Part 4: GET IT OFF! (x16456)
"AGH!" Sokoto yelped in agony, "Grr...Where did that come from?!" The IS suddenly flashed all kinds of screens of the seaside. "Hey, what-What's the big idea?!" To point out the one screen that showed someone with a sniper rifle. "What the-who's that?" An indicator popped up beside the mysterious person: 5000M, SW. "Guu...that far..." The screen showed the woman now aiming her rifle and firing another shot. "What's she-YIPE!" He sensed the incoming bullet and barely managed to duck under it. "What kind of crazy demon have we encountered?!" Sokoto rambled on as he kept dodging bullets and rockets from this 'demon', "Seriously, do we have anything to defend ourselves?!" Again, many transparent screens popped up in front of his face, none of them showing a shield or gauntlet or anything used for defense. "YOU DON'T HAVE ANY LASERS! YOU'RE NOT A SUPER SAIYAN! GET SOME CLUBS OR SOMETHING!"
There was a momentary ceasefire midway through that sentence. He used this opportunity to regain his composure and track the direction of the missiles, "That way...Hahh...We gotta take her on directly, don't we?...Ok, let's see whose head she wants." He turned to face his boss battle location, kicked his feet backward to trigger and Ignition Boost, and slammed his body towards the boss.
"Based on that one picture," he said to his IS, "she's a long-range fighter. Those abnormally fat thighs might carry a surprise cannon or two. It doesn't look like she can hold her own in a fist fight, though. Then, all I have to do is avoid every shot, close the distance, steal her rifle, and trim some weight off her thighs. Simple." What?! No, that doesn't sound simple at all! That sounds like a royal pain in the phliauag! And it is.
A few seconds later, he could see someone in the shadow of the moon. "That's her!" He curled his fists preparing to rush her blind spot. He hurled towards her silhouette-
"BLARPGH~" -but he slammed his face into what looked like a flying metal disc, losing control of himself and slamming into the ocean. A moment later, he surfaced and lay floating like a dead zombie.
"Target subdued," the sniper woman said, "Proceeding to arrest and transport." She slowly descended to where Sokoto lay, looking on with concern. He seemed so harmless, so docile. His clothing was in complete shambles; how long was he homeless for? How could he cause anyone so much trouble? She leaned down to pick him up, but when her body was inches away from his-
"SIKE!" He kicked her body hard, triggering the Ignition Boost to send her flying momentarily. He used the recoil to stand himself on the water. He kicked the water again to charge straight at her.
The surprise attack shocked her systems as she struggled to regain her balance. As soon as she saw him coming for her, she aimed her rifle and shot him at point-blank range. The impact of the shot stopped him in his tracks, as he tried to clear the invisible dust from the shot. When he finally cleared his surroundings, he looked up to find her high above him, like a queen to her slave.
"You've got some nerve strutting your mucky filth across my ocean, little boy," she said haughtily, "What could someone like you possibly hope to accomplish in this day and age?"
"Oh, I ain't aiming to accomplish anything, that's for damn sure!" Sokoto answered back, "I do what I came here to do: my thing, and my thing only!"
"Is your thing dragging the whole world down under breath? Because I am not amused one bit."
"Then, allow me to entertain you tonight." Sokoto kicked his feet to the water again, charging towards the woman at a high velocity. But before he could reach her, he saw four discs detach from her wings to her sides, firing high-energy lasers nonstop. "Yow!" He diverted away from her to avoid getting caught in the blasts. But that didn't stop the discs, though. They pursued him, firing whenever they get the chance. "Are you kidding me?!" He had trouble dodging them. Whenever he escaped one disc, another was waiting right there to blast his face off.
"Yes, that's it! Dance to the music!" the woman said with contempt joy, "Dance to the waltz of Cecilia Alcott and the Blue Tears!"
"This is nuts! I can't get anywhere near her!" He screamed in frustration, but then he noticed that she wasn't moving at all. What if she was concentrating on something so hard that...
"Fine," he said, "Take out the drones first!" He readied his arms to absolute defensive mode, evading any lasers he can and only taking specific hits to draw in the drones into a false sense of assurance. He lured one to his weak spot: the back of his neck. "Blammo." Once he knew it was directly behind him, he kicked his feet in front, angling his legs so that the impact of the Ignition Boost would be off-center. This basically urned him into a human throwing knife. He was hurled at the drone. It didn't have and time to react to him. He struck his feet on it, destroying it.
"What the-" Cecilia said in shock.
As soon as Sokoto destroyed that drone, he kicked his feet behind him, stabilizing his position and rocketing towards the drone in front of him. It tried to avoid him, but he stretched his leg long enough to kick it into pieces.
"You can't move because all your concentration is on your precious servants, right?!" He surmised correctly.
"Ugh..." Cecilia withdrew her two remaining drones and retuned to full-auto sniper firing.
"A quick eye with horrible agility..." Sokoto said to himself as her continued his specific-brunt strategy. There was one moment when he would get close enough to tug her hair, only to see her barely evade his attack, and switch from sniper rifle to homing drone. "Ok, we're on our own rhythm now. This is as good as done," he said while timing his placement and position with the drones' rapid fire. Through his quick observation and reflexes, he was able to destroy the last two drones, leaving Cecilia defenseless.
"En garde, meat head!" Sokoto said as he charged towards Cecilia, secretly opening his left hand to counter-
"Looks like you fell for it." She smugly said.
"What it?" he asked.
"So sorry, but there are more than four," she revealed two cannons behind her legs and blasted two rockets at him. She expected to send him flying backwards, but that wasn't exactly the case.
"NOW!" He screamed as he flew headfirst into the rockets' path. He swung his left arm over his side as hard as he could to twist his body to slip past the small opening between the rockets.
"HUH?!" She shouted right before she got socked in the face.
"How's that?!" He asked her before a red dot appeared in front of him. "Who would-" Those rockets he dodged earlier had come back to finish the job. Since he focused all his energy on the attack, he can't move in time to evade the incoming rockets, and she was still suffering recoil from his punch.
They both got hit, Sokoto from the rockets and Cecilia from the resulting explosion. They were knocked back quite aways, encumbered in smoke.
"AAAAAAAGH!" Cecilia couldn't hold her ground at all. She was still plummeting downwards towards the water. "Come on! Hang in there!" She flipped her body to nosedive and plunge beneath the ocean, then rise above the surface to do a midair backflip to fully recompose herself. Still, she couldn't believe what just happened. No one should've been able to avoid the secret cannons so foolhardily. How did he do that?! This wasn't just another robber or petty criminal. She was up against someone with a true six sense attuned to fighting. She knew why he was so dangerous now. But it should be fine now, because those rockets came back for him and neutralized his shielding. Surely there was no way he would've survived? But then she realized...there was a puff of smoke in front of her.
"No...no, no, no, no, no." She whispered exasperatedly, "No, he couldn't have...It's not...He can't-
"I CAN'T HEAR!" Sokoto blurted out as he cleared the smoke away from his eyes, "Ugh...What is in these rockets, lady?! Upgrade your gunpowder for on-uh..."
He stopped mid-sentence. He stared in awe at her. He saw it. She saw it. Their ISs changed appearance. Radically.
"But...why..." Cecilia was still flabbergasted, but then a haunting revelation chilled her to the bone, "HAVE YOU BEEN FIGHTING ON A DEFAULT SETTING THIS WHOLE TIME?!"
"Me?!" Sokoto responded, "What about you?! Those rockets shave off a few fat pounds from your thighs!"
"Don't be silly!" She was going to finish her thoughts, "ISs don't have...any...body...fat..." but then, she looked at her legs. They were longer, slimmer, and took on an aqua blue color scheme. Her entire suit changed form as well. Instead of a black chest guard, it turned sky blue. Her wings were reshape to look somewhat like angel fish. She looked like a pure mermaid. "How is this possible?..." She got her answer via transparent screen that said,
BLUE TEARS UPGRADED
2ND SHIFT: MERMAID'S TEARS
INCREASED DEFENSE, AGILITY, AND ACCURACY
HIDDEN MISSILE PODS REMOVED
TWO OPTICAL DRONES WICH CAN BE USED DURING MOTION
BLUE PIERCE INCREASE POWER AND FIRING RATE
"It wasn't supposed to...This is...amazing...I didn't even..." While Cecilia marveled at her newfound and supposedly impossible legendary acquisition, Sokoto, who also received a massive upgrade to his IS, was checking out his new threads.
He was given a pair of wings that looked like they were made by the King of Heaven. His IS was slightly taller, though it still paled in height compared to every single IS ever made. He was given futuristic transparent goggles that acted as a replacement for sudden pop-ups and notifications in his face. His entire IS, however, was sleeker, more pearlescent;the color scheme, the chest and leg guards, every single piece of the IS...it was all modeled after Kagamine Len.
"Man, I am loving this," Sokoto said before a bunch of words popped up on his left side:
FORMATTING AND CONFIGURATION COMPLETE
1ST SHIFT: SILVER STREAMLINE
HAND-TO-HAND COMBAT PROFICIENCY
SOLAR AND LUNAR ENERGY RECHARGE
IGNITION BOOST: SHORTER COOLDOWN AND LITTLE ENERGY COST
GRAPPLING HOOK HIDDEN ON LEFT ARM
"No way..." Sokoto finally understood. This thing doesn't have any weapons because it doesn't NEED any weapons. He then looked up at Cecilia, "Looks like she got a massive upgrade, too."
Cecilia looked Sokoto straight in the eye. She saw something that brought momentary deja vu. Then, she realized.
In the heat of battle, all limitations and expectations are immediately thrown out the window. No one thought he'd survive the onslaught. No one thought she'd receive additional support in the form of the one thing she placed her absolute trust and life in. Think what you want. Think all the conventional beliefs and stereotypes you want.
This little dunderhead will defy all of them. This little idiot will go above and beyond to sculpt his world around him.
And this battle's just the cherry on top of a much more extreme sundae.
"Mermaid's Tears to HQ," she sent a message to her squad back on the mainland, "Target has entered 1st Shift. All units to my location immediately, use of deadly force authorized."
"Calling on your knights to do the dirty work for you?" Sokoto sneered, "As expected of a heartless queen."
"Don't underestimate the loyalty of he queen's royal guard," Cecilia said, right before she called on her two drones and her sniper rifle to eliminate the threat in front of her, "especially when the queen herself is the pawn!"