IS 33
By some miracle it seemed Houki and Rin managed to defeat the princess and her Knight. Also by surprise it seems the two Luxembourg women will stay students at the academy, even though the knight is in her 20's.
Meanwhile as Dr Maxwell was looking over the Byakushiki and Jade Jupiter's new forms that they've taken during Operation Swordbreaker.
Wyatt says "Sorry we haven't done this sooner doc, we've just been completely swamped in work."
Dr Maxwell says "It's okay, but something about the Byakushiki is a concern."
Ichika asked "What's wrong with my unit sir?"
Dr Maxwell points to a monitor and explains " "You see how different it looks? That's nothing compared to how much the internals have changed. Hell ,just doing basic maintenance would be a pain."
Wyatt adds "Not just that but you're weapon system changed as you lost that shield and particle cannon.But even weirder is that you gained the ability to reformat any IS."
Dr Maxwell says "It's not just Orimura's but yours as well, kid."
The doctor switched the monitor to Jade Jupiter's stat and says "The main change would seem to come to your weapon and these energy wings."
Wyatt says "I know when I was flying it felt like I was a whole lot lighter and faster."
Dr Maxwell says "The wings oscillate an electromagnetic energy to allow for almost aerodynamic ignoring maneuvers. Not just that but it seems they can even be used as a shield or energy beam."
Wyatt says "That's pretty cool but I'm wondering about the huge change in my spear. At this point it's more like a sword."
Dr Maxwell strokes his chin and responds "No idea all I can tell is it's a halberd called Thundercloud. We're definitely going to have to take a closer look at these three units."
Ichika says "Doctor, there's only 2 units here right now."
Dr Maxwell says "I'm talking about that Dunios girl, I want to see the first dual-core IS in action."
Wyatt says " If I recall , she in arena 3 right now. We can ask for a mock match."
Dr Maxwell says "Then what are you fools waiting for. Go challenge her and get me that data."
The two boys rushed to the third arena as Charlotte was working on her unit's maintenance.
Charlotte says "So the two of you want to test your new units against Rein Carnation."
Ichika says "Yeah so who do you want to face first , me or Wyatt."
Charlotte smirks and responds "I'll take both of you on at once, it'll save time."
Wyatt says "That's a pretty bold move to face both of us without hesitation."
Charlotte says "It's not like that , I can spilt the two units up and have control over both of them. But I'm not that skilled at it yet."
Surprised Wyatt says "That's still pretty awesome, let's get this battle started."
As the three activated their units, Wyatt goes in for the first hit with his halberd but Charlotte managed to block it with a pair of dual melee blades.
Ichika attempts to flank Charlotte from the side but the girl shook Wyatt off and dodged the incoming attack.
Charlotte switched to two guns and started to open fire at the boys.
Before the shot could hit them , the wings of the guys units extended and formed a defensive shield.
Wyatt thought "Okay she's pretty tough and she hasn't busted out the double trouble yet."
As the guns ran out of bullet , Wyatt rush towards Charlotte with his blade as the French girl continuously dodged.
Right when Wyatt goes for a spear lunge , the blade seemingly opened up as a green energy connects the separated pieces and lengthened his weapons reach.
Wyatt swings the blade around attempting to get it back to normal as Ichika begins to attack Charlotte.
After a minute of tinkering with this new ability, Wyatt rejoins the fight and strikes the two as a close-range hail of fire rained down and the sound of slashes filled the air.
Suddenly the three realized their shield energy was reduced to zero as Ichika says "That was weird battle."
Wyatt says "And it somehow ended in a tie. I'll catch up with you guys later, this battle is something me and the doc have to review."
After Wyatt left and spent the whole night going over data and research with the doctor, he went to the cafeteria and saw his roommate strapped to a guillotine as the cadets conducted a witch trial.
Ichika shots "Wyatt you have to help me , they're going to kill me if you don't do something."
Wyatt points to his roommate and asked "Mind telling me what happened or do I have to put the puzzle together myself."
Kaitlynn says "The girls saw Alice sleeping in the same bed as Ichika, so they're holding a trial."
Wyatt pinches his nose and says "Prez you need the proper forms for this type of event , Kanazashi don't use the school's budget for something as ridiculous as this and the rest of you don't kill Ichika before we settle the score."
His speech seemed to fall upon deaf ears as the girls started to prepare the guillotine. Kaitlynn asked "If logic won't work on them , what will?"
In less than five seconds the two whispers to each other "Nuclear option."
Wyatt goes up to the guillotine and says "Alright feel it's time for this game to end , Ichika the reason why the girls are mad at you is because they-."
Suddenly and without warning a hail of lasers rained down on the dining hall. As most girls ran for cover and the cadets readied their IS, a squad of crimson IS like they'd never seen before descended.
The squadron of enemy IS soon spotted their target—Houki. [TARGET CONFIRMED. BEGINNING EXTRACTION.] Cold, mechanical voices echoed in unison. All dozen or so of the drones grabbed Houki at once, and immediately attempted to withdraw.
Ichika and Ling attempted to chase after Houki, several self destructed. Before they knew it the enemy managed to get away.
Sometime after the ambush as Wyatt was attempting to slow Ichika down , Wyatt says "Calm down man , we have to strategize."
Ichika says "They have Houki and we know where they're are. So it's time for action."
Wyatt shouts and says "That's why you can't just storm off. This is obliviously a scheme to lure us into bodily harm if not death."
Ichika punched Wyatt and says "I don't care I'm going to save Houki no matter what." The Japanese boy activities his unit and flies off the island.
As he rubbed his cheek , Wyatt entered Dr.Maxwell's lab and said "We need project Bamboo breaker."
Dr. Maxwell says "Look I know you want to save your friend but that hasn't even been tested out yet."
Wyatt smirks and says "Well how's a good enough time for a test run."
The doctor sighed as he took his computer and uploaded a new weapon into Wyatt's unit.
Before Wyatt stormed off to follow Ichika he says "Thanks doc I'll tell you everything about it after the mission is done."
As Wyatt flew in the direction he last saw Ichika going , he saw his friend facing several of the crimson IS's
He materialized Project Bamboo breaker which was a large silver cannon. On his intercom , Wyatt says "On your left."
Wyatt fired a green energy blast from the cannon as it completely obliterated one of the red units.
Ichika says "I thought you didn't approve of me blindly running into danger ."
Wyatt smirks and says "I don't but I realized that's just how you are. So I decided I'll just run in blindly with you."
The rest of the girls caught up with them as Wyatt adds " We got your back buddy, so let's keep on going."
As the group made their way closer to Houki's location, Their IS' reactor output had dropped suddenly.
More of the crimson units had intercepted them as Ichika rushed off. Wyatt and the rest of the girl's attempted to follow but for some reason their engines weren't at full speed and could only watch Ichika disappeared into the glare of the sun.
Wyatt fires a shot at the incoming unit , but for some reason the blast only pushed it back. He shouts "What the hell , it's like we're getting weaker."
Laura exclaims ""Ugh! Why aren't my engines working? Kanzashi, can you pick anything up?!"
Kanazashi says "It's some sort of backdoor output-limiting mode called Code Red."
Tatenashi says "Okay , Charlotte and Laura you follow Ichika, the rest of us will handle these units."
The group managed opened a path for Charlotte and Laura, Wyatt thinks "Ichika don't do anything too stupid."
He switched his cannon to his halberd and charged right at one of the red units. Wyatt swings his weapon and tears off the unit's arm.
After a long and difficult battle, the gang managed to save Houki and defeat the rouge red squadron. Though it seems Ichika has once again been through the ringer
Two days after as Kaitlynn and Wyatt were reapplying bandages to Ichika's "wounds".
Wyatt says "Seriously it's still unreal how quickly you heal up like this."
Ichika responds "I'm not sure how this happens but the others can't find out about this."
Kaitlynn says "Well they definitely would've because the first time I saw you "injured" I could tell you pretty much recovered."
Wyatt adds "I'm a pretty quick healer myself, though not at this level. Barely two days after the mission and your body doesn't have a scratch on it."
Ichika says "Either way thanks for keeping this a secret for this long. But I have to find out the reason from Chifuyu."
Unknown to the two at the time this would be the last time they would see Ichika before tragedy strikes.