"HEY!"
As I left my latest victims to dissipate behind me, I realized that I should probably answer the screaming voice in my head.
"What?" No preamble, nor jokes. Just a flat, deadpan inquiry as to why the fuck are you bothering me?
"If you're done being a damn deaf psychopath, can you bother to listen to me for a second?!" My Captain said, exasperated and not the least bit intimidated. Probably a by-product of knowing I was not particularly eager to maim myself to get to her, who was ALSO, technically, myself.
I looked around, there were no more immediate targets in the area, I had time, "What's up?" I asked, adjusting the tank shell under my armpit as my Rigging swept over the muddy, blasted ground.
"What's up?! WHAT'S UP!?" I could 'see' my fairy Captain stomp her tiny boot, "How about a damn hostile jet? Huh? How's that for what's 'up'?"
I looked up at the sky, though I wasn't able to see anything through the black clouds above.
"We've been trying to tell you for the last two minutes that we spotted it on what's left of your Radar. It's hard to say anything when your insides have been doing a good impression of a rock tumbler with all that jumping around!" My Captain continued.
I winked, readjusting my ad-hoc helmet idly. It had taken a bit of a beating, but better it than my conning tower, "There's no way it can see us in this," I gestured at the swirling vortex the rain had become.
"You think it needs to?!" My Captain told a technician to do something on her console, and my gaze slid, almost involuntarily, to the right. There, a pillar of violet smoke twisted in the wind.
I gazed at it dumbly for a moment, not registering.
Then, I did, "The fleet." I said, eye-widening in something other than anger.
"Dear grid coordinates," My Captain didn't need to continue, I understood.
I had to get them out of here. First, I had to find them in this soup.
I took a deep, unneeded breath, holding it for a moment before letting it out, trying to find that special place in my head Chitose had shown me, what seemed ages ago now.
Again, my senses slowly shifted. There was no blurring, no flash of light, one moment I was standing within my Rigg- within Scooter. And the next moment, or sometime before or after that, I was floating in the air, whipping to and fro like a leaf on the wind.
My fleet was not particularly hard to find, as they brought the fist of god down on whatever had survived so far. It looked like they were heading my way, I think. looking at myself in the third person was a little off-putting...
Dear God... that's what I look like when I'm doing this?
I watched myself shake my head numbly, while I started to drool gormlessly.
Bah! Now was not the time to be a prima-donna. Though it was interesting that I could still move myself, at least when I was watching my own body. I couldn't even feel my neck move when I- NOnonono! Stay in drone! Stay, Stay. In. Drone.
Almost lost control there.
I began to climb in my tiny mechanical appendage, trying to get above the low-hanging clouds as Scooter moved towards my ships. If I could spot where the enemy aircraft was, I might be able to help the girls avoid it.
I breached the cloud cover, somehow not being flung around by the wind, as I got confirmation that I'd finally reconnected with the girls from my crew. I switched between my drones, looking through the one I'd kept closer to ground level. It was easier to switch between them than it was to initially take control of one, for some reason. I assume it was the same for Chitose as-
Target, bearing 40 degrees Northeast. Sixty-four feet, the rest of the fleet had not spotted it yet.
I focused my vision on myself, letting my crew do the ballistics calculations, and forced my body through the motions they provided.
Like watching a videogame character, I saw myself whip the 76mm shell in my hands at the enemy like a large lawn dart. The shell reached a good velocity considering it had been thrown by hand. It impaled the enemy solidly through the chest, though the heavy contact fuse didn't register. Just as well, the target was down regardless.
I switched back to my eye in the sky as I closed in on my fleet-
*RRRROOOOOOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR~~~~*
Only to see a black form streak across my vision out of the clouds. My audio cut out briefly from the noise as silvery parts of the jet seemed to fall off- Those are bombs, you imbecile!
I practically balled up and threw my consciousness back into my main hull, instinctively looking up at the sky as the enemy aircraft streaked invisibly overhead.
I snapped my gaze down again to meet the terrified eyes of Lao for a brief moment, the rest of the fleet behind them. Robin looked like she may faint, while Chitose swayed on her feet unsteadily, before collapsing to her knees without support.
"Run," I said, brooking no argument.
They thankfully obeyed. Beginning to sprint away from me, and hopefully, out of the blast zone. I raced to Chitose, hopping out of Scooter to haul the dazed woman into the cockpit with me. She looked over, blinking.
"Ah, G-Georgia? Why do you have four heads?" She slurred. She must really be out of it if she's seeing double.
I didn't reply, I didn't have the time to.
With a silvery glint, whatever it was the jet had flung at us came within ground visual.
I pushed Chitose down and flung myself ov-
/RLG1ys2CGcI
GRWWOOOOOOOOSH!
My world became fire.
With Hakone:
I don't want to admit it, but seeing dad look at us with that blank eye... i-it scared me a little. Okay, a LOT. Enough so that when she told us to run, I didn't think twice before turning-keel and cruising as fast as my legs could carry me in the opposite direction.
Robin and Lao practically sprinted ahead of us. It was good to see the former get used to her new legs! Though I wish the circumstances were a little better...
Ahem, anyway.
We made it almost across the field before there was a massive WOOSH! behind us. I didn't turn to look, but a massive gust of hot air blew past me. The warm feeling didn't go away, especially on my back.
As soon as we heard what I could only assume was a bomb go off behind us, Lao reacted oddly. She leaped onto the ground ahead of us for some reason, and started rolling frantically, "AAAAAAGH! AHHHHAHHHHaHHHHAHHHH!" She started to scream frantically as I slowed down for a second behind her.
I awkwardly made to pick the smaller craft up, despite my Rigging, but seeing me seemed to fill the small Kanmusu with more apparent terror. She scrambled on all fours away from me as I looked at Anne in wordless confusion.
The larger girl, who was carrying a white-faced and for once silent Ky Hoa over her shoulder, looked over at me briefly before grunting, "Y̷o̶u̸ ̵a̵r̷e̶ ̶o̷n̶ ̴f̵i̷r̵e̸." She stated bluntly, before continuing on.
I watched her jog past, blinking, before twisting to look back-
Oh.
Fire danced merrily on my skin, sending twisting blooms of black, oily smoke into the air, I could only really see as far as my shoulder, but from the vaguely warm feeling, whatever had landed on me that was burning was all down my back as well.
"Huh," I exclaimed. I'd have tried to wipe some of the clinging, gel-like substance off, but my hands were linked to my Rigging, and I didn't particularly feel like dragging it behind me again.
My gaze rose from my own burning shoulder as I turned more fully. The field we'd run from was on fire, ALL of it. The flames were a deep, vibrant orange, and thick, cloying smoke billowed up into the sky, obscuring where mom and dad had been staaaaan...
...ding.
I went to cover my mouth with both hands, and there was a clang as my arm-Rigging almost flattened my nose.