IS Virus Episode 9: Immunodeficiency
Part 1: The Queens of Secretdom
-TOKYO DISNEYSEA, CHIBA PREFECTURE, JAPAN-
It's been a week since the renegade successfully launched two consecutive attacks on the Shibuya prefecture. Amidst the helter skelter atmosphere, people everywhere have been trying to find ways to escape the world. Among them Squall and M, who split from Autumn and the renegade until they were sure of a plan of attack. They retreated from the public eye and followed it to Japan's aquatic version of Disneyland. You would think that the flying roller coasters and color filled sky would take anyone out of the harsh reality.
But Squall and M had their ideas of the perfect renegade, and he turned out to be the exact opposite. So, his influence followed them. They came in heavily disguised as normal people, but everywhere they went, they imagined Sokoto ripping off his disguise and doing himself in the moment.
Squall could see it all. They rode along a tour boat, he would ride with the dolphins. They zipped through the roller coasters, he would be clinging to her side crying for auntie, while Madoka would cover her ears with someone else's loose change. They sat down in a corner to eat, he would gather a crowd of laughter from reducing himself to the local idiot. They watched the World of Color atop their resort balcony, he would dare them to reenact the famous Titanic hip-hold.
Needless to say, their day was...partially fulfilling.
In their room, Madoka hugged her knees, watching the fireworks light up the sky. With each color that exploded, her eyes glittered more and more, until the finale where she walked over to the railing and sat down to watch her emotions wage war against each other in the night sky.
Squall emerged from her shower buck naked and saw Madoka doing something she never saw her do during their service in Phantom Task. She walked towards the curtain, "He did a number on you, too?"
"Unfortunately..." Madoka blindly muttered. She winced and swerved her head to see what ticked her off. It was Squall in a see-through curtain.
"The hell did those scars come from?" She asked.
"You needn't concern yourself with that," Squall said, dazed at the fireworks display.
Madoka blushed before turning back to the fireworks, "Who said I was concerned?"
"Or chatty?" Squall said at the conclusion of the fireworks show, ruining the moment.
Madoka angrily punched the floor and walked off, "Tch...I'm going to find Dory."
"For the fifth time today?" Squall said with a cheeky loud voice.
"F*** OUT, B****!" Madoka slammed the door out.
Translation: she's gonna find Dory's entire family! Whatever that means...
"Oh, he's infected us, alright..." Squall sighed as she closed the door. She then stretched herself on the bed. letting her scars feel the piercing relief of the air conditioner's cool breeze. The pain wasn't as intense as during the Gospel breakout, so she could begin to recover her movements a little bit. She rolled over and felt a sharp pain where her nipples should have been. She gritted her teeth and endured the grueling back stretch before rolling on her back.
Right now, she didn't want to think about anything except her own death. Only now does she envision the faces of those she targeted in the past, the destruction her ruthless battles have caused, wondering what changed her harsh interior. Call it a bad case of simochi, but it's all the renegade's fault. And hers. She reached into her bag and opened a locket.
"S*...the picture's burnt..." she cursed.
Out in the park, Madoka stood in front of the Finding Dory entrance. For the fifth time. And she doesn't know why, but just the mere mention of an amnesiac, good-natured ocean dweller looking for her long-lost family captivated her since this morning. And she came back to relive the story. She took five steps through the tunnel when the lights came on. The room revealed an aquarium come to life, as if the ocean's inhabitants would be directly interacting with her. She walked into a giant room that simulated a small coral reef. Blue ocean waves on the ceiling, algae and jellyfish on the walls, and the entire reef and sea life materialized occupying the open space. Fish swam across the room, playing with the sea plants. A few swam past Madoka, fluttering her hair. She stared at the endless blue and the ever flowing current-
"Hi again!" TALKING FISH I'M HALLUCINATING HELP!
"YOW!" Madoka fell back. It took her a moment to recognize the fish as Dory, "Man, these damn projectors-"
"Who you calling a projector, M?" Dory got up in Madoka's face, "If that is your name. Speaking of, what's your name?"
"Uh...I thought you knew..." Madoka muttered.
"Really?" Dory swam through her body, "I could've just sworn you're another tiny timantha!" What the... "Oh, well!" She then swam through and pointed deeper into the aquarium, "So, I hear this is your fifth time traveling to-" low dramatic voice, "The reeeeeeeef..."
"Uh, yeah?" Madoka scratched her head.
"Well, there's a special surprise waiting for you, Manny!" Dory popped into her eyes, "And it's right there!"
Madoka stared at the wall revealing a hidden entrance to what sounded like a water slide. "Isn't that the exit?" She nervously asked.
"Well, they're all exits, lady," Dory said, swimming to the entrance, "It's what's between them that counts the most." Dory then called to a whale in her famous whale-talk language, and she heard a response, "See? Nothing but a really long undertow current! Come on! What are you waiting for?!"
Madoka nodded, then warily stepped towards the slide in rhythm with the "Just Keep Swimming" cheer, trying to ignore the giant blue dot spinning around her hair. She stopped in front of the giant slide. She stared at it, then back at Dory, who gestured her to hop in and ride the way down. She knew the projectors never acted like this; they were off their program, meaning that she was either being tracked or being led to a journey even worse than the family-friendly Soap Land. She closed her eyes and jumped in, and Dory followed her down the unusually fast current.
"S****************************************************!" Well, if they couldn't find her before, they can now...
"I KNOW!" Dory threw her arms up, "ISN'T THIS FUN?!"
"F***ING WHAT?!" Madoka was scared for once. Someone messed with the AI programming in this ride, but who? Maybe she wouldn't be able to find out, because through the twists and turns, and the sudden army of krill pelting Madoka's face-
"WHALE!" Dory pointed to a giant whale swooping in to eat them. Madoka shrieked and flailed around, trying to escape the slide, but the whale came in and "ate" them. Then a splash stopped the noise.
"HAAAHAHAHAHAA!" Dory laughed, "You should've seen the look on your face! You were all, HELP! HELP M-" Madoka squashed the little fish, but it popped its eyes from her hands, "Um, I'm a 'projection,' remember?"
"Get off!" Madoka swatted Dory, but her hand just phased through.
"Told ya," Dory said before pointing down below, "Anyway, we're here!"
"Where's here?" Madoka said before the scene revealed itself as the Great Barrier Reef. Madoka sat up and took in all its beauty.
Dory swam to Madoka's head, "AND HERE WE ARE IN-" low dramatic voice "the reeeeeeeef...Come on, let me show you around!"
"Show me-how am I supposed to walk around?!" Madoka pointed to her slide.
"Oh, right," Dory faux-pondered, "Well, I'll just point to everything and you'll see it all...here!" A giant screen appeared on the rails, to give Madoka a first person view of whatever Dory is pointing at, and there was a lot. While she recounted-STRUGGLED to recount her adventures with Marlin and Nemo, Madoka was taken aback by how all the sea animals could live with each other and the environment in harmony. She listened in on the tales of Nemo's rescue mission and Dory's search mission, but most of her attention was focused on the bustling sea life, and how they could all play along without fighting. She even saw goldfish and their parents, who were comforting a daughter when she was hurt.
"So, that's why you traveled down here five times," Dory devilishly interrupted Madoka's awe-moment.
"Hey, buzz off, pea-brain!" Madoka swatted the fish away.
"Boy, do you have issues," Dory commented, "And here I was just talking about the famil-" then stopped. She saw the look on Madoka's face when she saw Nemo and Marlin with Crush and Squirt. She saw her lose it when Dory's parent's waved to Madoka. She slowly patted her shoulder, "You still haven't found yours...?"
"I did..." Madoka squeezed the words through her tears, "But...but they cast me aside...and...threw me out..."
"No..." Dory tried to comfort her, "No they didn't..."
"But they did!" Madoka screamed, "Ichika, and...and Chifuyu...and...Mom and Dad...and...and all the others..." and lost it once more.
"Ichi...wait, I'm not talking about them!" Dory corrected her, "I'm talking about you and the renegade!"
"Huh..." Madoka slowly lifted her eyes, "How'd you know about the renegade?"
"Hey, it's amazing what the people who come in here talk about," Dory wafted in orbit of Madoka, "Renegade this, renegade that, destruction, obstruction, it goes on and on. I've even seen a few videos of you in action." She waved her fin, and projections of the battles across Japan lit up in front of their faces. For some reason, they were all the times when the trio protected the renegade, and that one time when the renegade tried to protect all three of them. Madoka stared long and hard at the videos, finally realizing why she wasn't so murderous 100% of the time. Dory's eyes popped through a screen, "Why else would've you shield him from that attack? Or that one? Or that one-no, that was him protecting you, I think-ANYWAY!"
Dory took all the screens down, "Sure, you lost a family, but you got another one!" Screenshot of the renegade carrying Madoka through the forest, "Through him. Well, you were always together, but it didn't feel like a family until he butt in, I bet."
Madoka looked back and forth at the screenshot, then Dory. As much as she hated to admit it, Dory was right. The renegade wasn't being the renegade because he was never the renegade at all. Just a kid who annoyed her to the breaking point, yet always shoved his life into her and ran forward to take the first hit. Kinda like a good little brother...
She smiled non-threateningly. Dory smiled back.
"So, I guess this means you're gonna tell on me, huh?" Madoka said.
"Tell who?" Aaaaaaaaaaaand memory loss, "I just saw that cute widdle smile of yours is so cuuute!"
"Dude, no," Madoka swatted Dory away again, but Dory latched onto her hand.
"Come on, brace yourself!" Dory shouted, "It's time for the departure!"
"Depa-HUH?!" Madoka remembered seeing it on a TV screen. Dory and Marlin rode a current on the way to find Nemo, "Wait, no I'm not ready!"
"Of course you are!" Dory said before she left the current.
"But-" Madoka shouted over the rising noise of the current, "What do I do if I can't find my way home?!" Clearly, the seawater got to her head.
"Like I always said!" Dory screamed as Madoka entered the current to take her out of the attraction, "JUST KEEP SWIMMIIIIIIIIIIIING!"
"DOOORRYYYYYYYYYYY!" Madoka lost herself in the final stretch to the exit. She was taken out of the reef and into an exit current, that was faster and more nauseous than the initial stretch. But this time was different. She was determined to keep her family, no matter how deranged of how broken it was, or how worse it could be. She regained her composure and tucked herself in. She slid down faster until she saw a light at the end of the drop. She waited until she was on the straight-down, then made her move.
"TIME OFF, BLACK KNIGHT!" she deployed her IS and busted out of the tunnel, and into the night sky. With no time to waste, she activated her IS tracker. There were no dots within 10 miles of her. She connected to her GDS private comms channel.
"Squall?" Madoka said.
"Let me guess," Squall smirked.
"We gotta find him," Madoka blasted off.
"Try to keep up."
Madoka looked up and saw the Golden Dawn literally a mile ahead of her.
-SUICIDE FOREST, MOUNT FUJI-
Autumn was gathering firewood for tonight's dinner. She tried to get her mind off of the fact that the supposed punishment for Sokoto was nothing more than pleasurable playtime-
"RRAAAAAAAAGH!" she threw the wood down and made a mini crater, "How could I let myself get caught up in that...that...AAAAAAAAAGH!" She snapped an oak tree in two, "I'll get you for this..." She regathered the wood and stormed towards the cabin. She heard some racket, thinking that the spirits came back to torture him more. She smiled as she moved closer, the noise growing louder, and when she kicked the door-
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" A giant musical wave pushed her back. She gripped the door and grunted her way in.
For some unexplainable reason, Sokoto and Silver were rocking out to "World is Mine."
And thus was the scene for the last week. Autumn subjects Sokoto to a punishment, it becomes pleasure for both of them, and Silver comes back to lend a song.
"He ain't normal..." Autumn grunted, "Biological IS? But then he can use an Is, so he ain't a bio-IS either..."
"Hey, Autumn!" Sokoto ran up to her and yanked her in, "You're just in time for the final chorus!"
"Let go, runt!" Autumn tried to pull away, but today he was stronger than usual.
"Come on! Where's that feisty aura you had a while ago?! Hey, turn it up, Silver!" Sokoto pushed Autumn into the chorus, while he and the Gospel rocked the air guitar. Apparently, she had it worse, because her aura changed in an instant. She decided to screw everything and get lost in the music. The trio played their heart out all the way to the end, because what else could they do to ease tensions between the world and each other?
Once the song was over, Sokoto hooted and high-fived Silver, who hid her wings and crushed a fuel cell with her hand, at the same time Sokoto slammed a branch on the floor.
Autumn was about to join the celebration when she realized what she was doing. "Ok, hold it!" she panted, "What the hell are we even doing?!"
"What else?" Sokoto piped, "We're singing our cheers to the spirit people!" Autumn blanked out, so he had a most idiotic explanation, "Well, the haunted spirits seem to enjoy it, and it is fun to scream your lungs out, so I figured why not?"
"Were you dropped?" Autumn sarcastically asked. She never thought that a penis pipsqueak would wear her out in one week. She just wanted some time to meditate on her pending revenge scheme. But that would never come to-
"Hey, renegade!" Squall's voice came through Silver's wrist, "You're not dead, are you?"
"Squall!" Sokoto leaped, "Where are you?"
Then they heard a knock at the door. Silver scanned the entrance and showed 3D projections of the Golden Dawn and the Black Knight. Sokoto ran towards the surprisingly warm auras.
"Squall! Madoka!" He jumped into Squall's arms, "It's been too long!"
"Same here, little hero!" Squall cuddled him before noticing Autumn's menacing gaze, "So, how much trouble was he?"
"Not as much trouble as I will put you in," Autumn growled, "And that's saying a lot."
"Calm down, pipsqueak!" Madoka shoved her heel into his head, "I'm not as grabby feely as you!"
"Why?" He squeaked, "What's a hug between friends done you wrong?!"
"Um, Sokoto?" Squall tapped his shoulder and calmed him down, "Mind if I have a private chat with Anna and Madoka?"
"Uh, sure..." Sokoto said, taking note of the solemn aura surrounding Squall. He motioned Silver to follow him out and shut the door.
Finally, Squall gathered the remaining Phanton Task members to the middle of the room and huddled them together.
"What's this all about?" Autumn demanded, "I thought we had a deal."
"Well, it just expired," Squall whispered, "because before midnight tonight, I will die."
"Huh?" Both Madoka and Autumn stepped back.
"It's true," Squall explained, "I saw the evening news. The Chinese, German, and Japanese forces have pinpointed the Suicide Forest, the one location no woman wants to go to, that's where they think the renegade is hiding."
"How?!" Autumn said, "We had a perfect cover! How were they able to find him?!"
"Because they grew a brain," Madoka butt in, "Japan isn't safe anymore. We have to get out."
"Lady, where on earth is safe?!" Autumn grew desperate, "I didn't come all this way just to push some daisies!"
"And we still have yet to retrieve the Silver Streamline," Squall added.
"The hell are you so obsessed with that Mecha Vocaloid ripoff?!" Madoka demanded.
"It's not exactly man-made, ok?" Squall sheepishly answered.
"The f*** does that mean?!" Autumn is got angry, "What aren't you telling us?!"
Outside, Sokoto is trying to listen in on the conversation. Silver knelt down and just stared at him. She tugged on his shorts.
"I don't know what they're saying," he whispered, but they don't have very optimistic auras."
Silver cocked her head sideways.
"Oh," he explained, "Ever since I stayed the night with someone, I had this weird thing where I can feel someone's emotions. Handy for visual spying, but not good for audio spying. Can you get through to them?"
Silver shook her head, showing three PRIVATE CHANNEL screens and a radar of the area. Silver saw three green dots, and a blue dot.
Five seconds later, 20 red dots, five on each cardinal direction.
Silver flicked Sokoto's hair twice, which to him, translated to certain death.
The three women heard something outside. Then, they heard a "We got trouble!" and a blast off. They were startled and went outside to check out the commotion.
Right above them, witnessing Sokoto and Silver protecting the Suicide Forest from 20 IS pilots.
