IS Virus: Episode 2-4 - Replication

by tonbonkittybon

They were all played. They won't admit it, but they were all played. The renegade, Phantom Task, the UN Canada division, the parties that hosted Canada's Next Top Gun...fools. All of them. And they don't even know it. And only Cecilia knows why. The mistakes that scarred her will resurface, in a slap to her and her friends' face. And they are watching the reenactment unfold.

1. I Still Don't Know

IS Virus: Episode 2-4 - Replication

Part 1: I Still Don't Know

-ÎLE SAINTE-HÉLÈNE, QUÉBEC PROVINCE-

The search for Canada's Next Top Gun was over. Three promising young women have been chosen to represent Canada at IS Academy. The crew was dismantling the stage. The scientists were compiling so much data. The tearful reunions were moving back to their respective homes. Everything was winding down.

And yet, the night was not over. For Sokoto and Cecilia, the only way to get over the whirlwind of life changing events was to go somewhere quiet to walk it off.

So, what better way than to awkwardly walk down an incomplete demo of Disneyworld Canada? Under the shimmer of the moon...and stars... and they got the greenery and the plant life done, and some lampposts and decorations, but not the attractions...I'm sorry, what was that about the allure of women?

"So, you call yourself Sokoto?" Cecilia said, "Quite an odd choice for a small Tasmanian devil."

"Would a wild dog be able to do-THIS!" Sokoto kick flipped off a lamppost, acquiring a sunflower in the process, onto a trash can and did a 1080 corkscrew off and landed right behind her in a ninja gentleman pose. He held the flower for her to take. And she would have taken it, if they didn't realize what just happened. They withdrew their limbs and stared blankly at the ground.

"That's, uh...how did you learn to do that..." Cecilia stammered. If she was supposed to walk down memory lane, then this would be a stark detour.

"I, uh...I was picked up by the yakuza when I was three..." Sokoto said, "I guess I was picked up by a family that loved doing gun-fu while parkouring..." They kept walking.

"Oh...well, you've gotten quite good at it."

"I didn't have anything else to do, so..."

"Well, I play tennis and dance with a passion. Never did that in public, but..."

"Why not?"

"I've always thought it unbecoming to flash your body in public."

"What, like in movies? That's just poppycock."

"I don't know what I think of it now, though."

"Well..." he looked, and quickly turned away, "...yeah...you're a natural now..."

"Hm?" Cecilia looked at him. He was blushing. She was surprised. He called her a cootie woman this whole time. Was that a facade? Did he really see her as a woman? She looked at her-oh. She still has the Mega Milk on. "You want to sit for a bit?" She found a bench and sat, leaning her back against the seat and putting her hands behind her back. She looked at him with longing eyes and relaxed lips.

"Um..." and there's the view that will haunt his dreams for years to come. And he got a read on her aura. She wanted to throw everything out the window too. "Yep, I'm incurable..." he slowly walked over and settled himself on her lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and settled her hands on his shoulders. She leaned her head against his.

None of them could contain their embarrassment. It was dead silence with the occasional soft wordplay. No movement of any kind from either one.

"Any of this seem weird to you?" He asked.

"All of it..." she answered, "but I don't want to think about that right now..."

"Why not?"

"I don't know...I just want to be in the now..."

But he knew. He read her aura as confusion and sorrow, with a hint of ecstasy. He took it as, everything she was told about the world was wrong. The folk tales, the wisdom, the warnings, the ideals, just everything was wrong. Her own little world has been forcibly shattered. And yet, here they were. Quote-unquote "sworn enemies" trying to offer what little comfort they can give.

"Autumn tell you I'm trying to find a new meaning for Phantom Task?..."

"She did..."

"You, uh...wanna come with us to help find a meaning?..."

"What?"

"I mean...Autumn said you can't go home anymore...if you want, you can come with us..."

And Cecilia's back on the road. Sort of. During her last year in the Academy, two months after the raid, she worked her tail off at the Third Mondo Grosso to regain their trust and dispel the rumors. At the end of year trip to DisneySea, after three hours of merriment and memories, the girls drew lots to see in what order they would go to allure Ichika and claim his heart. Unsurprisingly(?), Cecilia went first, and Houki got last. She found a way to isolate her and Ichika. She had him all to herself. Atop the ferriswheel, she pulled out all the stops to attract him. After they descended, they went to a bench exactly like this, and she held his hand and confessed her love.

Guess what happened?

"You're very beautiful, probably the most beautiful woman I've ever had the pleasure of befriending," he said, "but I've already decided...and I'm sorry. It's not you."

She was utterly heartbroken. To her, Ichika was the only man in the world who fit her qualifications for marriage. And the only person who was strong enough to fill the hole in her heart that her parents' sudden death left. And he rejected her.

Here, the situation was reversed. Sokoto was the one asking for her hand. And it wasn't for love; it was for a place in a family. And-And! While Cecilia obsessed with the fact that Ichika was able to shatter the world's expectations, hinting towards a sort of superficial attraction, Sokoto and Cecilia never touched the fact that Sokoto was the second male IS pilot. That's how strong their connection was.

"I'm sorry..." and just like Ichika rejected her, she rejected Sokoto, "It's just too sudden right now. Maybe after a few months, when I can sort out everything in my head... I just need time to think, that's all..."

"Figured..." unlike her, he handled it well, "I had headaches since I got here..." he scratched his head and got off once he sensed Autumn's arrival. He kept his back to her, on account of the MM on her bosom, "Well, the offer still stands until I head for England...that'll give you more than enough time, right?..."

And with that, he left her for Autumn. Strangely enough, Cecilia was not offended. She at least knew that the renegade recognized her as someone of the opposite sex. As evidenced by the-

Autumn: "So, how was it?"

Sokoto: "Like two pillows gently massaging-"

-branch smack-

Autumn: "I DIDN'T MEAN THE BREASTESES!"

Silvia: "Cecilia used Charm on Sokoto! Sokoto's paralyzed! AAHAHAHAHAHAA!"

Sokoto: "Oh, piss off, dinkle fairy!"

Cecilia laughed. The school girls got onto Ichika too, albeit for different reasons.

"Quite the show you put on," Rachel suddenly appeared.

All of a sudden, Cecilia got snarky, "Well, if you think you can do better than me, he's over there," pointing to the renegade.

"Well, don't mind if I do," Rachel flashed her twin tails and walked towards the renegade's party.

Without paying any attention to Cecilia's ghastly expression. Because that little exchange was verbatim from her conversation with Lingyin right after she got rejected. Lingyin went straight to Ichika as soon as he recovered from the pounding he got from his classmates and provoked him into an attraction.

Just like Sokoto got hounded for falling for Cecilia, and just like Rachel brazenly impeded on his humiliation punishment.

"Sounds like you're having quite the party," Rachel said.

"They are, I'm not..." Sokoto squeezed out of a noogie.

"Hey," Autumn noticed, "We were just talking about the renegade's favorite bra size."

"GET OUTTA HERE!" Sokoto pushed her off. Silvia fizzled to Rachel's shoulder and gave her a copy of her data, along with a very provocative photo of Sokoto and Cecilia looking into each other's eyes.

"A gift," Silvia winked before fizzling to Autumn's shoulder and avoiding Sokoto's raging hissy fits.

"What was that?" Rachel asked.

"That is my IS."

"What?!"

"Yeah...it came alive."

"Oh, this I gotta here," Rachel said as she took him by the hand and walked with him, "Wait, why are you letting me take you away?"

"Just breaking the pace," he said, "plus I know your women are itching to get a piece of me, some of them in the weirdest sense possible."

"Yeah, I don't get them..."

Cecilia just stared horrified by the sight of them, because it triggered her sudden revelation. Someone deliberately set this up. Someone told everyone where she was and what she would be doing, and gave everyone a role to play. Why? To mess with her head? Doubt it; it's easy to mess with her without throwing up the past. Only someone who knows her extremely well could replicate her memories. But who? Lingyin's in China, Charlotte's in parts unknown, screw Chifuyu, screw Ichika, screw Houki, she didn't really mean all that, Kanzashi went to Australia, Laura's in Germany-

...oh, crap.

"Tatenashi..." Cecilia opened her radar and found the signal of the Mysterious Lady nearby, and jumped and ran off to find her.

Out of all the people Cecilia has known, Tatenashi is the craftiest. She was the most playful, teasing nearly everyone who associated with her, relentlessly toying with Ichika, even making quirky one liners in the head of battle. All a nice little distraction from her exceptional combat abilities, family prestige, and damn near scary good cunning and versatility. She boasted of holding the title of Student Council President as her 14th accomplishment. She was leading the final attack on Phantom Task after the Third Mondo Grosso! No one else could have been able to manipulate circumstances and situations like she could, and she did that to the harem on the daily! No way anyone else could have set this whole prototype up while attracting the renegade to Canada, spiking the interest of all pursuing parties, all the while carrying out some secret mission within the secret mission while simultaneously performing a secret mission that led to another secret mission...ON TOP OF THIS SECRET MISSION! No doubts now, this was definitely her handiwork.

She ran while keeping a close eye on the renegade, who incidentally worked with Rachel to trigger the next flashback. Only while here Sokoto gave Rachel a free big one, back then Lingyin got rejected as well and tried to pummel Ichika, but he's been around her long enough to anticipate that so he managed to purposefully lose his mind and use the Barrier Void Attack on her. In both instances, however, it was done when no one saw crap.

Cecilia shook her head and ran for the location of the ML. It was a large castle breezeway. She stopped everything and gasped when she saw what was under.

Five male bodies, limp, unmoved. Just like before, she was the first to witness the coming of Phantom Task, but did nothing because she was the also the first to have her heart shattered. What's her excuse now? She took a closer look at the bodies to find one.

She heard one of them exhale, "so...fine..."

"Eek!" She jumped, "Uh...not dead...ok...but why..."

"It wasn't a blood anything."

Cecilia was startled. She turned around. A voluptuous figure dropped down from the castle and stood her up. The figure rubbed her bottom, "My ass is just that powerful."

Cecilia recognized that voice, "Ok, out with it, Tatenashi. You said you had an errand to run. Was this it?"

"A happy little accident I happened upon," Tatenashi answered, "Couldn't resist spilling the beans to moth woman."

"What?! How did you-"

"The volcano? Remember?"

The volcano. Mt Fuji. Eruption. Phantom Task needed to get out, but where would be the best place to start? In the lava shelter, they waited. Autumn somehow got an encrypted message:

FWD from TataS - re: Vacation?

"Wanna get away? Try Alaska! Bring the renegade, and you'll get unbelievable discounts on literally everything! Don't delay!"

Kan-chan

Cecilia was out of rat's feet to give. She was right. "Ok, I'll bite," she was visibly shaken, "Why?"

Tatenashi walked forward and unfurled her fan, which bore the word truth, "You're treading down a dangerous path, one you stared when you abandoned the pursuit in Japan, right when Ichika needed you the most."

"He doesn't need me!" Cecilia snapped back, "Clearly he has it made, being an instructor at the Academy AND a dojo!"

"Ah, but that was before the renegade," Tatenashi rubbed the fan on Cecilia's shoulder, then swerved to the neck while moving the stupefied men with her feet, "Back then, you were secure. Now, the circumstances have changed."

"How?"

"Ichika declared me excommunicado."

"Did what?!"

"Oh? Did he not tell you?" Tatenashi moved to Cecilia's other shoulder, "Well, if he did tell you, I wouldn't be excommunicated, would I?"

"What are you trying to say?..."

"And with the way you turned tail and ran, with Chifuyu's counsel," Tatenashi walked in the moonlight, then turned an eye to Cecilia, "it's only a matter of time before he does it to everyone else." The fan changed, showing the word test, "and he'll start with you."

"Don't you put that on me..."

"The girl who turned tail and ran when things got too heated."

"You...I thought you were a friend..."

"So did a lot of people," Tatenashi wafted her fan, "So...what now? You gonna derail everything I've set up? You gonna play along and relive your most damaging moment? Or are you going to team up with one side and totally butt rape the other?"

"You won't get me to do anything," Cecilia seethed, "You just told me everything. I'll tell everyone what you did."

"Oh, you don't have to," Tatenashi pointed to the right.

Hidden within the bushes, the trees, and posing as normal people who wandered into the prototype...were SWAT, BritSpecOps, and UN members, separated into cells of four. Each had the task of giving the renegade and Phantom Task a false sense of security, until the appointed time when the ambush would catch them in one swoop. The leaders of each cell live streamed the sting to the nations of their respective origins. Essentially, the whole world would get to see how the renegade really acted. Including Australia, Germany, Japan, China, England, and of course Canada. The signal to begin closing in on the renegade and Phantom Task would be given via a black box signal remote.

And Tatenashi held it for Cecilia to see.

"No..." Cecilia was blank.

"They'll know it's me either way," Tatenashi said a little too smugly, "but the world won't. Out of all the data contained in that exabyte of juicy gossip I nabbed, I found a couple terabytes far too extreme for anyone's eyes. Consider this my security deposit."

Cecilia was about to throw down, until she saw the renegade finish a bout with a UN agent, who promised him a much better show in a few minutes. That translated to Laura getting rejected and holding Ichika down with the AIC and her railgun, and Ichika daring her to do it. Thanks to her "knowledgeable" comrade, Laura was forced to let him go, but she had in mind who he chose, and gathered the girls who got rejected for a revenge scheme.

Wait. Cecilia, Lingyin, Laura-the renegade's already halfway done!

"Step out now," Tatenashi said, "and you'll be the one they pin."

"You can't just expect me to play along with your schemes!" Cecilia darted off.

Tatenashi shook her head and put the unconscious men on a grassy clearing, confused as to how Cecilia actually fell for her greatest enemy, "Well, all that hate has to go somewhere-OUCH!" Dropped, "Ow...ow...stinger...stinger...stinger..."

Cecilia ran in the opposite direction to prepare countermeasures. She knew Kanzashi would be next, and her reaction was similar to Cecilia's, so she had time to prepare.

Or not, because Tatenashi had countermeasures of her own, "Неизвестный пилот бежит к отступнику. Она нарушит операцию. Остановите ее." (Unknown pilot running towards the renegade. She will disrupt the operation. Stop her.)

Cecilia made it to a sidewalk intersection, "Ok, this should be far enough...Star light, star bri-MMMMFMFMMMFFF-" Someone grabbed her.

"You again."

"MMM?!"

"Remember me from the island?" He said, "when the renegade betrayed us and let you out?" He pulled a knife, "Not this time."

She elbowed him, stomped his foot, and stole his knife. Then she slashed him away, only to be tackled by another. They fell, but he got the shank. She got him off and kept running.

"Where do you think you're going?" Rachel suddenly stopped her.

"I don't have time for this!" Cecilia said, "Out of my way." She walked ahead, but Rachel grabbed her shoulder.

"You already did your part," Rachel tightened her grip, "We don't need you anymore."

"What, you don't need to know we're all being played?"

"Our informant told us that he, and multiple other parties, would be here. We've prepared for everything, including what you just said."

Cecilia took another glance at Rachel, "Where is he now?"

"Southern end," Rachel snapped her fingers, "though not the same as where you'll be headed."

Suddenly, Cecilia found herself surrounded by four women. She pulled out the knife and engaged all of them, keeping them at bay while delivering a couple knicks to Rachel's side. When an opening was created, she made her escape.

"Dammit..." Rachel cursed as she and her squad slowly brushed off the impact.

"Was this really necessary?" Her subordinate asked.

"Not really..." Rachel bandaged herself, "but something about her worry face just distracted me..."

Cecilia looked everywhere for the renegade, and found him by the river, getting a warning from a SWAT member of what's to come.

But she had a ponytail. Did he already finish with Kanzashi? Yes he did, because she never saw how Kanzashi got the boot, but saw she understood why and decided to let it go. But this brought up the moment after Charlotte got rejected and Cecilia offered her a chance to take her revenge. Kanzashi declined because her efforts were focused on the shadow soldiers, the remains of the old Phantom Task, she saw sneak past the harem. Charlotte? She wanted first hit on the next woman.

Cecilia knew who that next woman was. The dream girl, the childhood friend, the only person who gave up on disciplining Ichika because she knew he would learn sooner or later. The one they used as an excuse to create a giant rift post graduation.

"I have to take him out before that happens," Cecilia said. But she took two steps before feeling a cold shoulder.

"Take who out?" The voice said coldly.

"The renegade... and it has to be done now..." Cecilia dare not move, lest she be the next target.

"Don't dirty your hands like that," the woman walked forward and revealed herself, "Let me do it for you."

"Forte Sapphire?!" Cecilia stepped back.

Forte just smiled and walked towards the renegade.

Cecilia froze until Forte was gone. She slumped and sighed, "Whew...ok...that'll take care of him...hopefully..." She didn't notice Tatenashi hidden in the leaves of a nearby tree.

"Why didn't you tell me Forte would be here?!" Her agent radioed.

"I didn't know!" She answered back.

"Ugh...Well, at least we can proceed as planned."

"Understood..." Tatenashi hung up and smiled, "Sorry, Cece...but you and the others will face their fate, one way or another."

Sokoto was walking down a walkway, getting excited over the auras he seemingly couldn't escape. That SWAT agent was right. Everyone in the prototype was getting ready for a big assault, and given his wanted status, he couldn't ask for a better night. He was geeking out over how much metal he was going to punch when he sensed a cold aura somewhere, "Brrr...I know it gets chilly, but not this chilly...just like that girl-HUZAT!"

He equated the sensation to Forte's entrance and threw his right arm behind her.

"Not this time, renegade," Forte jabbed his pressure points and threw him against a fountain. He slumped over while she rubbed herself on him, "Bet'cha didn't think I'd let this go, did ya? Not after you made your choice."

"Are you still on about that?" Sokoto groaned, "They forgave each other! It's time you forgave her!"

Forte grabbed his neck, "That ain't happening. Why should you stick a family you just met when my family was torn apart by her deeds after a decade?"

"Dec-huh?" Sokoto joked, "Oh my god-EWW TOO OLD GET AWAY!"

All of a sudden, she was punched with a very fast hook to her chin. She winced in pain as he made his escape.

"YOU HAVE PROBLEMS, OLD HAG!" Sokoto screamed, "AUTUMN WILL KNOW ABOUT THIS!"

Tatenashi watched using her IS zoom in, cringing, "Well...at least it was abridged..." She remembered how she tackled Ichika numerous times on his way to Houki. She pressed him to call it off and just stay friends, offering her body as a reward. She was playing around with him and wanted to get in on the action. He pushed her off three times. When she pounced on him the fourth time, he let himself fall, but he made it look innocent, positioning his elbow to trap her head the moment they hit the ground. To many, it looked like an honest mistake. But deep inside, he got really angry. After the Valentines conundrum, he thought that everything was ok after the Mondo Grosso attack. But it just made it worse.

"Ok...enough reminiscing on my part..." Tatenashi refortified herself, "Time to roll." She smashed her remote. Everyone except Autumn, Cecilia, and Sokoto got the signal to move in.

Autumn and Silvia were staring up at the moon, tracing its reflection to the gently glowing river below them, after a hearty conversation about whatever they thought of. They were hitting it off when they saw Sokoto limping over under the gate, and through the grass.

"Uh...do I need to ask?" But Autumn just did.

"Forte..." Sokoto limped over, "She's still crazy...she poked me...made me go limp..." he grabbed Autumn's shoulders, "GOD HELP THE POOR BASTARD CAUGHT IN HER ICY COLD GRIP!"

"Like you were?"

"YEEEES! WHY DO YOU THINK I WOBBLED ALL THE WAY OUT HERE FOR?!" And he collapsed.

"Hehehehaahaaa!" Silvia fizzled to his shoulder, "Pre-battle jitters? Or maybe Forte got one off of ya!"

"The hell you talking about, woman?" Sokoto demanded.

"Hey," Autumn said, and made both of them look up, "What do you think about me?"

Sokoto and Silvia looked at each other. He stood up once he got his feeling back, "Well..."

"Hang on a second," Silvia deployed her wings and moved him to a spot where, just under the right amount of light, "Ok! Done!"

"What was that fooooorrrrrrrrrrr..." Sokoto blushed. If Autumn hadn't emptied out her psycho anger on the island... "Uhhhh...you...I just-"

"It's ok," Autumn chuckled, "I feel the same way about you..."

"I-it-really?"

"Yeah," Autumn hugged him, "The you you and the Squall you."

"You settled everything, didn't you?" He hugged back.

"Yeah, thanks to Silvia..."

Happy to help, onee-sama!" Silvia did the cutesy pose.

"She led on," Autumn ignored her, "and we talked about how you had Squall inside you, and how I had to embrace the both of you..."

"Heheh...I'll do my best. Though, I can't get any taller than..."

"I know. It doesn't matter..."

Silvia fizzled to a lamppost and sat on the grass, "I tell ya, including Madoka, you guys are the weirdest family I've ever seen."

Cecilia was too late. She saw Forte get downed and rushed to the scene herself, only to hide herself in a bush and witness the very scene that drove everyone bonkers.

The same walkway illuminated by occasional lamps. The same approach to that inevitable meeting. When Ichika confessed his love for Houki and asked her to start everything as his girlfriend. She said yes. They embraced. Little did they know that trouble was afoot. The leftovers from Phantom Task sought to get revenge against the people who ruined everything, only to have their presence rendered pointless by the girls' own revenge plot.

And the first person to fire was, of course, Lingyin. She hit Houki in the head, already damaging her shield, while everyone else scrambled for a piece of Ichika's skeleton.

Cecilia saw the groupie walking towards the renegade. She also saw someone with a rocket launcher aimed at him. She had to disrupt her flashbacks somehow. But when they loaded the rocket, there was no more time left. She would not go through that phase again.

Once Autumn and Sokoto finished their moment together, they returned to reality.

"Hey, by the way," Autumn asked, "Isn't it a little too quite here?"

"Yeah, there's a bunch of people behind us," Sokoto whispered, "but...y'know...keep it cool."

"Gotcha," Autumn winked before she walked off, readied her IS, and pretended to act, "I sure would like some Canadian bacon right about now!"

"Even though it's just ham?" Sokoto played along.

"Oh my god, really?" Silvia fizzled to the rocket launcher and ambushed the ambush group, "HURRY UP AND START THE FIGHT ALREADY!" She smacked the trigger, firing the rocket towards Autumn.

But it was Cecilia who took the hit. She deployed the Mermaid's Tears and flung herself in the rocket's path. She broke the tree by the riverbank and splashed.

"Was that supposed to happen?" Sokoto asked.

"Nope," Autumn deployed her Shinomure and leaped into the sky, raining wind blades down at the rocket.

"WHAT?!" Rachel yelled as she deployed her unit and charged towards Sokoto.

"Well, better early than late!" He unleashed the Streamline and met Forte's and Rachel's punches with his.

"So...that's your answer..." Tatenashi leaned back against the bark, watching the chaos unfold.