"So, 'Kommandant'-"
"Willy...Please don't call me that."
"-we've repaired most if not all of our tanks, we should be ready to get back home, right?" gritted Willy Nathans.
"Ugh…" Faber rubbed his face with a gloved hand. "This is why I don't like you Americans. So annoying…" he grumbled to himself.
"Right back atcha, I don't like how pessimistic you treat me and the rest of my men, you jerries. Anyways, what else is on our agenda?" Willy asked.
Faber looked over to where he and his men had concealed their main tank. "Well we've repaired the Landkreuzer for the most part, just need to fix the last of the engines and reading equipment but well…"
"Yeah? What is it? Gotta fix your fancy machine?" piped up Owen, who had been laying down on his back, fiddling with his rifle.
"Exactly. The Wundermotor completely fried itself. Luckily, we don't have to replace anything, but whatever it is that the Wundermotor runs on is completely gone now, and I can only hope that it recharges itself at some point. So until then we're stuck in this world."
"Oh for Christ's sake." Willy jumped up, stretching high into the air, right before collapsing back down onto the log that he had been sitting on, right across from Faber who was sitting atop a Tiger 1, on the turret. Willy suddenly sprung back up, a look of utmost confusion on his face. "Wait, what do you mean by, 'whatever it is that the Wundermotor runs on'?"
From within the Tiger popped out Otto, from a hatch that had been customly fit onto the tank. "That's the thing. We were given the Wundermotor, but after a few weeks we realized something was wrong because we never put fuel into it. Yet it continued running, and when I examined it, I couldn't see any sort of place to put in fuel. No gasoline, no electricity."
Owen sat up rigid. "So you're saying…"
"Ja. Somehow the Wundermotor creates its own energy, and based on what we've used it for, enhances the power of other machines. It's paradoxical in that the Wundermotor itself is an engine, so it's some sort of engine-generator hybrid. I tried asking what it runs on, but I never got an answer back."
"Oh bloody hell...So we can only wait!?" The only response Owen got back was a nod of unfortunate acceptance, acceptance that it was all they could do, to wait, from the Germans.
"That must be them." whispered the Gunner of the Hippo Team, Saemonza. The rest of her team were all crouched down or lying behind bushes, spying on the foreigners, who were foreigners in more ways than just ethnicity. Saemonza turned to her right and asked her captain, "Who do you think the guy named Eisenherz is?"
Erwin gazed over the men. Others were beginning to trail into the clearing, some of them clad in German uniforms while the rest wore uniforms of the Red Army, all with brown or black Ushankas. They all stood around, except for one tall one, who sat down near the bushes, right where the Hippo team was hiding. Luckily, he seemed to be somewhat deaf as he didn't hear Erwin whisper to Saemonza, "The Eisenherz guy, huh...I think he's the guy in the officer's uniform. I mean it makes sense, the name means 'Iron Heart'"
"I didn't know you knew German, Erwin." Oryou, driver of Hippo Team said in surprise.
"Eh, I just picked it up reading about Rommel and the War, y'know?" replied Erwin with an almost cocky smile. A cocky smile that was immediately replaced by despair when a hand suddenly dove through the bushes and dragged her out into the clearing. Her face frozen in fear and shock, all Erwin could do was say nothing whilst several Russians, Germans, and Owen, Willy, and Faber stared at her, before the one who dragged her out said in English with a heavy Russian accent said,
"[What'll we do with the spy, komandir?]"
"I thought he was deaf…" Erwin mumbled to herself as she and her team sat on the ground. Erwin was left unbound, but the rest of her team was wrapped in a steel cabled bola.
Remembering what had happened after Erwin was found out, Saemonza mumbled something to herself, something along the lines of, "How shameful…" When Erwin was found out, the others quickly sprung out of their hiding spots, before realizing that trying to reason with the men was out of the window. So they tried running to get help from their comrades, when Otto suddenly pulled out a device from behind and fired it off, entangling the rest of the Hippo team in the bola that they were now stuck in.
Meanwhile, all the men, Germans, Russians, the American Willy, British Owen, and German High Commander Faber all bickered about the spies.
One of the Germans, Hans-Faber's second-in-command-suddenly piped up with an idea. "[Maybe we can make them forget using amnestics!]"
"[Hans I would've done that already if I had them. And I think I've told you, I don't take so kindly to messing with children!]"
"[What if we just kept them around so they won't rat us out?]" said the Russian.
"[Nyet]" one of his comrades said. "[Their comrades would surely notice them missing, da?]"
As the soldiers continued to argue, Saemonza felt a nudge from Oryou, who was right next to her. "Psst." Saemonza nodded. "I have a Tanto in a pocket on my coat. Erwin, do you hear me? Caesar?" The two nodded in turn.
"So you're saying we cut the line and run? Good." Erwin grinned a nervous smile. Oh boy, we have to cut a steel cable without being noticed and run without being caught by several fully grown soldiers. Better than nothing.
"AARGH!" The debate suddenly died down. "[None of you are being helpful! Just get back to the tanks, I'll deal with them all]!" shouted Faber with a stern tone that simply oozed authority. With that, all the tanks dispersed, leaving Faber alone with The Hippo Team.
Turning to them, he pointed a gloved finger. "So…" the girls all flinched. He speaks Japanese! Was the collective thought of panic. Off the bridge went their plan of feigning ignorance, excuse being a language barrier. "Why are you spying on us? Were you sent here by your school?"
Erwin saw no reason to lie. And besides, based on the psychological profile she had created of him, he'd most likely be the kind to see right through. "Yes, sir…" Erwin tipped her head in feigned shame, causing her hat to fall off. Immediately she tried to grab it, and with some difficulty somehow put it back on her head.
Faber's face turned into one of confusion. "Are you pretending to be Rommel or something? It's very legitimate." Before Erwin could answer proudly, Faber continued. "It doesn't really matter anyways. [Great, what do I do with 4 schoolgirls who're spying on me and my men?]"
Erwin suddenly got an idea at the mention of Rommel. "Why yes, I am imitating Rommel! In fact I know his every exploit!" she boasted loudly and proudly. Her teammates collectively realized her strategy. Distract the Heerfuhrer by talking about Erwin Rommel. "What about you? Surely someone like you would know of him!"
The High Commander blinked. "Of course I know who Rommel is. If you want to know, I served alongside him in the Wehrmacht as a lieutenant before he went to Afrika and I was pulled to go fight Russians." Erwin(the schoolgirl)was stunned. Then Faber added, "He was also my closest friend in the Heer. I find it very saddening that he chose to commit suicide instead of keep living." Now Erwin was just speechless.
"Now!" The cable suddenly came undone and remembering the plan, Erwin and the rest of her team jumped to their feet and began to turn and run out of the forest.
"Hey! Halt!" Faber shouted after them. He lunged forward with a sudden burst of speed, to which Saemonza, wielding the Tanto, swung down at Faber's outstretched hand in a panic. It swung down cleanly and into Faber's glove-then it stopped.
Wait, did I just hear a clang? Saemonza thought to herself before Faber growled and before she knew it, Saemonza was flung backwards by a sudden knee to the chest. Saemonza felt all the air in her body be expelled, and her stomach ached hard in pain, but Caesar picked her up and they all continued running.
"Should we chase them? Sir." asked Hans. He and several others rushed into the small clearing where the Hippo Team had been.
Owen pulled back the bolt on his rifle. "If you really want me to, I could try shooting at them." His gun was immediately pushed down by Willy.
Faber shook his head. "It should be fine." he muttered, as he looked at his glove, which now had a small nick in it.
"A-are you guys ok!?" the question flew from Yuzu Koyama's mouth when the Hippo Team had burst into their office. It was late at night, and to the worry of the 3 person Student Council, the team hadn't returned by the time they indicated. It was when the 3 considered going to look for them when they burst into the office, panting, sweaty, and in Saemonza's case, coughing like her lungs had been destroyed.
"I'll-*hack*live." Saemonza was guided to the couch where she sat down, still coughing. "It's like a tank just shot me in the chest." then she coughed even more, prompting Yuzu to tell her to stop talking for now.
"What happened to you three?" Momo immediately inquired.
Erwin leaned against one of the couches, panting slightly. "Well, we spied on them like you all asked, and well I'll tell you what we overheard them talking about later, but right now...So this Russian guy found me, everyone else tried to run, but they got hit by some sort of bola gun. They bickered about what to do with us but that Eisenherz guy told them off and they left. Luckily, Oryou had a Tanto," the Student Council's eyes creased in concern. "So we managed to get away, but Saemonza swung that Eisenherz, and the weird thing is, Saemonza, what did you say happened?"
Saemonza, now in control of her breathing, tried to stand, but immediately sat back down due to the pain in her chest. "The blade stopped. It didn't cut into anything, and I swear I heard a clang like it had hit metal. Then the officer kicked me and I suddenly went flying back." Saemonza started to cough again.
Anzu turned to the team. She had forgoed her sweet potatoes. "What were they talking about, Erwin?"
"Sorry, I gotta sit down. We didn't stop running until we got here…"
Anzu turned to Caesar, who seemed much less winded. Caesar put a hand to her chin. "Well they were talking about something called the 'Wundermotor', and they mentioned something about it being out of energy or fuel. I'm guessing it's some sort of engine of theirs. They said all they could do was wait and see. Besides that, we saw them working on a Tiger 1, but I get the feeling there's not all of them."
Anzu got to thinking in turn. "So we have some visitors from another time or world, and it looks like they'll be staying for a while...They have tanks, but there could be more. It's not just Germans, there's also Allied soldiers. But where are they hiding specifically? They could be anywhere in the forest…" Anzu turned to Hippo Team. "All of you, go home. We'll take it from here."
When the Hippo Team had left the office, the rest of the council turned to their president. "What's first, president?" inquired Momo. After all, Anzu was known for scheming.
Anzu took out a sweet potato. "First things first the next morning. We confront the Anglerfish Team." And with one big bite she ate the whole chip.