Infinite Stratos: Zero Hour

That came right out of left field. "What? Why?" Charlotte asked as her father walked away.

---

Cecilia promptly demanded to know why she had been brought here.

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"Vhat are you saying?" Laura's eye narrowed dangerously.

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"Phantom Task. Hey, wasn't that Andrews guy's IS named something Phantom, or Phantom something?" Mira frowned.

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"How did they do that?" Rin knew all IS cores were registered by the UN, and there was a limited supply. How could this Phantom Task pull that off so quickly? Did they have their own way to make cores?

"There is a group of dangerous people killing off IS pilots. The world is about to go into its next great war. I want you on the other side of the planet when the fighting starts" Mr. Dunois says

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"You are here, Mrs. Alcott, because you are the only hope England has of surviving as a country for the next week"

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"All of the IS bases were registered in off the books hard drives. Only four people on the planet had access to those drives, two are dead, the third is General Ward and the fourth is Captain Orimura"

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Sarah shrugs "I memorize computer codes not names"

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"They attacked with next generation IS's. One's designed purely for war, there power is estimated to match the Peacmakers"

Eiffel Tower

Words failed Charlotte. Her first interaction with her father had been after her maman died, and had lasted all of three minutes or so before she'd been examined for IS compatibility, given an IS, and told to go to the Academy to get information from the recently unveiled Fourth Generation IS Akatsubaki, the first in the world. She certainly hadn't thought he cared about her at all.

---

Somewhere in London...

Cecilia's eyes widened. "What!? What on earth are you talking about!?"

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Schwarzer Hase base, Dresden

Laura closed her eye and said confidently. "Zen Vard is ze traitor, or vun of ze dead people is not actually dead. Mentor vould not do such a zing."

---

Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam

"My point is, does he have anything to do with it?" Mira looked back to the President.

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PLA IS base, Jinxi

"Where the hell did they get those!?" Rin demanded.

"Your mission means little to nothing right now Charlotte. If you were to die then everything would be for nothing and all of the time and money put into it would be a waste" he says before walking away again. He stopped before he got to far "I'm doing this because of the will of your mother. She's the one that wants you safe, remember me as the coldhearted business man you always knew and leave it at that. au revoir Charlotte". With that Mr. Dunois left his daughter standing there as he faded into the crowds
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"You are the only IS pilot left that England has under its control. All others have been killed"

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"Orimura is only being questioned right now because she is the only one of the two that can talk. More then likely she will walk out of this with her rank and honor interacted" the commander says noticing the increased hostility of Luara's words

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"We don't know" The president says "The only members that we have ever captured were killed in interrogation, you wouldn't know about that would you?"

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"No one knows. Now you know why you were called back"

The map read for somewhere in the middle of the pacific, it was out there and had no strategic value in campaign against any country.

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"It happened when Advent of Thunder was taken from the peacemakers base. Right now, we are planing a joint offensive against the enemy"

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The commander sat down again "Thats why you will be deployed with the remaining pilots to attack before they can launch counter measures"

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"Either way we-" A man bursts into the room and hurries to the president. He wishers in his ear and then leaves just as quick.

"What was that?" Sarah asks

"We found out the ones responsible for the attacks"

"Who?"

"Everyone. The core signatures can be trusted back to every country in the UN. They have declared war of the United States of America. Peacemakers, we are now at war"

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"Witch is why we will attack them before they can come at us again.

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Rin, Luara and Ceclia were all ordered to go to a military base in the middle of the Pacific

Charlotte left the city, and at the soonest opportunity deployed Rafael Revive Custom II and took to the air, heading for the indicated location.

---

Pretty soon, three IS' had been stationed at Midway.

---

"Wait, the entire f***ing world just declared war on the USA?" Even by Mira's tenuous grasp of reality that was out there.

Charlotte's flight was uneventful until she saw the huge amount of military units stations at a small island

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A captain walked up to the three pilots "I have received orders from the higher ups. You three will be the vanguard for the main attack. Here is your attack points"

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"They have committed mass genocide on american soil" The president says. The secretary of defense walked into the room with a briefcase.

"We have received word that the vanguard for the next attack will be here" the girls all got a picture of what looked like an IS sports arena

"Are you sure?" Sarah asks

"We believe that they entend mass panic in the public. You three can get there first, you mission defeat the vanguard and any that would cause harm to our country is that clear?"

Charlotte stopped mid-flight. What on earth were all those military units doing there? Then she saw twin streaks of light that her HUD identified as Blue Tears and Schwarzer Regen. On impulse, she broke off from her planned course and went to intercept. If there was going to be fighting she didn't really want to be hiding somewhere, whatever her father said.

---

"Perfectly." Mira said. She wasn't smiling anymore. "Where's this arena?"

"New York" The president says  

Sarah twists her ring "Lets go"

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The man in black gets a call, he listens and then hangs up "If you want to save the world then theres a little fight that going to happen in New York that you might want to stop" he says to Derek

Derek tensed as he watched the man.

"Begin message for Laura Bodewig, Cecilia Alcott, Lingyn Huang, and Charlotte Dunois. I'm being approached by a Agent from the UN. Request advice asap. End message. Send message." Derek says as he watched the UN agent. "If you had any good information, you'd know who I was calling for. And if you have anything to tell me. Speak now."

"Well all right then, to new york I guess." Kanzashi says, powering up her jets.

When the four pilots arrived, they were told the next attack would be taking place in New York. Soon all of them arrived at the Mondo Grosso stadium in New York City. And yet, there was no sign of "phantom task."

All four of them then got Derek's message. Cecilia ignored it on the basis that it wasn't worth her time, Laura and Charlotte ignored it because they were in the middle of a mission, though someone forgot to tell the enemies apparently, and Rin opened up a reply. "You want advice, stalker boy? Lay off the damn fortune cookies!"

Immediately after she sent the message, the stadium's sound system activated, playing the sound of an electric guitar, followed by lyrics:

"I'm not afraid of loving my enemies
Turning the other cheek
Blessing those who would curse me..."


"What the hell is that?" Rin said loudly, as Charlotte materialized her SMGs and the four of them clustered together ("I honestly want peace with you")


At that point the volume shot up from deafening to earth-shaking as the lights went on abruptly. The guitar intensified: 
"But when you come against my country"
"When you come against my family" Laura pointed her railgun at the roof as something landed on it.
"You try to destroy my people"
"Then I can't just stand by!" Charlotte saw what Laura was doing. "The roof! They're going to come through the roof!"
"There's no way that I can stand by!"
"This time I will not stand by!" Rin had her swords out and Cecilia was aiming at the roof as well.

"I am coming!" Phoenix Paladin's mace smashed a hole in the roof as the IS descended through it.
"And if I come..." On the other side of the stadium, a barrage of laser shots from Nova Angel Guardian caved in a part of the roof big enough to drive an eighteen-wheeler through.
"Then PAIN IS COMING WITH ME!" A screech of metal, barely audible above the music, heralded Advent Of Thunder tearing through the center of the roof, forcing the sheet steel apart with its tentacles. Mira was once again at the helm, plunging down into the middle of the group and releasing an electrical blast that sent them all reeling as the music shut off. Then Advent's pilot spoke: "It's the end of the world, you poor pathetic f***s."

Derek noticed no response from the girls and took it as they were in danger.

"Begin message for Chase Grey. I need sky clearance for two IS flying in from the Pacific Ocean, and all the data of any battles in New York city. End message. Send message." Derek said before his IS was called out and he blasted into the sky.

Derek received a message that he had clearance

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Sarah reloaded all of her weapons and trained them on the enemies

Having received clearance Derek launched himself with all his IS's jet power.

"Hopefully I'm not too late." Derek says as he is rocketing for New York.

Cecilia trained Starlight Mk III on Nova Angel Guardian. "The three Peacekeepers versus Cecilia Alcott and Blue Tears?" As she fired, she released her drones, which swept in towards Sarah, guns blazing. "You should have brought more pilots!"

---

Rin recovered from the blast just in time to catch Mira's macuahuitl in her crossed blades. The American grinned across at her like a shark. "I always said America would beat China in a war, even before the Infinite Stratos. And now I get to prove it!" Advent Of Thunder's other macuahuitl drove forward beneath her blades. Rin tried to deflect it, but the serrated teeth of the weapon she'd already blocked caught her swords and held them in place before the impact threw her backward, SP counting down the damage she'd received.

Mira didn't press the advantage. She had already turned half around when Laura's cables wrapped around Advent's wrists and pulled hard, tugging her off-balance as Charlotte materialized her shotguns. And of course, the psychopath freaking grinned. "You don't get it, do you? You've declared war on the most powerful nation the world has ever seen!" Advent Of Thunder's tentacles tapped the cables, sending a burst of electricity down them. Laura screamed in pain, Schwarzer Regen's shield points dropping precipitously before she could recall the daggers.
"Welcome to America, bitches!"

While her allies were both still recovering, Charlotte fired off both shotguns. Mira didn't bother dodging, swiping one shell contemptuously out of the air and simply tanking the second. "I hope you saved an Equalizer slot for your white flag, Frenchie!" She charged at the orange IS, dragging two tentacles and her sword tips on the ground to create a dense trail of sand and dust that gradually overtook her in her charge. Charlotte didn't bother moving - two shells would stop even the immense Advent Of Thunder and give her time to slip around and flank it.

That is, she was going to do that. Until something hit her from behind like a train and slammed her face-first into the ground. "Wow, I sure wish I could teleport behind people at the last second in order to hit them. Oh wait..." Advent's talon-like feet gripped Rafael Revive Custom II and lifted it off the ground as Charlotte frantically materialized her pile bunker, not that that helped as Mira proceeded to accelerate at speed towards the arena wall, grinding the French IS against the ground the whole way and absolutely shredding its SP count.

By this point, Laura and Rin had both recovered. "Lingyin, go after her! Hit her from behind!" Laura shouted, accelerating past Advent and descending right into the IS' path, right arm raised. "Halt!" Upon activation, her AIC stopped both Mira and Charlotte cold, probably saving the last scraps of the French pilot's SP...as well as holding Mira in place.

Which suited Rin just fine. Twin swords raised, Shenlong shot across the arena at Advent while Mira couldn't move. "Kyaaaaaaaaahhh!" Rin screamed as she brought them both across - not down. Because she had figured Mira would do something like teleporting out of the way last second, and she didn't want to hit Charlotte. This had the added effect of spinning her to the side, putting the American right in the firing line of her Ryuhou Impact Cannons, which were already primed for firing. "Take this, you crazy bitch!"

Mira, admittedly, hadn't expected that, and took both hits right in the face before teleporting again. Her own Shield Points were still higher than any of her individual opponents - Rin and Laura hadn't taken much damage but Advent's attacks had definitely made an impression, and Charlotte's shields were a few hits from going down completely. She grinned. "All together or one at a time, it makes no difference to me! Come get some, motherf***ers!"

She was immediately obliged. Laura and Rin split up, coming at her from two different angles with armblades and f***off huge swords, while Charlotte hung back to preserve her remaining shielding, covering them from above with rifle fire. Advent teleported out of the way of both charges, taking another nick off of Shenlong's shields before Laura's AIC forced her to teleport again. She adopted a fairly simple technique for dealing with melee - catch the offending blade with her macuahuitl's teeth, pull the wielder off-balance and slash at them with the other blade quickly before teleporting so as to avoid railgun or impact cannon fire. She ignored Charlotte almost entirely - the rifle fire was barely an annoyance compared to the rest of what was happening and she teleport spammed so much it rarely landed anyway.

All this time, the electrolaser above her head was charging, fold-out armor expanding to take the appearance of a four-point star. Suddenly, she broke contact, causing Rin to overswing and have to shift position, before a laser beam, bright blue, appeared trained on Charlotte's chest. Mira grinned yet again. "Bonsoir, blondie." The plasma discharge burned through Rafael Revive Custom II's remaining shields and smashed apart the Vent assault rifle, causing the magazine to discharge and destroy the weapon, even as it threw Charlotte roughly into the bleachers like a broken toy.

"Charlotte!" Laura cried, before the beam was turned on her, plowing through most of her shield energy and creating a crater in the arena floor with her at the center. "Worry about yourself, soldier girl!" Mira crowed, before the interlocked Souten Gagetsu, spinning like a baton, smashed into her side. 

Catching the blades as they returned, Rin bared her teeth. "Thanks for stopping to gloat, f***face!" Mira, recovering, teleported out of the way of the impact cannon fire that Rin had shot even while speaking. "My mistake - if you wanted my full attention you should have said something earlier!" At that point Mira swept towards Shenlong like a gargantuan teal-painted thunderstorm. Of the two, Rin was by far the superior in terms of skill with a blade. But that didn't matter when Mira not only had twin blades but four bladed tentacles and talons as well as the ability to fire lightning bolts. The Chinese pilot found herself backpedaling constantly, desperately parrying a barrage of poorly-aimed but powerful strikes, before suddenly she had nothing in front of her. She whirled, trying to find Mira, but only heard the discharge of the electrolaser again and Laura crying out in pain.

"And stay down, Fritz. Now...where was I? Oh yeah." Suddenly Mira was behind Rin again, hitting her twice before she could spin around and react, then behind her once more, repeating the process, then above, then to the right. Shenlong's Shield Points plummeted to zero in a bare ten seconds of non-stop assault. "Oh come on, that's not fair!" Rin complained, looking in disbelief at her HUD

"No, it's not." Mira grinned even wider, and her macuahuitls swung downwards. Rin felt the sudden spark of pain that meant her IS had been physically damaged - the last time that had happened was when Laura made her Academy debut by destroying one of her impact cannons, a leg and crumpling part of the forearm. She looked down, staring in mute shock at the sparking stumps where Shenlong's hands had recently been attached. "And that's even less fair. Problem?"

Leaving the stunned Chinese pilot, Mira turned and grinned cockily at the pilot of Schwarzer Regen, who was just now mustering the strength to get to her feet. "Hey, Bodewig. 1v1 me? Final Destination, Fox only, no items?"

Laura growled. "I do not know vhat zat means and I do not care. Los gehts!" Her railgun swung down to point at Mira and fired, but the American teleported out of the way and jetted towards her. Laura knew what was probably coming next. Every time she tried to land an attack, Advent Of Thunder wouldn't be where she was aiming, it would be behind her, beside her, anywhere but there and probably hitting her shield.

Her Hyper Sensor could tell her where Advent reappeared, but Mira would have the advantage on her every time - however fast the Sensor was, her reflexes had hard limits to them. The solution was simple, really - don't behave in a predictable manner.

Mira charged, then teleported above Schwarzer Regen and dropped down blades-first, only to find the German pilot had moved to the side; namely, she took a railgun blast to the side of the head and lost a chunk of SP. Gritting her teeth, the American lashed out with a tentacle that was caught by the AIC barrier - which didn't block the subsequent lightning bolt. Her HUD showed the German's shields to have hit zero, so she grinned smugly, lowering her blades - only to take another railgun shot to the chest. Annoyed, she glared at Laura. "What the f*** are you doing?"

The other pilot, damn her, was smirking in a way that wouldn't have looked out of place on Cecilia. "Zis is var, American, not a sports exhibition. My shields are drained, true, but I am a soldier. I shall fight until my dying breath!" Another railgun blast, this one dodged.

"If you insist!" Mira charged, hit the AIC barrier and stopped, before discharging four lightning bolts straight for Laura. Even without shields, the metal structure of Schwarzer Regen took the brunt of the current, but enough got through that the German screamed in agony, the AIC disappearing. Mira dematerialized her macuahuitls and stepped towards Laura as she collapsed to her hands and knees. 

"Now, before you all die - excuse me, get thrown in federal prison and interrogated until your goddamn skin peels off of your face, I'd like to say a few words: F*** YOU!" She leaned forward and grabbed Schwarzer Regen's railgun, wrenching it out of the magnetic field that kept it in place, before bringing it down like a baseball bat on the back of the Laura's head, knocking her limply to the ground as her IS dematerialized as Charlotte's already had. She heaved an exasperated sigh, then turned to Rin, who was staring open-mouthed at her. 

Mira's attention shook Rin out of the haze that first having her IS' hands cut off and then watching Laura on the receiving end of the same beatdown she'd given out like candy her first year. "F-f*** this!" She took off - Shenlong's shields were down and its hands were missing - that didn't mean it couldn't still fly. The closest hole in the roof was the one Phoenix Paladin had torn open and she poured all of her machine's remaining power into the thrusters, hoping to slip past the other Peacemaker.

Cecilia's drones and all of her attacks hit Sarah like a truck. That would have mattered of corse if Sarah hadn't been piloting Nova Angel Guardian, the IS designed to counter and out gun anything on the planet.

The blasts hit Sarah but she just stood there and tanked them. Once the smoke was cleared Sarah smiled like Mira and started laughing "You know what I think I finally get it. This is how Mira feels when some b*tch thinks she can get something over her. So Mrs. High and Mighty, Mrs. Kept her family fortune" Sarah unlocks all of the guns on her right arm witch pretty much out gunned all of Blue Tears "Like my friend said, Welcome to America motherf#cker"

With that Sarah discharged more bullets, missiles and lasers that any Iowa class battleship could only dream of. She didn't need to be a good shot to have most of the lasers hit her and the blast radius from the missiles blew up from behind her sending Cecilia flying forwards. Sarah then activated her back cannons and made extremely quick work of her drones.

With nothing left to stop her Sarah pressed her advantage. Cecilia was on the ground, so Sarah, moving at about the same speed as most fighter jets kicked her into the air with Nova's huge armored feet. Once in the air Sarah did what she liked to call "Around the world in 80 bullets"

She circled around Cecilia pelting her with 6 inch shells. Once her clip was empty, she put one of her guns in Cecilia's face before firing Nova's version of a shot gun blast with missiles. The English pilot went down and made a crater in the center of the stadium. Sarah went down to see her work. Blue tears was little more than a piece of scrap, the wings were destroyed and its riffle, witch had taken most of the impact, was more or less a broken plastic toy. It was obvious that the shields were completely gone and Cecilia was bearly conscious with the amount of pain she was in "You need more pilots, thats my line pamper queen"

With her work done Sarah looked up to see Rin escaping "Really?" she asks before firing two missiles. They flew towards but didn't hit Rin, they just exploded in front of her sending her back down to the floor of the arena. Sarah walks over to her and sees the path of destruction that Mira created "I see you had fun" Sarah says to Mira "I only got one"

Derek was flying over New York when his sensors detected multiple IS. He altered his course to arrive at the scene of a possible fight.

"I have to say that was quick" Sarah comments

Mira grinned. "Just don't break anything serious - we need to be able to take them back for interrogation. I don't know how to move people with broken spines."

Cecilia was stunned, not just from the impact sans shields, but at how quickly she'd been defeated - no, annihilated was a better term. 

Rin struggled to pull herself back onto her feet. The impact of the fall hadn't further damaged Shenlong - an IS was designed to take a hell of a lot more punishment than that, but she herself was lucky not to have broken her ribs. She muttered to herself, "Okay, let's try that again..." before activating her impact cannons and firing them - right at the ground between herself and the two Peacemakers. Two salvos at max power raised a blinding cloud of dust that she immediately used as cover to make another break for relative safety...this time she didn't go for the roof, but for the arena exit.

Upon getting through the doorway meant for spectators, she spun around, impact cannons primed, and unleashed a barrage of shots as she sped down the hallway, blocking most of the passage with rubble while she used her Hyper Sensor to navigate backwards out of the building.

****

Mira didn't bother going after her - she had something more important to do at the moment. Walking over to where Laura lay unconscious and probably concussed on the arena floor, she reached over and removed Schwarzer Regen's standby form. Taking to the air and heading for the wrecked portion of the bleachers, she did the same thing with Rafael Revive Custom II

****

Rin was just about out of the building when her HUD detected two more IS' inbound - one was Stalker-Boy and the other was that one girl with blue hair, the Japanese Representative. She didn't really care about either of them that much but they would provide two more targets for the Peacemakers to go after, so she made a beeline for them.

"What are you doing?" Sarah asks Mira

Mira rolled her eyes. "I'm taking their IS units, what do you think I'm doing?"

Derek was flying too hard, to be able to stop softly. That is until he saw the girls were down.

"This is going to hurt." Derek says as he looked for a target and clipped Rin throwing him off his original path and throwing her towards the other IS. "Sorry Inari." Derek says before he plows into her at over 125 mph. And frankly, two things happened after the initial impact. First the two pilots rolled a bit, it would look as if Derek had intended to hit Inari. Second when they stopped rolling, Derek was on top of Inari. "Ow, that hurt." Derek groaned as he got up, noticing something was on his arm. Blood. He remembered that was where he clipped Rin. "Why was Rin blooding enough to cover my arm?"

Kanzashi steps out of the way of Rin

Inara on the other hand just stands there, looking at the American plastered on her shield.