An: sorry to everyone for abruptly taking down the chapter. Starburst98 had pointed out some flaws in the story that took me a while to change and edit.

"Well," said the Commander, looking at the multi-colored, multi-layered space he was floating through "this idea sounded a lot better in my head."

He crossed his arms quietly whistling out national anthem of his country, waiting for something to happen.

That came in the form of a bright light manifesting out of nowhere, blinding him for a moment.

He looked closer and saw four bright lights floating ahead of him.

"Ah," he said tilting his body so he could face the lights "so you're the assholes in charge.'

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"YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME," shouted Enterprise, standing stiff, still coming to grips with what just happened.

"Purin," she said, quickly turning to the little girl "start the process again."

Purin nodded and used her drills but this time, no column of light formed. Enterprise looked at her, wordlessly communicating to try and do it again. But as much as the little girl tried to, there was nothing happening.

"Oh they're going to kill me when they find out I lost the Commander," she said, nervously scrambling to her feet.

"Purin, is there no way we can reach the Commander?"

"I'm trying to but for some reason it's not working," said Purin, looking worried "Enterprise, did something happen to the Commander?"

Enterprise paused at the question and did her best to reassure the worried girl "I'm sure he's fine. Whatever's happened, he'll figure it out and come back home. I'm sure of it."

Enterprise thought it best to take a moment and think about what she would do next. Sadly though, that option was taken away from her, when they heard the alarm echoing through the island.

Enterprise immediately turned to the sky, thinking that it was the sirens attacking them but found the only thing in the sky were clouds.

Good news is no sirens. Bad news though is there was someone else attacking. Enterprise and Purin both made a beeline back to the base, intent on finding out who's responsible.

When the pair reached the base, Enterprise had Purin head to the school. She'd be much safer with Yorktown and the kids instead of being on the frontline with the rest of them. With that done, she headed to the headquarters to hopefully find out more.

Once there, she found Cleveland, California and Hornet.

"Cleveland," said Enterprise, marching towards her "what's going on all of a sudden?"

"We're still trying to figure out who's responsible," said Cleveland to Enterprise "I sent Oklahoma and Brooklyn to do some recon but so far they haven't seen anything."

Enterprise looked at the monitor in the control room and noticing the mist that covered the beach "I have a bad feeling about this."

"By the way Enterprise, where's the Commander?"

Before Enterprise could answer, they heard Brooklyn through their communicator

"I see Kako and Urakaze, I think they're the vanguard, should we engage?"

"No," said Enterprise "get out of the fog."

"Get a team ready and have them meet me by the beach. And get the word out that everyone is to stay indoors."

Just then, they heard the sound of an explosion. This was followed by Oklahoma shout into the receiver saying "they've got a hell of a vanguard."

'Of all the possible times for an attack to happen it had to be now,' cursed Enterprise, leaving the room and summoning her bow and heading out 'you picked the worst possible time to do something crazy Commander.' She was followed closely by Cleveland and Hornet, while California stayed back.

When they neared the edge of the beach, Cleveland saw went to the left, while Hornet and Enterprise went to the right.

"Oh no you don't," said Cleveland, shooting at Akatsuki. The so called ninja of the Sakura Empire retaliated by leaping to the side then firing a few shots at Cleveland, which grazed her sides.

Meanwhile Enterprise and Hornet were busy fending off the combined attacks of Shoukaku and Zuikaku, better known as the twin cranes of the Sakura Empire.

Then there was Eugen, Z23, Oklahoma and Brooklyn were slowly being pushed back by Kinu, Arashio, Fusou and Suruga.

"Do not falter in your advance," declared Suruga, the pair of cannons beside her firing off a few shots at the beach "if we leave them alone now, they'll become too great to wipe out later."

"Oh great, Suruga," said Hornet leaping up and attacking Shoukaku. The latter, quickly blew into her flute creating a barrage of airplanes that stopped Hornet's attack cold.

"If she's leading this then we're in real trouble."

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Meanwhile back at headquarters, California saw the door to opening and quickly formed her weapons. Given that half the fleet were fighting and the other half were hiding, she thought that someone from the Sakura Empire was using this moment to their advantage to strike.

Imagine her surprise seeing the Commander limp inside, clutching his left arm.

"Commander," he said, quickly running towards him and grabbing him before he fell.

"We need to get you to the doctor," she said, lifting him up and carrying him.

"No..." he said followed by a violent cough that brought him down to his knees "I didn't come all this way... just to conk out."

He groaned and struggled to raise his left hand. As he opened it, California saw a strange light form in his blood soaked hand.

"Commander," she asked, pointing to his hand "what is that?"

"The game changer I was looking for," he replied and threw it on the ground. When that happened, a light momentarily filled the room, but then it faded away.

"Commander you have to get to the emergency room."

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"It's not just her you should be worrying about," said another girl, sliding past all of them and attacking Cleveland with a straight fist.

"If you let your guard down, you'll make it easy for me the Great Yukikaze to take you out," said the girl.

As Enterprise fired more and more arrows trying to get Shoukaku, she noticed how one of her arrows managed to down three airplanes instead of one.

"What?"

"What's going on?" asked Cleveland, as a thin veil of light formed around her, Hornet, Eugen and Z23.

"I feel…." said Z, looking at her hands, "a lot stronger all of a sudden."

"I told you not to take your eyes off me," said Yukikaze, firing at Cleveland, but the target easily dodged the barrage.

"Commander," said Enterprise, her voice was notably lower than the others "what did you do?"

"Made a little deal. I'll tell you all about it when you get back," he replied.

Rather than think too much about it, Enterprise put that worry in the back of her mind and focused on taking out one of the cranes.

"My lady," said Akatsuki, appearing next to Zuikaku, who was busy fielding shots from an empowered Enterprise.

"It seems they have suddenly become stronger," said the Ninja.

"But how? Could it be some secret weapon our enemy has developed?"

With her newfound strength, Hornet chased after Shokaku, firing twice as many airplanes as she did before. Although Shokaku was far ahead of her, allowing for ample time to counter, Hornet's advance was a sign that that advantage would not last long.

Finally, they saw a green explosion in the sky. Seeing this, the attackers fired a few shots meant to slow their pursuers down.

"Commander, orders?" asked Enterprise.

"Let them go," he said and the fleet ceased their pursuit.

"Wow," said Hornet, wiping a wave of sweat off her brow "before, we'd have to hide from their patrols and hope they don't notice us. But now…. We didn't just hold our own, we actually pushed them back."

"This calls for a celebration," declared Cleveland "we should celebrate our first victory as a fleet."

"You need to get here quickly," said California to the rest of them.

"What's going on?" asked Enterprise, noticing how concerned and worried California's tone was.

She heard a crashing noise in the background followed by Vestal saying "He's losing blood fast. California, press down right here. Keep pressing while I get the disinfectant and operating tools."

At those words, Enterprise felt a cold sweat trickle down her spine.

"No," she said, her voice on the cusp of breaking.