Infinite Stratos: Zero Hour

Sarah was sitting next to the wreckage of the old computers that somehow still worked "Howdy" she says seeing Mira walk in

"Love what you've done with the place."

****

Given the speed at which IS travel was possible the Eurotrio was very soon in their respective countries.

Rin arrives in Mainland China.

"You missed two robots and Ward getting cut in half" Sarah says without batting an eye "I must be crazy as you if I can say that with a straight face"

"What kind of robots?" That was the important question here; Mira imperiously swept aside the idea of Ward getting cut in half as that didn't concern her.

****

The Eurotrio split up over the Iberian peninsula - Cecilia headed to her family estate near Coventry, Laura to the wrecked Schwarzer Hase headquarters in Dresden, and Charlotte, after some indecision, to the Dunois Corporation building in Bordeaux.

"Think a IS with no pilot" Sarah says and then after a few moments "Oh yeah we have ten minutes to pack up our stuff and then head back to the US, Orimura, Ward and Tatinashi just got dishonorably discharged"

"Why? What'd they do?" Mira had never liked Orimura, was okay with Ward, and was more or less friends with Tatenashi (whom she'd nicknamed Tatya). "And how'd that work anyway, did the US, Britain and Russia all get pissed at them at the same time?"

"Yes actually. Something about War crimes" Sarah says taking a flash drive out of the computer.

"We're supposed to get to Pearl Harbor asap. Need anything from here?"

The Peacemaker pilot shook her head. "Nah, they wouldn't let me bring my computer so I don't have anything I care about. What war crimes?"

Sarah shrugs "You got me, but Ward did lie about boats being the only thing attacked by the people that stole Advent. I don't know whats the truth around here anymore"

Mira shrugged, supremely unconcerned. "Where are we going anyway? Specifically within America?"

Meanwhile in Japan, Kanzashi can hardly believe what shes hearing. "Wait, you were WHAT?" she almost screams into her phone.

"The orders say peal harbor" Sarah says

"Huh." Advent materialized around Mira and the insane pilot took to the air, heading for Hawaii.

Kenzashi waits for what seems like days for her sister's responce.

"You need to stop worrying things to much"

Kanzashi cannot find a response to being accused of mauling anything.

Rin arrived at the PLA base in Jinxi where China's IS squadrons were maintained. Immediately after deactivating Shenlong, she went to find the base's commander - what on earth had she been summoned back here in such a hurry for?

"what
The
Hell
Did
you
do???" Kanzashi asks.

"Me, personally, nothing, I swear"

___________________________________________________________________________________

In Jinxi Rin found a soldier who told her where the base commander was. After about 5 minutes of walking through the base she found the commander in his office. He stands "You came" he said simply.

___________________________________________________________________________________

With the speed of their advanced IS's, all three peacemaker pilots made it to Pearl Harbor in short time.

"Peacemakers, land in the designated zone" says a voice over the coms

Sarah does what she was told and goes to the indicated section, where the president was waiting for them

"Yeah, I did. What gives?" Rin demanded, folding her arms.

---

Cecilia's estate had a helipad on the roof. Naturally, since she'd been selected as the pilot of Blue Tears, the helicopter itself hadn't seen much use - the IS was far more maneuverable anyway. Dematerializing the suit, she went inside immediately to change. Once that had been done, Cecilia called her government contacts to find out what was going on.

---

Upon arriving at the Schwarzer Hase base in Dresden, Laura went straight to her superior officer to inquire about what exactly had happened concerning her Mentor.

---

Charlotte, for her part, deliberately did not seek out her father or any of her superiors at Dunois HQ. Not that she needed to - she already knew Rafael Revive Custom II would have connected to the building and begun uploading the data it had collected. No doubt her father was rubbing his hands together with glee, seeing that she had briefly fought alongside America's Peacemakers.

Rafael Revive Custom II had an astounding twenty Equalizer slots, but only thirteen of them contained combat modifications. When Laura noticed that, she'd managed to convince the German super-soldier that the remaining seven contained passive performance boosters, thus explaining her ability to keep up with the other students at the Academy who had personal IS units. That wasn't true, but one of the few things Laura did understand about social interaction was that breaking into and examining others' possessions was not okay, so the super-soldier had never actually examined Charlotte's IS. The seven slots did, at any rate, contain software packages - essentially, malware versions of the regular identification software, stealing data records from other active IS units nearby. Originally, she had also been directed to try and get into the IS Academy's files but she'd never done that. For one thing, she wasn't a computer expert, and for another she wasn't willing to risk Miss Orimura finding out and probably killing her. That and the data she already was sending back to Bordeaux was satisfactory - especially when her classmate Houki Shinonono received an IS custom-built by her sister Tabane herself. That had given Dunois Corporation a head start on mass-producing 4th Generation IS units - even if LMB beat them to the end product with Advent Of Thunder, they couldn't mass-produce that model (having met the pilot, Charlotte wondered if Mira had threatened them or something)

Derek was shocked, after hours of searching, he only found sighns that a massacre had taken place in the academy hours before he arrived but he got confirmation of landing clearance.

"Why does this feel like I'm missing something huge?" Derek asked himself as a message from one of his trusted friends on base. It was telling him to return to base because of an event at the academy. "A little late there slick." Derek says under his breath. He turned to look at the direction he needed to go to get back to the USA. "No, something doesn't feel right." Derek shouts at himself. He activates his com and was already having regrets. "Activate voicemail. Start recording...Phantom Shadow is requesting assistance from Laura Bodewig, Charlotte Dunois, Cecelia Alcott, and Lingyn Huang. Something I have a feeling that this fight isn't over yet. Be ready for anything. End message. Send message." Derek orders his IS and looks at the Academy. "No matter what I do, pain and death follows closely." Derek says to himself as he fades from sight.

"ok fine, What
the
hell
happened?"

Shenlong alerted Rin to the message but since she was in the middle of a conversation she ignored it.

---

Laura received the same notification and likewise ignored it, as she was similarly occupied.

---

Cecilia, waiting for a response, immediately opened the message once she got it. Upon realizing it wasn't her man in the government, she scowled, but listened to the rest anyway. "I'm afraid I'm otherwise occupied at the moment." she sent back curtly.

---

Charlotte was startled out of her reverie by the sudden ping from her IS. Listening to the message, she thought for a moment before responding. "What exactly do you need assistance with? The government ordered me back to France, I'm not sure how much help I could be."

---

Mira, being Mira, landed on the deck of the USS Missouri and walked from there.

Derek was walking through the town near the Academy before he noticed two messages from two of the girls. "Cecelia and Charlotte... Guess I should just take what I get." Derek says before playing the replies. After hearing the messages he walks into an alley and gets out of sight. "Never hurts to bee too careful. Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. I was at the school when I messaged you. It was destroyed, from my perspective, easily a peacemaker could have caused the destruction. Either it was Advent or a squad of highly trained IS pilots. I don't have enough information to be sure...I'll send you some of the stuff I saw over there. But it isn't pretty...you said you were called back home right? Do you have any idea why? Best guess if needed. Will be standing by for your reply. End message. Send message and video file twenty three." Derek ordered his IS in a careful volume. After confirmation of the send Derek looked back to the town more carefully, looking for anything that doesn't add up.