Infinite Stratos: Zero Hour

Charlotte listened to the response and opened the video, then gasped in horror. "Mon dieu!" The Academy was completely gone, burned to the ground and everything. After regaining her composure, she recorded her reply: "It had something to do with Miss Orimura, General Ward and Tatenashi...and war crimes. I think they meant they committed war crimes, not us, but..." She left out the part where she wasn't sure if she was going to be arrested for something she had no idea about. Or worse, for her industrial espionage.

Derek jumped slightly when Aerosmith's Living' On The Edge played, alerting him of a message being received. He breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw the message was from Charlotte, but frowned when he listened to the message. "Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. This doesn't feel right. Something's off, why attack the Academy with a peacemaker when the whole world was watching it-....To have them see a peacemaker, a United States IS destroy the Academy for all the world to see...This whole thing was a set up.With Chifuyu gone, nobody skilled enough to slow down a peacemaker was left to protect the Academy. Get ahold of any information you can find out about your country's situation. We need as much info as we can get right now. End message. Send message. Begin message for Laura Bodewig, Cecilia Alcott, Lingyn Huang. Ward and Chifuyu were set up and played. The prisoners we took to the island was to get the Academy defenseless and the attack was to draw the world's attention to the Academy. To watch it be destroyed by Advent. Phantom Strike is still out there. Be on high alert. End message. Send message labeled 'Alert'." Derek says as he hopes that his message gets heard.

Cecilia didn't bother listening to the message, responding with: "Stop contacting me."


Charlotte responded quickly as well, her tone confused. "What are you talking about? What does Advent have to do with that? We tracked it across the Atlantic, it was never in Japan unless Mira had it and I don't think she would have destroyed the Academy."

Derek listened to both replies and realized two things. First Cecilia isn't someone to count on right now. Second Charlotte had a point... But something didn't add up. Well until Ward was thrown into the equation. "Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. Ward must've withheld that information from us..and what else would cause all the countries to call back their best pilots? In fear of being attacked and wiped out. And with the peacemakers out of the way, the world is easier to conquer. End message. Send message." Derek says as he gets up and starts walking and as he walks, he disappeared from sight.

Charlotte shook her head - this was the most convoluted thing she'd ever seen. First the Academy was attacked, to draw attention so someone could steal Advent Of Thunder, which was apparently a distraction so that someone could attack the Academy.

That made...precisely zero sense. Did Derek know something she didn't? "I...don't think the Peacemakers are ever 'out of the way.' If something comes up, they'll probably be sent to deal with it, non?"

Kanzashi gets fed up with waiting for her sister to answer and hangs up the phone, she gets a news update on her phone that says the academy had been attacked, after dropping her phone in shock and picks it up, she runs to the academy to see what the hell actually happened.

Derek mulled over the information that he had so far. After a few minutes he took a deep breath.

"Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. Would anyone call for help from something they don't know that they can trust? And they are calling their strongest weapons back home, to defend their countries. Think about it, is there any other reasonable explanation for calling everyone back? If there is, then I'm all ears. End message. Send message."

"For one, all of us immediately went from the graduation ceremony to an unidentified island. They probably want to know what happened, so they called us in for debriefing. I cannot confirm anything - no members of the government or Dunois Corporation have spoken to me since I returned, but I think that's the case." She was, for that matter, certain that the instant her father knew she'd been with the Peacemakers he'd wanted to see the data her IS had siphoned from them.

Derek remembered the message from his friend and smiled.

"Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. Alright, that's possible and I was also called back to base when I was at the academy. I'll forward the message to you. Its from a friend that I would trust with my life. End message. Send message with forward message from Chase Grey." Derek commands his IS.

When the forwarded message was played, this was what was said.

"Hey Derek. It's Chase, listen somethige went wrong with the peacemakers, I don't have all the details but all that I can say is that first it was stolen and second it was linked with an attack on the IS Academy. Anything you can tell us can help us figure out this mess over here. The top Brass are calling everyone back, and I mean everyone. We're acting like a nuke was heading our way. Just either get over here or figure something out. Chase out." The forwarded message ends there.

Kanzashi makes it to what was left of the academy and looks on in shock and horror for a minute or so, her ice cream cones drooping down. She then notices someone was there and, of all things, talking on a freaking phone.

while the new guy was distracted, she walked up behind him and activated one of the cannons of Tsunigata Nishiki.

"Ok, hang the f**k up and tell me who you are and what you're doing here."

Derek, having went back to the Academy to look for any clues, immediately regrets his choice of actions.

"Voice command, deactivate communicator." Derek said before the holographic phone screen disappeared. "My name is Derek Andrews. I'm here looking for answers. I'm not a threat to you, so let me continue my investigation." Derek says as he mentally brings Shadow Phantom's stealth ability, just as a precaution.

Back at the academy Derek found little info on what had actually happened there. Yes, most of the grounds were completely destroyed, but it was also to professionally done to go unnoticed. Another thing started to bug Derek, Advent was tracked all a crossed the world and it never left the atlantic. So, it the stolen Advent was always in the atlantic, how was the Academy and IS bases hit?

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In London Cecelia got a message saying that she had to appear before the leaders of MI5 and MI6

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Charoltte also got a message but it wasn't from the government, it was from her father. It simply read "Under the Eiffel, 10 minutes"

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Laura was finally able to get to her superiors after waiting for far to long even considering the attack
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Rin's commander showed no emotion to the IS pilot "You have orders to come here and you followed them. Your new orders are to remain on the base until such time as you are needed for operations"

Cecilia did not like the sound of that, but it wasn't optional. She immediately selected a formalwear outfit appropriate for the occasion and departed via limousine to fulfill the order.

---

Charlotte, steeling herself, used her IS to get to Paris, then took the Metro to get to the Tower. Landing in the middle of France's largest city was not a good idea for a very long list of reasons.

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Laura, offering her customary salute, had a question for her superiors. "Vhat is ze situation viz Mentor?"

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Rin blinked. She hadn't been expecting that. "Is that it? No 'what the hell happened with those crazy Americans?' Just wait around?"

---

Mira did have some trouble getting past the security screen that followed the President. Asked repeatedly for her ID, she got tired of explaining who she was and finally rounded on the poor captain who had just asked that question one time too many. A flash of light and she was looming over him in Advent Of Thunder. Electricity crackling menacingly up and down the IS unit's tentacles, she snarled at him. "This is my f***ing ID, are we clear?" After dematerializing the IS, she arrived and took up position between Sarah and Mira.

"Investigation? Hold on, you're not the freaking police and frankly, you're not even from here, what investigation?" she asks, lowering her cannon slightly.

"Because I was here before the Academy was destroyed... Its my personal responsibility to figure out what happened." Derek said before he turned to the girl behind him and looked at her with his golden eye. "No if you don't mind, I need to contact a few friends. Activate communicator." Derek says as he walks away from the girl with a frustrated growl. "Something isn't adding up...Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. The more I look around, the more that hints both a professional job and meant to be unnoticed until it was too late. Has there been anything of interest on your end? End message. Send message."

After a minute, he got a reply: "Rien, sorry. I'm afraid I cannot talk at the moment."

"Begin message for Charlotte Dunois. Alright, contact me if you need me or find something. Derek out. End message. Send message." Derek says before looking around the school. "What happened here? Who was behind this attack?" Derek asked aloud as his eye took in the distraction around him.

"Wait a minute, who are you talking to anyway?" Kanzashi asks catching up to Derek.

The president of the USA finally turned to face the three peacemaker pilots "I'm sure you have questions-" he started talking before Sarah cut him off

"I mean no disrespect but you better give us some answers now before Mira does something similar to an international incident"
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At the academy Derek and Kanzashi were approached by a tall man in an all black suit, the kind you see on spy's. He holds his ID up and it shows he was part of the UN "If you two would come with me please"

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In Paris Charlotte found her father under the Efle tower just like his message said he would be. The most disturbing part of this was that he had so guards around him, he was leaning against the side of the leg post drinking some drink.

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"Capitan Orimura is being transported to an undisclosed location for questioning, that is all" The commander says to Luara

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"This problem has expanded beyond the small borders of the Americas. You need to know that we are standing on the brink of what could be the next great war with what has happened" The captain says to Rin

Cecilia arrived at the MI6 building and entered.

---

"Hey, I voted for this President, I'm not going to physically assault him." Mira protested, flipping Sarah the bird.

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Charlotte used the crowds of tourists as cover to approach her father. She didn't even bother speaking to him, just gave him a questioning look.

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Laura didn't so much as twitch, despite the fury that demanded she break the man's desk in half with his spine. "I already knew zat, but vhy is she being qvestioned? Vhat did she do?"

---

"Over one stolen IS? Yeah right. I overheard Ward explaining it to Bodewig. Someone attacked the Academy, and Bodewig's unit in Germany. What else did they hit?"

Derek was about to answer the girl when he noticed the man in the suit. After seeing the ID, Derek relaxed a little.

"Give us three reasons why we should." Derek said with defiance.

The man in black put his ID back "1. I'm trying to save what little life I can before the world ends. 2, the world is going to end, 3, I'll ask you if you want to ell stop it or stay here and die?"

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"She is being questioned on the grounds of being one of the small number of remaining IS pilots alive" the Camander says to Luara "You are one of 6 remaining German pilots"

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"I don't pay attention who you vote for" Sarah says

The president waved the comments off "Its all right I think that kind of thinking is what your entitled to think with what has happened"

"Yeah that was the big one. What did happen"

The president sat in his desk and looked grim "All places of IS deployment were attacked you know this. What you don't know is that all of the cores of the IS units were taken out before they were destroyed. Who ever attacked everyone took the cores and went off grid. The number of total IS units still accounted for and under the UNA's guristiction is limited to you three, a small tasks force and nothing else. I have talked to other governments and they have the same problem. All of the IS pilots that were on the base controlled by former General Ward and about 20 others are the only IS units operational. All other cores are controlled by the enemy"

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Mr. Dunois didn't look up from what he was reading. After a moment of silence between the two he handed his daughter a envelope "This has everything you will need"

Derek visibly thinks about what the man said before looking the man in the eye.

"Do you know what I can do? What sets me apart from any other man." Derek challenges the man.

Hesitantly, Charlotte took the envelope and opened it.

---

Cecilia, at the MI6 building, was slowly losing patience. She had expected that somebody would know she was coming and send for her once she arrived, but thus far she'd been waiting in the lobby for fifteen minutes.

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Six pilots. That was the entirety of Schwarzer Hase and one additional, in numbers. But if what Ward told her was true, she was the only one with an IS. "If she is being qvestioned on zose criteria, vhy am I not also being qvestioned?"

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Mira looked annoyed. "Who's this enemy then? Doesn't this count as an act of war?"

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When the base commander didn't respond immediately, Rin slammed both her hands down on his desk. "Answer me, dammit!"

Inside the envelope Charlotte found some high grade GPS equipment, a folded map and a key card "There is a set of coordinates to a safe house. Stay there until things blow over" he says before setting everything down and starting to walk away

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Finally Cecilia was allowed into the office of the heads of MI5 and MI6
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"When you want to know the enemies plans who do you ask? The leader or the soldier?" the man asks Luara

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The president looked a little bit embarrassed "We don't know. All we know is they go by the name of Phantom task"

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"They go by the name of Phantom task. They have attacked almost every military base that is capable of launching an IS counter attack on the planet. For some reason they also stole the cores to the IS's as well" The camander says to Rin

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"You are one of the few IS pilots alive that won't shoot us in the back" The man says to Derek