Part 2: All the Cuss Words
Sokoto and Silver were down. They looked at each other, confused as to why the song ended too soon. Then, they looked up at Madoka beating the woman out of Chelsea and Autumn beating the rabbit out of Laura, and realized. They took too long to whittle their opponents down, and now they were at the mercy of their greatest foe.
"No..." Sokoto pulled himself up, "It...can't end like this..."
Silver propped her head up and checked her status. Everything went. The wings, the weapons, the barrier, all gone. She was regenerating energy, but not fast enough. She let out a panicked aura.
"What?!" Sokoto panicked too, "What are we gonna do now?!"
"Might I offer a suggestion?" Tabane withdrew the Streamline and kicked him back twenty yards.
Madoka sensed his pain. She was stuck between finishing Chelsea and going back to save him. She froze and waited to see what happened.
Tabane walked up to him and pinned his back down. "Give you credit," she muttered, "You did something no one's been able to do." She held him by his neck. "Piss me the f* off," she deployed her right arm. Silver got up and ran to save him, but she wasn't quick enough. When Tabane punched him, they both felt the pain. She punched him repeatedly before hammering his head into the ground, and Silver fell at the same time he did.
"Death row can wait," Madoka made her choice. She ditched killing Chelsea for saving Sokoto. She burst out to fight Tabane, only to be swung down and kicked out. Sokoto was thrown her way, but Silver saved him and set him down.
"Oh, not good," Autumn saw what went down and rushed downward to help them, but Laura took advantage of the distraction and froze her.
"Before I finish you, answer me this," Laura said, "Why do you insist on aiding that foul renegade?"
Autumn smirked, "Wouldn't you like to know, artificial woman?"
Laura shrieked and fired her railgun, sending Autumn into free fall.
Madoka barely held Tabane back, but she eventually succumbed to her power. She fell into her leg kick and was blown into the shrubs. Sokoto ran after Madoka and tossed her the shield, which Tabane swatted away. He caught the shield and kept running. Madoka steadied herself upright, but Tabane choke-held her.
"Should've known it would come to this," she said, "I never should've made you that IS!"
"Get off her!" Sokoto threw the shield to her head and jumped up to yanked her hair off.
Silver had recovered enough energy to regenerate her wings and fly up to catch Autumn. Laura saw her coming and fired her wire daggers on Autumn, who blew them away with her wind gusts. Laura resorted to her railgun to shoot down Silver, but Autumn caught her in time and shield her from Laura's angry thrust.
Laura landed on the grass and aimed her gun at Silver. Then, Sokoto and Madoka suddenly skidded to her feet.
"Ok, you can let go now..." he choked in her arms.
"Not now," she vehemently whispered, "Look who's above us!"
"You!" Laura shifted targets, "I told you never to show your face around me again!" She fired her railgun, but Madoka blocked it and flew against the ground. Sokoto rolled off and fell in a pile of dirt and rocks. He watched in agony as Madoka was repeatedly subjected to the thrall of the AIC. He was about to throw his shield, but he felt a harsh kick propel him against a tree. He lost all his wind as he collapsed on the ground and was carried up by Tabane.
"How's it feel to have come so close," Tabane taunted, "only to have everything scrapped before you even got started?"
Sokoto didn't know what to feel. In a way, he should have known that she had a contingency plan in place. She's the creator for crying out loud. She had him the instant the fight began. He just hung there, motionless, not even reacting to a sudden urgent aura.
"Now," Tabane pointed the grapple arrow at him, "our little secret dies here."
She fired the arrow to his face, only for a shield to come and block it at the last minute. They turned to look for where it came from. It was the Silverio Gospel, who punched Tabane into the open field, freeing Sokoto from her grasp. He slumped over onto the Gospel's shoulder.
"They got us, Silver," he whispered, "We couldn't broadcast a single thing. Now, they're gonna roll us into Hell's bowling pins."
Silver nodded. She had enough energy to manifest her shield. She gave it to him, and pointed to Autumn, who was being restrained by Tabane.
"Yeah..." Sokoto solemnly spoke, "You don't have to tell me twice." He calmed himself and took a deep breath, and charged ahead, fully prepared to die.
Silver stayed behind and pulled up a recently posted CNN article about The Origins of the White Knight Missile Crisis. She looked at the article, then at Sokoto, and shrugged her shoulders, thinking that is was best to not ask unnecessary questions. She deleted her recent memory and channeled all remaining energy into her wings. She steadied her gaze on her target. Once she has her locked, she IB'd past Sokoto and straight into Tabane.
It was a direct hit. Silver succeeded in tackling her and freeing Autumn. Sokoto caught Autumn and set her upright.
"You still in this?" he asked.
"Definitely..." Autumn reassured him, "Wish I could say the same for Shinomure..."
"Can you still partially deploy?" he dusted her off.
Autumn managed to get her moth wings out, "Yeah. I can still fight."
Suddenly, they were forced backwards by an explosion from a rocket misfire. They were skid against the mountainous rocks. They quickly recovered and saw Madoka's IS being blasted off by Laura's AIC-Railgun combination attack.
"Stay with Madoka!" Sokoto darted off, "I got Rabbit Devil!"
Autumn felt uneasy about the matchup, but she nodded and flew off to help her comrade.
Sokoto kept his eyes on Silver, who was being thrashed by Tabane. He wanted to fling his shield at her ears, but he sensed another aura trying to interrupt him. So, he flung his shield in that direction.
It was Chelsea, still alive after her scuffle with Madoka. She bent her knees and skid back on the grass, sliding under the shield as it flew over her. She ran back up and threw her hidden saber at Sokoto, who dodged it but couldn't dodge her kick. She pinned him down with her knees. Her sword came back to her, but before she could finish him off, his shield rebounded back to her. She struck it down, but missed his sudden uppercut. She was forced off him, and the two separated, facing each other with determination and confusion. She took one more look into his eyes.
"How..." she gasped, "How are they still pure..." Even with his exhaustion, his steely gaze, and the loss of his parents, those blue eyes haven't lost one single but of serenity, the exact same warm glow as when they encountered him back at the Academy. She saw them turn their leer back to Tabane and the Gospel. She didn't know what to say in the face of one who saw the good in the worst terrorist group in modern IS history. She just let him be and ran to help Laura.
Madoka's IS was nearly gone because she wound up taking every hit that was meant for the renegade, for reasons no one wants to know. The only thing left was her right arm and a lance. She took another rocket to the arm and fell back. She grasped her bleeding arm as she saw Laura standing above her, railgun pointed directly at her head.
"Now, what message should I send back to IS Academy?" Laura hissed.
"Tell them that the one that killed Ichika's parents is now dead..." Madoka held up a middle finger, "and that the hands that wielded the swords that killed his parents now masturbate to the memory..."
Laura couldn't believe her ears. It was Madoka this whole time?! She knew that something was off about her when she stayed at Ichika's house for a few months. She saw the tension within, why she was closed off to the rest of the girls.
"I was right to banish you, you bitch," Laura charged her gun to max impact.
"What, from that house of whores?" Madoka said.
That comment snapped Laura's last nerve. She screamed in bloody hatred and fired. But a giant gust threw the gun off target, instead blasting the giant trench the renegade made earlier. She looked back to see who thwarted her attempt for revenge. And in return, she got a face full of metal and a back full of dirt.
"What the..." Madoka was dumbfounded, "Anna, why..."
"Renegade shoved me over here," Autumn help Madoka to her feet, "How much fight you got?"
Madoka clenched her lance, "Plenty," and swung it behind her, right onto Chelsea's saber. She took off after, immersing in a sword fight.
Autumn sighed. Well, it was impossible to control her anyway, so she turned her attention to Laura, who now bore the impression of that familiar demon banshee.
"How...dare...you..." Laura glared at Autumn with murderous eyes.
"I think you mean, how dare I not?" Autumn ticked her off.
Laura fired her railgun, which Autumn easily dodged, and ran forward to try and rip off Autum's wings.
Sokoto caught sight of Silver just in time. He picked up the shield and flung it at Tabane, who instinctively punched it down, allowing Silver to manifest her sword and strike Tabane's opening, forcing her off. Silver flew back to his side.
"You ok?" Sokoto held her up to his shoulders. He could feel her aura waning. She just downed a fuel cell, but it wasn't much help. "Let me ride you one more time!" He said, "We can't win in here, but we can win inside the wings."
Silver weakly moved her head up to Sokoto's eyes and nodded. But as she was about to retreat-
"Hey, assbutts!" Tabane fired a gigantic laser, which Silver tackled Sokoto under to avoid injury.
Silver then retreated and deployed itself in IS mode. She then IB'd under the laser and ran straight to Tabane.
"Oh, man! This is really it!" Sokoto braced for impact as he came at Tabane, who just noticed the coming plow too little too late. He rammed her gut and bear hugged her as she tried to yank him off. He held on for dear life as he felt his life being ripped right out of his eyes, before Silver's wings finally enclosed all of them.
And it was within the feathery borders of this sub space that the decisive battle was waged. Tabane was stuck at the bottom of the space, while Sokoto sat in the cockpit, waiting for his chance to strike.
"What's with you?!" Tabane shouted as she tried to free herself from the stiffing atmosphere, "Why are you so hellbent on stealing something that wasn't even yours to begin with?!"
"Because if I hadn't heard her voice, yes I can hear things I'm weird like that," Sokoto answered in his altered voice, "she would've died. These IS things aren't just things, lady. They're living beings, just like you and pagan woman."
"How do you know that?!" Tabane responded, "That's something not even I can prove! The core's just a black box of hoopla!"
"You're not very humble, are you?" Sokoto murmured, "Even now, your aura tells me that you're trying to figure me out, whether or not I'm even human. Even though I can tell you first hand how I obtained green poop."
"You know what?! You're right!" Tabane got angry, "I am supposed to be the best there is! Not even Chifuyu, with her original IS, could beat me! And then you came along..." she mustered enough rage to shake the entire space, "I'm done playing games with you, little hero..."
"What did you..." Sokoto got mad, "You think this is a game?!"
"Hell yeah, I did," Tabane broke free of the restrained Streamline with sheer will alone, "But not anymore!"
Sokoto jumped from the cockpit. Tabane jumped from the Streamline's shoulders. They both leapt into the air with extreme ferocity. The first blow of the battle was to each other's fists. The rest of the fight was fought in slow descent, with both fighters trading blows for an agonizing five minutes. The majority of the fight was spent by Sokoto just trying not to get hit. He kept blocking, twirling, as swinging, but nothing got through. He realized that he was outmatched, that this fight was over before it started, but still he kept fighting. Until the four minute mark, where Tabane stopped holding back and withstood his uppercut. Unmoved. She swiped his hand away, flipped over, and down kicked his head. She sent him flying to the bottom surface and bouncing back to her. She kicked him again, this time smacking him against the cockpit. He bounced back and suffered her uppercut, then a hammer fist, then more bounces and attacks in rapid repetition, for thirty seconds.
He stopped bouncing after grabbing the wall following a hit. He needed to catch his breath. He felt the rest of his life vanish from his body with each passing second. Blood spilled from his brow and mouth. He hacked a few spits before wiping his mouth and steeling his gaze on Tabane once again.
"I know you're weak..." Tabane growled, "Why don't you just call it now and let me experiment on you?"
"And manipulate me...like you did...those dickholes..." Sokoto panted, then clenched his fists, "Like hell I would!" Then he slammed his feet on the surface, soaring towards Tabane one last time.
"I tried to reason with you," Tabane said as he timed her fist with his approach perfectly. She saw him coming. She ducked under and punched him in the gut. She saw him reel, cough up red. She knew it was over.
CRACK*
Or was it?
In the instant after Tabane punched him, she felt a slight tug in her hair. After she landed the decisive blow, she saw tiny pink specs of metal and wires dancing to the vision of his defeat. At that point, the enclosed space dissolved, and the wings surrounding them opened up. Then, she realized.
It wasn't his defeat at all. It was his trap. And she fell for it. The whole time, he wanted her to immerse herself in utterly destroying the renegade so deep that she would be unable to see what he was really doing. Those ears are connected to her neural network. They get crushed, and she gets a massive migraine. She covered her ears in an attempt to prevent more damage through her eardrums. Once the pain subsided, she felt a tiny tickle in her wrist and her neck. She opened her eyes to see what had happened.
It wasn't even possible, but it happened. She lost the Silver Streamline to the Silverio Gospel.
She tried to get it back, but the Gospel had already triggered the IB the instant that final hit landed. It was too far beyond her reach. She turned back at the renegade, barely conscious. She wanted to finish him off, but the headaches were back. And with them came Autumn, who caught the renegade and saved him from further beating, and Madoka, who kicked her away from his reach.
Phantom Task collided with each other on the ground, with Silver rejoining them from the back. Tabane fell down, a bit dazed at how she fell for such a simple trick. Laura and Chelsea were able to regroup with her and bring her to her feet, while the renegade could barely sit up.
"How did they..." Chelsea was awestruck by their convoluted coordinated strategy.
"It doesn't matter how!" Laura persisted, "We can still finish them right now!" She readied her railgun again.
"Oh no..." Autumn was worried, "We haven't shot out that railgun! If she fires now..."
"Well, enjoy this victory, boy," Tabane gave them the cold shoulder, "For in two seconds, you will taste bitter defeat."
Laura had enough energy for one final shot. And all things considered, Tabane only got away with a scratch on her arm, while Chelsea stood with a broken arm. But the rest of Phantom Task didn't look so good. Silver was the only one with the energy needed to bail them out, at the cost of staying behind, waiting for the mercy of her new captors. But, screw everything. It was something Silver wanted to do ever since Fairs but the dust.
Laura fired her shot. Silver expended all of her remaining energy to slam her team down with her wings, thereby ducking them under the giant missile. It went straight to the mountain. When it exploded, it literally shook the environment. A giant shock wave rocked the forest, and spread into the surrounding cities. Every building quaked in fear. Every car froze in terror. Even the cherry blossoms seemed to pause their fluttering rhythm. Every single thing in Japan turned to the center of the island, hoping to find some answer as to why the peace has been disturbed.
They need look no further than Mt Fuji. It was bleeding. For now, in buckets. Soon, in droves.
"What's happening?!" Chelsea screamed.
"I don't know!" Tabane said, "Mt Fuji was supposed to erupt in a couple years!"
"Couple what?!" Laura freaked out, "Then why's Fuji going crazy now?!"
"Ain't it a little weak?..." Autumn asked.
"That means there's a much bigger one on the way," Madoka pointed to the top and the base behind, "The air's mixing in with the magma below. Pressure's built up before today, and the vents are narrow right now. Long story short, it took in enough of the oxygen to blast a brand new vent."
"That bad?!" Autumn yelped, "So, the air is just a signal?"
"Yeah," Madoka explained, "And made worse by that earthquake a few years ago. Japan's not safe anymore! We have to go!"
"Hold up!" Autumn restrained Madoka's arm, "Go where?!"
"Anywhere!" Madoka said, "We've done our part. There's nothing left for us here."
For once, Autumn agreed with her. Ever since she arrived in Japan, seeking out new recruits for the old Phantom Task felt like walking through detention hall with a note attached to her forehead she wasn't allowed to remove. She hated the condescending gaze she received from the people around her. She wanted out so bad.
"I get first pick," she said. Madoka just nodded.
"You two are acting uncharacteristically nonchalant for a couple of terrorists!" Chelsea noticed.
"Huh?" Laura took a moment to process those words.
Then they all heard a menacing chuckle.
"All...part of... the plan..." Sokoto squeezed the words right out of his broken gut.
Tabane's team finally put two and two together.
All along, Phantom Task fought with the appearance of trying to destroy the Infinite Stratos. When in actuality, they wanted to permanently scar Japan with the memories of her misdeeds. And Laura and Tabane just accomplished that mission for them. They saw Laura blow open two vents and Tabane tattoo the biggest hole of the battle. Combined with Sokoto's trench, the damage was irreversible.
They all wrote out Chūbu's death sentence.
"Well..." Tabane stammered, "At least I sealed off your broadcast! That's right! You didn't show us nothing! You got no proof! What now, bitches?!"
Silver lifted her hand with all her might, and projected a live CNN World program:
"We're getting breaking news right now, coming to you live from London. Recently, CNN has obtained information that revealed the direct cause of the Japanese missile crisis as Tabane Shinonono, the creator of the Infinite Stratos. Images we are showing off now, they appear to be a notebook with codes from each missile system in the world and what looks like someone with rabbit ears inputting something into a computer. That computer shows lines from nearly every country in the world connected to Japan, so at the very least, it is safe to assume that this is correct information. That Tabane was the woman who hacked into every missile system in the world. Explanation is nowhere to be found-"
And another from AlJazeera:
"This is beyond disturbing, let me tell you. Woman are supposed to be the world leaders, I understand, but this? A male prison camp to fulfill lumberjack fantasies? Doesn't Japan know that they've descended to the level of men they claim to be above? Japan has always had a code of honor and a code of dishonor, even before the IS, but this is taking things too far. This makes me question whether the renegade really is all bad. This also makes me question Phantom Task's true purpose."
"I is ezdrely congfooze..." Madoka muttered.
"We sent our signal to Japanese satellites, not..." Autumn didn't have time to finish her thoughts.
Because Fuji's side was blown clean off by its own rupture. And not a moment too soon, because Tabane's own psyche was ruptured as well. Just like the multitude of magma and molten rock that burst out of Fuji, her own body was wrought with emotions waiting to burst out and into the world. That was impossible now, as the searing red wrath rained down upon the region, lava overflowed the trench, and ashes and rock bombarded the open sky, Laura, Chelsea, and Tabane just stood there, staring at the damage they were manipulated to inflict on the most sacred symbol in all of Japan, wondering...
...was this even worth it?
