Infinite Stratos: Zero Hour

Rin, who had sustained a bloody nose after Sarah's little trick with the missiles, was barely able to bring her forearms up in time to tank the force of Derek hitting her at fairly low speed. It still severely twisted the metal, but at least he didn't take her arms off or something. She spun around mid-flight, fuming. "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, DAMMIT!"

****

In the stadium, Mira heard the impact and looked up to see that Derek had, for whatever reason, crashed into Inara and was currently occupying the front of her shield. "The hell are you doing here?"

Inara lowers her shields, allowing Derek to have a better view of the ground, and flies after Rin, launching her harpoon at the fleeing pilot.

Rin saw the harpoon fire and tried to duck under it, but the projectile slammed into one of her impact cannons and anchored firmly there. "....Oh f***!" she muttered, before the chain yanked her forward. Stabilizing herself, she primed the other cannon and fired at Inara - just because it was liable to do precisely nothing didn't mean she wasn't going to at least try to put up a fight.

Derek shakes off the crash and noticed Rin and her condition. He flies over to Rin and frowns. "Get out of here, get medical attention. NEVER COME BACK..." Derek said as he pulled out his combat knife and cut Rin free. "Get out of here." Derek says as he kicks Rin in motion. He turned to Inari. "Let her leave. We've got multiple of their pilots... Let this one go to relay the bad news." Derek then turns to Mira. "You've already gotten Charlotte and Laura away from their Units...Nice. That only leaves Alcott." Derek says as he spotted her in a crater. "There you are. Where those who attack the USA belong. In the aftermath of their defeat." Derek said before flying down to her. "But I only have one question for you. What made you think you could win?"

Cecilia, getting shakily to her feet, couldn't even summon the energy to glare at Derek. "Oh, don't even start. We're not attacking the United States, whatever those three told you. They're members of Phantom Task."

"Okay, call me a terrorist again and I will tear out your eyeballs, bitch!" Mira snarled, practically glowing with suppressed rage.

"Who even gave you permission to stand?" Derek says kicking Cecelia in the chest to knock her back down. "I helped you girls out so I could protect my country, but now you're attacking it. Guess where that leaves you." Derek says switching from his knife to his rifle. "Stay down. First and last warning."

Inara yanks on the harpoon's chain, causing rin's fire to be off and resulting in said fire hitting Derek.

Kanzashi is preoccupied by everything that happened. "Ok so, what the hell am I looking at here? first I see these four that I graduated with get the crap kicked out of them, and now you're giving a speech?" She asks, gesturing at Derek.

Cecilia grunted in pain as she hit the ground again. Wincing, she looked up at Derek. "Drop dead, you inbred, witless disgrace to humankind!"

Derek shot his gun and it hit close to Cecilia's left ear.

"Oops, gun miss fired. Happens when someone is about to get shot. Don't know why though." Derek said as his shields still holding.

"Ok too far." Kanzashi places her is between Derek. "Who do you think you are?" She asks him.

Derek rolls his shoulders and turns to Mira.

"Can you destroy Rin's other cannon so she doesn't use us for target practice?" He asked kindly before turning to Kanzashi. "Derek Andrews, first male IS pilot of the United States of America. And right now, I'm defending my country from a threat to its safety. Now if you don't mind...BACK OFF." Derek says in a neutral tone before turning back to Alcott. "If they were part of Phantom Strike, why stop the rouge IS with our help?"

Mira, still glowering at Cecilia, responded acidly to Derek's suggestion. "If she's bothering you deal with her yourself."

Rin, for her part, adjusted her aim back to focus on Inara, even as she was pulled within melee range.

Blue Tears, or at least the scattered fragments thereof, glowed white before vanishing as Cecilia dematerialized them. "I don't know."

Mira took a pace or two forward towards the British pilot. "Hand over the earring or I'll rip it out.

Derek visibly aimed the rifle at Cecilia as he backed up Mira.

"I would follow Mira's orders Cecilia. I don't want to have to carry you over to the medics." Derek says as he stays put, watching the down pilot.

Defeated, Cecilia removed Blue Tears' standby form and tossed it to Mira.

Inara slams her morningstar into the gun pod that is shooting at her then goes for Rin's legs.

"Well thats done so, we have two sides who both think the other is the enemy so, to the victor go the spoils so info, caught it up" Sarah says

The impact cannon pod, damaged beyond functioning, stopped firing almost immediately, hanging at a very off-center angle. Both of Shenlong's legs were heavily armored, but a few unshielded hits from Inara's Fallen Star splintered the left one and smashed the right in half, nearly taking Rin's own leg off at the knee in the process. With that critical damage, the Chinese IS reverted to standby and Rin was caught by Inara before she could fall to her death.

Mira was there a moment later to collect Shenlong's bracelet form.

Cecilia scowled up at the four Americans. "I don't suppose you have the decency to let me stand up first?"

Inara flips her shield so it's parallel to the ground and catches Rin.

"You called my friend a terrorist and are on the receiving end of the biggest guns on the planet. Do you want me to read your list of rights that you do not have?" Sarah says

"so we're done here then?" Inara asks, looking up at Rin.

Cecilia rolled her eyes. "I thought as much."

"Sarah, the rest of the EU is waking up." Mira reported. She'd dumped Charlotte on the ground next to Laura and both girls were stirring.

Rin landed on the shield on her hands and knees. Initially startled that she wasn't falling, she glared at Inara. "Put. Me. Down."

Inara decends to a safe altitude and dumps rin off of the shield and next to the other two downed pits.

Rin landed flat on her back and immediately got back to her feet, dusting herself off.

"Talk" Sarah ordered "We have information that the UN declared war on the USA"