Fanfic / Witches Rangers and the 141

Warning, this fanfiction contains major spoilers for the Modern Warfare original trilogy at large and will be UNMARKED. You have been warned.

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Witches Rangers and the 141 is a crossover fanfiction written by Bucue that brings the universes of Modern Warfare (original trilogy) and Strike Witches together.

In an alternate 1945, where humanity finally gained an upper hand against alien invaders called the Neuroi, the 501st Joint Fighter Wing is tasked to investigate strange enemy movements nearby their home base shortly after the liberation of Gallia. In a skirmish with strange Neuroi, both sides trigger a magical circle which begins to channel energy for unknown means.

In 2016, the world is at war again; a resurgent Ultranationalist Russia has invaded the Eastern Seaboard of the United States. The battle for the nation's capital has drawn to a close - it's defenders victorious thanks to one of many elite units, Hunter 2-1 of the 75th Ranger Regiment. While holding a bridge for retreating US forces, Sgt. Foley, Cpl. Dunn and Pvt. James Ramirez find themselves engulfed in a bright magic circle and disappear in front of several witnesses. Meanwhile across the world, Task Force 141 is on the hunt for the Ultranationalist terrorist at large, Vladimir Makarov. Lt. Simon 'Ghost' Riley and Sgt. Gary 'Roach' Sanderson narrowly escape Makarov's safehouse, only to be betrayed by their superior, General Shepard. At a critical moment, a similar magical circle intervenes and whisks away the two wounded TF 141 operators - saving them from their canon doom.

By fate or chance, both the US Army Rangers and Task Force operators land within proximity of the 501st JFW's home base in Pescara and eventually make contact with the Witches. Under extraordinary circumstances, all parties agree to work together and figure out a way to get the Rangers and TF 141 operators back home. But word of this new 'men from another world' has reached the higher echelons of the Allied Forces which attracts unwanted attention from a vindictive rival with ulterior motives. Meanwhile the Neuroi Collective begins to rally a force to recon this new curious world in the hopes of establishing a beachhead, with the prospect of building a force large enough to assault both realities for the survival of their race.

As the two worlds collide; will the fires of conflict spread everywhere, consuming all life its wake? Or can a pair of kindred spirits from two different battlefields band together and resist the tide of evil as one?

While the themes of the original source materials are not exactly tame, the fanfic goes into pretty dark territory, with infrequent descriptive violence, including one explicit instance of rape that is taken seriously. There are also a bit of Lemon. Again, reader discretion is advised. As the last update of this fanfic was in 2014 with the author halting any updates on his other works by 2016, it is pretty much a Dead Fic which ended on a particularly grim Cliffhanger without any resolution.

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RAMIREZ!! Take down that Neuroi walker with these tropes listed here!:

• Adaptational Badass: General Shepard. While already no slouch in canon MW2's ending mission, in this fanfic he manages to fistfight Price, Soap, Roach, Ghost and Gertrud one after the other. Granted he did shoot Roach (again) with the .44 Magnum and easily overpowers Trudy who didn't have her magic at the time, but still an impressive feat. Not to mention he was still nursing a bullet wound by Ghost.
• Adaptation Deviation
  • There are Land Witches inserted into the fic's canon and a whole host of new characters to go along with it.
  • Following Shepard's betrayal (along with Ghost and Roach's survival), there is a one week gap between Soap and Price's assault on Site Hotel Bravo instead of it happening on the very next day.
  • MW2 and MW3 establishes the Russian Invasion of the United States being exclusive to only the Eastern Seaboard, which is repulsed in an estimated timeframe of at most, two weeks. In this canon, both East and West are being invaded at once and their battles last around a month. After the New York battle, the Eastern Front is abandoned by the Russian Navy after Chapter 28, but the Western Front is still in open conflict.
  • After killing Shepard and casevac-ing Soap, TF 141 and the Russian Loyalists stay at the Northern India safehouse for about a week. Makarov's Ultranationalists assault the region only when Ghost, Roach, Scope, Toad and Gertrud leave for their mission in Germany to capture Pike.
• Age-Gap Romance: One forms between Ghost and Gertrud, both connected by their devotion to soldiering and discipline.
• Agent Scully: Agent Jones, a CIA intelligence agent who flat-out refuses to believe that a magical anomaly could teleport Hunter 2-1 away and even threatens to court marshal Sgt. Lambert and thirty other witnesses despite all of them corroborating the same story. Only when satellite photo evidence comes up do the agents soften their approach, but Jones still insists on his "Hunter 2-1 intentionally went AWOL" angle for some reason. Then later when more witches appear, Agent Jones tries to justify their existence as some kind of new Russian psyop.
• Alien Invasion: While in the Strike Witches universe, the characters from Modern Warfare quickly learn about the Neuroi invasion and discover that it is more ways than one, worse than the literal World War III brewing back in their own dimension. It is soon made clear that the Neuroi intend to make a foothold in the MW universe as well due to the distinct lack of magic wielded by humans there.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: The 501st JFW home base in Pescara is infiltrated and attacked by the stranded Inner Circle in Chapter 28.
• Alternate Self: Discussed.
  • The Rangers discover the striking similarities between Shirley and the real-life Chuck Yeager and come to the conclusion that they're both alternate versions of each other. The revelation of Shirley being a man in another world shocks her to unconsciousness.
  • When visiting a museum in Germany, Trudy discovers a WWII exhibit of her real-life inspiration, Gerhard Barkhorn. All the similarities between the two are pointed out by her until Ghost reveals to Trudy that Gerhard's wife was actually named Christl, which is disturbingly close her sister's name, Christiane (whom she harbours feelings for in ways that may go beyond the familial). Trudy nearly mentally overloads from that information.
• Anger Born of Worry: An overly concerned Gertrud yells at Ghost when he tries to downplay a ricochet wound to his hip, telling him to take care of himself better. Her sudden outburst surprises everyone in the task force.
• An Arm and a Leg: Several witches as well as regular soldiers are observed losing limbs to the Neuroi laser attacks. Darya of the Tame Witches loses her leg during the MW crew's first Neuroi engagement and has her stump healed by Miyafuji, but is rendered unfit for combat afterwards.
• And This Is for...: Ghost screams the names of all the TF 141 members killed while punctuating every punch on Shepard.
• Artistic Licence – Military: While the author is fairly on-point regarding military terminology for both franchises, there are still some glaring mistakes on their part.
  • Magazines are commonly referred to as 'clips'.
  • Soap and Price are described as firing .50 calibre rounds from their Intervention sniper rifles. The Cheyenne Tactical M200 Intervention has only been chambered for either .408 Chey Tac or .375 Chey Tac; neither which are considered .50 calibre.
• Badass Normal: The elite operators from Modern Warfare are hopelessly outclassed by the Neuroi, but still manage to run medevac missions to save downed Witches using only modern small arms and sheer grit. They barely survive an encounter with a ground-based Neuroi by expending most of their ammo and resources, which finally hammers home for just how ineffective conventional warfare is against the alien invaders.
• Berserk Button
  • After Shepard, any form of treachery will not be tolerated by Ghost or Roach. General Krupke and later Shepard himself finds out the hard way.
  • Barkhorn learns Cryska's cheerful, perverted persona can give way to a cold, almost furious demeanour when the former innocently asks about the latter's surname.
• Blinded by the Light
  • Magical circles appearing emit a bright light which is blinding to anyone near or caught in it. Ghost only gets a grazing shoulder wound when one appears just as Shepard was about to turn his .44 Magnum on him after shooting Roach. Ramirez is also saved by one too in the New York battle when a Russian soldier almost guts him.
  • Dunn's hidden flashbang proves to be a great asset in blinding two of Krupke's lackeys as well as the witches assigned to escort them, since the WWII-era soldiers are unfamiliar with such non-lethal devices.
• Break the Cutie: Gertrud takes several heavy dosages of reality check when she is trapped in the Modern Warfare universe. Over time she struggles to come to grasps with human-on-human violence and even has to learn how to take away lives herself.
• Brought Down to Badass: Trudy while stuck in the MW universe loses her strength and flight powers. She still has her military training and the willpower to adapt and adjusts fairly quickly to conventional combat, but not without the emotional toil that comes with death-dealing.
• Broken Pedestal: In his backstory, Sgt. Jay Lambert joined the US Army reserves as he was inspired by his older brother, Keith who became a Delta Force operator. Jay's perfect image of a heroic soldier is shattered when a broken Keith returns home one day drunk out of his mind after being kicked out of the military for a botched op.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Cryska is a Mildly Military (generously speaking) Russian Loyalist, who is also a womanizing lesbian after the virginities of every woman in the task force. But she is also an extremely proficient sniper with a multi-million rouble bounty on her head by the Ultranationalists. Yuri outright says her skills are valuable enough to be worth tolerating her perversions.
• The Chain of Command: Minna has no choice but to inform HQ of the interdimensional incursion of the soldiers from Modern Warfare, which attracts the attention of General Krupke, assigned by high command to investigate these men with any means under his disposal. When she tries to get him reassigned, other higher ups loyal or affiliated with Krupke railroads her interference, so she ends going way over her own chain of command to call in a favour from her old friend, Air Chief Marshall Dowding. Despite the odds, she pulls enough sway and connections to have Britannian Prime Minister Winston Churchill himself on the phone to order Krupke to stand down and cease conflict with the Rangers.
• Children Forced to Kill: While the witches are no strangers to war against the Neuroi, some of them; barely out of their teens are forced to shoot at other human beings for the first time when a magic portal brings in hostile Ultranationalist Inner Circle troops.
• Child Soldiers: Coming from a realistically-grounded world of Modern Warfare, the Rangers and TF 141 are understandably disturbed to learn that the Witches are children supposedly conscripted to fight against an Alien Invasion. It takes a lot of convincing from Commander Minna to assure the operators that a) The Witches are all volunteers, b) Witches lose their magic as they get older which is why most their powerful members are children and c) they are the only real effective countermeasure against the Neuroi in contrast to conventional small-arms. They slowly get used to the status quo but still don't like that it all had to come to this for the Strike Witches universe.
• Cliffhanger: The last uploaded chapter featured a desperate Pvt. Ramirez racing to save a captured Luchinni from the Ultranationalist invaders, who are in the midst of sexually brutalizing her.
• Cultured Warrior: Sgt. Yuna 'Scope' Kotoro is into spiritual fitness and readily accepts mystical explanations for happenings around her.
• Delayed "Oh, Crap!": Civilians in a Romagnan village unused to human-on-human conflicts have this reaction when caught in a middle of a firefight between the recently teleported-in US Military and Russian Ground Forces from New York. It tragically takes a few of them being shot and killed in the crossfire before the danger finally registers and begin fleeing for their lives.
• Double Standard: Rape, Female on Female: Zigzagged. At one point, Cryska happily tries to force herself upon Scope mid-march to a rendezvous point. The trope is Subverted when Price threatens to throw Cryska in the brig if Scope wishes to press charges for the sexual assault. Then Double Subverted when Scope doesn't and the charges are dropped when Yuri cites Cryska's shooting skills being a valuable asset. Downplayed from that point on as Cryska is free to make advances on Scope, but with boundaries set by both parties, namely consent of course.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Eila has tarot-fuelled premonitions of events happening in the Modern Warfare world as well as potential deviations arising from the Neuroi interfering with their affairs.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: Gertrud finally manages to use her Super-Strength to save Ghost's life in Germany. Re-summoning her familiar, she recklessly (and rather gleefully) blows away her enemies with magically powered-up bullets while Pike's men are unable to damage her due to her Personal Shields. Ghost has to reign her in when he quickly notices her shields occasionally faltering.
• The Empath: Scope claims to be more in touch with the spiritual side of the world. All it takes for her to believe Gertrud being a witch is to join hands for a bit and feel that Trudy isn't lying and that there is indeed some otherworldly magic flowing through the witch.
• Establishing Character Moment: Karlslander Generalveterinär Ekkehard Krupke is introduced in Chapter 14 refusing escort by witches even in contested Neuroi airspace, emulating his former colleague Trevor Maloney's irrational hatred against witches.
• Failed a Spot Check: Cpl. Dunn manages to keep a flashbang hidden underneath his plate carrier even after being disarmed by Krupke's men. The Rangers use it to escape a second time.
• Fish out of Temporal Water
  • Magic aside, Trude becomes this when transported to the modern world of 2016 from her home time period of 1945. She is astounded by technological progress and later has a Breather Episode where she and Ghost go sightseeing in modern-day Germany, the real-world equivalent to her Karlsland.
  • Two witches are astonished by phones that could take pictures as well when an American refugee requests for a selfie with the two outside the Mississippi FOB.
• Flat "What": The soldiers from Modern Warfare 2 has this collective reaction when Yoshika tells them she can heal a grievously-wounded Roach with magic.
• Freak Out : Lt. Barkhorn has a massive one when she is unwittingly teleported into the Modern Warfare universe with no clear way of returning, on top of her suddenly unable to use her magic.
• Friendly Sniper: TF 141 member callsign: Yuna 'Scope' Kotoro, who has an optimistic attitude to life even as she regularly pops Ultranationalist heads with long-range .50 BMG.
• Gaining the Will to Kill: The Witches are aghast to learn that the men of the 141 and the Rangers regularly kill other humans when the Witches have only known war with genocidal aliens.
  • Gertrud is possibly the first of the Witches to have to kill another human being when stuck in the Modern Warfare universe. She had to muster every ounce of her will in order to shoot a Shadow Company soldier, who was about to kill Ghost.
    Gertrud: It's... not the same...
    Ghost: What isn't the same?
    Gertrud: It's...not the same as killing a Neuroi...
  • The girls stationed at the 501st JFW base are horrified when Captain Marwick issues the order for the Witches to open fire on the hostile Ultranationalist Inner Circle troops assaulting their home. Their hesitance to take another human's life costs the lives of some Witches as well as Luchinni getting kidnapped and eventually raped.
• Groin Attack
  • In a friendly sparring match between Trudy and Ghost, she accidentally kicks the latter in his groin. He is lucky that she did it before activating her strengthening magic later in the spar.
  • Pvt. Carmen Ramirez very roughly manhandles Krupke's sensitive lower regions when he mouths off one too many times against the witches. The tense standoff between the armies of two eras is immediately halted in favour of a united Share the Male Pain moment.
• Hannibal Lecture: In Chapter 17, an enraged Mio approaches the captured Rangers while wielding her sword and demands to know why would the men betray their trust by supposedly kidnapping Gertrud. Sgt. Foley, facing the edge of Mio's katana unflinchingly tells her the truth, before daring her to kill him if she thinks he's wrong. When Mio hesitates, he verbally rips into her carelessness for waving a weapon around without any intent to use it and reminds her to keep her dignity as a soldier. This convinces the Fuso witch that the men are telling her the truth.
  Sgt. Foley: That's why you drew your sword, isn't it Major? Whether a gun or a blade, if someone draws their weapon it means they are prepared to use it. Don't tell me that this whole time you intended to make threats with it? A WEAPON ISN'T FOR THREATS, IT'S FOR ACTION. EITHER TAKE ACTION, USE THAT DAMNED BLADE OR SHEATH IT! BECAUE IF YOU DON'T INTEND TO USE IT RIGHT NOW, THEN YOU SHOULD DAMNED WELL KNOW BETTER!"
• He-Man Woman Hater: Generalveterinär Ekkehard Krupke - a bigoted misogynist with a massive grudge against the Witches plans on undermining the Joint Fighter Wings once more by using the knowledge and future tech of the Modern Warfare crew to gain a technological edge over witches.
• Heroic BSoD: In their first battle against the Neuroi, Roach actually freezes up at a inconvenient moment when he starts to hallucinate his fallen teammates appearing in his pherihpial vision.
• Heroic Mime: Averted for Pvt. Ramirez and Roach. While they were relatively silent protagonists in their game, they start speaking a lot more after being teleported to the Strike Witches universe. Lampshaded by Cpl. Dunn:
  Cpl. Dunn: Ramirez, since when have you become this chatty? This is the most I've ever heard your trap flap since I've met you.
  Pvt. Ramirez: Didn't have any reason to say much until now.
• Humiliation Conga: General Krupke's plan to dethrone the witches in combat by stealing modern technology from the Rangers and TF 141 goes up in smoke the moment he made enemies of the elite operators.
  • Displacing the pleasantries in their first meeting, Krupke tries to get them to give up their weapons at gunpoint, only for Ghost and Roach to get the drop on him first with lightning reflexes. Krupke and his men are locked in their own interrogation room while Ghost and Roach manage to escape the current reality. Even after managing to capture the remaining stranded Army Rangers, the trio remain super uncooperative and later manage to escape on their own anyway.
  • When Krupke assembles the entire 501st JFW base to surround the Rangers and their newly-arrived US military allies, Sgt. Foley defuses the standoff by deciding to surrender to the Witches and only them. Humiliated by the gesture the Karlslander general starts screaming at poor Ursula which attracts the ire of Ramirez's gung-ho sister Pvt. Carmen Ramirez, who talks down to him (rank be damned) and calls him out on his sexism by proving her rank as a female US Marine, flooring Krupke with the revelation. On top of that, Commander Minna and Mio arrive just in time with a direct phone call from the Britannian Prime Minister himself to order Krupke to stand down.
  • The pièce de résistance occurs after a furious Krupke, finally reassigned and talked down by yet another female soldier, tries to shoot Minna in the back and is met with Carmen Ramirez disarming him, then grabbing his testicles with such ferocity, every man in the vicinity feels it. Under immense pain and yet more stern warnings by Carmen and Minna, the once-feared Karlsland noble is reduced to a whimpering, pathetic excuse of an officer who proves his own inferiority due to his petty, bigoted views against women in the service.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: Exploited by the sympathetic FOB personnel after comforting the witches who were earlier harassed by a group of protesting religious nutjobs. A few firefighters spontaneously offer to look for "propwash" and "headlight fluid" while conspicuously leaving their equipment behind. The last man out loudly and specifically mentions the possibility for the misuse of their firehose upon a certain group of bigoted crybabies.
• Interrupted Intimacy: After Sanya and Eila sort out their feelings for one another, they excitedly decide to tell everyone else they know, with Dominica and Jane being the closest in proximity. They stumble into Dom and Jane doing the dirty in a tent and leave quickly. They warn a random man passing by not to go in there hopefully preventing more interruptions from anyone else.
• Interservice Rivalry: The Witches still have to deal with the fallout from Trevor Maloney's 'Warlock' incident in the form of his Karlslander colleague, General Krupke, who has since focused his attention on the Modern Warfare crew, hoping to render the Witches obsolete once again with interdimensional technological advancements.
  • Averted for Ramirez and his sister, both who are Army Ranger and US Marine respectively but get along pretty well. Aside from minor rivalry quips and verbal jabs at one another, their respective units work well together when they are assigned to the New York front.
• Is This a Joke?: The general sentiment amongst the tired Canadian JTF-2 special forces operators when the American military tells them they were brought in to help search and destroy Neuroi - aliens from another alternate reality.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Ghost relays the story on how he tortured Rojas' right hand man. Gertrud is horrified at first, but then she remembers she did a similar act to Mahoney's subordinate, but not to such a violent extent. Ghost tells her it's simply the way things work in his universe.
• Lovable Sex Maniac: Cryska, an eccentric female Russian Loyalist who can give Lucchini a run for her money in the Most-Handsy-Woman department. An aggressively gay lesbian ^note (but claims that occasionally men are okay too) who becomes enamoured with Gertrud and declares an interest in bedding her and the rest of the 501st after Trudy mentions them. She later chases Scope and promises to win her heart over, much to Roach's displeasure.
• Meaningful Name: While working with the 141, Ghost gives Trudy the callsign, 'Valkyrie', as a reference to her experience as a flying warrior back in her universe.
• Mexican Standoff: One occurs between General Krupke and the 501st base personnel under his command, against the Rangers of Hunter 2-1 and a group of US Military personnel newly teleported in.
• More Dakka: When trapped in the Modern Warfare universe, Trudy still opts to use machineguns such as the M240B GPMG in place of her twin MG42s and a RPG-7 in place of the single-use Panzerfausts she's used to.
• The Neidermeyer: General Krupke may be a respected Karlslander military figure to the higher ups and in the public eye due to his family's reputation, but to the witches and his own subordinates under his command, is nothing but a power-hungry, petty and bigoted misogynist who orders the mistreatment of Witches as well as his own men who fail to meet his standards of being a 'proper' soldier in his eyes.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In contrast to her eccentric perversions off-duty, Cryska becomes eerily quiet and focused during TF 141's mission to locate Makarov's cargo in Sierra Leone.
• Original Character: Several new characters are introduced, for both Strike Witches and Modern Warfare worlds.
  • The 78th "Tame" Witches Combined Reserve Squadron and their roster includes fan-popular concepts of "Land Witches" - ground-based witches with shoulder-mounted tank cannons and tracked Striker units. Other smaller reserve squads make their debuts assisting the 501st.
  • From the MW world, we have TF 141 operators such as Sgt. Yuna 'Scope' Kotoro, a Japanese-American former US Army Ranger who specialises in sniping. From Nikolai's Russian Loyalist PMC, we have Cryska, a perverted yet competent sniper who wishes to bed every named female character in the story. One OC that is directly related to an existing character is US Marine Private Carmen Ramirez, the sister of MW2 playable character Pvt. James Ramirez.
• Outside-Context Problem: The Neuroi are this to the Modern Warfare cast as they are unused to fighting against geodesic aliens firing laser beams with impunity. A recently re-powered Gertrud Barkhorn with her Strikers becomes something akin to a small but nimble close-range air support unit capable of casevac. On the flip side, human on human conflict is practically unheard of to the people of the Strike Witches universe. A bunch of time-displaced Ultranationalists unwittingly take advantage of this to wantonly execute WWII soldiers and civilians because their victims never expected their fellow man to fire on them during an alien war.
• Pass the Popcorn: In the Mississippi FOB, Cpl Dunn tells Sgt. Foley and the nearby Rangers to bring out their cameras when he spots a pair of offended Witches preparing to firehose a bunch of Westboro-like protesters outside the fence.
• The Prankster: Roach turns out to have a mischievous personality when off-mission. While the 141 have already wizened up to his devious ways, Roach instead unleashes his personal brand of harmless mayhem to Nikolai's unsuspecting Russian loyalist allies. Hilarity ensues.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: A refugee mob of Westborough Baptist followers outside the Mississippi FOB idiotically hurl anti-military rhetoric at the base personnel and then dole out homophobic slurs at a group of young Witches. The girls are extremely hurt and frightened by churchgoer's excessively cruel words but later get revenge by commandeering a 'conveniently-abandoned' firefighting truck's hose and blast the radical mob away from the base's fence which amuses the rest of the onlookers who had enough of their bigotry.
• Rape as Drama: Certainly taken very seriously in one instance with a captive Lucchini being violated by Ultranationlists.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Rangers and TF 141 get really pissed when the Witches discuss rumours of several other reserve Witches who were under Krupke's command being victims to such vile acts due to his disdain for women in the military. As if being homicidal terrorists weren't bad enough, the Russian Ultranationalist troops prove to be complete fucking monsters when some of them are accidentally transported into Romagna and immediately engage in Rape, Pillage, and Burn.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: While the fic isn't riddled with spelling errors or grammar mistakes, the author seems to have missed a fair amount, including multiple actual instances of Satan written as "satin".
• Running Gag: The first thing the Modern Warfare characters keep noticing about the Witches is the distinct lack of wearing pants. This extends to the rest of humanity in the MW universe whenever the Witches make themselves known over in that dimension.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran
  • Despite physically recovering from being shot by Shepard, Roach begins to have intense nightmares of the disastrous Makarov safehouse op and subsequent betrayal by their treacherous commander.
  • Ghost is also emotionally stunted from his Dark and Troubled Past. The twisted voices in his head manifests as his asshole father, who belittles everything Riley does or feels, making Ghost the cold, emotionless killer.
• Share the Male Pain: When Ramirez's sister violently grips General Krupke's manhood, every single male soldier in the vicinity - from the combined alternate-WWII forces to the modern day US Military collectively cringe at the painful sight. This also cools down the standoff rather quickly.
  Sgt. Jay: Sweet Zombie Jesus, will you PLEASE stop doing that!
  Cpl. Dunn: Aw dude! That ain't right man, that ain't right!
• Shout-Out: There are several references to Doctor Who when the characters try to make sense of their dimension-hopping situation, such as Ghost referring to Ursula's MAPPD device as a handheld TARDIS. When regrouping for the Site Hotel Bravo mission, Ghost has to resort to using Dr. Who analogies (with Roach's photographic evidence) to convince Captain Price and the remainder of TF 141 that their misadventures in the Strike Witches universe actually happened.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Shepard tries to convince Gertrud to walk away from the rest of the defeated TF 141 members by questioning her will as a soldier. She quite literally tells him to shut up.
  Shepherd: Who the hell are you to say what is right or wrong? What the hell gives you the idea of knowing what it means to sacrifice for your country, your people? What are you, eighteen years old, nineteen? You're a fresh faced punk, you know nothing about what men and women in uniform must do to do what is needed. You don't even know the meaning of the word sacrifice!
  Gertrud: SHUT UP! YOU DON'T GET TO TELL ME THAT YOU FUCKING BASTARD! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO?!
• Spared by the Adaptation: Ghost and Roach survive Shepard's betrayal when a magical circle teleports the two TF 141 operators right under Shadow Company's noses. Shortly after making contact with the 501st Strike Witches, a heavily wounded Roach is saved by Miyafuji's healing magic.
  • Thanks to a warning by Ghost, Toad and Archer escape being wiped out by Shadow Company in the nick of time. Toad carries a wounded Archer all the way back to a TF 141 safehouse across the Russian border, but Archer dies anyway.
  • Agent Harkov survives the plane crash and prevents the Russian President from being captured by Makarov and his Inner Circle due to Nikolai and Price directly warning him about potential enemies in disguised rescue choppers. He and President Boris Vorchevsky are last seen alive in the story, still on the run but Commander Leonid is captured and killed by their Ultranationalist pursuers.
• Super-Strength: As per canon, most witches, but Barkhorn in particular exudes her powers constantly in order to heft her dual machineguns around during combat. The first of Trudy's powers to return in the Modern Warfare universe is her inhuman strength, which she uses to toss an incoming UAZ jeep away to save Ghost's life in Germany.
• There Are No Therapists: Justified. Roach is unable to keep his growing PTSD in check as he and the rest of the 141 are internationally wanted fugitives and on the run. Barkhorn too is unable to have anyone help her cope with the initial loss of her powers as she is literally in a different universe without anyone to relate to her situation. The 141 resort to the next best thing: having her chat with their local spiritually-attuned Task Force member, Scope. It works out eventually.
• Too Dumb to Live: Krupke is following in the footsteps of his like-minded colleague, Trevor Maloney in trying to dismantle the Joint Fighter Witch squadrons. Sgt. Foley even calls him out over it by citing how utterly stupid it would be for soldiers such as themselves to even consider removing their only fighting chance against the Neuroi. He also rips into their short-sightedness, citing their previous reckless usage of an enemy's unknown energy core to powerup their Warlock project, which has backfired immensely.
• Torture Is Ineffective: At least on Pike, Markarov's henchman in Germany. Even two needles jammed into his legs and hooked to a car battery Taken-style isn't enough to break the man. That is until they change their approach and demonstrate Gertrud's Super-Strength powers by having her bend an AK-47 in front of his face, which freaks out Pike - enough for him to spill the beans willingly.
• Trapped in Another World: The main plot kicks off when the US Army Rangers of Hunter 2-1, Ghost and Roach from Task Force 141 are mysteriously teleported into the Strike Witches timeline due to Neuroi magical interference.
  • Gertrud is also unwittingly transported into the Modern Warfare timeline when Ghost and Roach make their first escape. Cue her having a Freak Out over suddenly losing her abilities due to the MW universe lacking any magic to draw from.
  • When the Neuroi start opening up more magical interdimensional portals, the 501st Strike Witches send an expeditionary force over to the MW universe to help the other timeline defend themselves against the growing alien threat, as well as finding leads on Gertrud's whereabouts.
• Ungrateful Bastard: The Westboro-like protesters outside the Mississippi FOB are refugees, yet claim to use their First Amendment Rights to spread malicious, ignorant religious dogma that the invasion is somehow divine penance against the US Military for existing and that every fallen soldier deserved to die.
  US Soldier: You bastards keep screaming "thank god for IED's" and "thank god for dead soldiers" while my buddies are giving their very lives for this country and our people and even you! Who the fuck do you think you are, you damned ungrateful sons-a-bitches!? If it weren't for us you'd be mowed down by Russian AK's! I'll kick your fucking asses, every last one of you, ya Westborough Baptist fucks!
• Violence is the Only Option: In Chapter 28, despite warning the hostile army to stand down, the Russian Inner Circle troops do not heed their surrender warnings and fire upon the Witches, who in turn, reluctantly fire back with increased magical lethality. Yoshika is horrified witnessing humans kill each other and breaks down crying during the firefight.
• When Dimensions Collide: Eila has a frightening premonition of both the Modern Warfare and her own universe violently colliding as the conflicts from both worlds threaten to spill over to one another, reducing everything to single scarred planet covered in flaming craters and a poisonous yellow smog.
• Wiki Walk: When Gertrud is introduced to the internet, she goes on an overnight trek through Wikipedia on a wide array of topics. From German history to World War II, German shepherds, Middle-Eastern genocides, Brazillian chocolate, Florida Men news, anime & manga and finally, of course, Hentai.
• Would Hit a Girl: Shepard is initially amused and dismissive of Gertrud's sudden appearance and refuses to take her seriously, even when she has a gun pointed at him. After her gun jams, Gertrud start wailing on Shepard with every physical means; defiant acts that makes Shepard realize that she is indeed a worthy soldier with the guts to kill and returns the sentiment by brutally choke-slamming her into a nearby rock head-first.
• Would Hurt a Child: The Inner Circle troops invading the 501st base have no issues firing upon the Witches, even bayonetting one unlucky 78th Reserve witch in the back. Downplayed as one Russian IC trooper states they killed only those that posed a threat as many of the witches were indeed armed, but they still threatened to kill the weaponless witches in the infirmary if they did not comply. Glazkov also has no qualms with violating a helpless Luchinni with a loaded pistol.
• You Are in Command Now
  • Shirley is appointed acting commanding officer of the 501st when Commander Minna and several other members are given the green light to travel to the Modern Warfare universe to look for Gertrud.
    Captain Marwick: Captain Yeager in command of the 501st? Whelp, there goes the war.
  • Justified in once instance when a joint US Army Rangers and Marine force is suddenly teleported from New York into Romagna. The higher-ranking Marine Sergeant wisely gives Pvt. Ramirez command authority after learning that the Private has much more experience with fighting Neuroi from the Strike Witches universe.
• Your Magic's No Good Here: Lt. Barkhorn quickly finds out that her familiar doesn't immediately manifest when trapped in the Modern Warfare universe due to a lack of magic in the air. As such, her Striker units don't function and is effectively depowered, relying on conventional firepower and her raw soldiering skills to fight her battles from that point onwards.
  • With Scope's sage advice, she overcomes this issue through rediscovering her magic potential via spiritual meditation and manages to take to the skies again in her Striker units along with her enhanced strength.
  • The 501st Joint Fighter Wing members who cross into the MW universe also run into this problem upon landing in the US military staging area. It takes a while, but eventually they too regain control of their magic through willpower, but find it weaker than usual.

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"Ramirez! We've got cliffhangers; use some new tropes to help finish the story, now move!"