Episode 7: Isolation
Part 1: Lost in the First Night
For two consecutive days, Squall kept driving under the cover of the city lights. There was no looking back this time, lest she risk an unwanted sighting. Through the vast highways and underpopulated fields, she kept driving until she made it into the Gunma prefecture, a red light district.
She slowed down once the freeway ended. At the traffic stops, she saw a parade of women marching from the Race bar. Bad news for any man traveling to Mt. Akina. "We have to remain silent..." she said to herself as she quietly drove to a nearby inn and bought a two week stay, long enough for them to recover and get out before anyone notices. She stuffed the renegade in a giant suitcase and hauled everything out of the car.
She looked up at the twilight sky, now lessening its celestial glow to prepare for the morning bloom. They were supposed to be finished before the twilight twinkled. Now, they've run the risk of immediate shutdown. Madoka and Autumn stayed behind until they were positive that no one can chase them, but their ISs have been exhausted. "I'll have to trust that they've made it out alright..." she said as she kicked the door open and threw everything in. Then, she shut the blinds so that no one can see what's going to happen.
Finally out of the limelight of society, she can finally breathe some fresh air. Well, almost. This is a motel after all. The faint stench of Girls' Night Out can still be detected, but it's not enough to sting her nose. She set some candle air fresheners on the wooden dressers. She then unloaded her suitcases and put up her belongings (what little survived)
-before finally reaching for the biggest suitcase. She slammed it on the bed and braced herself as she unlocked it.
"YOW! YO!" Sokoto shrieked and flailed in an effort to move his body before realizing that there was no noise, "Uh, what the...wuh..."
Squall peeked from behind a lampstand, "You couldn't give us a moment's notice, could you?..."
"Ugh...what the helling f***..." Sokoto rubbed his head as he surveyed the room, "Coulda sworn I was knocking some bambi wannabee..." His brain needs a minute to turn on, I apologize.
Squall noticed that too, "Since when did you learn to cuss like a sailor?" she raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, I've been all over the world in the short amount of time I've wasted away on this planet!" he wagged his hand at her.
"What, you think you're some alien menace now?" she smirked at him in the eyes, "Please, I've met hulking women more intimidating than you."
"And yet, I've deceived more than I can count!" he winked and pointed, "So, how do you know I'm not trying to deceive you right now?"
She uncovered her waist, "I have a gun."
"Pbbtt-really?" he scoffed, "That's the best you can d-AAAAAGHH..." before he realized how much pain he was in when he shrugged. His entire body had been completely wrecked by the Annihilator battle. Even the slightest movement of his back could be enough to paralyze him.
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy! Easy!" she steadied him back into the case, pushing her hand against his chest to prevent him from moving, "Don't move just yet."
"Ahhhhh..." he winced as he was pushed back into the case, "I ain't felt this much pain since New York City..."
"What happened-where?" she froze.
"Jumped off a skyscraper, grabbed onto an airplane banner, dragged it down to the streets-"
"What?!" she pushed extra hard on him, "Were you doing this whole time?!"
He braced the pain as he struggled to speak, "Ah, do I gotta go through that bit again?..."
She bumped his head and knocked him out, "Nope, just...just let me take a bath, ok?..."
"Huh...well, balls to you..." He slurred as he was once again sent to Dreamland.
Squall could not keep her mind straight during her bath. Every body part she scrubbed brought flashbacks of every person she killed, every family impacted by her squad. But why? She was just as merciless back then as she is now. Or is she? Autumn thoroughly disciplined her via sexual torture for who knows how long. Maybe now it's finally starting to set in. Everything you do has consequences, and this was no exception, due to the numerous scars all over her body, some reaching all across her body. Her most delicate areas have been severely tampered with, and she cannot shake the feeling of being constantly watched, even though they have nothing for communicating. Unless there's a hidden transceiver somewhere within her. That way, every word she said would be broadcast, not only risking detection and interference from the other signals in the area, but also the end of all four lives.
She reached for her healing serum and dipped it in, hoping that the soothing feeling with make her forget. Instead, it stung her body with each pain it tried to numb. And here's her paranoid state, which she has been feeling since the reunion. She felt it with Autumn, and she mildly felt it with M.
But with the renegade...why is he so open to three leaders of a terrorist organization?
"Uh, Squall?" Crud, he woke up, "I, uh...I gots to lets!"
She checked the clock, "S***, the hour's gone!" She grabbed a few towels and rushed out, "Ok, dude! Bath time."
"Sure. Just let me-" Oh, dear. This time, he can't feel a thing.
"Uh..." she just stood there as the case was now inhabited by a familiar smell.
"Help...me?..." he squeaked.
She grabbed the whole case and dragged it to the bath. Then, she dunked it in, "Here! This oughta perk you up...A LOT!" She swiped the suitcase back, causing him to spin multiple times before resurfacing his head above water.
He looked at her intently, "Gee...Thanks." And he laid his head back.
"Oh, and dip this in while you're bathing." Squall let out a drop of the healing serum into the bath, and it began working on Sokoto. She shut the door and left him to his own devices.
"Ok...I've seen everything now..." What are his "devices" called, anyway? faux-OCD Turrets? "angry ladies, exploded buildings, butterflies and moths actually cooperating with each other, what's next?! Waltzing into a nest of ravens and keeping quiet about it?!"
He was thinking about the past events that have unfolded within the past...MONTH. So much could happen, and he was the direct link. He was able to subdue countless IS pilots, anger elected and authoritarian officials, and make the most feared women in modern history scream uncle or their angry...all without the Silver Streamline. And boy did those feels come back to him.
"Oh, you had to say that..." he muttered as he felt the bath soothe every part of his body, all the while reminding him of the best week he ever had.
"We're doomed, I tell you," he said, while still clinging onto the hope that he will see Silvia again, "We are so screwed."
After fifteen minutes of wallowing in his own thoughts, he was able to stand on his own two feet once more, but he was still incapable of a prolonged fight. He drained the water and dried himself. "Hey, it doesn't hurt anymore! It doesn't-AY..." Yes, it does. The serum isn't magic; it's science. It still needs to rest inside you. He dried his hair and looked in the mirror. It's amazing how much fun you can still have before losing it all. He decided to fool around with the scissors and make himself a new hairdo. One that hopefully might not attract so much negative attention.
It came out...not too bad. "Well, hello there, kiddo! How do you do?" It wasn't a perfect cut, but at least he looked like someone else. Except the eye lenses and hair coloring had been washed away, so he just looks like a tomboy with his body physique. He smiled and ran out to meet Squall.
"Hey, it's ready for y-HOLY!" he stopped short of her...ruined body, stuck on the bed without protection.
"Wh...what?..." she covered her chest, embarrased and afraid to look into his eyes.
"Dude, your...your...WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?!" He saw everything. Scars, burn marks, scratches in places where they shouldn't be, her earrings has been ripped out, and her nipples were ripped clean off!
"Oh...that..." she sighed as she slowly reached for her towel to try and cover up her top.
Though, he could only focus on the imperfect areas of her body,"Wha...Whaddayamean, "Oh, that."! I thought this was supposed to be a safe haven!"
"No..." she looked away, "I can never be safe..."
"Come on! What's going on here?! I thought you three were on pretty good terms with each other!" he closed in on her face and stately asked, "Wh-what's going on, lady?! What aren't you telling me?!"
She closed her eyes in reaction to his close up. When she opened them again, she could see a sense of absolute in him, as if he really doesn't know what happened between them, and he might not care. She looked into his eyes a little deeper. Everything was so pure. Beautiful blue eyes that haven't been tainted by the true horrors of this world...
"You really wanna know?.." she asked, unsure if she wanted to go through with her backstory, but he insisted. "Ok..." she threw her towel away and prepared a place for him on the bed, "Sit. I'll tell you everything you need to know."
And tell, she did. Squall narrated everything, from her time in the old Phantom Task, to her most recent encounters with the other pilots, including the Third Mondo Grosso, where she sacrificed an ally in order to escape, all the way up to now. With each word spoken, she crept ever closer to breaking down. And he just sat there, taking in every single detail that was spilled from her story, wondering what it was like to have been in Squall, and Autumn's IS unit, to have been the one forced to make a difficult life-or-death call.
When she was finished, she sat up and met him side by side, "You see it now, don't you? Everything has a price. Everything you do has a debt you must pay," she put her hands behind her back to show all, "and as you can see, I'm nowhere close to paying mine."
Sokoto folded his arms and closed his eyes to better process the cause of her so-called 'punishment', "So, you shoved her in the face of the blast just to save your own hide, huh?"
She wept, "Yeah...I don't blame you if you'd hate me for it..."
He looked at her body once more, "Actually, judging from..."
"What about?..." she backed away a little bit, scared of what might come out of his mouth.
Instead, he nodded, "Yeah, for over two years, I'd say that's punishment enough."
"Seriously?..." she asked bewilderingly, "You really think so?"
"Yeah. I mean, look at you! You've had your body mutila-oh..." He tried to point out her severely scarred body, but then he noticed that his body has plenty of scars, too. Even more than hers. So, he tried another point, "I mean, you were seriously scarred by-oh..." Nope, they both had life-changing events that mentally altered their psyche irreversible. Come on, what's something they DON'T have in common, "Well, you...mind, mental..." He's running through all possible scenarios in his mind, then checking them against his and her backstories.
"Yeah?" she leaned in closer.
"Umm..." He closed his eyes and arms, trying to think of any differences in their stories.
"Well?..." she leaned in even closer to find out what he's trying to think.
He went a full minute before throwing in the towel, "Geez! I can't find something to talk about! The only thing different about us is age, gender, and body type!"
She backed away, "What are you saying?..."
"What am I say-LOOK AT US!" he stood up and flailed his arms around, "We've both been scarred for life! We've both sustained enough scars to make us living zombies! We both wandered the world trying to find an answer to our lives' questions! We both have yellow hair, for corn's sake!"
And then she yanked his head to meet her wrath, "Oh, that's the new name for natural hair colors, huh?" She pushed him aside to make a riff of his own comments, "Let's just call blue hair...water, and brown hair...dookie fresh! How about that?!"
He was hopping around, pointing to random stuff in the room, "Jump around and fling blood all over the city! Redheads, blood heads, what's the difference!"
And then, they kept this pointless argument going for 15 minutes, flinging words about hair, clothes, and even harmless kitchen utensils. And right when they both mentioned something about action figures, they stopped and stared at each other, just now realizing what they did during all that nonsensical nonsensing. They scratched their heads and slowly brushed it off,
"Uh, heheh...hehehehehehahahahahahahAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA~~~~" Yeah, absolutely no one could've guessed that the could carry on an argument like that...if you can even call it an argument. They laughed it off as if they just came out of a haunted house of horrible weirdness (well, they got a week to blow off; why not?!) "Ahahaha...Hahhhhhhh..."
Finally, they took a large breath of semi-fresh air and exhaled on sync. They stared at the ceiling for a second, then looked at each others' eye and giggled. Squall inhaled once more and, "Whew!" stretched her body, "Oh, Sokoto. What has this world come to?..."
"I'll tell ya what!" Sokoto tried to stretch his body, "I feel like I-AAAAAAAAAGH!" He only recovered enough for basic movement, not stress causing/relief.
And without thinking, "Oh, geez," Squall turned him on his stomach and soothed his muscles and eased his bodily tension, "Don't overdo it right out of the bath..." by massaging his tight spots. She was so intent on relaxing him that she didn't even notice what she was doing.
Sokoto felt...an odd feeling of satisfaction. Like everything was just right in the world. If only it wasn't for her bailing him out of the compound earlier, "Uh...thanks for...for saving me..."
Squall froze and looked at what she was doing, but she didn't take his hands off him, "Um...sure thing..." She was supposed to relax him, but just the mere sensation of feeling around his shoulders was relaxing her. She didn't know what to do at first. But then a thought crossed her mind. Yes, there's no way back if she goes through with it. But then again, it's not like she has a lot of life left...
She closed her eyes. Her choice has been made... "Hey..."
"Yeah?" He felt a little uneasy, but he is powerless to do anything.
She gently stroked his back, "Close your eyes..."
"What...are you...going to do to me?..." And his tension levels are rising.
"What?" she whispered in her ear and wrapped her arms around him, "You don't trust me?"
He can't tell if she's lying or not anymore! He winced at whatever she was doing.
"Easy, kiddo." She eased him on his back, while cuddling his hair. They were now in full view of each other. His eyes were still closed, but he was at ease now. It's now or never for Squall. She leaned in and moved closer to him. And then she...did this:
"Everything I'm going to do to you...if you want to do it too, it can only be done with the people you truly care about...people with whom you have a deep, personal connection with...Understand?..."
"Mmhmm..."
"Good...now, relax..."
"Ok...ready..."
"Let's go..."
And then, a kiss...
-One day later-
The opposite of what just happened.
The regions of Kyushu, Shikoku, Chuubu, Chuugoku, and Kansai have been blasting a certain news article every hour, on the hour...because it was a lot worse than the renegade:
"Two helpers of the renegade have just been apprehended, and they have been confirmed as IS pilots and former members of the now vanquished Phantom Task Organization. It is unknown whether their resurgence is of any present danger to any Infinite Stratos related affairs, but we can confirm that they were forced into doing the will of the renegade, by the renegade. They were last seen attacking an IS development compound off the southern coast of the Kansai region, and have since then fled the scene. They both managed to subdue the German forces and the Chinese envoy, but have since been caught by leftovers of the Japanese ground forces, who have been patrolling the country since the surfacing of the renegade~~~"
All five regions were reacting to this announcement, in public, and in private. A sense of hysteria can be felt wherever anyone went, even in the northern most regions, which only got the announcement via social media and started preparing for the worst when they saw that one of the captured pilots was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido. But if she was with him, they thought, then that must mean the renegade is still at large, but is stuck near the area of last impact. The south is stuck in a state of panic, as countless authorities began rallying the country on a massive "monkey-hunt" for the renegade, while the north is starting to hold press conferences concerning the whereabouts and capture of the renegade.
This didn't bode well at all with anyone back at IS Academy. The capture of two rouges by local authorities will mean questions and riots, possibly demands for the Academy to be taken down. The comms area was stunned and speechless.
"Not good...not good at all," Houki commented.
"What're we gonna do?" Honne screamed, "We can't go in at all and help them!"
Tabane snuck up and scared them, "Relax. We've got four pilots, five windbags, and a giant f***-you army hot on their tail," she wagged her hand, "It's only a matter of time before the renegade is captured once more." Then, suddenly, her rage erupted, and she crushed one of her crutches, "AND THEN, I CAN FINALLY GET MY REVENGE ON THIS LITTLE WHACKO."
"Scary face part 4..." Honne whispered.
Maya came by the booth and saw what was going on, "Those reporters aren't gonna come by, are they?"
"No," Chifuyu grabbed her shoulder, "And you're gonna make sure of it."
"Uh...Orimura-sensei?..." Maya was dragged along, "What're you doing?"
They walked to the main area, and she shoved countless tools in many people. Then, they walked into the main hangar where the emergency IS unis are held. Chifuyu turned on the lights and booted up all 10 units.
"These are 4th Generation Emergency Response Units, sent over by the U.N. for terrorist attacks," she explained, "We're going to use them and dig the renegade out from under the ground."
"But," Maya wondered, "What about Ichika and-"
"NOT." Chifuyu growled, "ONE. MORE. ASS."
Maya shut up and let the work be done. After five minutes of computer mayhem, all ten units were prepped and ready to board.
"I'll stay here and oversee the reconstruction of the Academy," Chifuyu said, "You find nine more pilots to take off into the mainland and find the renegade. He was last seen at the compound, so I can't imagine him going beyond Kanto."
"But it's a matter of timing!" Maya ranted, "We are so spread out thin, and they have an entire military, air force, police force, surveillance, everything! If they catch the renegade before we do, then it's over for the IS Academy! It'll be all-out war for all of East Asia!"
"So?" Chifuyu glared, "Get the renegade before they do. I've got Alcott, Blackett, and Harfouch on the scene, so they'll help in anyway they can."
"Um...ok?" Maya nervously said as she mounted a GERU, "But wouldn't it matter if-"
Chifuyu pressed the Emergency Launch button and bounced Maya out of the hangar, high into the air. The recreation construction unit could only see someone flailing in suspended animation.
"What's she doing?"
"I don't know..."
Back in the hangar, Chifuyu called to the Chinese envoy, "Channel C29-GE0010...come in, Xingjia Liang...Liang, do you read?"
"We hear you, Orimura," a response, "and we have the entire envoy connected as well."
"This is a disgrace of unprecedented magnitude!" An officer chipped, "We cannot allow this stain to remain unwashed!"
"We must find him and make him wash it for us!" Another one, "But where could he be now?..."
"I've already got two people in his current area," Chifuyu stated, "They should be closing on the renegade, if they haven't started plumbing down their duties already..."
"Shall we contact them?" an officer asked.
"No. Wait for him to come into your vicinity, then take him back." And with that, she cut off communication until she can cool off her head.
The Chinese envoy were investigating a robbery that happened near the compound. Someone had stolen a vehicle, but it didn't have anything of worth. Just a bunch of suitcases. They were about to track the vehicle when Chifuyu suddenly interrupted them...and hung up.
"Well, that was rude." An officer quipped.
"Shall we contact them?" Another one.
"I'm calling her now," Xingjia opened an encrypted channel.
"Major. I wasn't expecting you to-"
"Not now. Did you get the announcement?"
"Yes. I'm going to lay low for a while, in case that this is merely a distraction."
"Understood."
"Anything else?"
"Yes. The data uploaded to your VT System was only partial data. There is still a wealth of information to be unlocked, but the mudblood somehow convinced the Silver Streamline to do a complete Lockout."
"Tell her, don't bother and hide it. If he can't find it, it can't be used, right? By itself, it's just a statue."
"I see. We'll remain inland until we apprehend the renegade."
"Understood." Communication terminated. Xingjia readied her radio collar, "Xia. Mei. You two make your way to Naha Prison Chambers immediately."
"Míngbáile, shàoxiào." The two officers left on motorbikes, while the others stayed behind.
"The rest of you with me," Xingjia commanded, "We're going to gather intel on the renegade's whereabouts."
"And once we do get him?" an officer asked excitedly.
Xingjia turned to the rising sun and leered the gaining light with contempt, "Simple...he's ours."
-NAHA POLICE DEPARTMENT UNDERGROUND PRISON CHAMBERS-
Two women, dangling in chains over a bottomless cavern spring. One wrong move, and they both fall. They have devices attached to them, preventing them from calling out their most powerful weapons.
One woman couldn't resist the total irony of the situation. She was sent in to ensure a quick getaway and kill as many as possible, only to stall for time and defend her partner to the bitter end..."Heheh...it was bound to happen sometime..."
The other twitched in anger, "'Bound to happen'-you dragged me into this!"
"Well, you wanted to stay behind, too."
They both sighed...they stared long and hard at the abyss below...wondering if there was a way to live in the abyss...
"So...how long should we stay here?..."
"Two weeks. We have to tough it out for two weeks."
"S***...what're they gonna do to us?"
"What haven't they done to us? THAT'S the shorter answer..."