"Ah come on, you know you love me and want to buy me something!" Sato pleaded with Isana. Hiro laughed at them wishing to have the same innocence those two did. Being able to love and laugh. Hiro felt a familiar presence and looked at the fron of the arcade and out the doors to see a familiar face.<br/><br/>“You  guys stay here, I’ll be back.” Hiro said as he walked towards the doors of the arcade. Sato looked past Hiro and saw a cute girl most likely a few years older putting her around Hiro’s age. He laughed figuring that was where Hiro was going.<br/><br/>Hiro walked out the door and saw that Touka was facing away from him. He leaned against the building smiling before speaking. “Now why is it that I don’t have you pegged as the arcade-going type?<br/><br/><br/>____________________________________<br/><br/>Zack came back to the mech a short time later to see that the program had made minimal progress. There was still no word from the others that were supposed to be arriving.<br/><br/>He decided he would do something about it. After asking around he found one of the commanding officers.<br/><br/>“I want to take a chopper out to where the other men were supposed to be leaving from.” Zack told the man without any introduction.<br/><br/>The commander looked up from whatever it was that he was doing. “You must be the American. Your kind always has some smug attitude about them. That area currently has a crystal line heading for it which is why we evacuated it in the first place. There is no way I am sending anything there.” He promptly began walking away. Zack grabbed his shoulder.<br/><br/>“If you know who I am then you know what I am capable of and you know that I do not need any of your men or pilots to get a chopper there. I am asking because It seems I am the only one who finds it strange that we have had no word from the other espers. Now either I go by myself or you help me get there.” Zack stared the commander down.<br/><br/>They stared at each other for awhile neither averting their gaze. Finally the commander let out a bit of a short chuckle.<br/><br/>“I like you kid. Fine. You get one chopper, and 6 men. You will be flown out to Canterbury where you will rendezvous with the men and then you will take a chopper to London from there. Make it count and don’t die. These men will be some of my best I will make the cal now” The commander turned and walked off.<br/><br/>Zack proceeded to get his gear together. He would leave his laptop at the base to continue grave digging the mech’s systems as it would most likely take days to finish. It had been a long time since he had been in an active combat zone. It brought back memories he would like to have forgotten about old friends that he would never be able to see again. This time would be different. He refused to watch anyone else die.