It was the dead of night. Another boring day had past and Ichika had decided to step out of the house to pick himself up some soda from the nearest vending machine. The night was warm, so maybe cold juice would also suffice. The young man thought he was lacking in vitamins anyway, though the nutritional value in canned juice was questionable at best. Ichika shrugged as he stood in front of the machine. He picked one at random. Considering his diet consisted mostly of instant noodles because of his busy study schedule, he decided that he didn't really care about a balanced diet.
He just stood there, enjoying the night with drink in hand, contemplating a second purchase from the mechanical salesman. He smiled. This was one hell of a way to celebrate a birthday. His sister was busy and his friends had all gone to karaoke without him. Not that nobody tried to invite themselves into his life event. He just... he didn't like complicating things. Sister was off doing work to keep their orphaned family of two afloat. Didn't want to add to that drama by pressuring her to come back home early just to share cake and blow out a few candles with him, he wasn't five. Couldn't hang out with friends either because God knows the last time he went they stayed overnight and that messed up his grades so bad his sister almost beat him to death. Not conducive to letting social welfare keep their independence, he knew. But she meant well.
He took another sip and a gunshot cracked through the cool night air. The young man stared down at his shirt and the mess of orange all over it. His can of orange soda had burst after a shockwave disturbed his hand. The contours of a bullet hole could be clearly seen on the aluminum but little did he care about that.
"Hello there. Fancy meeting you in a place like this." a voice called out from the dark shadows of the streets.
Ichika granted the newcomer a modicum of attention before turning his gaze back to his spoiled beverage. He tried to take a swig of it but blanched and spat it out almost as quickly. "Figures there'd be lead and gunpowder." He tossed the can into the nearby receptacle and went to buy another can. He paused as one hand floated over the orange soda button. He turned his head to side and asked, "You want one too?"
The voice in the shadows audibly grit their teeth at the disrespectful show of non-chalance. A gunshot and disembodied voice in the dark didn't seem to faze this one. Even though she figured he was soft from all this civilian living, maybe he was just an idiot?
Sounds of a cocking gun echoed in the empty street but Ichika didn't seem to mind. "Feigning ignorance won't save you at all."
Ichika hummed as he listened to the machine beep in his order. "I know full well you're pointing that gun on me as well as the fact the country has strict regulations on guns. Which in turn means you aren't just the average thug out to mug me for money." The soda can tumbled into the plastic retrieval bin noisily and Ichika took it with an all too happy smile. "In short, you're not someone I probably want to tangle with and you aren't here by chance. Likely, you're here specifically for me. Am I close?"
"Tch.", the shadowy voice was followed by the echoes of clicking heels on pavement. Soon he could see the visage of a girl's face, her face.
SLUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRP
Ichika took a long drag from his can. "You kinda look like my sister.", he pointed out anti-climatically.
That seemed to set off something in the girl because she fired again but Ichika did not move an inch. Not even as the bullet whizzed by over his shoulder. "Don't you ever dare say that!" the girl screamed.
"Right.", Ichika nodded noncommittally. "My bad."
Bang!
"Take this seriously!", the girl who looked like the middle-school version of Ichika's older sister screamed after firing another shot that touched just the tips of his black hair. "I'm holding a gun aimed right at your head, at the very least take this seriously."
Ichika sighed, "But I can't." He took a large gulp of soda. "This is all just scare tactics, you aren't trying to kill me yet." He swilled the can to see how much was left in. Huh, not much. "Just tell me what you want and I'll decide if I want to be serious about it."
The girl tightened her grip on the handgun but did not fire. The way her fingers were twitching, she was likely fighting the overwhelming urge to just shoot the frivolous young man between the eyes. "My name is Orimura Madoka. I'm here to take my place back."
Ichika's brows knit together quickly as a scowl took over his face on the last sip of his drink.
Madoka smiled, "That seems to have gotten your attention."
The young man slowly pulled the can away from his face before crushing it in hand and chucking it into the trash bin. "Yes, it did.", he looked at her, "I don't remember having any relatives I don't live with, much less ones that would shoot a gun just to say hello. So who are you really and what do you mean by taking back your place? Is there some kind of Orimura will signing a fortune out or something?"
"Fool!", Madoka fired again. Aim veering beside Ichika's ear in her anger. "You have no understanding of the pain I went through. You who lived a happy life filled with love could never know the hell I do."
Ichika snorted, "You're right, I don't." He shook his head pityingly, "But you don't seem to understand much either if you assume my life is all that happy."
"Shut up!", she fired. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!", she fired and fired with every repetition of the phrase until there were no bullets left. None hit Ichika, because she never meant to.
Madoka threw the gun to the side of the road and grinned manically. "I'll make you understand true hell.", she hissed, "The hell I went through!"
A bright light filled the dark street and Ichika saw the girl was no longer wearing some sort of odd military unifrom. She was now in a one-piece swimsuit leotard hybrid with mechanical gauntlets, greaves and wing like things floating around her. There was a helmet like object over her head, exposing only the bottom half of her face. She had armed herself with the most powerful weapon currently known to man, the Infinite Stratos. And it was not just any Infinite Stratos, it was the second generation flagship prototype of England, the Silent Zephyrs.
"Suffer!", Madoka screamed as a rifle materialized in her hand and fired a sizable bolt of energy.
Ichika only held up one hand. The scowl on his face growing ever so clearly.
PSSSHHAAAAAA!
The blast hissed and crackled before vanishing in a show of steaming atmosphere and ionized ozone. What was left after that blast was not an armless Ichika as expected but a green gadgety, grasshopper like object floating in mid-air. It chirped once before stopping its mid-air spinning to jump into Ichika's waiting palm.
"Sorry", Ichika mumbled as a second chirp sounded from somewhere behind him to expose a red gadgety grasshopper like object. It jumped past him at waist level and a wormhole formed for it to jump into. In exchange, the wormhole spat out a belt that wrapped around Ichika's waist with a snap. He pressed down on the top of the belt to open a slot in the buckle. "But I've already been to hell."
Ichika slid the green grasshopper like gadget along the rails of the open belt buckle with a click and announced, "Henshin."
"HEN-SHIN", sang an airy digital voice.
Green energy hexes popped like scales all over Ichika's body before solidifying into solid plated armor. The form completed into a bug-like design of a grasshopper with green and gunmetal gray metals. Once finished forming, the red eyes of the armor lit up and invisible energy released from it in a violent torrent.
"CHANGE KICK HOPPER", another mechanical voice sounded, this time a deep rumbling bass.
"Wh-What?", the IS pilot stepped back in hesitation. This was not part of the plan. The intelligence reports never had anything like this in them. As far as the Phantom Task scouts were concerned, he was just a normal boy. She grit her teeth, "That armor won't make any difference, nothing is stronger than the IS!"
Ichika leaned back on his foot. He cut a languid exasperated figure and sighed, "I wasn't planning to use strength." He saw the bright flash of energy discharge from Silent Zephyr's rifle and he ran a finger along the deep imprint on top of his belt buckle.
He disappeared in the flash of light and the girl in the IS was thrilled for all of a tenth of a second before a severe impact sent her crashing through a nearby concrete wall on the side of the road.
What was that?
It was the only thought running through Madoka's mind as she searched for the cause of the force that hit her. What she saw through the dusty rubble was something she could not comprehend though. There was the armored figure of Ichika, standing as if he had not done a thing. The only incriminating points being him standing in her previous position and the fact he wasn't vaporized yet.
"What-"
"Clock up.", Ichika slid his finger over his belt again.
"CLOCK UP"
The next moment she knew, Madoka was being tossed around by some force she could not see. No, not something she couldn't see. Something too fast for her to comprehend. Her senses could barely register one sensation before the other, turning all her understanding of the physical world into one blur of nauseating colors and blunted pain. She took one last hit and found herself going through another wall. This time it was a fence made of wood.
"Sorry about the rough treatment.", she could hear Ichika's calm laidback voice. "I heard IS shields were pretty tough so I was giving it all I got." He was moving towards her with measured purposeful steps.
Forget playing with him, the idiot had the ability to somehow be faster than the IS. Faster than even the hyper sensor could detect. Madoka had to change up her game plan or else she might actually be defeated. She would not end up compromised by her pride like with that sorry cow uddered Autumn!
As soon as she could, Madoka blasted upwards into the sky, intent on utilizing a long ranged bombardment he could not reach.
Ichika watched her rocket towards the sky and read her intent. He shook his head in disapproval. "Uh-uh. Can't have that." He flicked up the legs of the grasshopper gadget resting on his belt buckle and dragged its jointed knee lever all the way over its head. "Rider jump."
"RIDER JUMP!"
Tachyon particles flowed down into Ichika's left foot and he tapped down with it resulting into an incredible leap that resembled flight. His rate of climb was transonic and he overtook the Silent Zephyr in no time.
Ichika shoved the lever back into its default position and the machine declared.
"RIDER KICK!"
"Rider kick.", the armored warrior silently declared as he descended upon Madoka, who was slack-jawed in shock. His left foot charged with tachyon energies again and it impacted singularly into the field of energy bubble encasing the IS. The jack like mechanism on Ichika's left foot activated and pumped down its own reserve of tachyon particles, overcoming the climbing power of the IS as the armor diverted everything available to defense and the pair plummeted back down to the Earth.
Luckily they fell to the road instead of a house. Because the impact of their landing cratered the ground beneath them with over twenty tons of force.
Ichika kicked off the shield and landed gracefully on two feet. He turned around, watching in fascination as the Silent Zephyrs groaned under the deformation it had undergone from the intense impact. He had to hand that Madoka girl credit. She was tenacious.
The IS pilot forced her stolen Silent Zephyrs to move. She could not be beaten here. That would mean capture. She only had the choice of retreat. To be forced into this kind of situation, Madoka couldn't believe it.
"I'm going to have to apologize again.", Ichika grunted as he reached over to the grasshopper gadget on his belt. "but I have to end this now. I kind of need to get home." He pulled up the legs of the gadget partially, just enough to hear it whine with energy. "Onee-san will be home any minute and I can't be missing when she does.", he pushed down the leg lever. "Rider Kick."
"RIDER KICK."
Madoka's eyes widened at the announcement. The same attack that sent her crashing down! She had to get away!
And yet she would not even get the chance to try a retreat.
"Clock up."
"CLOCK UP!"
Everything slowed down to a practical stop. Ichika was the only one who moved normally, everything else had slowed down. Or rather, Ichika had sped up so much that even his perception of the world had made everything seem at a stand still. This was the world of light speed, the world of clock up that Ichika frequented.
He ran over to the Silent Zephyrs and kicked it with his tachyon charged foot. The jack on his left leg pumped in tachyon energy to the attack then reset with a fresh charge using the force of the previous kick before repeating the process. He hit the IS again, and again, and again. His left foot unleashing kick after kick like a machine gun without dropping down to the ground once. Energy cackled as the IS barrier buckled and cracked underneath all that force and energy. After innumerable hits the shield finally shattered. Ichika pulled back his foot and gave one last horizontal stomp which prompted the absolute defense of the Infinite Stratos.
CLOCK OVER
Time returned back to normal once more and the armored Ichika watched Madoka be flung across some stranger's yard after crashing through their wooden fence.
"Well.", Ichika sighed, "That's done." He reached down to undo his transformation, until he heard the police sirens off in the distance. "Urk!", he looked around witha disgruntled expression and just realized how much commotion and property damage they'd just done. "Well crap. Guess I have to clock it up out of here.", he reached with one finger to activate his clock up but then remembered.
He looked over to the prone figure of Madoka Orimura. Orimura...
She wasn't moving and it was likely the police would take her in under the circumstances. Though with her having an IS the military might take custody of her and God knows what they do with a criminal having the equivalent of a thousand nuclear warheads in terms of military value.
Orimura
"Crap.", Ichika palmed his face. He approached the girl and the red grasshopper machine from before sprang out of a wormhole once again. This time it was towing along a second belt that wrapped around Madoka's unconscious form.
"You better appreciate this.", Ichika huffed at Madoka's unconscious body as he primed the belt for the red grasshopper gadget. "I'm breaking waaaaaaaaaaay too many laws for someone who might be family. A lot of international ones too." He snapped on the red machine and waited for the transformation to finish.
"Best birthday- ever", he grumbled sarcastically before carrying Madoka and Clocking Up to make their escape.