As The Commander circled overhead the fleet, he locked his eyes on what appeared to be a squadron of siren level bombers going in for a run. He dove from his perch, through the chaos of the planes clashing and flak going off like perverted party poppers. He approached like he was in a dive bomber, lining himself up with the triangle formation they flew in. Even though he was out of range, he squeezed the trigger, arcing bullets in hopes they would still land on target. No luck, but he kept closing the gap. But he felt the hellcat he was flying fight against him. She wanted to pull up and out of the dive, but he refused.

"Stay in it! We'll be fine," he tried to reassure the conscious aircraft. He knew she didn't like it, but Jenny Darlin the hellcat continued on.

The run continued and he got solid strafing runs across two of the siren bombers. This disrupted the formation and made them break off from their attack run against Enterprise. As they pulled out of the dive though, bright streaks of light shot past him.

"Keep climbing!" he shouted. He then turned to look at his attacker. The siren fighter behind stared him down with that front ocular sensor, as if it were a set of eyes. Fortunately for him, the hellcat kept up the climb and rocketed upwards at speeds the siren couldn't follow.

He was about to roll over to keep the engagement with the former pursuer, but he spotted something unusual. A type of siren aircraft he hadn't seen before, it was larger than usual looking like a triangle flying wing. It flew at a low level and quite fast.

"New target! We're going for that thing down there," he said. Once again he descended at a fierce dive, vision narrowed on the enemy. He fired off a burst but missed. The new siren seemed to notice though, it broke away and turned west. It took off with alarming acceleration. The Commander banked to follow, putting on full throttle to keep up. The supporting wing Enterprise assigned to him this time struggled to keep up with his erratic flying. This thing was fast and while he was catching up to it, he would need a lot more time before he got in gun range.

Enterprise's voice came through the hellcat's radio. "Commander, where are you going? Jenny is telling me you're heading west with your wing, fast."

"Pursuing a strange siren aircraft, I don't like the look of it and want it down before it can come back," he said.

"Commander, I'd like you to turn back and help us out here," Enterprise said.

"Negative, continuing pursuit," The Commander said. He could practically hear the eye rolling on the other side of the radio.

"Fine, Come back alive," Enterprise said.

"Understood!" he shouted. The siren was in sight but still far out of gun range. He would catch up to it if he kept full throttle. He glanced over his shoulder to see his wing was a fair distance behind him, he could slow down so they could make pace with him but then he'd lose the chase. He pressed on but saw a formation of siren interceptors coming head on. They streaked past, letting off a few shots at him but nothing serious. He noticed that the interceptors all got caught up with the rest of his wing, he should be in the clear.

His focus narrowed, he was so close to being within firing distance…

Then laser shots ripped past his canopy, one of the interceptors must have broken off and come for him. He kept full throttle and tried to juke out of the way of the oncoming attacks but he realized he'd have to choose between his goal and survival. The strange siren craft would have to be left alone today. "Alright, skid," he said.

He tried to throw the controls in the proper motion to pull a strange and dangerous maneuver that was quite risky at this low level above the water.

"Skid! We're being shot at!" He pulled against the controls again but the hellcat refused. "Jenny!" he screamed. Finally, the enemy siren got a good lead on him, and lasers connected with the hellcat. He ducked in his seat to keep the armor plate concealing him as best as possible. He tried to bank right but he could tell that the rudder was hit, nothing really to do besides fly in a straight line. That or…

"Enterprise, I need to bail out! I'm due west of the fleet!" he flung the canopy open and prepared to jump out.

"What? Commander are you-"

"Going down! I should be alright, just make sure to find me before the sharks do," he said. That was the last thing Enterprise would hear before The Commander leapt out of the hellcat, his fate unknown at that moment.

Enterprise stood on her bridge with her mouth agape, still holding the radio. "Damnit Commander…" She opened a fleetwide channel. "Bad news girls, Commander's down."

"What? Where is the idiot? I'll go get him!" Simms shouted.

"Due west of our location, stay together though, don't strike out alone, let's deal with this first," Enterprise said.

"Deal with might not be the right thing to say," St. Louis said. "The aircraft pressure is too much to advance."

"Indeed, as uncomfortable as it may be, this is a situation that calls for a retreat," Amagi said.

Enterprise stood with her fist balled and a tight grip on the radio. She weighed her options in only a matter of seconds before whispering to herself. "Damnit John…" She then switched on the radio again. "Turn for home, we're retreating."

Multiple variations of 'what?' and 'are you serious?' came through the radio as a response.

"Turn back to base," Enterprise said.

The rest of the fleet gave begrudging responses and all turned for home.

Amagi spoke an idea that Enterprise failed to consider. "Akagi and Saint Louis will not be pleased with this action."

"YOU LEFT HIM!?"

That was about the reaction Enterprise expected from Akagi. Though the next part was less expected.

Akagi grabbed Enterprise by the shirt and got right in her face. "He got shot down and you left him! For The Commander's right hand woman you sure showed a lot of devotion!" Akagi growled.

Both Amagi and Kaga had to tear Akagi off of Enterprise. Enterprise reset her clothes and took a commanding stance. "The situation was far too dangerous to be conducting rescue operations. We either need to return with a larger force, or a more discrete one."

"Then send out I-13, I-19, Albacore, whoever! Now!" Akagi demanded.

"We're considering our options right now, we'll get ships out on the water in a few hours," Enterprise said.

"I don't want to wait a few hours for that! Urrgh, tell me where you were and I'll go get him myself," Akagi said.

"You know well that we're not going to let you go out there so recklessly, Akagi," Enterprise said. Enterprise wasn't really sure if she would be able to stop Akagi from striking out on her own though, she might present herself as lost without The Commander but she has that cunning side to her.

"Faster is better, less chance for the wind and currents to carry him away. And you said discrete, what if we went without ships? It'll be hard for sirens to spot us on rigging alone," Akagi said.

"Would be nice if we had some seaplane tenders… where's Cooper when you need her?" Enterprise mused. "Fine, go get Saint Louis, I'm sure she'll want to be a part of this too. I'm still sending out Albacore and I-13 to help. Kaga, you're going with her too."

"You say that as if I would even dare to stay behind without her, we're on it," Kaga said.

Saint Louis knelt down, watering her flower bed with near blissful ignorance. Near, that is. Of course there is always that knot in your stomach when a loved one goes out to fight, but you find ways to loosen that knot and make it easier.

"Saint Louis." Kaga said sternly.

Except stuff like that will tighten the knot by quite a bit. She turned to look at her. "Yes Ka-"

"John is down, we're going to get him and you're coming with us," Kaga said.

No further explanation was needed, Saint Louis put the watering can down and sprinted past Kaga. No siren was going to dare harm him under her watch.

Roughly 35% scary, and 65% boring, is how The Commander would describe his experience as a downed pilot in the ocean. He'd been out there for hours, well past lunch, and approaching dinner.

"Do I blame Jenny? Do I blame myself? Or do I blame Enterprise for raising such a hesitant plane?" The Commander muttered to himself. "In all fairness we were very close to the water… and that would have lost some altitude… but we had some ground effect on our side, we should have been fine."

He stared out at the open water as he bobbed up and down in the waves. The landing was quite rough and he was surprised he made it to the water without breaking something, though it did feel like he shoulder checked a concrete wall, probably something to do with his really awkward landing.

"Maybe next time I can ask for someone a bit more obedient or at the very least bold? Might have to… when Jenny comes back she's gonna be real unhappy," he then heard splashes nearby. His mind became alert and he looked around for the noise. More splashes happened around him that he couldn't see. He remained relatively still but turned his head as much as he could to find the source. If they were sharks, sudden movements might make him look like a good meal. It became a bit harder for him to remain calm when something bumped into his leg.

"Ah what the!? Go away!" he shouted. "I don't taste good! Too much muscle!"

Part of him was thinking he might be done for, that is until he saw the perpetrator leap out of the water a few meters in front of him. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Dolphin, ok, all good."

He looked carefully now, and noticed multiple fins. "Ok, friends," he said. "You guys don't happen to know the way home do you?" He joked.

One of the dolphins bumped into him, pushing him a significant amount. "Ok I didn't mean literally, I know how the sun works and how to navigate off it." The dolphin kept nudging him.

"Yes I do want to go that way but unless you plan on pushing me all the way I'm not going anywhere, better to stay where you are so rescue ops can find you," The Commander said. Then the dolphins surfaced, some of them making noise at him. He was a little frightened by the display, but they all turned and swam away without warning. He was confused at first but then he knew why they fled. He heard planes, not propellor ones unfortunately. A small formation of three siren aircraft flew overhead, probably what the dolphins were warning him about. There wasn't much for him to do but watch and either hope they didn't notice, or hope that rescue would get to him sooner.

"We're getting close. The signal is getting stronger, keep your eyes open," Kaga glanced down at the homing beacon tracker. The nice thing about being a kansen in the modern day is that you didn't just have to stick to your WW2 roots. More advanced devices could be put in here and there when available.

"I'm not very comfortable without some sort of scouting or warning system, do we not remember what happened last time?" Saint Louis shouted over the heavy wind.

"We need to stay invisible, scout planes will only make the enemy aware of our presence," Akagi said.

"Wait, I see debris," Saint Louis said.

Akagi, Kaga, and Saint Louis happened upon some still floating pieces of an aircraft, likely from when it broke up upon impacting the water.

"There's too few pieces for it to be from today's earlier battle," Kaga said.

Saint Louis knelt down to inspect a piece. "That means he is nearby somewhere, spread out. If we-"

"There! That's his life jacket!" Akagi rushed towards the object in question.

"Just his life jacket? Oh no…" Kaga looked incredibly worried.

The girls all followed the flotation device only to find nobody in it.

"He's not here…" Saint Louis said, defeated.

Akagi started to tear up. "He's a strong swimmer, surely he's still around."

Kaga put a hand on Akagi's shoulder and looked at Saint Louis, she wasn't looking so well either. "We can keep looking for a little longer, but-"

She was interrupted by the sound of something bursting out of the water, or rather someone, and gasping for air.

"John!" Both Akagi and Saint Louis called.

"Hey- *cough* girls!" The Commander said weakly.

Akagi glided over and knelt down to the water to embrace him.

"What were you doing under the water like that? We thought you were lost," Saint Louis said.

The Commander was still catching his breath as he clung to Akagi. "We need to get out of here, sirens are around. I detached from my life jacket and dove whenever I thought they might see me." He held up a small rope wrapped around his wrist and attached to the life jacket.

"Then let's go, we can be emotional later. It's only us three and maybe Albacore trailing behind us in her boat," Kaga said.

"Right… who wants to give me a hand?" The Commander asked. He couldn't glide across the water like the girls could.

Saint Louis spoke up. "I'm strong enough to carry you, but I cannot hold my lance as well."

"Give it to me, you take him and go on ahead, fast as you can," Akagi said. She dragged The Commander over to Saint Louis so he could climb up on her back.

"But I am faster, you won't be able to keep up," Saint Louis said.

"That's the point, we can defend ourselves, he can't, go!" Kaga said.

Saint Louis handed Akagi her spear, then dashed back towards Hawaii with a tired Commander on her back.

"You know, I'm used to being the one carrying you… this is kinda fun," The Commander said.

"Don't get used to it, grah. You are quite heavy," Saint Louis said.

Though Akagi and Kaga were no slackers, they weren't a match in speed for the PR heavy cruiser. She quickly became no more than a dot in their vision, and soon, out of sight entirely.

"Stay quiet, we can't let our guard down yet," Akagi said.

"It's going to be hard not to attract attention with that around," Kaga pointed at a sauin floatplane flying towards them.

"Must be I-13…" Akagi said.

"She's going to give away our position," Kaga said.

Akagi sighed. "Shoot it down. I don't like having to do that to her but-"

"Too late," Kaga growled.

Both the fox's ears turned from the buzzing sound of the propeller to the whirring noise of the siren jet engine craft. It was only one this time, but it looked different from anything Akagi and Kaga had ever seen before. It looked like a flying triangle that had wedges carved out from the backside and was much bigger than the typical fighters or bombers launched from the mass production carriers.

"What the hell is that?" Kaga asked.

"Something that should be at the bottom of the sea," Akagi readied a dart in her left hand.

"I agree, subtly is gone, down it goes." Kaga did the same as her sister, and in perfect unison, they flung their darts up into the sky. The projectiles morphed into ethereal flaming zeroes, intent on protecting their home carriers. They charged the siren straight on, unleashing a hail of cannonfire. However, the shells impacted something unseen previously. A shimmer of blue appeared where the shells should have caused damage.

"It has a barrier," Kaga said.

"And-"

The sound of a heavy screeching laser emanating from a ventral mounted device tore a line through the water, causing the sea to boil in its wake. Akagi and Kaga could feel the heat and managed to dodge out of the way before it hit them.

"Keep going!" Akagi shouted.

"Understood!" Kaga said.

More planes launched from their flight decks in hopes of intercepting the strange siren aircraft, but all the gunfire met the same problem as before. That shield blocked everything. The foxes could do nothing aside from bob and weave as they ran for home. The siren plane kept doing strafing runs on them with its unusual weapon, flying out then coming back around. With every pass the laser would draw a deadly line in the ocean that got ever closer to them with each strike.

"This thing is going to catch us soon, we need a better plan than running," Kaga growled.

"I do have an idea. It's moving very slow and predictably, I'm going to try dive bombing it. That could be enough to break the barrier," Akagi said.

"On an aircraft? I know it's moving slow but it's moving slow for a plane, not a ship," Kaga said.

"Trust me!" Akagi said.

"Very well sister, here it comes," Kaga said.

The foxes launched their D3A dive bombers but they still had to climb to an appropriate attacking altitude. Once again the laser came at them, it drew a line right between the girls, causing them to split apart for a second.

"That was too close!" Kaga shouted.

"I have a feeling it isn't going to miss soon. All bombers in position, it isn't very evasive, follow the attack line," Akagi said.

All of Akagi and Kaga's dive bombers leapt from their perch and did their best to match the line the siren plane followed. Of fifteen planes on the attack, Akagi and Kaga didn't even think one would hit.

Kaga's went in first. The row all dropped their bombs but most of them fell short, one looked like it was going to clip the wings of the siren but it fell into the ocean. The bombers did a hopeless strafing run as they pulled out of the dive.

Akagi's were next. Unfortunately they had similar luck, but two came in at an odd angle, speeding past their target then rolling inverted, down at a ninety degree angle.

"I didn't tell them to do that!" Akagi yelled.

"It's coming!" Kaga said.

The laser activated again, and this time Akagi couldn't do anything about it. In her evasion attempt she tripped herself on Saint Louis's lance, not accustomed to holding such a large weapon. It scored a glancing blow, but Akagi felt the effects. She immediately felt dry and dizzy, like she hadn't had a drop of water in days, and her skin felt so seared that she was sure the outermost layer was going to peel off. Her speed slowed and she lost awareness of where she was. She could hear things around her but none of it made sense.

But in her moment of disorientation, she did feel something, a sensation only carriers understood. The two planes that took their unusual attack angle were gone. One fell into the sea, but the other landed right on top of the siren plane.

"Akagi! The shield is gone! I'm making an attack run with my fighters!" Kaga shouted.

Akagi couldn't even see the siren, but she gave her own fighters the same order. Kaga got to watch as the strange siren plane got torn to shreds by the furious zeroes. Without any sort of escort or greater protection, the plane broke into pieces. It went on a slow descent until its left wing clipped the water, causing it to break off and make the rest of the plane tumble. The siren slipped beneath the water, but the zeroes still circled overhead, as if daring it to come back to life, but it never did.

"Sister!" Kaga rushed over to Akagi. Akagi felt like she was going to fall over, she could hardly believe her legs were working.

"Come on! We need to go before another one of those things shows up," Kaga helped Akagi stay stable as they pressed on back to Central Pacific Operations.

Saint Louis and The Commander sped through the open ocean in relative silence, until Saint Louis decided to break it.

"Darling, are you injured? I should have asked right away," Saint Louis said.

"I'm fine, maybe a bit mad, sunburn maybe, oh and my shoulder is very sore, hit the water at a weird angle," The Commander said.

"Why are you angry?" Saint Louis asked.

"Communication issue with Jenny," The Commander said.

"Who is Jenny?" Saint Louis asked.

"Oh right, Jenny Darlin, one of Enterprise's hellcats, or at least, was one. We got shot down and she isn't going to be back for a while, until she recontructs that is," The Commander said.

"That is unfortunate but I am just glad you are safe," Saint Louis said.

"Thanks Lou," he kissed her head. "And I'm glad you and Akagi came out to get me."

"But promise me. Do not EVER get shot down again!" Saint Louis said. The Commander could hear the anger in her voice.

"Uhmm, get me a different plane and we'll talk about it," The Commander said.

"We will consider anything as long as it keeps you in the air or on solid ground," Saint Louis said.

Once home, the fleet welcomed The Commander and Saint Louis back with sighs of relief and some cheering. Laffey ran up to him and hugged him tight.

"Commander, you're… home," Laffey said, a slight bit more emotion than usual.

"We're all good Laffey, except… where's my wife?" The Commander turned back towards the ocean.

"Darling we left ahead of them, they're just behind us surely," Saint Louis said.

Enterprise spoke up. "Akagi and Kaga are on their way back, but Akagi is quite injured. I-13 spotted them fighting that new siren plane you were chasing."

"Injured? Is she alright?" The Commander asked.

"We'll see, Commander. For now you should take it easy, maybe go to Vestal, Akagi is surely going to be there once she gets back," Enterprise said.

The Commander, Saint Louis, and Amagi waited at the medical ward. The Commander got put into a bed even though he refused. Vestal isn't one to disagree with, both due to her superior medical knowledge and… angry mom aura.

As he laid on the bed, he glanced over at Saint Louis, who was deep in prayer. He remained silent, nothing to do but hope along with her. Though he shot up when he heard the door open, Akagi came stumbling in with Kaga supporting her.

"Akagi!" The Commander leapt from his bed to help. "Come on, come and rest."

They guided Akagi into the bed and laid her down, only to see the true extent of her injuries. Some of the fur on her tails looked like it had burned away, and the exposed patches of skin looked like a horrible sunburn, he could already see skin peeling off.

"Akagi… I'm so sorry, I… I'll do whatever you want to make it up to you," The Commander said.

Akagi did crack a smile and chuckle just a bit followed by her smooth sultry tone. "Dangerous words my Commander. For now… everyone… just stay with me, and maybe tell Takao I'm alright."

Just then Vestal came barging in, pushing The Commander and Kaga out of her way. "Everyone out of the way. At least let me get an assessment on her before you mob her, sheesh."

Everyone backed off, waiting for Vestal to give her lookover. It didn't take too long, thanks to the help of some handy dandy inspection tools, courtesy of the lab, but Vestal looked more curious than worried.

"Well, I don't know what hit you, but it definitely seems like radiation burns. Really it looks like a three dimensional sunburn," Vestal said.

"That would make sense, given that I got shot by a laser," Akagi said.

"Is she going to be ok?" Kaga asked.

"Her mental cube is fine, she'll recover, but I do want to keep her and inspect exactly what happened, we've never seen this kind of damage," Vestal said.

Just then there was a knock at the door. The person on the other side didn't wait for an invitation though.

Hood just peeked her head in through the door. "Commander, I'm terribly sorry for having to do this but I'm going to pull you away from Akagi for a bit. Enterprise and Nagato really want to discuss this newfound threat."

The Commander looked at Akagi. She didn't look too pleased but she let out a resigned sigh. "Go, but come back as soon as you can."

"I'll make this up to you, all of you, really. Ok, I'm coming, Hood." The Commander followed Hood out of the room.

"In fact… we should be able to get details on the weapon by studying how it affected you," Vestal kept muttering.

Akagi, Kaga, and Saint Louis ignored her and glanced at each other before all saying in near perfect unison.

"We need to get him a better plane."

Hey all, author here. I know it's been a while without posting but it's for pretty good reason, mentality has been a bit tricky. Improvement doesn't happen in a smooth line and I've taken a few severe dips. The good news is that I'm feeling better.
The bad news is that doesn't necessarily mean more stories are coming soon. This is a hobby and I've found that the worst thing to do is promise more stories are going to be posted, so I'm not allowed to make promises. Crummy, I know, but if I'm not having fun, then the quality of stories are going to be awful and it won't be just me not having fun.
Best I can say is that I hope you enjoyed this, and that you are having a good day, and if you aren't, there's always later. The person you are today does not need to be the same one in a month or years time. You'll find a way.