ARC II chapter 12

Back at the moment, when the near jinx happened…

Alice knew that something went wrong with her plan, when her allies were suddenly giving reports of being shot down by a Chaffee, but she was downright shocked, after hearing that the blasted LT and a T-34/85 took down two thirds of the Bermuda trio, the former managing to escape into a side alley at the last possible second.

Whoever is operating it is easily the MVP of this match… she thought as her Centurion turned to check another of those many side alleys, only for her driver to stomp on the brake, sending her small boko talisman flying and she watched as it broke into three parts after the impact, her vision slowly turning red as she noticed the Chaffee, which caused her favourite talisman to break apart.

"Hunt. That. Blasted. Tank. Down!" she growled, ignoring Megumi's attempt to ask what happened completely. She won't let anyone, even one of her vice-commanders, distract her from hunting down the culprit of her boko's death. If she hadn't been angry, she would've noticed that she was being led to a trap, but in her current state… even a complete newbie crew in a Panzer I would defeat her.

And it was at the moment, when her Centurion had passed a few streets with the Chaffee not disappearing from sight for too long, that her crew knew… they were going straight into a trap, but they didn't dare to say a word, because Alice wouldn't listen to them. Such hellbent was she on "avenging" her boko.

But, she slowly came back to her senses, when she had heard that the T28 and its three companions were ambushed, with the enemy ammo stuck in their turret mantlets (in the case of the M26s) or downright disabled (the T28). "Damn it!" she muttered, when she realized that she fell too deep into the enemy trap. What would mother think about me now? she thought and sighed in acceptance. This would be her last stand, so she better make it count.

Megumi just knew that something was wrong before the Tiger II fired at the T28's vulnerable side, disabling it and retreated just as quickly as it showed up. "Pursue the heavy tank," she said calmly, but then a Panther G, Hetzer and Churchill VII showed up and fired, blocking the turrets by some sort of miracle, rather than disable them.

"The T28 is down and our turrets are stuck!" she called over the radio, in hopes of getting help from the Commander… only to get more frustrated, when she heard the answer. No help would come, because the All-stars team is already on its last breath against the ragtag High school teams. If you had said to her just a few hours ago that the team would lose this badly against inexperienced highschoolers, Megumi would've laughed in your face and dismissed you as a crazy individual.

But now… Had she known what the Chaffee was able to do with half of their team… She would have agreed to the Ravens joining in the match, even if it meant that Oarai won't tone down their own allies' numbers. Actually, no. They broke fair play rules more than once, she reminded herself and shuddered in disgust. Just thinking about them made shivers run down her spine.

And only thanks to her zoning out, while she was thinking, the Tiger II managed to sneak up on the Pershing's rear and shoot at it. Only the explosion caused by the shell impacting her tank and the soft pop! signalled that… the white flag was triggered and brought her back to her senses, making her sigh in defeat.

"Oarai remaining tanks: 7. All-stars remaining tanks: 1," the voice of Ami Chono announced before the comms shut down and Megumi could do only one thing after that: pray that Alice Shimada would somehow win against such overwhelming odds.

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Tsuneo watched the battle unfold with an ever growing grin on his face. But, when the E100 showed up, he ended up cursing so much that a sailor would blush in embarrassment, until it was finally defeated. Only then did the grin return in full force.

"Shiporin, your husband is still as crazy as I remember," Chiyo commented after a while of stunned silence, forcing Tsuneo to blush in embarrassment and look away. But, when the report about the remaining forces on both sides came, he knew that the impossible was done again by his daughter and her team.

Erwin looked at their Chaffee, as it sped out from a side alley, the Centurion behind it, firing from its turret and hull MGs in an attempt to break the tracks and possibly introduce the escaping tank to an APDS shell up close. "Someone locked on that tank? We don't have much time, until it corners us!" George's voice cut in as the Chaffee did a very sharp left turn, sacrificing its tracks in the process.

"We got it!" Erwin responded and a second later, the well-hidden StuG III F spit a AP shell towards the Centurion's side… only to de-track it. "That was a close one, Hippo team! Make the next one count. Tiger team out!" Trafalgar commented as the Chaffee fired from its own gun… and hit the Centurion's shell mid air, before the commander of the last still standing boy team opened a hatch and made a quick gesture, she knew so well from training: no ammo left it meant.

"APCR loaded!" Caesar yelled and Erwin smirked. "Ute!" she shouted and the StuG III sent another shell at the immobile target, hitting it and making a smokescreen around it, just at the same time the Centurion disabled the Chaffee. No one noticed that they were holding their breaths, until they saw the white flag flapping in the air, signalling the end of the match, when they breathed out a sigh of relief.

"We… we did it…" Saemonza stated after a while and then, they cheered, because they had saved their school from being shut down. The unexpected had happened after all.

"Oarai remaining tanks: 6. All-stars remaining tanks: 0. Oarai wins," said Ami Chono's voice and Erwin fell back on her seat, overwhelmed that they had really won and the flag wasn't some trick like the E100 crew from before had done.

Narcius growled angrily at the screen, when it announced Oarai's victory against the supposed "best of the best,'' Japan has to offer. If he doesn't do something real quick, his support would disappear and the anti-terrorist organisations would flock against him.

"Go get at least the E100 to safety!" he whispered to one of his hired men, who only nodded and rushed away to finish the order. I'll have my revenge. May it be after the International tournament or before, Tsuji, Shimada and Nushizumi would kneel before me!

And with that in mind, he walked back to his Humvee and entered it, with writing down to make a new order and make new ways to join any match. He won't lose. Not now. No, scratch that. Never. His is the world after all.