Part 2: The Valkyrie's Warning
"Oh, crap..." Sokoto faintly muttered as he was eyeing the woman who felled the entire group down with one kick of the door. The woman threw her sunglasses at the broken window and walked towards Sokoto with a fiery vengeance.
"So, this is the little pipsqueak who destroyed my home?" She hissed, "Twice?"
"Who wants to know?..." Sokoto grunted. Since he used his full strength the deflect the door, his body felt shattered.
"Ooh, a tough guy," the woman strutted towards him. She could tell that door did a number on his arm. So, she stomped on it, breaking the shield and pinning him down. Then, she knelt down on his stomach and slowly reaches for his neck, "I know what to do with tough guys."
For some reason, Cecilia couldn't bear the sight of Sokoto getting killed by her former teacher. So, she unconsciously deployed her drones and had them fire at Chifuyu, who effortlessly avoided all their shots.
"Oh, I had expected better from you," Chifuyu glared at Cecilia.
"Eep!" Cecilia winced, "I...I didn't-"
"You couldn't dig into Ichika's pants, so now you're diving into the renegade's?"
Cecilia suddenly stooped to depression.
"That's low..." Madoka grunted as she tried to pry herself on her feet, "even for you..."
Chifuyu recognized that voice. Her demeanor turned viscous as she walked towards the woman who used to be an afterthought, now recognized as the one who killed her parents.
"To dispose of the lowest of garbage," Chifuyu hissed, "sometimes you gotta think like them."
Madoka didn't take that well. She deployed her twin swords and tried to cut Chifuyu down. But none of them ever came close to touching her. Chifuyu waited until Madoka was completely drowned in her own anger to kick her into the tv. Madoka was knocked out, so Sokoto got up to take her place. He quickly jumped at Chifuyu, but she swatted him down and held his neck to the ground. Autumn tried to save him, but Chifuyu simply shoved her out the window.
"Incoming!" Silvia screamed.
Chelsea quickly deployed and caught Autumn before she hit the ground.
"You ok?" She asked.
"Nope..." Autumn said, "I think her teaching years made her even stronger..."
"2300 rockets..." Silvia whimpered.
Back in the hotel room, Chifuyu was satisfied with the impression she left them and turned to the renegade she has against the wall. She clamped down on his neck, and he held onto her hand for dear life as she spoke, "Now, what should be done about the one who nearly killed my friends?"
"Heh..." Sokoto grunted and grinned, "Why don't you ask your gut?..."
Chifuyu immediately looked down. "How did-"
Sokoto managed to simultaneously deploy his right arm and ready a fully charged palmar blast, in an instant. Without making any noise. Something not even Chifuyu was able to do.
And something else she didn't expect was a small yellow sprite to materialize on his shoulder.
"You came here without an IS, didn't you?!" Silvia shouted, "That's why I was unable to detect you, but that's also why you're going to die unless you let him go!"
"What are you?" Chifuyu asked.
"EEK!" Silvia hid behind Sokoto's neck, "Forgive me..."
"Heh..." Chifuyu chuckled before releasing him, "Consider that a small teaser of what's to come, should you decide to venture further beyond the state's borders."
He dropped to the floor, right arm forced to withdraw, still maintaining his stone cold gaze at her as she was leaving, "Just because you're the Brunchilla...you think you can do whatever you want..."
"Oh, I know I can," Chifuyu stopped at the doorway and turned to the window, "Just ask my friends on the other side."
"Huh?!" Sokoto and Silvia both swerved their heads towards the window. An angry female mob had gathered outside the hotel, no doubt having received word from someone that the renegade was hiding here.
"How?" Sokoto whispered, "They shouldn't have been able to find us so fast!"
"Unless someone told them..." Silvia looked back at the door, but Chifuyu was gone, "Grr, this was a trap, through and through."
"We can worry about that later. Can you deploy wings?"
"Yeah..." Silvia hesitated a little before realizing what he was trying to do, "No way, nu-uh! We are not doing that!"
"You got any better ideas?" Sokoto managed to salvage enough strength to carry Madoka to the window.
Silvia was thinking of any possible escape routes that don't draw attention to the group. Unfortunately, they would all take too long, given the one hundred percent chance that someone from the mob would likely have already called the police before arriving here. She fizzled to Cecilia's shoulder, "Hey, Drillago! BIIIIIIIIIG favor to ask!"
"Uh!" Cecilia snapped out of her mind recalibration, "Yeah? What?"
"Have your drones shoot up the place and provide cover fire so we can get out of here!"
"Are you nuts?! Do you have any idea how much blood we'll have on our hands?!"
"Not nearly as much as they do," Silvia bluntly stated as she fizzled back to Sokoto to tune the IS for escape.
Cecilia thought long and hard before coming to terms with the current situation. She deployed her drones and had them join Chelsea on the outside, "Status?"
"Not good!" Chelsea shouted, "We're behind the front door, and there's a gigantic crowd of angry sign people!"
"Where is he?!" One of the protesters shouted, "Where is the little turn and all his turd friends?!" The rest of the crowd followed suit and demanded that the renegade surrender and the rest of Phantom Task be turned in.
"No one's tried to barge in, though," Autumn said, "Maybe waiting for some backup around the rear."
"Window it is, then," Cecilia communicated, "Autumn, can you use your wind gusts to clear a path?"
"I can try," Autumn readied her IS.
"Sokoto, do you have the fledgling demon?" Cecilia asked Sokoto.
"Yep," Sokoto hauled Madoka on his back, "Just say the word."
"Everyone, on my mark!" Cecilia readied her IS, while Sokoto let out his wings. Autumn charged her IS, while Chelsea readied her saber. They all waited until the crowd got into a frenzy and lost control, breaking down their group formation. Once Cecilia saw the mob become a thin line, "AUTUMN, NOW!"
Cecilia fired on the pillars holding up the driveway entry awning. Autumn blew her wing gusts and flung the resultant debris toward, but not at, the crowd. The protesters backed up in terror. They knew Phantom Task was going to come, but they were hoping, idiotically, it was quiet. As soon as a path was open for Autumn and Chelsea, they broke for it and ran out into the parking lot. Cecilia flew out and fired near the mob to keep them at bay. Sokoto flew out with Madoka and landed behind Autumn and Chelsea and withdrew his wings. Cecilia jumped out and landed on her drones, then jumped off and ran behind the rest of the group.
"Just like old times, eh?!" Sokoto shouted.
"We never ran this much, kid!" Autumn said.
"Hold on a second!" Chelsea got irritated, saber still out, "We're pilots! Why are we running instead of flying?!"
"One, for the intro!" Cecilia stopped dead in her tracks and fired a fully charged shot straight ahead of the group, "Two, THAT!"
Phantom Task looked back at Cecilia with bewilderment, then at the spot where she shot.
"Hey," Chelsea panicked, "That's the Rafale Revive Basic!"
"So?" Sokoto asked.
"SO?!" Chelsea freaked out, "THE SPECIAL FORCES ARE COMING!"
"Spe..." Autumn froze, "I thought those people helped us in Canada..."
"Renegade!" Cecilia walked past them, "Keep hold of demon woman! The rest of you, prepare for battle! Get us out of New York!"
"But what about the other fifteen pilots?!" Autumn wondered.
"They'll be here tomorrow! For now, RUN!" Cecilia fully deployed the Mermaid's Tears and prepared to engage the UN Spec Fo.
Sure enough, the US division of the UN special forces have arrived on scene. Autumn joined Cecilia in the sky and kept the Special Forces at bay while Sokoto and Chelsea continued their escape. The two were more than enough to distract the rest of the special forces, but they couldn't keep the rest from jumping onto the expressway. Sokoto flew up and deployed the rest of the Streamline. Then, he stomped on a car and effectively clogged the remainder of the road.
"Mind telling me what the logic is for interrupting a crucial traffic vessel?!" Chelsea screamed after landing right beside him.
"Just giving them something else to worry about," Sokoto spotted one van that was miraculously unaffected by the sudden crash, "Plus, we need another ride outta here."
"But...but a traffic jam?!" Chelsea stammered as she ran after him, while he was ripping a door open to his least favorite thing in the whole world:
"You just ruined my car, jerk!"
"What is up your fucking dick, asshole?!"
...spoiled white women.
"Yeah, okay..." Sokoto wasted no time in yanking the driver out, "All of you! Out!"
"And who's gonna make us?!" One woman foolishly blurted. To which she, and the rest of her crew, were simply punched out of the van and into the ever growing pile of motors.
Sokoto stuffed Madoka in the back seat and tried to jam his way out of the pile-up, "Little help here, maid woman?!"
"Uh...right," Chelsea jumped in the driver's seat and floored it, taking the van out of the pile up and onto smooth road, "Ok, sooner or later, we'll have to get off the expressway. We'll need to cut off all pursuit when that happens as well."
"Speaking of which, where are Mothim and Ariel?" Sokoto quipped.
Right over them, leading the Special Forces over the expressway, hoping that Sokoto got the message.
"WHY ARE WE FIGHTING OVER THEM?!" Cecilia screamed.
"So that they are held responsible for killing their own citizens!" Autumn said.
"WHAT?!"
"Trust me." Autumn threw a wind blade literally in the Special Forces's faces to get them riled up, "I thought you'd be better than that flea-ridden sleaze ball!"
"We are!" An agent fell for the bait, "Unlike you whores who allowed him to sully your sacred skin!" And she fired her guns on Autumn, determined to hit her at all costs. Without looking around her target.
Autumn was shifting left and right, slowly backing up to the expressway, continually taunting the agents until they could no longer contain their emotions and begin their reckless charge against them. They split to try and take Autumn and Cecilia down at once. Cecilia was still bewildered about the entire situation and just fled the scene, trying to stay close to the concrete in case she finds the renegade. Autumn, on the other hand, was living it up. She treated the traffic jam like a slalom run, weaving in and out of the agents' sight and reveling in each explosion caused. It wasn't long before Sokoto spotted the two escaping the glorious fiery rampage.
"Hey! Over here!" Sokoto shouted, "Jump in!"
Cecilia jumped and withdrew her IS right before she landed and squeezed herself into the back row. Autumn just slid her way in the middle row.
"Kept you waiting, didn't I?" Autumn piped.
"Is this really the time to joke around?!" Cecilia looked behind and ahead repeatedly, "Hey, where's the driver's door?!"
"Old man Troll-Clown yanked it off," Chelsea stopped giving a damn and resigned herself to focus on survival.
"HE WHAT?!" Cecilia freaked.
"Just focus on getting out of here," Chelsea gripped the wheel tightly.
Silvia was nowhere to be seen throughout the trip, because she was soaking in the very real impact of her creation and deployment. She witnessed real people get hurt, real destruction. She knew it would be bad during the rescue operation in Québéc, but that was a small pricking of the skin compared to this. They just ripped I-278 apart. Literally. "Oh my good golly gosh..." she rubbed her head, "If people up north hate the renegade...No, I don't want to think about it..."
Back in the destruction zone, the pilots that failed to kill Phantom Task were beating each other up for it.
"I didn't expect any of you to be suckered in by the worst bait possible," the captain said.
"But they provoked us!" One tried to find some plausible excuse, "They lured us into the expressway and made us-"
"They made you lose your reasoning, that's what they did!" The captain snapped, forcing the team to shut up while she kept talking, "Because you couldn't get over your goddamn jealousy, you took it out on your people, when you had every opportunity to minimize the damage!"
"We're I sorry..."
"You better be," the captain radioed the State Police HQ, "All units, Phantom Task has escaped Staten Island and is headed towards Elizabeth! Converge on 278 and 95 and intercept immediately!"
"Oh, manny bun bun! That was insane!" Sokoto freaked, "Did you see those cars go all like, BOOM! BOOSHCHSHCH! And Autumn was all, NEAOW! WOOSH! BLAM! But then Cece was like, AAAH! GETEMOFFGETEMOFFGETEMO-"
"Yes, thank you, renegade," Cecilia angrily muttered after her rifle socked his seat.
"Ugh," Chelsea honked the horn with her forehead, "Can anything be worse than mood whiplash?..."
"That!" Cecilia pointed to a massive roadblock up ahead.
"OH, COME ON!" Autumn freaked, "YOU'RE TELLING ME WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH CLOGGED CARTERIES THE WHOLE TRIP?!"
"Jump," Chelsea just let go of the wheel and slammed the pedal down so hard, it was stuck there.
"Jump?! Wha-WHERE?!" Cecilia screamed, and then clammed shut when Chelsea jumped out of the car and dove deep into the freeway below. Sokoto and Autumn quickly caught on to that stunt and followed suit.
"You're crazy!" Cecilia still screamed, "What do you hope to accomplish?!" And that's when she saw it. The car was at a high enough speed to crash through the roadblock. She quickly tucked the still unconscious Madoka in her arms and deployed her IS. The oversize and the Absolute Defense enabled both of them to plow through the roadblock without a scratch. Unfortunately, at the cost of several police officers. She flew up and beelined toward the rest of Phantom Task.
"Ok! So, we managed to piss off every dead weight chest woman in the nation!" Sokoto shouted, "What's our next play?!"
"We find a safe place to hide!" Autumn said, "Preferably in a begotten forest or a hut!"
"Are we gonna hijack another car?!" Sokoto spotted a rather nice looking limousine.
"Don't even!" Chelsea snapped, "If we're gonna nab a vehicle, it has to be inconspicuous!"
"Dammit..." disappointed.
"How the hell can he be joking at a time like this?!" Cecilia was listening in on the conversation, with herself muted.
"That's just the way he is," Silvia peek over Cecilia's headband, "Or that could be a defense mechanism..."
"Defense? Against what?"
"Against the growing possibility that we're not going to make IT OUT ALIVE LOOK OUT!" Silvia momentarily took control of the Mermaid's Tears and shove it to the left.
"Yaagh...how are you-" Cecilia was winded before looking ahead, "Oh, fish halibut..."
Sokoto sensed a rapidly-approaching aura and launched an energy blast at it. It was a direct hit that virtually did nothing to the target. He react quickly and blocked the incoming punch, but the arm that was caught revealed a hidden missile and fired off a shot, blowing him back. He recovered and charged forward, but the pilot kept him away by firing off several heat-seeking missiles at him. He was forced to fly around and find a places for those missiles to hit. Until he had a nasty idea. He stopped flying and planted himself on the road, in the face of oncoming traffic. He waited until the missiles were just about to touch him, then launched the Ignition Boost. He narrowly avoided the missiles, and got a hard punch in the pilot's cheek. The missiles exploded and destroyed a big chunk of the freeway.
"Sokoto!" Autumn stopped ahead of him, "What was that?!"
"I dunno," Sokoto took his battle stance, "But I do know there's more coming from up ahead. And they're not gonna let us go without a fight."
"You're damn right, we're not letting you off," the pilot unveiled her twin semi-auto guns, "and the worst part is, you couldn't allow us to squash you the easy way."
Within seconds, the entire group was surrounded by pilots, all with a giant grudge against the renegade.
"Crap," Chelsea muttered, "Gen 3 Cobalt Standard Issue, mass production. We're up against the elite force now."
"Just the way I like it," Sokoto smirked.
"Quite the harem to be lustily obsessed over one man," Autumn provoked everyone.
"And just for that..." the pilot was enraged over how Autumn managed to soil the pride of a woman, "...KILL THEM!"
Cecilia had arrived just in time to see the absolute chaos unfold. Phantom Task moved quickly to avoid the gunfire. Sokoto was the main target, so all eyes were off of Autumn and Chelsea, opening them up to plenty of surprise attacks. To their surprise, their attacks did very, very little in the way of staggering. Whenever a pilot was attacked, they immediately responded with a brutal counter. This caused Autumn to almost lose her wings, and Chelsea to lose her saber, forcing her on the defensive.
"Oh no..." Cecilia was racking her mind over whether to keep hold of Madoka or put her somewhere safe to engage.
"It's ok. I can handle her," Silvia assured her.
"Are you sure?" Cecilia asked.
"Yeah. I studied the Black Knight's system framework. I can take over if it comes to that."
"Ok..." Cecilia put Madoka and Silvia down on the mid rail diving the freeway, "We're counting on you..." She then deployed her rifle and hastily fired a shot at the leader of the pilots. That shot was not only a direct hit; it also took off a huge chunk of shield energy away. The pilot was shocked. For all their armor and power behind their weapons, they thought it would be impossible for a rouge pilot to act so brazenly. All eyes turned on Cecilia.
"You're all weak to energy attacks!" Cecilia boasted, "What are you, Pokémon?!"
That offended all of them, as they were all reminded of the sexualized female characters subjected to demoralization. They all turned their weapons to Cecilia and moved in on her location. None of them saw the drones emerging from behind her. They sallied forward and blasted everything within sight. Most of the pilots took damage, but none were swayed from their target.
"Ok, it's on," Cecilia closed her eyes to steady her mind, then out of nowhere, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA~" she lost it, jumping into the fray and spinning energy bullets around her, giving no regards to her surroundings.
"Uh, I should probably..." Sokoto crept towards the chaos.
"Yeah, you do that," Autumn kept her distance while Chelsea searched for another suitable transport vehicle.
Sokoto leapt high in the sky and fired a Radiant Gallic Grapple at a pilot. He was pulled in, but instead of punching her, he punched the ground with one hand and wrested the pilot out of her IS with the other hand. The attack destroyed the overhead pass and ruined the freeway.
Cecilia was absolutely livid. She and her drones sprayed energy all over the place, and popped quite a many number of holes in all the pilots. Only the captain remained, and they were more than happy to oblige.
Autumn assisted Chelsea in the search for a suitable getaway car, until they found a sturdy "lounge" van. They pulled off all passengers and carried it over to the battle site.
Just in time to see the captain get her metal handed to her by the disgraced IS Representative. The captain lost her temper, "How...you're supposed to be weaker than us...HOW COULD YOU BE INSULTING YOUR OWN PEOPLE?!"
Cecilia lost her temper as well, "As if my words could reach someone so dense."
The captain was on the brink of insanity, as she saw the renegade taking his stance in front of her, and Autumn and Chelsea about to make the escape. She didn't see the fifth one, though. The report said there were five pilots. She looked behind her and found the fifth one, still out cold.
"You will pay for turning your back on the females, you high-humping bitch!" She tossed herself over the brink and blasted towards Madoka.
"No!" Chelsea screamed, "Stop her!"
Autumn, Cecilia, and Sokoto tried to shoot the captain down, but she was too fast for them to stop her from getting to Madoka.
Who has her helmet deployed for some reason. Silvia kept messing with its visuals to wiggle Madoka's head, "Come on! Come on! Wakey-wakey! Eggs and bakey!" Then, she saw the captain honing in on her, with all the glorious fireworks closing in from behind, "AAAAAH! WAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPWAKEUPFLOORITFLOORITOKFLOORIT!" She jammed her finger into the helmet and triggered the Twin Lance's lasers, which blasted the captain right in her face.
Autumn caught up to Silvia, where she witnessed her handiwork. Autumn mouthed, "Whoa...that was insane..."
"What?" Silvia asked, "What was in-GOD-" One look at the captain, and she realized what she did. That laser killed her. She just killed somebody. She just stared at the lifeless captain, then back at Madoka. So many questions invaded her mind. She called out to Sokoto, but what was he doing before he found her? What was Sokoto doing with her body before she came to life? Those people they fought in the compound were paralyzed at best, but this was real. "I...were we-"
"Time to go!" Chelsea interrupted everyone by starting the van up. Sokoto and Cecilia hopped in the back, while Autumn grabbed Madoka and situated them in the middle row. Silvia pondered the potential argument she wanted to have with Sokoto, but decided to go to Chelsea's shoulder to meditate. Once everyone sat down, Chelsea floored it. "Whew...at this rate, we'll be out of New Jersey by dusk," she said in a vain attempt to calm the tensions in the van, "Anyone want to say something before we leave?"
"Yeah, I wanna say something!" Cecilia was still pissed, "A big ol' FUCK YOU to everyone who tried to kill me today! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE, AND YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE, SO FUCK OUTTA MY SIGHT, YOU BITCHY BITCH-ASS BITCH BITCH HOES!"
Awkward silence...
"What?" Cecilia snapped, "Even I have to let off some steam once in a while."
"Oh, shut up..." Madoka slowly came to.
"He-hey, M!" Sokoto glimmered, "You have a good nap?"
"I think so..." Madoka rubbed her head, "Chifuyu could pack quite a punch..."
"Chiffff..." Cecilia suddenly felt a chill down her spine, "Oh no..."
"What is it?" Autumn asked, "Who said what to who?"
"Chifuyu said to us...Consider that a small teaser of what's to come, should you decide to venture further beyond the state's borders..."
Another onset of silence, this time in deep thought, as they were all trying to conjure up every single possible scenario they'll encounter, from protests to assassins, to possibly a nonstop pursuit across the continent that will only end if they die. Only three of the six have experience being fugitives. The rest have yet to learn of the terrible price that comes with opening their eyes to the truth.
And the first payment has come due, in the form of an encrypted call from Silvia, "EEP! We got a call!"
"From who?..." Madoka asked nervously.
"Do we dare?..." Chelsea questioned.
"Uh..." Silvia racked her mind before deciding to allow the call to go through. The others braced themselves as the connection was established.
An all-too-familiar voice sounded through, "Did you enjoy my welcome gifts?"
No one had the guts to respond.
"Oh, lighten up!" Chifuyu continued, "You can relax! Unless you've somehow found a way to Philadelphia?..."
"*GULP*" Cecilia panicked.
"Oh, no..." Chifuyu continued, "You don't know what you've done. You should've just given up. You've got the most precious cargo in all the world. You should've just given it to us. Now, you've brought the wrath of Class 4 upon you. And we're coming for you."
"PAGAN!" Sokoto, out of nowhere, "YOU'RE BRINGING AN ARMY OF PAGANS! DEMON BANSHEE PAGAN!"
"You have no idea just how demon banshee pagan I can be..."
Connection terminated.
"Oh, Christ, what's going to happen to us?" Autumn was genuinely worried.
"We're gonna survive," Sokoto reassured them, "No matter what they throw at us, we can take it."
"That's not what I'm worried about..." Autumn said.
"Then, what is it?" Madoka asked, "The hell are you on about?"
"Will we still be ourselves when the final showdown comes?"
That got everyone thinking. Autumn and Madoka have undergone radical interpersonal changes since coming across the renegade. Chelsea and Cecilia have come under the influence since the Canada rescue operation. Sokoto...barely changed.
"What?"
"Uh...nothing..." Cecilia turned away.
"Out with it, Cece," Silvia insisted.
"No, I can't..." Cecilia buried herself in her seat.
"What's with her?" Madoka reached over and tried to pluck her drills, but was stopped by Sokoto AND Autumn, "Hey! What's with you?!"
"I just realized..." Sokoto quickly came up with an excuse, "...we all need rest. Seriously, you give her a haircut now, we ain't gonna sleep for the next two months."
"Seriously? Is he really gonna-"
"We're gonna need it, too," Autumn convinced her, "We'll take turns driving until we find a place to hideout."
"Uh...ugh, fine..." Madoka relented and conked herself out to avoid having to deal with the unease of the van.
"Let me know when you need to sleep," Autumn tucked herself in.
"Right..." Chelsea and Silvia just kept their eyes on the road.
