Chapter 2: Infinite Shattered Sky
8 minutes earlier …
Chifuyu had been heading straight for Japan, racing to her brother, having gotten word of his kidnapping, and immediately took off; leaving her younger sister Madoka, back at the stadium with a German IS unit to keep her safe.
She had almost reached where the Germans had tracked the kidnappers to …
… when a blazing meteorite shot down from the sky, and hit a warehouse directly, the blast knocking her back a good distance.
Chifuyu managed to snap out of the daze she got from the impact, and looked out to see the meteorite had hit a warehouse district …
… the same one where her brother was.
"No… no, no, no, NO," she mentally screamed the destruction in front of her was horrifying, whole building s were in ruin, but her eyes were focused on the bleak remains of a warehouse which was mostly a crater.
She arrived at it and began to look, hoping, praying, to someone anyone that he was alright, that he was alive …
… she then found the tattered and torn remains of Ichika's school bag.
She collapsed on her knees; her IS de-materializing as she felt the full weight of what had happened fall on her, she had arrived too late and now … there was nothing she could do.
Chifuyu felt her anger build, it felt like it would reach the breaking point, until …
Crick-Crack
She turned to the sound of the noise … and saw the strange metal/crystal … well, 'egg' by how it looked.
She then noticed how a trail of dried blood seemed to be leading from a spot near Ichika's ruined school bag toward the egg.
Her heart started to beat quickly at this, because if she is right, then that me-!
Crick-Crackle
A crack appeared in the side of the 'egg', and more cracks appeared on it … until finally.
CRACK-BWOOOSH!
The 'egg' broke open, and a thick, clear, viscous liquid came spewing out of the opening, and then it settled as something, no, someone came out of the 'egg', collapsing onto the ground.
Chifuyu looked at who or what had come out of the thing … and was shocked at what she saw.
'A … 'girl',' Chifuyu thought as she saw the person who crawled out, the girl's body was covered the liquid from the 'egg', had hair that looked like it was a rather pretty white silver and was past her shoulders, and had a physique that was quite feminine, but also had a masculine quality to it.
However, two things stood out completely as Chifuyu looked at the girl.
The first, was that there were four clear, crystal-like 'wings emerging from the girls back along the edges of the spine, the wings were blade-like and translucent, but pulsed with a soft light that appeared to be a light Charcoal grey in color.
The other was what truly seized Chifuyu's attention, and that thing … was the tattered remains of what used to be a boys school uniform, hanging off the girl's body in tatters, and if Chifuyu remembered correctly, it was the same uniform that belonged to the School Ichika attended.
"Is she … can it be," Chifuyu thought hard as she looked at the girl, caught a glimpse of the girls eyes, and saw she had heterochromic eyes, with one eye being a light cerulean blue color, but the other eye was a brownish-red … the same color as Chifuyu's own eyes.
She decided to do one last thing, just be sure, and she spoke:
"I-chika"
The girl turned to her in an instant, staring at her, and she then spoke, in a near whisper, but more than loud enough for her to hear.
"C-Chifuyu-nee"
Chifuyu felt like her legs were going to give out, Chifuyu felt herself go all wobbly as she slowly approached the girl, that one word, the name her brother used in order to refer to her, it was a different voice, but the one using it and the one who normally used a different voice were one in the same.
Chifuyu reached out and cupped the girls left cheek, and she felt the warmth and the smoothness of the contact, the skin soft the touch but was firm and healthy, and her other hand reached out to one of the 'wings'.
Instead of the cold, harsh felling one would get from touching a sharp, angled surface, the touch was … well, it felt like something she never experienced, the feel of the wings was like touching something that was there, yet not there, neither cold nor warm, neither sharp nor soft, and she felt soft pulses of some type of energy pulse from within the wings
The feelings were not bad, in any way, it was a good feeling, warmth that radiated from the strange wings, and as Chifuyu looked at Ichika, who had a very feminine physique, but still had a strong looking body, though some parts were a bit more feminine than others, with one such place being the chest region.
Ichika had noticed, and realizing it put an arm over 'her' chest, now blushing very slightly.
"Ichika," Chifuyu stated to say, "What happened to you, how did you become like this."
Ichika explained it all, when he had been kidnapped, to waking up in the warehouse, when the asteroid hit, him being on the brink of death until he was somehow absorbed into the strange crystal metal, the entity he conversed with, and how the two had merged in order to survive, and what resulted in their current form.
Chifuyu had a hard time taking all of this in, but then a thought occurred to her, "You said that you merged with the other thing, which means that it is in there to?"
Ichika realized what she meant, and then closed her (yes her) eyes, and the wings then pulsed slightly with energy, and glowed with a soft ambient light, and when her eyes opened, the glowed a beautiful azure white light, though it was a soft glow that was in her irises.
"You wished to speak to this one," said 'Ichika', Chifuyu immediately noted the change in tone, how it deepened and was no more … well, more, "this one and your brother had little choice in our fusion, it was either we merge and survive, or remain separate and perish, this one's decision was not easy to make."
Chifuyu listened as it spoke to her in a calm, even voice, telling her of the process, how it absorbed him to save him, and how it had impacted the Earth after its brush with death.
That last one grabbed Chifuyu's attention.
"What was it that brought you to the point of death," Chifuyu asked it, and the other who was within Ichika's new body opened its mouth to speak …
… then its eyes shot open, and had a look of unbridled terror, and Chifuyu felt it hit her …
.. she felt something shoot through her, something she had felt only a few times in her life, a feeling that caused her sense of danger to go on fire …
… it was terror.
"I-It-It's here, i-it has come," said the other within Ichika, Chifuyu seeing Ichika's whole body shake with fear.
Then the sky lit up.
The light coming from the sky was almost blinding, but it soon passed, Chifuyu focused on what had caused the flash …
… and bore witness to a meteorite hurtling STRAIGHT AT THEM!
She saw it was too late to run, too late to get to safety, even her own IS, with its incredible speed, could not make it out of the destructive radius of the impact of the meteor.
So Chifuyu activated her IS Karazakura, and enveloped Ichika in a hug, placing herself between her (brother/sister?), and the high speed space rock hurtling to the bay.
However, as the rock was about to make impact with the bay …
SSSVVVVRRRMMMM, BSHOOOOOOMMMM!
A sudden build-up and release of power and the world was suddenly filled with light, the light blinding in every way, Ichika and Chifuyu both closed their eyes and held each other close, as the light slowly started to fade, and felt as a powerful shockwave hit, nearly knocking them down and blowing down the remains of the building, as well as blowing out most of the windows in the city.
The two of them realized the light was gone …
… and saw what had made the light, and the look of outright terror on Ichika very much unsettled Chifuyu, and the feeling of an imminent death was not helping at all.
Though the awe she was getting at witnessing the sight of what had landed unnerved even herself.
Hovering, in the center of the bay, a mist of steam radiating from the water in the bay, and all of forms of light being absorbed into its structure, stood an enormous entity, looking like a massive amount of pitch black obsidian-colored crystal metal, all bladelike and sharp, stretching out from it, the thing had an umbrella-like shape, with small crystals at the bottom and expanding into much larger crystals at the top, and the largest were eight enormous 'blades, each the length of a Destroyer located at the top, the crystals themselves not physically attached to the core of the unknown entity, the center was a diamond shape that had sphere-like shape at its center which glowed with a pale grey light, each blade floated in place with the center of the massive entity.
Then it moved, the thing seemed to look around as the blades shifted and moved, the core of the thing moving with it …
… then a sphere –like protrusion appeared in each of its eight blade-like arms, and seemed to softly glow, along with many other spots on the things body.
News helicopters could be seen appearing and heading for the massive entity that was hovering over the bay, but then the entity started glow at the tips of its bladed wings, and Chifuyu felt a feeling of dread coming, but was then startled when Ichika started screaming.
"Don't, please don't do it," Ichika stars to say in a panicked voice.
The blade-like limbs of the massive thing suddenly shift, many of the smaller blades fusing to six of the large ones, the six were split into groups of two, and aimed out toward Tokyo.
Don't do it, please no," Ichika yelled.
The blades glowed with a dark grey and purple light, and Chifuyu then finally realizes what was going to happen.
"NO, STOP, DON'T," Ichika screamed, all in vain.
VRRRRRRMMMM, SCRRRRMMMMMMMMM
Three massive beams of dark purple light blasted out, the light utterly blinding, but both Chifuyu and Ichika saw to their horror as the beams utterly annihilated everything they hit, buildings reduced to slag, streets heated to molten liquid, and any people who were hit …
… simply ceased to exist.
Then the creature shifted again, and this time, from the spheres on its structure, beams of energy blasted out into the city, and countless explosions tore through the city as the beams released intense amounts of energy into a large explosion, tearing apart countless building, vehicles, streets and overpasses and vaporizing countless people and leaving many more on the edge of death.
Ichika and Chifuyu can only look on in horror at the creatures' destructive power as it tears the city apart with beams of dark grey light, burning swaths of destruction wherever it hits.
Then they look out into the harbor … and see a JMSDF fleet heading straight for the thing, ready to attack the monster, and fighter jets are flying in the sky.
"Come on Ichika, we have to go," Chifuyu tried to pull her brother /sister up, but Ichika was on the ground in a kneeling posture, and then she spoke.
"Enough …"
"Huh," Chifuyu asked, wondering what Ichika was saying.
"Not enough," Ichika said, a severe tone in 'her' voice.
"What do you mean Ichika," Chifuyu aware of the severity of Ichika's tone.
"It's not going to be enough, nothing the military does is going to be enough," Ichika said, now with alarm in her voice, "if they don't leave they'll get slaughtered, we have t-!"
Missiles, cannon rounds and even bombs were launched against the massive creature, and each one slammed into a sort of semi-transparent energy field that surrounded the creature, the barrier just above the crystal surface, and it didn't give anyone a chance to fire again.
It blasted out multiple beams of light into the sky, and to the shock of anyone who saw, the beams splintered into countless energy bursts that shot through the sky like a shotgun blast, and countless jets were instantly eviscerated by the attack.
Then it turned to the sea, and in an instant, countless large beams of light shot out, blasting apart the warships, either slicing them in half or blasting them open, tearing apart countless ships, and any return fire it got, whether shells of Missiles were either blasted out of the sky or blew up against its energy barrier.
Chifuyu and Ichika could only look in stark horror and awe at the monsters power, and how easily it swept away its opponents; Ichika holding herself close to Chifuyu and Chifuyu held Ichika close to herself as the destruction continued.
Then, the monster suddenly released a pulse of energy from itself, blasting out many more windows and causing many buildings to collapse …
… and then, two large crystals on its structure pulsed away, and instantly the crystals fragmented and shaped themselves, until they formed two avian-type entities of obsidian crystal-armor, the two new creatures immediately began their vicious attack against the city while the main entity attacked the Fleet, which was made up of both JMSDF and US Navy warships.
It was a horrifying battle, and it was not only Chifuyu, Ichika and the remaining people in the city who saw this …
In London, United Kingdom …
A girl with long blonde hair, along with some of it done in a drill-like fashion, had been walking along the road, her maid and friend next to her, both on a stroll as the girl decided she needed some fresh air.
However, as they passed a store, they noticed the people in the store rushing to a single large screen television in the back, all looking at the news, the noise was deafening, filled with alarm, anger and concern.
The girl managed to make her way through the crowd.
She felt herself go stock still, eyes widening at the scene of carnage and destruction and mostly at the sight of the massive creature and its two minions as they continued to reduce the city to rubble and ash, a complete slaughter of anyone in the city.
The girl could only look at the carnage as it happened.
In Germany …
In Germany, the IS Corps, the Schwarzer Hase, was crowded around a large holo-screen, streaming information from a satellite showing the massive crystal creatures as they destroyed, all wondering what was going to happen.
A rather small, silver haired girl with an eye-patch looked at the screen with a rather intense focus.
In China, a girl sat on a sofa in her house, her face glued to the television, looking at the carnage as the enormous alien entity tore the city to pieces, her legs curled up as she looked at the slaughter.
In her thoughts was the hope that the person she loved was not affected by what was happening (boy will she get a surprise).
In a random Prefecture…
A girl, who had just come home from Kendo, had turned on the television and would have showered while it ran, but was now glued to the sofa as she looked at the world's first encounter with Alien life, and how that life was destroying everything in its path.
She could only continue to watch as the destruction continued.
Back in Tokyo (at least, what's left of it)…
The destruction stretched throughout the whole city, whole buildings had either collapsed or were completely gone, and now large burning hot trench dominated what had been the city center, created by a high energy blast from the massive creature, having switched roles with its minions.
Out at sea, the two other entities that the first had created both with a bird-like form, though only roughly as they were made of crystals that seemed to be held in place by absolute nothingness, and had only the standard rough shape of what could be described as a bird, and the two were blasting out streams of dark gray light at the ships out at sea, and also attacked any aircraft that were in the air, swatting away any with impunity.
Chifuyu was jarred from the carnage by Ichika, who had an imploring look on her face.
"Nee-chan, you have to stop them," Ichika spoke to her, "you have to stop those things before they destroy everything."
"Ichika, what do you expect me to do, go in and fight an alien monster that I know next to nothing about and come out the victor," she spoke to her sister (yes, she was now referring to Ichika as her sister), "this is not some manga or anime ('snerk':Author), this is real life here, what happens in those things does not happen in r-."
"BULLSHIT!"
Chifuyu pulled back, stunned from what she hear, just as a beam hit close by, sending a blinding light, this light illuminated the rather angry look of Ichika's, with Chifuyu still shocked, having never once heard any form of profanity ever pass through Ichika's lips, ever.
"I-Ichika," Chifuyu said to her sister (that will take some getting used to).
"Chifuyu- nee, right now I know only one thing, and that is 'anything is possible'," Ichika stated to her, "I thought that things like mecha, energy weapons and energy blades were things that only existed in anime, sci-fi shows and the like, and then the IS came out, and I also thought that aliens only existed the same way, and THAT," Ichika emphasized the word, while pointing at the enormous creature as it sent a 'city-cutting' beam straight through the downtown area, opening a massive burning trench and destroying many more buildings in an instant, "is most certainly as real as it gets, in fact, what I am seeing is probably the most classic scenario one would find in any sci-fi show involving aliens and mechas."
At this, Chifuyu could not find a word to say, but what could she even do, she had not prepared for anything even remotely similar to what was happening.
She knew what the IS was, she knew how to fight it and any pilot, because of her friendship with Tabane, and the fact that she had been the very first true pilot, as well as another secret, one only known by Tabane and herself, one that had allowed her to become the undisputed master in all forms of Infinite Stratos combat.
What was happening now, was not that…
She knew how to fight against IS, not Aliens, especially enormous juggernauts that could lay waste to whole nations … just like the one that was hovering over the bay was doing right now.
Then she felt a hand on her head and looked to see that it was Ichika, who had a solemn smile on her face.
"You want to know something," Ichika said, "when I saw the Infinite Stratos the first time, during the 'White Knight Incident' when it took down all of those missiles, I thought it was the most amazing and awe inspiring thing I had ever seen, that it would be like in those Manga and Anime, with IS's fighting against many villains, saving lives and more than that, or so I thought, then the world said that they could not be used for that, that the IS could only be used for sport and intimidation, that is when I started to believe that there would not be a time when the IS could be used to save others, when the world said it could not, but now …"
Ichika looked up, the alien creature; the creature released countless beams of light and energy.
"However, I think that time is now," Ichika said, now in a calmer state of mind, "so Chifuyu-nee, I know this is selfish, and I know that I may be saying this out of my own selfish desires, but I want to see that, I want to see the IS become a hero of justice, I want to see it fight for the lives of the many, that is all I wish for, I don't want to see it compete against others only for glory or some stupid medal, I want to see it fight for humanity, to fight for what is right … , I want to see it be the sword of light that cuts down the darkness."
Chifuyu was literally in shock, she had never heard nor seen Ichika ever stand up for himself that way, but a part of her was now very much sure of one thing, and that caused a grin to come to her face.
"That was probably the lamest inspiring speech I have heard," Chifuyu said bluntly.
"EHH," Ichika said a look of shock and embarrassment on her face, "d-did you know how much of my pride I lost saying all of that,"Ichika said with indignation, "plus, I am still naked he-HABE," Ichika was cut off as an IS interface suit flew into her face.
"Put that on, it will conform itself to your bodies shape and form," she said, and watches as Ichika puts the suit on, and it soon shifted to Ichika's body shape, the dark/light-grey pattern of the suit looking quite good on Ichika, according to Chifuyu's own observations.
Then as Ichika got up, an explosion blossomed out of nowhere, and both watched as one of the smaller entities shot overhead, blasting out small beams of energy from its wing-tips, while it also released a more powerful and incredibly destructive beam of energy from the its front, blasting apart whole buildings and tearing up large portions of ground.
Chifuyu knew what she needed to do.
"Ichika get somewhere safe," Chifuyu said as she looked over her IS's systems.
"Eh, but what about you Chifuyu-nee," Ichika said to her sister, concern in her voice.
"I am going to do what I should have done earlier," Chifuyu said, her shields having gone back to full power and all systems reading green, "I am going to protect you, and that can only happen in one way …"
She lifted her Yukihira and pointed its tip at the entity that had shot by earlier, and was now coming back around.
" … and that is by defeating those who would dare kill that which is important to me, and who would slaughter countless innocents without cause or reason," Chifuyu stated and with that those last words, she rocketed out of the ruins …
… and into the sky.
The enemy is revealed what will happen next, will Chifuyu succeed or not, keep reading.