Chapter 53: Sibling Showdown

I don't own IS or any of the other references that I will use. All credit for them goes to their creators.

Welcome to Chapter 53 everybody. I hope you've all enjoyed the ride so far, but it's coming to an end very soon. Once the arc is complete, Ichika Stratos will come to an end. But before we do, let's have one final showdown. Last time Ichika and gang arrived in Kyoto for their class trip. Everyone took a chance to relax and enjoy some final moments with Ichika before Phantom Task attacked and when they attacked they really attacked. Ichika is stuck in a battle with Madoka, his insane sister. Honne was also stuck in a grudge match with Autumn and Tatenashi confronted Squall. Now things were definitely getting interesting.

(Water Tower)

"So Squall, care to make an interesting wager on these upcoming battles?" Tatenashi said with her usual amusement.

"I'm listening."

"If we stop your plan here, why don't you surrender peacefully to me?"

"Hmm, that sounds amusing. You act as though we haven't changed since the last battle."

"Oh, I know you have, but Ichi is dangerous and Honne is probably the third strongest pilot in the school."

"Well fine then. However don't think we only chose to attack the pilots."

"Now what made you think that?" Tatenashi smirked as her fan revealed the words for "Predictable" towards the Phantom Task leader.

"We shall see, brat!" Squall scowled as she and Tatenashi watched everything happen.

(Ichika vs Madoka)

As Ichika looked at the Black Zephyrus,he instantly realized that Madoka had the advantage. After all Cecelia and her Blue Tears was the only IS among the girls that had an advantage against him. Ichika's battle style was straight up attack, so a close range brawl would ultimately fail unless you had equal power and speed. However Blue Tears and the B. would change matters. Fortunately for him Cecelia wasn't nearly as good a pilot. Had Tatenashi had Blue Tears, he would've been in trouble. "So sis, I guess the first move is yours huh?" Ichika said smiling as he pulled Red Fury and White Knight out of both of their slots.

"You're going defensive from the start. You're smarter than I thought." Madoka said with a smirk.

"Well duh. My IS hasn't changed and yours has improved." Ichika said modestly.

"Hmph, you flatter me." Madoka smirks as she prepared to attack. 'What's he up to? The fact he doesn't start with his usual attack means he worried about something.'

"I guess it's my start. TWIN DRAGON FANG!" Ichika shouted as he sent a slash of energy from both swords.

"If that's all you got, you can't win!" Madoka shouted as she dodged the attack by activating the wings on the side.

"Of course it's not." Ichika smirked as he had gotten in much closer. "OVERBOOST FANG!" Ichika shouted as he focused far more energy than before and used White Knight to slam Madoka's IS from only a few feet away. The attack sent Madoka flying but not as much as he hoped.

"Not bad at all. You actually took out half my power with that little combo. Shame you're trapped." Madoka sneered.

"Really, how's that?" Ichika retorted.

"This is how!" Madoka smirked "STUN SPORE!"

"What are you… shit!" Ichika cursed as miniature explosions appeared in the sky.

"Take that." Madoka smiled. Unfortunately the smile was short lived as a small shield appeared around Ichika. "Impossible! Those attacks were close range!"

"Yeah, they were. Had I recognized it a second later, I would've been in trouble." Ichika smirked as the shield vanished to reveal a slightly damaged IS but with the knowledge that it could've been worse.

"So you realized what I was up to." Madoka smiled.

"Well yeah, your IS sends miniature bombs as it flies. You can use them to attack in the same way of the B. from your old system. It's a perfect counter attack to Dragon's Ascent."Ichika said with a smirk. It was similar to Tatenashi's attack.

"Exactly. We noticed what the Shirashiki brat did and had Tabane Shinonono build a similar attachment into my Zephyrus.

Ichika groaned because he had a feeling that was the case. "I figured Tabane had something to do with that. You probably told her that if she didn't help you would have your other spy attack Houki. That woman is incredibly irrational when it comes to her sister." Ichika groaned.

'So, this is my fault.' Mahiru thought to herself.

"Don't you dare blame yourself, Mahiru." Ichika yelled out knowing the girl felt that way. "Tabane knows full well that Houki can take out pretty much anybody. That idiot probably did it just to spite me."

"I wouldn't get distracted, bro. After all, I could have bombs around you as we speak." Madoka teased.

"No you couldn't. I've already figured out the weakness of those bombs." Ichika smirked before pressing a button on the left side of his IS. "CRY OF THE DRAGON!" Ichika shouted as he sent a sonic pulse around him.

'SHIT!' Madoka cursed as she tried to move out of the way but the blasts hammered her.

"Really, Tabane should know better. That type of attack will only work on me once. She made those bombs too weak." Ichika smirked. However he was well aware that the battle was just beginning.

(Honne)

"Tatenashi always tells me to finish my opponents off quickly, now I see what she means." Honne smirked as she fought off Autumn. Since their last battle, Autumn's speed had been upped and somehow her exoskeleton had been made more resistant to electricity, which meant Honne was going to have a much harder time winning with Lightning Princess.

"HAHAHA! You're gonna die, brat!" Autumn yelled out as she attacked again. The continued strikes hadn't hit their mark, but Honne's was definitely struggling.

'I've gotta finish this and fast.' Honne thought to herself. The high speed movements took up a ton of energy and if she didn't finish this soon she was in trouble.

(Water Tower)

"So you're not gonna do anything to contain me? I figured you'd want a little revenge for your family." Squall teased.

"I do, but considering who's fighting, I'd say I'm doing just fine." Tatenashi replied. She was watching the battles using her IS's power and she knew that Ichika and Honne would be fine. Her main concern was the train but since Kanzashi was there, everything would take care of itself.

(Train)

As the train kept speeding down the track, Kanzashi Sarashiki was fast at work analyzing the situation. It was already obvious that Phantom Task had hacked into the train and they were speeding towards a dangerous end. However that still didn't mean Phantom Task didn't have an extra plan. 'This is bad' Kanzashi thought as she managed to hack into the train using a program Ichika gave her. Phantom Task really had a brutal plan.

"What's wrong, Kanzashi?" Cecelia wondered. She could tell the woman was nervous about something.

"Would you like the good news or the bad news first?" Kanzashi said dryly.

"The good news." Cecelia said calmly.

"Ichika gave me a program that allowed me to hack into the train and analyze what's going on."

"Excellent, then you can help calm things down!" Cecelia said happily.

"Not at all. If it was that simple she would've done something. Something else is going on isn't that correct." Laura added in.

"That's right. The bad news is that there's a bomb attached to the train and I'm pretty sure it'll go off if we decrease beyond a certain speed." Kanzashi explained.

"Damn them. They really got us this time." Houki cursed.

Fortunately for the gang, Chifuyu was there so she had a plan. "Okay girls, there's only one thing we can do. Laura, since you're the only one with military training, find the bomb and surround it with your AIC so we can at least protect everybody."

"I've already found the bomb. It's underneath the third car from the front. It's brilliant actually to have it in that place." Kanzashi added in.

"Good. Laura, I need you to get everybody out of that car and use the AIC to surround the bomb, which should help us save everybody. However be ready for traps."

"Of course, Instructor." Laura said confidently.

"I'd hit you for calling me that, but we don't have time right now." Chifuyu said before Laura started running towards the car.

"What should we do?" Cecelia said nervously. She wanted to help out somehow

Chifuyu thought about it for a moment and realized that there was very little they could do. Because it was the third car from the front, they couldn't just disconnect the car without causing some serious damage… or could they?

"Alcott, get your Blue Tears ready and stay above the train. When Laura activates her AIC on the bomb, I want you to isolate the train car using your B. .

"Got it!" Cecelia said as she understood the plan.

"There's another problem. We have about 15 minutes to do this. After all, once we reach the end of the line, it'll naturally explode." Kanzashi said nervously.

"Get moving everybody!" Chifuyu yelled out. This was a dire situation and they had to be smart.

(Ichika)

As the smoke cleared Ichika could tell that Madoka was seriously damaged, but not finished off. If the battle was that simple it wouldn't be interesting. "Come on sis, I know you're still there." Ichika joked.

"Damn you, Ichika Orimura." Madoka cursed angrily. Her machine had taken some serious damage thanks to the stray bombs. Worse off, her shield energy was nearly gone.

"So you gonna give up yet, little sister? I'm pretty sure you're almost out of energy."

Madoka was finished but she had one final shot to take at her brother. "Well, we may have lost, but you're in trouble also."

"Yeah, I know. You've got that Autumn woman taking on Honne and you've managed to not only hack into the monorail to send it to a speeding doom, but you've got a bomb involved also." Ichika said calmly.

"Yet you're this calm?" Madoka said in shock.

"Well yeah, I figured you would try something like that. By now Kanzashi has hacked into the train herself and located the bomb. They're probably developing a counter attack for it as we speak." Ichika said with a hint of amusement.

"Damn you. How could you have figured us out so easily?"

"Because bad guys like you are predictable. I'm actually frighteningly disappointed in you guys. I predicted you'd send a spy after me, but it was the way you did it that disappointed me. " Ichika groaned.

"WHAT!" Madoka said out loud. Even Mahiru was shocked by this.

"I had my suspicions about Mahiru ever since she appeared in the announcer's booth. Of course it was only confirmed once we captured Squall's sister." Ichika said nonchalantly.

"So why didn't you say anything?" Mahiru wondered.

"I was distracted by the battle with Tatenashi and once it ended I forgot about Mahiru. At least until I discovered her cameras."

"So wait a minute, you mean…." Madoka cursed.

"That's right. I knew about her. The fact that her information was so useless is because I controlled it. I made sure that Mahiru's cameras wouldn't get you guys any information that could bother me."

"YOU BASTARD!" Madoka yelled out.

"I must admit I didn't expect Tabane to completely rework your IS. However it's still no match for me, Madoka." Ichika said smiling.

"I'm not finished! I will surpass you! I will…." Madoka started grumbling. Ichika could tell that something was happening and it wasn't good.

"It seems the battle isn't over yet." Ichika said with a smile.

"Damn you. Damn you! Damn you!" Madoka yelled out. All of the sudden her IS started to glow.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me." Ichika groaned as he realized what was going on. Somehow her IS was undergoing a second evolution right in front of him.

(Water tower)

"Hah! So Madoka somehow forced a second evolution from her IS." Squall said smiling as she and Tatenashi watched everything happen.

"Uh huh. Ichi is gonna have real problems this time." Tatenashi said smiling.

"Yep, well he still managed to ruin enough of our plans. I guess this is karma" Squall smirked.

"Yeah, Ichi is something special." Tatenashi smiled. Although she was confident in his victory Tatenashi was still nervous because there was far more to come.

That's it for Chapter 53 boys and girls. The story is coming to an end and there are only two chapters remaining. Next chapter where the battle with Phantom Task comes to an end and an epilogue. It's been a long journey but this story will at last end. Thank you to everyone who's supported me this whole time. I hope that you're all satisfied with the ending.