Back at again!

Disclaimer: I do not own Infinite Stratos.

With his first real experience in an IS Unit ending with a successful victory, Thomas starts falling into a regular schedule of daily life in a private academy.

But when he gets challenged to a fight, it's time for Thomas to put his money where his mouth is!

Can Thomas prove his worth? Can he spread his wings and fly? Or will he fail miserably?


First day? Arguably successful.

Thomas somehow managed to outwit Ichika in a mock-battle, with a standard IS Unit on top of that.

He probably should've read that very big book which might've had the instructions on how to operate it. But that big book? Why make it so big? The IS controls were-at most simplistic-two joysticks with buttons, what made it so complicated to just say which button combination was which?

He would need help if he was going to figure this out.

He woke up, checked his watch. 5:28 AM.

Weird, his alarm goes off at 5:30. Did he master Ultra Instinct overnight or something?

Ichika was still asleep.

Doesn't matter. Time to start the day!

He got out of bed, changed into his school uniform, wrapped his watch around his left wrist, and left the room in search of food.

Wait.

Did they have a fridge in the room?

He zipped back into the dorm, turning off his alarm just as it turned 5:30, and spied a fridge sitting at the wall opposite to the closet.

It is time for a veritable feast, fit only for kings!

He opened the door...

...Only to find Ichika had labeled anything and everything in the fridge, which wasn't much.

That smart bastard.

Time to go to the cafeteria.


By the time Thomas got to the cafeteria, he'd realized it was a Sunday.

Sundays were the weekend, and thus the one day-off they had every week.

He started school, only to go straight into the weekend. Weird, but cool. He could use the time to practice with a IS...If that was something he could do on a Sunday.

But first? Food. Food and memes.

And then he discovered the cafeteria wasn't open to serve any food. At least, not for the next hour.

Fuck.

What did a guy have to do to get breakfast at 5:50 in the morning? Why wasn't anyone else up?

Why did he forget to take his medicine?

Shit! He...Wait.

Thomas had been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, meaning he had a small case of autism. This was temporarily fixed with Concerta, which he took daily. The medicine only lasted for 12 hours.

If he took it now, he'd be acting like an idiot when 5 PM rolled around.

This left him with a burning question; What to do now? The cafeteria wasn't open, nobody close by was awake, Ichika beat him to the fridge, and Thomas was wide awake usually within a minute of waking up.

Conclusion? Memes and videos.

Thomas left the cafeteria to go find a perch, upon which he would be able to gaze in peace. He yawned as he explored the vast network of hallways in the IS Academy. It was like he went to college several years early.

Now that he thought about it...

Moving along, he'd gotten lost and wound up finding himself in the academy's arena.

The perfect place to be alone.

He sat down on the front-row bench, pulled out his phone, and pulled up excessive amounts of memes. As the memes were starting to bore, he then stood up, and danced to "Meme Machine" By Filthy Frank.

No one was looking, right?

He looked around him. Yup, no one was around.

Perfect.

He danced until the song was over. He giggled to himself, and sat back down. That felt refreshingly fun. He wasn't really too good with massive noises, sometimes he liked to dance alone.

He checked the time. Maybe the cafeteria was finally open.

Might as well go check.


Nope. Not open.

Dammit.

Was Ichika awake?

A quick check gave him a no.

Anyone else around?

A few girls were here and there, but considering that they might mob him, he felt it was best to keep distance for the time being. He then went right back to the arena. What to do? Oh, what to do?

His phone vibrated. His dad was calling him? At this hour?

Not that he'd expect anything less from good 'ol dad. He answered the call.

"Morning."

"Ey, kiddo! How was your first day?"

"Got in a giant robot and won."

"Sweet! You can tell me about it when you come to the new pad!"

"Waitaminute. You're in Japan!?"

"Course I am! I'll text you the address!"

His dad hung up.

Dad was in Japan!? How? Why!? Should he tell him Ichika and Chifuyu were here too? Should he tell him he fought Ichika and won?

Maybe.

But first? Find something to do.

He walked into the arena itself, absolutely bored. He probably couldn't get access to an IS to practice. This was a waste of-!

His mind blanked out.

"Ah!" He heard a British female voice declare, "I see I wasn't the only smart one this morning!"

Thomas turned around, only to find one Cecilia Alcott.

"Mornin' Alcott." Said Thomas, as he yawned again.

The blonde gasped, as though the remark was an insult. Instantly, Thomas knew this was not going to go well.

"How dare you, a mere commoner, address me in such a manner!" She snapped. She then went on a rant about her social status.

Great. Just great.

"However," She said, "I'm feeling generous this morning."

Wait for it.

"If you can defeat me in an IS battle, I suppose I can allow you some privilege."

Thomas could tell multiple factors playing into this. One, she was making a bet she knew she could win. Two, she was rich, and most likely had a personal IS. Three, She definitely had more experience than Ichika when it came to the IS.

He never should've gotten up in the morning.

The big take-away? Time to kick it old-school.

"Fine by me."

"I see you're feeling confident! Perfect! I'll savor the look on your face when you lose!" She taunted.

Thomas had to think of something. If they were to duke it out now, Thomas would have no chance. His best-and only-bet was to buy time, get a little more experience with an IS, and get as much info on his foe as possible.

"Actually," He said, "Why not make it official? We run it by the teachers, and have a duel, with everyone watching."

"Hah! You're just asking for humiliation, aren't you? Fine, then! I'll teach you to mess with my Ichika!"

Wait, what?

Oh. This was one of the girls Ichika was absolutely dense about. He was so blind, he couldn't find love even if it was around him. Sadder still, it literally was.

In any truth, he felt sorry for the girls.

Oh right! Ichika mentioned Cecilia earlier. In all honesty, he should've seen this coming.

"Vait!" Called a German voice.

Laura Bodawig. If this was going where Thomas thought this was going...

"If zere ish a duel, then I vish to avenge my bride!" She declared.

This was just wonderful.

Cecilia and Laura made eye contact, and made an alliance with each other. He could see it in their eyes, they'd fight him together.

He was so screwed.


Laura, Cecilia, and Thomas had proposed their duel with Chifuyu.

Chifuyu agreed.

"The arena will be available tomorrow. You should use the time to practice." She said.

Good-bye mental stability, it was nice knowing you.

Both Laura and Cecilia sent their "regards" to Thomas, and left to go train.

Chifuyu, however, had talked with Thomas more.

"I'm so dead."

"Not yet, you're not."

"Those're top pilots in this place! How am I sposta face off with them?"

"You beat Ichika."

"Barely! And that was because he got distracted!"

"Still."

"Your point?"

"I've seen you play games. This isn't too different from that."

"It is!"

"You'll figure it out."

With that, Chifuyu left Thomas to his own devices.

Thomas had to work fast.

First, he had to make sure he put distance between himself and his opponents until the fight. Second, wake Ichika up if he was still asleep. Third, get every scrap of information regarding Laura and Cecilia. Fourth, pray.

The fourth thing was the most important.

Thomas raced back to the dorm. Thankfully, Ichika was finally getting out of bed.

"Ichika!"

"Hey."

"I'm in deep shit!"

Ichika whipped around. If Thomas was swearing, it was a very big deal.

"I'm gonna fight Cecilia and Laura tomorrow!"

"What!?"

"I need your help, man!"

"What can I do?"

"Tell me everything you can about Laura and Cecilia. And keep it relevant to fighting."

Ichika said everything he could think of, Thomas quickly pulled out a notepad and wrote it all down. Every little bit helped. He had to understand how his opponents worked, that way, even if he couldn't get on their level...

...He could bring them down to his.

Thomas then spent the entire morning practicing hand-to-hand attacks. He was going to need all of them if he wanted to survive at least 5 seconds. He ran around the Is Academy until he found a stick long enough to match the length of a sword. He then used this stick to practice sword techniques.

To anyone who saw him, he looked like an idiot.

Even though he had no real experience with swords, he practiced any sword techniques he could get from the internet. Somehow, he even found Jedi lightsaber training. He wasted no time, and used every video he pressed "play" on.

Chifuyu watched him from far away.

She couldn't help but chuckle and smile.

Cecilia saw Thomas practicing, and ran away so he wouldn't hear her laughing.

Laura was simply intrigued by Thomas's techniques, but eventually decided to move on with her own business.

Thomas was too busy to notice, praying that this would be helpful.


When noon rolled around, Thomas was tired and hungry.

He dropped the stick, and received a text message.

It was the address for his new home, and a note from his dad saying, "A surprise when you get here. XOxO."

Who texts x-o anymore? Did they even do that ever?

Might as well get going. He needed one last run in an IS Unit before the day was out.

He changed into a pair of beige cargo shorts, and a dark blue long-sleeve shirt, with the printed quote, "I'm like a Superhero, with no powers or motivation."

If he was going out, he needed to look good.

He took the train, and began to walk to the address.

Sure enough, the location was indeed a house. But when Thomas got to the front gate, he was dumbfounded.

The gate had a sign labeled, "Orimura."

This was a prank, right? There was no way dad would be living here! But...

Thomas turned around, only to find his dad standing behind him.

His name was Alexander Scott, born in Chicago, raised in Maryland. Alexander married the famous IS Pilot Ellen Scarlet, who was most known for both fist-fighting and winning a very high record of IS duels. Ellen disappeared sometime shortly after Thomas turned 2. Thomas had extremely scarce, if no memory of his mother at all, and Alexander refused to divulge anything.

Thomas knew his father was keeping secrets, but there were still lines Thomas wouldn't dare cross.

"How's my little man?" He boomed happily as he hugged his son.

"In a lot of trouble."

Alexander released the boy, and quickly began an inquisition.

"Students don't like you?"

"No."

"Drugs?"

"No?"

"Porn?"

"No!?"

"Oh, I think I got it! You finally did it and your partner got pregnant!"

"What the fuck are you thinking of!?"

Alexander put a hand on Thomas's shoulder, "You can tell me about it inside."

The father and son quickly caught up.

"So," Said Alexander, "you're going to fight a 1v2?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not gonna lie, you're probably going to get absolutely destroyed in this fight."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

"But," Said Alexander, "I do have something to encourage you."

"What's that?"

"Your mother told me some advice once."

Thomas looked his dad in the eye.

"Y'see, your mother had a single philosophy when in came to losing. She'd always tell me; 'If you're gonna lose, fight like you're gonna win. That way, you can still give your opponent a very bad time. And if that doesn't work, tell all the rude jokes about them you can.'"

Thomas wasn't processing those words at the time. But rather, the fact that it was something his mother said.

He knew almost nothing about his mother, this was a most welcome detail.

"Yeah." Said Thomas.

Suddenly, the front door opened.

Ichika entered, and both Thomas and Ichika were surprised by the other's presence.

"What're you doing in my house!?"

"I live here now!"

"What!?"

"Yeah! We're sharing a house, I think!"

"Cool!"

"I know, right?"

Alexander watched the two boys exchange words, and chuckled.

They were just like the kids they were several years ago.

He put his faith that his son would one day see his mother again.


Thomas began to panic.

He spent all day messing around!

He needed to get back to the academy and get an IS to practice!

This was bad! He half-assed practice!

He forgot to ask questions on how the controls worked!

Right now, it was 6:35 PM. If he pulled twice the effort, he might just figure out what he was going to do if he wanted to win.

He'd been allowed to use an IS until 9:00 PM. Which gave him at least a few hours of practice time.

Not that it would do a lot of good.

But as they say: Even if there's a 1% chance of something working, there's still a chance.

He'd practiced punching, kicking, evading. Unfortunately, all he could was ground attacks, leaving him susceptible to aerial assault.

He didn't stand a chance at this rate.

The bad news? First, He couldn't fly, and he was too arrogant to ask for help. Besides, he probably wouldn't understand any given explanations anyway. Two, He was facing two very highly trained professionals. He was just asking to die.

The good news? There wasn't any. This was just fact.

He stopped his rhythmic motions.

Didn't Ichika have an IS operation manual lying around?

He'd probably waste his time. But he really didn't have any other option left.

If he got something to give him a crash-course as of now, they wouldn't be able to properly dumb it down for Thomas. Chifuyu certainly wasn't going to tell him without some cryptic nonsense telling him to "figure it out." He needed clear-cut directions, and a person wasn't going to give it to him.

IS manual it is.

Thomas put the IS away, and quickly raced back to the dorm.

Ichika was probably going to be eating in the cafeteria at this time. This gave Thomas less distractions, and some quiet time to study the manual.

Then the young boy remembered just how bad he was at kanji. Wait! There were translations! Thank the lord for communication. Thomas skimmed through the glossary for what he was looking for.

Why'd the book have to be so damn big? It wouldn't kill the publisher to trim down the book a little.

Aha! The IS controls.

Thomas spent every waking moment that night of that studying and memorizing the controls. He was going to need that info most of all. If he couldn't fly, he was dead. Thomas's eyes focused to the point where they hurt from not blinking for so long.

By the time Ichika had returned from dinner, he found Thomas passed out, and sleeping with his head on the IS Manual.

He didn't know whether to smile of laugh.


The Next Day...

Today was the day.

Time to put the money where the mouth is.

Thomas was in the Pit, doing everything he could to calm down. Breathing, listening to music, dancing, thinking, reassuring himself. He was too wound up, he needed something to relax.

None of which were working.

Ichika and few other students popped in to give him their best wishes.

"You got this!"

Debatable.

"Yeah! If Ichika of all people can pilot an IS, then so can you!"

That...Actually made him feel a little better about himself.

"I saw you tried studying last night." Said Ichika, "I think you got this."

You think? Thomas was so dead.

The students were ushered into the Pit's control room, and Chifuyu had one last talk with Thomas.

"I trust you did what you could?"

"That doesn't feel very comforting."

Chifuyu paused. She turned away to go to the control room. She stopped.

"Your mother would be proud." She said without even sparing a glance, and left Thomas to simply stare and wonder.

Would she really?

Thomas perished the thought to concentrate on the battle ahead.

He needed to figure out how Cecilia and Laura fought. He had about a full minute or so to study the data before he had to get in an IS. He pulled up every single bit of footage he could of Alcott and Bodawick in fighting. He was pushing down to the wire this time. The minutes slowed to what seemed like hours as the oncoming storm approached.

Then again, he did manage to come through on schoolwork in this sort of situation. Could he really pull it off again?

"Scott!" Crackled Chifuyu's voice over the intercom, "It's time for you to suit up."

Thomas nodded, and climbed into the Training IS Unit.

He'd get through this, right?

Thomas then began to walk out of the pit, and into the arena, despite knowing he had to launch.

"You need to launch, idiot." Another voice snapped.

"I'll save it for later." He replied plainly.

Meanwhile, in the control room, Houki, Lingyin, Charlotte, and Ichika were all getting tense and nervous over Thomas's apparent lack of understanding.

"Feigned ignorance is the key to honest business." He said.

The students were all dumbfounded. What sort of cryptic bullshit was that? Was he saying random things just to calm down? Did he even have a clue what he was doing?

Thomas jumped off the deck leading to the arena, took a few steps forward, and looked up to face his airborne foes. If he was scared, he must've been doing his best to hide it. He needed a strategy.

Thomas analyzed his foes in his head.

Cecilia would stick to long-range assault, her IS wasn't designed for close-quarters combat. Laura, however, had an IS suited for both close and ranged combat. For the most part, Laura would most likely soften him up and distract Thomas so Cecilia could deal damage from far off. Although, Laura did have a history of being unable to work with others, meaning she would be more likely cancel both Cecelia and herself out.

Thomas then played out every scenario he could think of.

If Laura were to attack him in close-range, he'd have a chance to outwit her, seeing as she'd never actually fought with her hands in an IS. However, that would be easily countered, since she had a bigger arsenal for close-quarters. Besides, she had an "AIC," a device that could freeze moving objects in space.

Cecilia, from what Ichika had told him, was easily a versatile and remote attacker. She used her "Tears" to distract enemies, allowing her to blast them herself. She also had rockets, which were a huge danger on their own. If he were to get blasted by an overwhelming assault, he would not survive, let alone win.

But, maybe he could get them distracted, and use their inability to synchronize against them. However, considering the two's sheer experience, this would be tricky. They had a mutual goal-that being to pummel him senseless-and would do many things to make that happen.

His solutions were to let the time run out, get Cecilia and Laura to fight each other, subdue Laura then Cecilia, use Cecilia to subdue Laura, and vice-versa.

From the current layout, the best-case scenario would end with a tie.

It'd take a miracle to win.

Cecilia and Laura both looked down upon him, like judgmental angels glaring down upon a mortal man from the heavens.

"You know," Said Cecilia, "If you turn tail now, I might just forgive you. After all, I am Cecilia Alcott-!"

"Wait-what?"

Thomas called up to her as she made the monologue. Although he could easily hear her, due to communications from the IS Headgear, he was pretending he couldn't.

If he was going down, he was sure as hell wasn't going to let them win without majorly pissing them off. It just wouldn't be right to get beat up without something funny to tell the future grand-kids.

If he would ever live to have them, that is.

"-A high-class noble of Britain. How dare you!? You will listen when you are being spoken t-!"

"Are you making some shameless self-promotional speech or something?"

"Why you-!"

"You need to speak up!"

"Don't you dare-!"

"You're like several miles away from me! All I see is mouth-moving, I don't hear any word-talking!"

"You prick!"

"Say that to my face, blondie!"

"Alright, I will!"

Laura, confused and unamused, rolled her eyes as she watched Cecilia rush headlong at Thomas.

The bell rung, and the battle was underway.

Cecilia quickly recomposed herself as she took aim with her sniper rifle, and opened fire.

Thomas quickly responded, performing a series of ducks, rolls, and sidesteps to escape her barrage.

Laura saw Cecilia's blitz as comedy, giving a small laughing fit when she saw her British ally get so worked up. "What are you laughing at!?" Snapped Alcott, ready to turn her weapon on Laura.

"It ish so funny to vatch you! Like a French poodle!"

Charlotte was offended at the remark from her roommate. They'd have to settle it later.

Laura giggled a little longer, and ceased, quite amused and ready to fight.

"Allow me to take zis one down! I vill show you how it ish done!"

Laura smirked as she charged right for Thomas.

Thomas saw this, and braced for whatever Laura had in store for him.

She activated her wrist-blade. Judging from design and orientation, the weapon was meant for stabbing.

The maker was a smart sonuvabitch.

He jumped back, doing his best to stay out of her range. A task which seemed easy enough. However, it was simply a matter before Laura would catch him with the AIC, and he would be done for.

If he could get enough room and time, he could avoid that.


In the pit control room, that students were all berating Thomas for not going on the assault.

"What's he doing!? He's gonna lose if he keeps this up!" Snapped Lingyin.

"C'mon already Tommy..." Muttered Ichika.

"It's only his second time in an IS," Said Miss Yamada, "Even if he is able to pilot an IS, he's still fighting both Bodewig and Alcott."

Everyone in the room silently agreed with her.


Thomas was currently running out of room.

Laura had him.

She opened her plam, and activated her AIC in front of her. The field was close enough to Thomas, and stopped him right in his tracks.

She then gave him a condescending smile.

Her IS unveiled a Railgun, and took aim right at Thomas's head. Thomas paid attention every second. His eyes, strangely, remained open and attentive. Laura could tell he was up to something. The entire fight thus far, he looked distracted, not making a big enough offense. What could this new student be planning? Although it really wouldn't matter, since she was going to win, it would put her at ease to know.

She fired.

This sent Thomas flying across the arena floor, and left him in a heap a veritable distance away. The crowds of students all began to pity the boy for getting beat up so easily.

"This is just sad."

"Two of them? That's not fair!"

"He's gonna get creamed like this."

Thomas groaned as he slowly got to his feet. Strangely, both Cecilia and Laura paused their attack. Odd, but not unwelcome.

"She's got a tell."

The students in the pit were caught off-guard by his statement.

"That AIC-thingy is risky. She has to deploy it manually, and sticks out her hand every time. The emitter must be in the hand. She has to drop every time she moves or if she wants to fire back."

"He figured out all of that after just seeing it once?"

"I can't take another hit like that though; She just wiped out 25% of my current shield."

"You're an idiot for letting her hit you like that!"

"I needed data and I got it."

The students were all upset as Thomas tried to justify himself.

"Besides," He said, "I'm not down yet."

He got back up as he steeled himself for another assault.

This time, both Laura and Cecilia came at him.

Thomas quickly evaded Laura as he got a glance at Cecilia.

"Cecilia's got a tell too. She hitches her ankles every time she aims. She also doesn't fire her rifle when she's using her drones."

"So!?" Snapped Houki, "If you don't get serious, you're finished!"

"I got this, chill."

Thomas then finally unveiled his new moves.

He fiddled with the controls, and zipped back without touching the ground.

"Got ya number!"

He then jumped, and took flight.

The sight of him finally flying was surprising to both Cecilia and Laura, but neither distracting nor unwelcome.

"So, you can do something basic!" Sneered Cecilia.

Laura gave a small chuckle, "Finally, zis gets to be a real battle!"

Her satisfaction was short-lived, however.

Thomas flew right for Laura, rushing her head-on.

"Did you not learn? Allow me to teach you!" She snapped, extending her left palm, ready to stop him with the AIC and deliver a beating.

Unlike before, Thomas saw it coming. He made a hard, 90 degree zip to the left, and a 45 degree turn to the right a few seconds after. This brought him directly behind Laura. He used this moment to unleash a devastating boxing combo.


This stunned many of the spectators.

"Was he just toying with them!?" Piped up Ichika.

"Looks like he was." Said Chifuyu, "But that's not what I'm unsettled about."

"Huh?"

"Look at that move he just made. He evaded the AIC and countered without a problem."

"So?"

"The IS he's piloting isn't meant to move like that. He doesn't understand the IS isn't built that way. If he keeps this up..."

The silence made the students wary and nervous.

"What's gonna happen to him?"


Thomas knew nothing of the IS's limits. However, he did finally figure out how to access the weapons.

"Alrightie, let's see."

The only weapon he had was a sword.

He blanked, breathed, and sighed.

"Well, I've done dumber." He mumbled as he drew his sword.

"Finally!" Said Cecilia, "You've finally decided to make good sport of this!"

"What can I say?" He said with a confident smirk, "I like to make an entrance."

He then put his IS in a classic Jedi saber-fighting stance, as though he'd been doing it all his life. He'd practiced the forms, he had multiple techniques and moves under his belt, he'd even had a few he wanted to test.

Now that he was in an IS, with its immense physical strength, he finally had the opportunity to do more than ever before.

Laura grinned, finally able to enjoy the fight, and activated her own blade. "I've dueled vith vone man before, and I shall do so again!" She leaped right for Thomas, ready to cut him down to size. Somehow, every attack she made against him was countered flawlessly.

Every spectator was in awe.

"Wha-!?"

"Now if you'll excuse me-" Thomas zipped past Laura to go fight Cecilia, "-I got work to do."

Laura turned around, peeved by her adversary. She called, "Come here and fight me like a man!"

"Any chance I can convince you to come here and fight me like a woman?"

Houki, Ichika, Charlotte, and Lingyin couldn't help but giggle at Thomas's crack.

Cecilia, however, was getting angrier by the second.

Every attack either Laura or herself made were all countered by Thomas. Was he toying with them this whole time? How was he able to use a Training IS so well? Damn him and his unprecedented abilities!

The British schoolgirl took aim for Thomas, and very rashly began to open fire upon on him.

Sadly for the girls, Thomas was banking on her decision.

Thomas glanced back, and smirked as he saw several blast bolts coming at him from behind. If he timed this right, this would effectively increase his likelihood of surviving. Just as Cecilia's projectiles were seconds away, Thomas moved like a blur, and substituted Laura for his place.

Laura had almost missed the sniper shots, and very clumsily put up her AIC to block them, leaving her angry at Cecilia and vulnerable to Thomas.

"How dare you attack me!?"

"You got in my way, you German Cow!"

"Vat vas zat?"

"We'll settle this later!"

Thomas made a snarky grin, "What's wrong, you two? You seem angry."

"SHUT UP AND DIE!" They screamed.

Laura rushed Thomas, who once again dodged the rash attack.

"Funny," He commented, "I was gonna say the same."

The entire fight, Thomas had been slowly building up frustration and anger within Laura and Cecilia. He was creating enough tension to get them to make a mistake. This was a lot easier to do than he expected. But now?

Now, he had just pushed them over the edge.


"He's done for." Deadpanned Houki.

"How could you say that!?" Defended Ichika.

"Sacre bleu!" Cried Charlotte, "He's made them mad! He won't survive that much punishment!"

"It's his fault. He shoulda kept his mouth shut!" Complained Lingyin.

"Maybe," Said Chifuyu, "Perhaps this is part of his plan."

The students all turned to Chifuyu for an explanation. However, Chifuyu herself did not know Thomas's strategy, since the boy himself had proven to be quite the enigma. He could be planning anything, for all anyone knew.

All, that is, save Thomas.


Laura was now in a stampede, lashing out angrily at Thomas without relent.

He needed something. Fast.

What could he possibly do now? He had small amounts of proper training, understanding of the controls, so what could he possibly need now? He felt so distracted, and much more out of sync. Sure, he had the moves, he was even able to execute most of them. So, what now?

It dawned him what he was missing the most: Rhythm!

He'd been lacking rhythm this whole time! He'd been fighting without a good rhythm, which was why he'd been on the ropes this whole time. But where would he get rhythm now? The fight was already underway, he couldn't improvise something like rhythm!

Wait...Music has rhythm! If he could get some music playing, he could follow the rhythm!

"Miss Orimura?"

"Yes, Scott?"

"Can you put on Deja Vu?"

His question quickly confused even Chifuyu, who'd known the boy as a small child, and grounded herself against his strange ways.

"Might I ask why?"

"I need rhythm. Music has rhythm, and I can follow it. Deja Vu has a pace I can match."

"Well, it's your life." Concluded Chifuyu as she quickly fulfilled the boy's request.

He breathed in, and relaxed.

"Time to dance."

Deja Vu!

I've just been in this place before,

Higher on the street!

Thomas went on the offensive, performing a lot quicker than before. He listened to the song being pumped into his ear, striking-even moving-to the beat.

He might've stood a better chance, had it not been for what happened next.


A/N: Done! I decided to make this a 2-parter encounter, since I was really pushing the end of the chapter so far off. Besides, it creates tension for what happens next chapter!

This time, I wanted to tell you why I named this chapter "Newtype Sensitivity."

The chapter title is a reference to the series, "Mobile Suit Gundam." Since the pilot of the Gundam Mobile Suit, Amaro, is a Newtype human. Very specifically, I chose this title because of Amaro's accident by pushing the Gundam to it's very limits.

What could that possibly mean for Thomas? That's for me to write, and you to wait for to find out!

Next time: Newtype Sensitivity 2!

Thomas has finally learned to fly! Can he win the fight?

Can his IS handle the strain?

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