Episode 6: Onset
Part 1: Right in the Feels...
Afternoon on the beachside...a rocky cliff and tree canopy rooftop shielding two people from the sun's blinding light...and the prying eyes of the world.
"Nnn..." Sokoto slowly emerged from his slumber, "Ugh...ow, my head...the hell was I doing?..."
He rubbed his eyes until his head was clear. He stared up at a tree leaf until he recalled all recent events, "Oh, yeah...we were on the run for...how long?" He felt all over his body, and came to the conclusion that he was out for more than one night. However long it was, it didn't feel long enough. He looked at his side. Madoka was still sleeping soundly.
"Hey...Hey, Madoka! Wake up!" Or, it looked like it. He shook her as hard as he could to call her body to attention. He tried poking her most sensitive spots with a sharp twig for five full minutes. Nothing.
"Come on. You pick now to conk out on a coma?..." he sighed, "Uy...Well, at least we won't be bored 24/7, eh Silvia?" He checked his left wrist, only to find it bare.
"Oh..." That's right. She got stolen. And he doesn't know any way of reclaiming her. Well, now that he's assessed the situation, he has to investigate his environment.
"Let's see..." He crawled towards the bushes to have a peek at the outside world. What he found... "Oh. Oh, no. Oh, no no no no nooohohohohooo...My inner curious is showing..." Yep. There were people. Mainly women looking for a place to escape the world and enjoy a secluded, personalized moment in the most beautiful way possible. And to the right was a motel.
They crashed at an ocean rest stop.
"Oh my god, soon much to waste our time so gleefully..." he muttered to himself before racing back to Madoka's motionless body, "Oh, do we have any..." he was scrambling to find anything that can record video, "Come on...where is it?..." he checked her are of occupancy until he noticed something glimmering behind her. He immediately reached for it and held it up as if to show the players what they had allowed him to find.
"Body cams. For when you're too lazy to buy surveillance, yet too snooty to buy spies!" He ripped out the straps from the camera and threw them at Madoka's face. Then, he emerged from the green shelter to pull his latest pranks.
In the nude...What in the holy mother of f*** happened to TONING IT DOWN, SOKOTO?!
Two weeks later...
"Nnn...nngghnhhhhh..." Madoka woke up to the gentle touch of the morning breeze, "Uhh...what happened?..."
She slowly looked around her and noted her surroundings. Then, she started to feel around her head, "Ugh...owwww...mmm, how long have I been asleep?..."
But her headache has become increasingly painful by a certain piercing shriek of laughter, to which her irritation levels have broken her tolerance scale. She grabbed the nearest rock and chucked it at the source of the laughter, "Can you NOT for five f****** seconds?!"
"Yow!" Sokoto caught the rock and threw it back.
"Uy!" Headshot, "Uhhhhh...I can't believe you did that, piss-ass..."
"Oh...oops..." he sheepishly scratched his hair, then diverted back to reviewing his camera.
Madoka started to rub her head, when she realized that she can't fell anything in her body. "Ugh...how long have I been out?..."
"Oh, uh...two weeks."
"Huh?..." she sat up and stared at him blankly, "The hell?..."
"Seriously," he chucked the camera behind him and gave her the telling-a-story-look, "We were running for an entire night. We finally fainted here in this spot. I woke up and had myself a little fun, but you were caught in a two-week coma."
"WHAT?!"
"Relax," he waved his hands at her, "Nothing bad happened to you! I made sure of that!"
"Uh...how..." she instantly regretted asking.
"Whenever somebody came out way," he casually pointed to the mask behind her, "I scared them off with the classic bad juju mask."
"THE F*** HAPPENED TO TONING IT DOWN?!" she threw her hands up in disbelief, but he answered with:
"Uh, Madoka? We're fugitives trying to rescue our friends. In what sense would toning it down make anything easier? If anything we'd have to play maiden in a world. That's all you've been doing until now, and that's definitely not how we should do it anymore."
"Hohhhh~~" she cannot believe what she just heard. Does this kid not know anything about being a fugitive? As in, you're supposed to tone it down for the sake of secrecy? She plopped back down ingress when she noticed something tingly about her body. She could feel it again. Too well. She felt something itch on her shoulder, so she reached to scratch it. And that's when it hit her.
"Ack! My clothes!" There was nothing to cover her up. Barely any leaves to find.
"Oh, right," he nonchalantly stated, "They all disintegrated when we got caught in that big f*** you laser."
"What? Then, that means that-"
"Yep!" he got up, "We are on our own! Again..." And that's when her eyes laid on his nether-regions.
"Oh my-dude!" she stuffed some dirt in her eyes, "Put that thing away!"
"What thing?" he twitched his head to and fro.
"That...the willie-the...thing-PENIS!"
"Eup-Ppbbtaahahahahaaaa!" he fell laughing so hard. All she could do was stare in amazement at how he could be so relaxed when he's indecently exposing himself. He wiped a few tears from his eyes and said,"Hahahah...ahhhhhh...You're really funny sometimes, y'know that?"
"Funny, what are you-Do you not see the look on your...Just make some pants or something! Just hide that thing away from me!"
He cocked his head to the side, "...Why?"
She looked up and froze. D...did he just say what she thought he just said? "Are you serious?"
"What?"
"You don't know know why you should cover up?..." she looked at him puzzled.
"Uh...should I have?" Oh my GOD! THE RENEGADE'S A TOTAL IDIOT!
"Ugh...then where did you learn how to cuss'em out?!"
"America, Mexico, Brazil, they're all blatant. The UK's crazy creative with their insults, but the Scottish slums are more in-your-face than anywhere else in the region. Oh! There's this crazy long insult some Egyptian dude came up with-"
She held her hand out to stop him, "Ok! Ok! Didn't need to know your entire resumé..."
"Come on! Why are you blushing! Someone took your fancy, didn't he?"
Well, how do I say this...in all the missions that Madoka's been on...she's never seen one. At all, "Get that thing away from me!"
"Wow...someone disconnected too early."
"I'll disconnect your d*** from you head if you-"
"Hey, mommy! I think I saw something move!" A little child was signaling her arrival.
"Oooooh, another victim!" Sokoto was extremely amped up now. He ran for the mask and donned it while practicing his madman gibberish and monkey imitation. Once he was ready, he leapt out of the bushes and proceeded to create the leading of his next monster.
All while Madoka questioned everything that happened since the renegade first appeared. Is this whacko really the key to Phantom Task's resurgence? The same boy who was able to pilot an IS (even though he couldn't pilot all those other ISs he touched)? The same man who was able to bring down the most powerful force in the world of the Infinite Stratos? The same man who could snap the creator's leg in two?
The same man making little children cry with his sad imitation of Uka Uka? That same man who can't tell a penis from a tablet, or a woman's breasts from a willow tree?
But, surprisingly, that's not even the most shocking part. She saw every inch of his body covered in gashes and scars. She even saw where the knife went all those years ago.
"Hauuuuhhhhh..." she plopped back down on the grass, "No, seriously...The hell's he been doing all this time?..." Well, in the coming days, she'll get a small taste of what he's been up to. Because they are paired for their first raid in two years, his first raid as a member of Phantom Task! And as a pair, they'll have to cooperate with each other. Before. During. And after she reclaims the Black Knight.
"Someone put me back in prison..." she whispered before sending herself into deep slumber once more, praying that she will not wake up sooner than she has too.
A week earlier...
Nighttime at a love hotel in the Shizuoka Prefecture...
Squall: "AGH! AHAA! STOP! PLEASE!"
Autumn: "Why? I thought you liked it like that..."
Squall: "AGH! NO! OW! IT HURTS! AHAHA IT HURRRHURHURHURRRTS..."
Autumn: "Come on. You think this is enough to repay me?"
Squall: "AAAAAAAOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!"
Autumn: "That's it...Let me hear you scream more."
Squall: "Wait! NO! WHERE ARE YOU PUTTING TH-"
Autumn: "Boop."
Squall: "MMMMMMMMMMMMFMFMFMFMMMMMMMMMMMGHMGMMHMGMGMHMHGMGMMMFMMMFMGMGMMHNFNFGMHNMNMFNGMHNMFGNMFNMNMFNMGNMHNMGNMHNMGHNMGNFMNMFNMGNHMGN~"
Autumn: "That's it...That's my girl...Don't worry...You'll be safe with me from now on..." *CHOMP!*
Squall: "MMMMMMMMHMHNHMNHMHMHNMHNHMHMHMHMHMHMMMMMMMMMMM~"
15 minutes later...
So, after...whatever the hell just happened, Autumn finally stopped and walked towards the door, "I'm going out for a while. Do behave until I return." And she just left. That's it.
Really. She just left Squall as was. The sensastion of the searing of her flesh must've sent an incredible action potential because mere minutes after Autumn left, her hands were able to slip through her cuffs. She immediately freed her entire body from enduring anymore pain, then stopped everything to take a few large breaths,
"Haha...hah...hah...hah...hah...hahhh...hahhhh...hahhh...uuuuuuuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhuuuuu..."
She scooted up, hugged her legs, burried her head behind her knees, and started to sob uncontrollably. The pain starts to numb her entire body, but her normally hardened heart has finally broken its shell to reveal a torn-actually, it's a puzzle with one of its pieces destroyed.
"What've I done?...What've I done to her?..."
Really? You're asking that now?...It should've been obvious to you, and yet you're asking yourself this every single day. Ah, geez. Let's do a little backtracking and constantly reminding.
Squall's group launched a direct assault on the 3rd Mondo Grosso, during the final fight. They were supposed to steal all data recorded during the entire tournament and eliminate anyone who found them out. Three problems with this.
First: The people who found them out were two of the IS Representative Candidates. The area Autumn was supposed to go in was restricted, requiring an access code to enter the main server room. Problem is, she crossed paths with Cecilia and Houki, the two pilots whom she severely underestimated. All it took was one quick menacing glare for them to quickly recognize her. Luckily, they had a contingency plan just in case they were caught. Yeah, guess how that turned out.
Second: When it came time to decide their fates during the heat of the fight, their true natures shown through. Even though Madoka constantly tried to kill Chifuyu and Ichika, she still had feeling for them, mainly because they had the one thing she never had, something that loses all value once it's taken away from them, but also because of family bonds. Autumn continued to cling to Squall's side, even going so far as to shield her from multiple direct attacks because her IS was a taking unit. The deciding moment was the final attack. All of the Representative Candidates came together and launched the United Reiraku Byakuya against Squall's group.
Had all three of them stood together, their ISs could've combined energy output to block the attack. Instead, they separated. Madoka found a small weak spot in the giant f*** you spear and pursued it alone. Squall used Autumn's deep affection as a scapegoat. She just shoved her directly into the full brunt of the attack. Madoka dispersed the attack in time to give Squall a chance to escape undetected. Unfortunately, Autumn was presumed dead, and although Madoka critically injured Chifuyu, she could not handle the rest of them all at once.
Third: Madoka implicitly gave the Candidates the exact location of Phantom Task's board of directors. When they stormed the compound, what followed was the biggest mistake made by a seasoned warrior since sacrificing a fellow comrade to make your ends meet.
Piling your own agents' bodies on their conscience. Yeah! 'Cuz that's how you bring them down to your level when you realize you've already lost, right?! Right?! RIGHT?! PUSHING THE F****** ENVELOPE HERE!
Whenever she attacked, she'd attack relentlessly without regards to her surroundings. Whenever they attacked, she manipulated THEIR surroundings, to the point where it was impossible to get anywhere near her without killing the innocent in her way. Unfortunately, that just made everyone angrier.
And ultimately, it did nothing to prevent Phantom Task's downfall. She was pierced anyway and left to die.
Underneath the rubble, Squall emerged just as construction workers were about to arrive for cleanup. She quickly resumed her normal lifestyle as suited for a fugitive, thinking that she'll get another chance to rebuild and strike again. However, she would soon cross Autumn's path under the blood moon in Moscow. Long story short, she was overpowered via sheer bone break, heartbreak, and everything in between. Madoka was bailed out of prison, but in the six months that followed, no one (except Ichika) was willing to forget what she had done as "M", much less forgive. She ran away in the seventh month and found Squall and Autumn under the Tokyo Tower.
They laid low for a few weeks until the renegade surfaced. And the rest is history.
Maybe for Sokoto, but not for the other three, who are still finding a more permanent means to cope with the gashes in their hearts. Autumn seriously loved Squall, but in the end she was merely one of her polishing tools. It took her weeks to piece together why she was shoved aside mercilessly by her one true love. Squall herself was feeling the punishments and consequences of her heartless actions. Worst of all, this. She's broken free of her restraints. She could leave break out of her hellhole and never look back. She could've done it anytime she wanted to.
Yet she couldn't. Or, rather...she CHOSE NOT to.
She had deigned herself to these punishment because...well, for the first time, she felt hurt. Not because of how she used the people around her, but because Autumn made her see how much she hurt her especially. It is the classic "Here's a sweet soulmate willing to do anything for you; go abuse her" cheese, but then comes a new surprise ingredient the chef likes to toss in once in a while. For some, it's bitter sweet. Others may find it a bit too sweet. But for Squall, it was so juicy, so tangy, that it left a horrible aftertaste. No particular flavor, just bad. One that will never be washed away. All she did her whole life was use people, and rarely did she give anyone a chance to catch their breath when she's about to assimilate them into her ranks. She molded them the way she saw fit, and tossed aside those whom she couldn't mold. And here comes the one person she molded too well. The one person who looked up to her, became her, loved her as she was molded to become an extension of her inner self...
...And guess how that went.
"I'm...sorry...I'm...so...sor...ry..." Squall's tear production ramped up to the max. She knew the damage had been done. For all the apologies she could come up with, none come close to scratching the surface of her despair. Maybe this is all just a combination of self-pity and self-satisfaction. Maybe she owed it to stay with Autumn, enduring torture after torture until it finally lets up.
That's what she'd like to believe, but she knows that's not true. So, what is it? Why does she feel obligated to endure?
There was no time to think about needless questions, because she just sensed an ominously familiar presence returning from her trip. "Oh my god..." Instead of trying to run for her life, she reset everything. She bore the pain, which was amplified due to her rushing the punishment on herself, and put herself back into submission just in time for Autumn to walk back inside as if nothing has changed.
Autumn: "Hey, sweetie...I just came back from the convenience store...You won't believe the deals they have there..."
Squall: "MMMMM! MMMM! MM-MM! MM-MM! MM-MM! MM-MM!"
Autumn: "I wonder...Could I be able to make an omelet without making the pan explode?...Well, it seems to be heated to optimum level...Yeah! Let's do it!"
Squall: "MMMMHMGMGMGNFMNGMMMMM...HMMHHH...MHHMMHHH...Hmmhhh...hhhhh...hhh...hhhh...hhh..."
Autumn: "Oh, right. We making it fried. Pbbtt. Silly me."
Squall: "MMMMMMMMMNMNMNMNMNMMMHMHMHMFMFMFMFMHMMNMNMNMGMGMHHMMNMMMMMMMMMM~:
Autumn: "Alright! Let's get cooking!"
Squall: "MMMMMMM-MMMMM-MGHFGHMFGMHFMGHFGMHMFGMHFGHFMGHMFGHFGHFGHFGH~"
Autumn: "Okay, now whisk it until the colors blend..."
Squall had to take it. She was doing this for Autumn, after all. She couldn't leave until she found a way to repay her for everything she cause to happen. 'It's ok,' she thought, 'I'm ok. I don't know how I can make you forgive me...but I'll do whatever I can to help you...'