Chapter 19

Moose felt he could cut the tension with chicken bone. The two commanders of Uncle Sam and Kuromorimine sat on opposite sides of a table, glaring at each other. Moose knew the two had been going at it for some time now and the emotions were high, plus he knew this was going to be a very fragile conversation.

The fight ended right after Ogin and her team took out Maho's Tiger 1. His call for surrender was met earnestly to his surprise, but there was still negativity in the eyes of both Uncle Sam and Kuromorimine. Now, within a tent set up on Uncle Sams side of 'No Mans Land' he sat with the two glaring commanders, the commanders of Homedale's Schools, and Ogin, who sat beside him.

"You cant expect me to believe that Moose." Edward said plainly, shifting his gaze to him.

"I can, but the choice to believe me or not is yours." Moose replied.

"A third party infiltrating the island to sabotage our game and make us hate each other? We already hate each other, so what else can they do?" Maho asked sarcastically.

"Much more then we think." Moose said earning two curious looks. "I know this may sound unbelievable, but Colonel Abernathy has made a truce with the Federation. They're working together to find the remaining people who are trying to sabotage and hurt us. But they cant focus everything they have while we're fighting each other, so that's why we came here. To stop the fighting and bring these problems to the table."

Maho and Edward frowned and subconsciously gave each other a look. They don't believe him, and he doesn't have proof to prove it. Hell, he has never seen any one of these saboteurs, so he doesn't know if Abernathy was even telling the truth. But the way people have been acting towards each other here on the island has been boarder line hatred. Moose knew that Edward, Davis, even Rivers wouldn't be so hostile to people for, what is essentially, such little reasons regarding the shutdown of American Tankery.

"Commander Akari would never accept a truce with American Tankers. Your sport is a blite on the reputation of Sensha Do and you seem to have no qualms of spitting on such cultural history." Maho spat. Moose sighed, he didn't know what else to do. Colonel Abernathy didn't give him any proof to show this was a real threat, though Moose never asked for any to be fair, but surely they must see that the six schools of Homedale were working together for a reason.

"Commander?" Erika's voice spoke gaining everyone's attention. "Maybe we should stop fighting."

Silence from the table and the onlookers after Erika said that. Maho looked at her with shock and confusion before speaking.

"What?" She asked, her voice low.

"Maho, everyone is tired. We've been stuck here for months now, and everyone just wants to take a break. the fighting has been hard and." Erika paused unsure if she should continue.

"Go ahead Erika." Anchovy said.

"I kept this a secret from you, but some of the girls collapsed from exhaustion these passed few days." Erika said. Maho was bewildered. Her girls collapsed? That's impossible. They were Kuromorimine, they didn't collapse, falter, give in when things were tough, they stood strong, hardy, and they won. They always fought to win. "So maybe a truce would be a good thing. The girls could get much needed rest, and we can recuperate our emotional beings as well. Plus if Commander Moose is speaking the truth then prolonged fighting will only worsen ourselves."

Maho couldn't believe what she just heard. Talks of a truce? With the Americans? And by her own second in command no less. Maho felt anger rise in her chest. How could Erika believe this was a good idea? How could she go against what they've been fighting for.

"Never in all my time as Commander of Kuromorimine's Sensha Do team did I ever think you of all people would betray me like this Erika!" Maho yelled causing Erika to step back in fear. The other girls in the tent, Anchovy more specifically, reeled back in shock. Maho had highly respected Erika's opinions, even back when they first started Sensha Do together. What has happened to cause this complete one eighty in attitude.

Erika felt her eyes water and her mouth quiver. She looked into Maho's eyes and saw only anger. No shame, no regret, nothing but anger. Erika let out a sob and wiped her eyes before looking back at her commander, her friend, and speaking.

"You're not the same Commander I chose to follow. Commander Moose is right, there are bad things coming." Erika said before leaving the tent. Maho snarled at her cowardly 2IC before looking back at the men.

"I will not entertain the idea of a truce." Was all she said before she crossed her arms, closed her eyes and refused to acknowledge any of them. Moose sighed again before looking at Edward, the mans eyes were filled with curiosity but disbelief.

"Ed?" Moose asked. Edward turned to him and said.

"If you can get me irrefutable proof, then I'm with you. But until then I don't believe you, so I will not cooperate." Again Moose sighed and turned to his allies.

"Anchovy, can you and Ezio take both Uncle Sam and Kuromorimine back to Homedale, to watch over them and stuff? I need to make some calls and then we'll move on with the mission." Moose asked. Anchovy and Ezio nodded, taking Edward and Maho, before leaving the tent to prepare the trip back to Homedale. Ogin caught Moose's attention before asking.

"So we continue towards the mountains?" She asked. Moose nodded.

"Yes. Our next targets are the last of Uncle Sam and Pravda. Let's hope they aren't in too much trouble."

Austin gasped in pain, his shoulder wound flared up again and he the cold of the mountain did little to help ease the pain. A gust of cold wind pierced his shoulder, and he gasped once again. He had no way to clean it, nor bandage it and he felt despair creeping in the longer he sat here. Sitting in a tree was not comfortable, especially when wounded the way he is, and his butt hurt from the branch, but he would push through it, for the alternative was worse.

Beside him, huddled into herself, was the black-haired, blue eyes beauty he had fought with on several occasions. The Blizzard Nonna, she was called. Her icy demeanor and cold calculating tactics were what earned her the nickname back in Japan, and it somehow followed her here. The boys of Uncle Sam had suffered many defeats at her hands alone, but Austin was always the one to go out of his way to confront her. Mostly on foot. It wasn't really a reason of duty or anything, he just really didn't like her. She blamed him for something he'd admit he did but what else was he supposed to do? When the two of them were outside of their tanks during that first bought between their schools he panicked. He didn't know what to do, he just ran and when he found a save enough place to put her he thought she'd be fine, and she was. Doesn't mean that first punch to his face was any less painful.

When they first met after that she had clocked him square on his cheek. He was stunned for a moment but when she tried to hit him again he instinctively blocked her strike and hit her back, right across her face. They had been around their teammates and the rest of them had been shocked by the two hits but when He and Nonna ran at each other and started going at it the rest of them had to jump in and break them up. Hans had told him to stay away from her, but they always found a way to find each other, and it always lead to fists.

Nonna forgets how many times she and the blonde-haired boy next to her fought each other. Its been months since that first day and yet every time she sees him she cant help but want to hit him. He abandoned her in the melee of tank violence and fled to safety, leaving her to fend for herself. She was found by Katyusha shortly after that, but she would never forget. It was the principle of the matter.

Their most recent fight, one that ended about a half hour ago, was the worst one yet. She has a purple bruise on her left cheek from his punch, her side hurts from where he jabbed a rock into her, he had pulled her hair at one point to, but she got him back. His right eye was bruised, two scratch marks on his left cheek that had drawn blood, and his lip was split. She would say she had won this fight, but she didn't relish any of it. Her reason? He saved her.

Once the two had separated from their fight for a breather a new opponent appeared. One so strong they both knew they couldn't win. This opponent ran straight for her and with a mighty swing swiped its claws at her. This young man, Austin his name is, jumped at her and pushed her away taking the brunt of several sharp claws onto his right shoulder, blood spewing as he screamed a blood curling cry.

Nonna, in her shock at the time, sat on the ground and watched as Austin had, in a fit of pure adrenaline, turned around and punched the three-hundred-pound Grizzly Bear right in its nose. The bear stumbled around, stunned by the hit, and that gave Austin time to turn, grab Nonna's hand, pull her up and sprint for the nearest tree.

The tree, the one they are in now, was large enough for them to climb up and get to some relative safety, but Nonna had never climbed trees much before, so with her little experience she failed to find a good place to grasp. With little time, as the bear was coming around, she had squealed as she felt Austin place his hands on her butt and pushed her up the tree to where she found better grip. Austin was up right after her, just in time as the bear made it to the base of the tree. And there they sat. Tired, sweaty, wounded, and cold. The wind was blowing chills into their blood and the fresh wound on Austin's shoulder wasn't helping him. They sat there for half an hour, as the bear continued to make noise below, praying that someone was out looking for them.

He shivered again. Nonna looked at the young man, his body shivering violently, the wound on his shoulder looked like it was almost icing over. His eyes were filled with pain, Nonna didn't know what else to do to help. Despite the tree not being to big she was right next to him, and she knew she couldn't do much but what she could do was try to keep him alive. She moved closer to him, wrapped an arm around him, and pulled him into her, wrapping her arms around him, hugging him into her chest and subconsciously ran her hand through his hair.

Austin didn't know why he had pushed the young woman out of the way. Just like when they first encountered each other he didn't know why he helped her, but he knew he didn't want her to get hurt. There was something nagging away at his brain, something about wanting to protect her. He didn't know why. He hated this woman, she took his whole leaving her in the tank mess out of proportion. She started these fist fights, and he was only protecting himself. Right? No. He threw the first punch a couple of times, and she was defending herself. But when that bear started running towards her he felt it in his gut, he needed to save her.

Austin concluded he was losing his mind. Why should he help her? She never did anything to help him, so why should he care? All she ever did was accuse him of nonsense and hit him, fight him, and then-.

What? He felt her arm go around him. He felt her pulling him into her. He felt her wrap her arms around him, pull him into her chest, and he had to admit, her bosom felt so soft, but what really set it off for him was when she ran her fingers through his hair. His eyes widened at that. his mother used to do this for him when he was a kid, especially after his older brother left for the army. God she felt warm, even with her Tankery outfit being puffy for cold protection he could still feel her. Her fingers in his hair was nice and he mentally retracted his previous statements. She was doing this for him, and for the first time in a while he felt at peace.