes, ma'am," the all recited.

Wolf pulled the bolt back on her FG 42.

As expected, the Neuroi split into cubes once they got close. The Major and Shirley broke off and Wolf and Lynne stayed back and picked them off from a distance. "How long til reinforcement arrive?" Wolf shouted to the Major as she reloaded her FG 42. They had been fighting for nearly fifteen minutes and she was nearly out of ammo and was completely out of grenades.

"Five more minutes!" the Major called back.

Wolf heard Neuroi approaching from behind her and Lynne; she turned about and raised her rifle, firing just past Lynne's head, hitting all three of her targets. Loading her final magazine, Wolf shouted to Lynne, "Now we're even! I'm on my last magazine!"

"Major," Wolf heard Shirley saying, "we don't even seem to be making a dent."

"God dammit!" Wolf growled as she fired at some approaching Neuroi, missing all but one and now holding an empty rifle. She threw the rifle and pulled out her .45 and began taking out Neuroi cubes with that. "Where the hell are the others, I'm all out of ammo!"

"Two minutes!" the Major shouted as she weaved in and out of the Neuroi swarm.

"Lynne how are you doing for ammo?" Wolf shouted.

"Five more magazines." Lynne informed her wingman as she pulled back her anti-armour rifle's bolt.

Wolf put herself between the Neuroi and Lynne, if they got close, Lynne didn't have the weaponry to defend herself. Wolf gunned down all the Neuroi cubes that got near with her .45, until she was on her last magazine. I can't believe the major hasn't found the core yet and reinforcements still haven't arrived. "This is FUBAR!"

Just as Wolf's .45's slide locked back signifying that it was out of ammo, three rockets streaked past, quickly followed Eila and Hartmann.

"You have no idea how happy we are to see you!" Wolf shouted to them, "I just ran out of bullets."

"Don't waste it," Barkhorn said as she flew past with Sanya and threw one of her MG 42s to Wolf.

"Thank you ma'am," Wolf said as she broke off and circled around back to Lynne, "let's pull back a bit, get some more distance between you and the swarm."

Lynne nodded and the pair fell back. Once they were in position, the Major shouted, "Core located, it's breaking off back to the mainland, don't let it get away!"

"You think you could make that shot, Lynne?" Wolf asked with a mischievous grin.

"I'll give it a try," Lynne said, shouldering her rifle. She lined up the shot, took a deep breath, and fired.

"Nice shot, Lynne," Shirley complimented over the radio.

"Well done," Wolf said approvingly. The Neuroi cubes were disintegrating around the other Witches. "Since you killed the core, drinks are on you tonight."

Lynne looked at her sternly, "No, we are not going to the pub again, you got arrested last time, remember?"

"Are you going to hold that against me forever?" Wolf joked. "Let's hurry back, I don't want to miss lunch, and you know how much Shirley and Barkhorn eat right after a mission."