23 And So, It Begins

"Let's do our best, senpai."

Mash tried her best.

"Yeah, that's totally not a death flag." Nicholas stared down at the literal metal coffin with crossed arms and narrowed eyes, they were supposed to be for safety during rayshift (the fancy word for time travel), to protect against external attacks or tampering, "I don't like this at all."

The lavender haired girl deflated and walked away.

Overhead, multiple massive screens buzzed with words and numbers he didn't get a single bit of while staff members rushed here and there.

He didn't like problems he couldn't see because he had no way of solving them.

Nicholas looked all over the control for the umpteenth time, again noting the absence of Lev.

He knew something was going to fuck with him, but... that was about it.

There was no sign of something fishy going on other than Lev being missing who, he was about 95% sure, was a Demon from the Ars Goetia. Nicholas wanted to believe his constant harassment had driven the man away but even he wasn't dumb enough to accept it.

"You're awful skittish, they told me you were laidback most of the time." The brown haired woman standing next to him commented without raising her gaze from her pad, "Do you feel sick or something?"

"Nope."

Nicholas glanced at the other A-Team members preparing for their dives and then at Olga who was standing above them, trying to hide her nervousness, "Once we've done a mission or two, you think she'll let me use this coffin to go see dinosaurs?"

"...What kind of question is that?"

"You wouldn't get it." He clicked his tongue, forgetting his earlier caution completely, he would just fucking punch whatever Willy Wonka's evil twin sent his way, "What kinda man wouldn't want to see dinosaurs if it was possible? Why isn't Romani here?"

"What is wrong with yo-"

The woman was cut off by the door to the room sliding open and a certain bearded member of Chaldea's technical and maintenance staff rushed in. He inhaled deeply and wiped away the sweat on his forehead before looking all over the room until his gaze eventually settled on Nicholas.

"Bill, wassup man." Nicholas waved his hand with a small smile on his usually deadpanning face, there were few people in Chaldea he liked as much as the older man at this point and if he was right about what he was here for, Nicholas was ready to ask the man to marry him, "You got that thing?"

"Can you please hurry up? You're the only one who's still not in a coffin."

"Piss off, lady."

The woman pursed her lips and closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath before, "Fine, do whatever you want!" She groaned and stomped away, throwing her hands up in surrender, annoyance visible on her face.

"...Is it that time of the month for her?" Bill commented, staring at her back before shrugging, "Anyway, it's not like she's gonna be your personal doctor anymore after today."

Nicholas stared at the man in confusion, "Personal what now? I don't even like remembering her name." He thought Romani was the doctor in charge of him, the fluffy ginger was the one who'd been doing all his check-ups and examinations during his stay here.

"Something tells me the feeling's mutual." Bill chuckled, "One of the top class psycholog-... physiologist?... Was it a doctor or a therapist?... Meh, a woman from the Seraphix oil rig arrived today. The documents say Director Olga thought her skills were wasted there and would be put to better use reeling you in."

Nicholas narrowed his eyes, "That offshore base Mash told me about? And why you make me sound like a psycho?" That reminded him of the French nuclear reactor present in Chaldea as a power source that no one talked about.

It was of French design, wouldn't it blow up in their face?

There was a ton of holy shit level stuff here people just mulled over or just didn't think of as something to ponder over.

Like the fact that they had an offshore oil rig, or the fact that they had a nuclear reactor, or that all they got from an organisation that stored immortal killing weapons was a faulty time travelling system or that they could look at the past and futu-

Oh, oh, nevermind...

Even he didn't think much about it, these were people that had worked here for years.

"Can you hurry it up!?"

"Hey, they aren't my words." The older man shrugged, chuckling to himself about his silent agreement with the assessment, "Right, we're getting sidetracked." He reached into his jacket and retrieved a small thin, cylindrical object barely larger than a sword hilt.

Nicholas' face lit up in excitement, something that rarely ever happened, and reached out to grab it while opening his mouth to thank the man.

The next thing he saw was a ball of fire erupting from the ground below him.

-

Red lights and alarm sirens blared all over the Chaldea Security Organisation as the facility shook and crumbled under explosions erupting from within it.

"Critical damage to infrastructure observed. Please evacuate!"

Romani ran through the now-red corridors of a facility he'd spent years in with haggard breathing and a fearful expression on his face, "You two should really stop following me! Go to the vehicle bay, I doubt it's damaged, you'll be safe there!" He shouted at Chaldea's newest Master and Fou, not slowing down even slightly as he spoke.

Earlier, he'd been notified of a massive fire in the Central Command Room hosting all of Chaldea's high ranked staff as well as the Masters who had the best chance of stopping humanity's complete and total annihilation.

Romani would've been there too if he hadn't stopped to explain CHALDEAS and SHEBA to the newbie and... Lev had been the one to tell him to hurry there.

Within moments, he arrived at the Central Command Room.

The sight inside would have made any normal person lose hope because of what it meant.

Rubble littered the room, the burning corpses staff and officers alike littered the massive hall-like room while red lights blared overhead, their screens had been shattered and much of the equipment was either destroyed or on fire.

These people had been his coworkers, his friends, and the A-Team who were possibly in coffins were youngsters he'd come to care about even if they were eccentric.

Romani pursed his lips and pushed back the despair welling up in his heart, "This was sabotage... I need to restore power." He pulled back the hand he'd been resting against the wall and turned around to run again.

If power was restored, he could at least save whoever still breathed.

...He knew that was the best he could right now.

It was better than wasting time by losing himself to rage or despair.

Just as he turned around however, Ritsuka rushed inside along with Fou.

"Stop, you shou-"

The door closed in his face before he could finish his words.

"Damn it!" He punched the metal in frustration, bruising his fingers and grit his teeth, "If you can hear me, try to stay away from the fire! I'll get this door open as soon as I can!"

He didn't know about the A-Team, but he wanted to believe they probably survived.

"... There's no way Nicholas didn't try to punch the explosion."

He smiled to himself as he ran, reorienting himself with stupid thoughts lest his actions be determined by the desperation of a man who'd lost his family.

More than the staff that he was on good terms with, he cared about those children he'd been looking after, the ones humanity had put it's hopes on.

-

Yay, Grand Orders beginning.

Gimme your best Mordred pic.

Wonder who died and who lived.

Did A-Team survive?

Or are they gone?

Did Nicholas punch the explosion?

-

You can find 7 chapters ahead at patre0n.com/Bleap

One behind cause I barely had the energy to upload this chapter much less write one without mucking it up. I think I might have a fever.