Over the next few days Asuka continued to tutor Clarabelle. Over that time, Clarabelle showed significant improvement. Neither Asuka nor Clarabelle held any delusions that Clarabelle would be an asset with her blade, but at least she stood a better chance of being able to hold off an attacker for a few minutes. Still Asuka told her to stick to her gun when possible, especially when she found out from Jezebel and Peters that Clarabelle was actually a surprisingly good shot.
On the seventh day, they caught up with Dancing Yasmine and Sword of Phobos somewhere over Germantown in western Pennsylvania. Shortly before dawn and well before either ship was in sight, many of the mercenaries were called up on deck.
Anna, Karin, and Asuka were among those asked to the deck, summoned by Jezebel. The three women chose to forgo breakfast, grabbing their weapons and rushing to the deck.
As they clipped on their safety lines and stepped out onto the deck, there was already a small crowd gathered and everyone in that crowd seemed very tense.
Asuka and Anna picked up on this quickly, giving each other worried looks. Karin, on the other hand, was too busy prattling off nonsense to realize anything was wrong until Peters grabbed her arm and told her to shut up.
"The captain sent me to fetch you three," Peters told them tensely. "He, Jessie and Clara want you up at the bow, right now.."
Turning around and half dragging Karin he shouted: "Make room! Make room for the ones the captain summoned!"
Grudgingly men shifted out of the way allowing Peters and the three women to pass. Within a couple of minutes the women and their escort stumbled out of the front of the crowd where Robert, Jezebel, Clarabelle, MacFlint, and a half dozen other crew and mercenaries stood waiting.
Karin attempted to get Robert's attention, in a flirtatious voice, but one of the officers clamped his hand over her mouth. "Quiet woman, this is not the time, for that."
"May I ask what's going on, honey?" Anna asked; her voice both somber and worried.
In response, Robert and a couple of the men stepped to either side allowing a view out of the port bow just as the first rays of dawn crested over the horizon—only to be obscured by hundreds of billowing towers of smoke. To the east, dozens of towns and a good sized section of northern Philadelphia were burning.
Dun dun dun... So yeah... dozens of towns are burning, part of Philly is burning... What's going on? As always please vote and/or comment.