Chapter 7: Friends in a Maze of Relationships
It was hard to get lost after that point. The area C-Sha was guarding was just before a straight tunnel. Though it looked fine at first, it started to feel out of place as the girls traveled further down. Less and less blinking tiles colored the walls until nothing but bland concrete could be seen as they passed by. It began to grow more and more dim the further they got from the glowing tiles, making it difficult to see anything.
Bandam held B-Sha piggyback style as it continued to march forward, it's sight uninhibited by the darkness. IF used her phone as a flashlight and everyone else walked around her.
"How long until we get there? This is getting pretty boring", CC2 complained.
"Don't ask me. I don't remember a thing", C-Sha shrugged.
"Oh come on, there has to be something! What's even at the end of this tunnel, anyway?", CC2 replied.
"Well, clearly a light will be at the end of the tunnel!", Nisa said proudly.
"Not to sound like a downer or anything, but we're actually moving away from the light", IF muttered.
"Come now, IF. You need to have a more positive attitude about things if you don't want everything to go wrong", Nisa said to IF.
"I'm just being realistic. I mean, just look at this tunnel we're in. This is all bad news", IF shrugged.
"You mustn't mistake pessimism for realism! You'll end up attracting the worst case scenario onto yourself", Nisa said firmly.
"I'm pretty sure it's just common sense", IF replied.
"Well, why don't you just try looking for the best case scenario instead? That way you can work towards that instead of chalking things up as realism", Nisa rebutted, "Sometimes you just have to make good things happen yourself!"
"Make them happen, huh…", IF mumbled to herself.
"Hey, I found something!", B-Sha called out from up front.
The girl's robot lowered itself to allow B-Sha to easily step off without much effort. IF shined her phone's light at B-Sha, who she saw was pointing towards the ground. There, was a round silver platform with a faint blue light emanating from it.
"This has to be a teleporter.", B-Sha said.
"Or a death trap.", IF said as she crossed her arms. Nisa cleared her throat with a very audible ahem. IF uncrossed her arms and took a deep breath. "Though, since it was being guarded, it's probably just a teleporter."
"That robot's right through there, right? Come on, let's do this!", CC2 said. She dashed in ahead of everyone else and stood at the center of the platform and was beamed away.
"Wha-?! CyberCon, you knucklehead!", B-Sha groaned before rushing onto the teleporter herself.
"Hold on, is that place even safe?", C-Sha said surprised.
"We have no time to ponder that now. We must now step into the unknown and rescue Lid from the jaws of a jealous maiden!", Nisa announced.
"We better hurry up before those two get lost. Besides that, I want to get some good hits in before it's over.", C-Sha nodded before getting onto the teleporter, vanishing into the beam.
Nisa turned to IF and they nodded at each other. One after the other, the two girls stepped through the teleporter and briefly re-appeared in a room with a bunch of monitors around the teleporter. C-Sha stood in front of the teleporter, only having arrived a moment before them.
"They can't be too far. Let's-", before C-Sha could finish, a siren began to ring around them, and an audible clang could be heard at the door.
"Already?! I bet they're not even trying to sneak around!", IF groaned.
C-Sha jogged up to the door and tried to open it in vain. She shrugged before breaking the door down in one swift kick. Right behind the door was a small squadron of four robots passing by. Their attention snapped towards C-Sha who took a moment to size them up before going in to fight them.
Nisa and IF joined in and helped the brawler dispatch of the robots quickly. More robots appeared at both ends of the hallways and were closing in fast.
"Which way could they have gone?", Nisa pondered as the robots closed in on them. She looked down both sides of the hallway before the robots were finally before them. Nisa knew what she had to do. The blue haired girl stood up straight from her fighting position and took a step towards one of the squadrons surrounding them.
"It appears you have caught us! You are on quite the roll today, having stopped two infiltration attempts!", Nisa said out loud.
The robots stoically turned to each other in what could only be described as visible confusion.
"Nisa, what the hell are you doing?!", IF scolded.
"We're hopelessly outnumbered. We have no choice but to surrender so they can SAFELY ESCORT US out of the facility", Nisa answered with a quick wink.
"INITIATING INTRUDER ELIMINATION PROTOCOL. MORE INTRUDERS IMPLIED THROUGHOUT THE FACILITY", said a voice from one of the robots.
"Guess we don't have much of a choice here", C-Sha shrugged, "You two clear that side." After finishing a stretch, C-Sha turned around and launched herself into the robots on one side of the hallway. Nisa nodded mirrored C-Sha's move, leaving IF behind momentarily.
"Damn it, we didn't even last five minutes before everything went wrong!", she said to herself in an irritated tone. She sighed and leapt in after Nisa. Initially irritated, IF eased into the combat and even felt a bit refreshed at how seamless she was able to dance through the enemies with her new weapons.
Her hair and coat flew through the air as she sliced through the robots, her oversized sleeves concealing her weapons and making her all the more unpredictable. Nisa glanced at her and for a split second, could truly see why she called herself a "Gust of Wind"- just before IF was caught by surprise by a shot from an enemy she missed. The poor sprout was knocked forward and fell onto the ground.
Nisa kicked off of a robot and destroyed IF's attacker with a devastating blow to its torso before running over to help IF. She quickly cupped her hands underneath her arms and pulled her back to her feet and ran off once more to finish off the rest of the robots. Before Nisa could reach the rest of the robots, they were engulfed in an explosion. After the smoke cleared, Nisa could see B-Sha running through towards them.
"B-Sha?! Where's CyberCon?", Nisa asked.
The small blonde fired another shot down the hall to help C-Sha out before answering Nisa. "I have no idea! She ran off way too fast and then the alarm went off and all these cheap robots showed up!", she blurted out.
A robot was sent flying from the direction C-Sha was in. IF leapt into the air to meet it and sliced it in half. C-Sha ran over to them and looked around.
"I know I'm the one who said we should split up earlier, but it would probably be a better idea if we roamed around as a group in a place like this.", C-Sha said to the group. Everyone nodded in agreement and they all ran down through the facility together, mowing down any opposition they encountered without stopping.
Elsewhere in the facility, CC2 was grinding her kill score a bit too hard. She had no idea where she or anyone else was.
"Oh boy, looks like I really overdid it this time… I better get back to everyone fast!", she said to herself. She jogged around aimlessly for about two minutes before stopping. "I guess I should just go ahead and look for this friend of Nisa's while I'm at it. That way we could just regroup and get out of here! I wouldn't be able to fight that robot, though… I guess I'll have to settle for all the small fry I took out already, hehe!" She snickered to herself before resuming her search.
At this point, she started checking every room she could find. "What kind of place is this? It looks like some kind of lab, but then…" She trailed as she opened another room, "...there are rooms with nothing but sports merch in them! That doesn't even make any sense!"
She continued her search until she found one room in particular that stood out. With the light from the hallway, she saw someone bound to a machine by her arms and legs, staring at the ground.
"Whoa, are you alright?", CC2 called out to her. The prisoner weakly raised her head to look at the energetic blonde. A mask with a blue butterfly wing on one side covered the girl's face, though a glimmer of hope could be seen in her eyes as she stared back at her possible rescuer. "Help me… please…", the girl pleaded.
Not wasting another second, CC2 rushed forward and freed the girl from the devices binding her. The girl stumbled forward onto her knees once she was loose. CC2 lowered herself and offered her shoulder to the girl to help her up.
"Hey, what's your name?", CC2 asked, "I'm CyberConnect2! CC2 for short!"
"...Joker.", the girl responded in a low voice. She dusted off her black blue school uniform and and readjusted the red ribbon on her chest. Her red hair hung at her shoulders, messy after who knows how long. Her feet were wobbly as she stood up, weak from her captivity.
"My pleasure, Joker! I have some friends who will help get you out of here. Let's go find them!", the thief grinned, "But first, you should eat something. You look way too exhausted!"
CC2 reached into her bag and handed the girl a meat bun. Joker responded with a slow nod and took the small snack. She lifted her mask just high enough to be able to eat it, but not high enough for CC2 to get a look at her face. After she felt a bit replenished, she re-adjusted her mask and nodded at her savior.
CC2 walked over to the door and looked outside before beckoning Joker over. The masked girl followed CC2 outside into the labyrinth of hallways. Oddly enough, they didn't run into any more robots. Perhaps they were busy with some other intruders or something. Whatever the reason, it allowed the two to move around uninhibited throughout the unknown facility.
IF's party stampeded through the hallways without stopping, running a train through any squads trying to stop them. They had been searching for a while now and had subconsciously developed a method of checking each room. Someone at the front checked, everyone behind that person "leapfrogged" in front of them and kept moving forward, continuing to rotate as they moved as a group. Their momentum had built up and they showed no signs of stopping.
Which was exactly the problem when they finally found the room they were looking for. B-Sha opened to the door and found the barrel of a gun staring back at her. Before she could call for help, K-Sha caught her in a headlock and muffled B-Sha's cries with her hand as she pulled the poor girl inside, all within a matter of seconds.
The category 3 Gust of Wind brushed on until they reached a dead end and no more robots were in sight. That was when they finally realized something was amiss. The remaining three girls looked around at each other until someone finally asked what was on all of their minds.
"Hey, where's B-Sha?", IF spoke up. A concerned look was plastered on her face.
"She must have fallen behind. We were going quite fast there…", Nisa suggested.
C-Sha held her elbow with one hand and held her chin with the other, thinking to herself for a moment. "No, something's not right. She may be be small, but B-Sha's not the type to just up and vanish like that.", the tall brunette explained, "When's she's not doing that superhero thing, of course."
"Superhero thing?", IF butted in.
"YES, WHAT SUPERHERO? CERTAINLY NOT B-SHA! HAHAHA!", Nisa replied with a nervous laugh.
To this, IF glanced at C-Sha and was met with a simple shrug. "Let's hurry up and retrace our steps. Check the rooms, too. She can't be too far", C-Sha ordered.
With a nod from each of them, IF and Nisa ran off before C-Sha to retrace their steps, each girl taking one side of the hallway as C-Sha kept up in between them...
CC2 and Joker continued to jog through the facility, taking note of every corner before crossing to another hallway. Joker felt her energy slowly return now that she was finally able to move. The blonde grit her teeth and sighed to relieve her frustration.
"I, uh… I've got to be honest with you here. I kind of don't know where we're going", CC2 said with an awkward chuckle.
Joker rose her head up and looked around. "Allow me to point us in the right direction, then", she spoke up. She brought out a large, blue book and opened it. Seemingly at random, she plucked out a glowing card and glanced at it before pointing it down one of the hallways. "The hand of fate points this way", she muttered.
"How do you know?", CC2 asked.
"Our fate is in the cards. These predictions are absolute.", the schoolgirl replied.
"Are you sure? You barely got a look at it!", CC2 pressed.
Joker looked at CC2 for a moment, her expression hidden behind her mask. CC2 shrugged. "Well, it's not like I've got any better ideas. Alright, let's trust this 'fate' of yours!", she grinned.
Putting their faith in the cards, the two girls traveled down the hallway Joker pointed out. Oddly enough, it was a deceivingly long hallway. As they ran, CC2 glanced over to Joker. To her surprise, she didn't seem to be tired at all anymore. It was only a matter of time until they finally reached their destination at the end of the hallway.
A large mechanical gateway stood before the girls. They eyed it for a moment and looked at each other. CC2 tried to look for some way to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Suddenly, a robotic voice spoke out.
"PASSWORD REQUIRED FOR ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT.", it announced.
"Password, huh? Any idea what it is?", CC2 asked as she turned to Joker.
"Hm… my academic skill leads me to believe that it is '140.15'. Good thing I paid attention to everything K-Sha said whenever she came in to rant", Joker answered.
"Rant? About what?", CC2 replied.
"She complained about how she couldn't get some girl named 'Lid' to join her and asked me for advice about it", Joker shrugged.
"What did you say?"
"I said, 'Who cares?' She didn't like that.", Joker muttered. She held her arms as if she was shivering and walked up towards the door. As she approached it, a holographic panel appeared in front of it. After inputting the password, there was a loud "BEEP". The girls stepped back and waited for something to happen.
"... PASSWORD ACCEPTED.", the voice announced. The large door split open and slid to the sides, revealing a large hangar within. They ran in swiftly, and quickly realized what they had just walked into.
"That's… that's that giant robot! I think Nisa said it was called 'Nepu Gear' or something like that!", CC2 said excitedly.
Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be heavily damaged. The large machine's armor casing was filled with bullet holes and blast markings. It seemed miraculous it was even able to make it back to this hangar at all. Most notable of all, however, was the fact that it seemed to be in the middle of getting repaired.
"Looks like a fight with it is out of the question now…", CC2 sighed, "I don't think any of my friends are here. Guess that means the two of us are gonna have to deal with this thing ourselves. You can fight, right?"
Joker nodded and brought out her large book once more, keeping it open at the ready. The two girls began to sneak through the hangar as they made their way up to the control room near the top.
They sneaked inside unnoticed and shut the door behind them. The room had windows in every direction and consoles all along them. Not a soul was inside save for one- somebody was sitting in a chair overseeing the repairs.
A cup of tea sat on one of the consoles. As the overseer reached out for it, Joker pulled out a card from her book and summoned a lightning bolt that struck between the overseer's hand the the cup of tea. The person's white sleeve flinched before being pulled back. The overseer turned her chair around to get a look at the two intruders.
In front of CC2 and Joke sat a woman with shoulder length blonde hair with gold eyes and red glasses, wearing a white, black and gray military cap. Along with this was a uniform with short pants of the same color scheme and a pair of thigh high boots.
The woman looked at the both of them with a slightly annoyed look in her eyes. "Intruders? It appears I neglected to place enough units on guard duty…", the woman said in a commanding voice.
"We would've just torn through them anyway", CC2 grinned with her daggers at the ready.
"If you would be so kind as to step aside, it would be most appreciated", Joker spoke up.
"And abandon the repairs of this robot? Nonsense. My reputation of being able to fix any machine is on the line here. I won't allow you to sully my name!", the woman declared as she stood up. She brought out out a multi-colored beam rifle and began shooting at the pair of intruders.
CC2 was able to jump out of the way, but Joker wasn't as quick and took a hit. The blonde thief followed up by dashed towards the woman head-on. Out of her line of sight, small mechanical bits emerged and began to shoot at CC2, hitting her before she could reach her destination. Blasted aside, both girls were now on the ground.
"How bothersome. And here I thought you were actually going to be trouble", the woman scoffed, "I suppose now I'll have to dispose of you." She began to walk up towards CC2 with her beam rifle pointed at her.
Joker pushed herself up and slid out one of the skill cards from her book. She quietly muttered to herself as she cast a spell on CC2. Suddenly, the thief felt herself rejuvenated as the woman approached her, now pointing her colorful rifle at her head.
When her attacker got close enough, CC2 suddenly lashed out with a sudden surprise attack and tackled the woman down onto the floor. Now sitting on top of her, CC2 held her daggers over the overseer's neck.
"Tch… Two mishaps in one day. Perhaps a tactical withdrawal is in order", the young woman muttered.
"Hey! Don't think you're gonna be able to just walk away from this!" CC2 barked, "We're here to rescue someone and we can't have this thing getting in the way!"
"You don't want it interfering with your rescue?" The sharp woman maintained her commanding tone as she replied, "It can barely even move in its current state. And even if it could, I was only ever contracted to repair the robot, not guard hostages. The kid who hired me is busy right now anyway, so there are currently no available pilots."
"Oh, really? Wow, that's pretty nice of you, ma'am!", CC2 said surprised. She relaxed her grip on her daggers and pulled them away from the woman's throat, though she remained on top of the woman on the ground.
Joker lingered around near the two blondes as if wanting to be noticed until CC2 saw her.
"Oh, that's right! These guys are kidnapping people! How could you work for people like that?!" CC2 asked this as she brought her dagger close to the woman's throat again.
"It is my understanding that the people being held here are criminals", the woman replied calmly.
"But Joker here's a high school student! She couldn't be a criminal!", CC2 rebutted. The two blondes turned to look up at the masked girl.
Joker took a few moments to respond, as if trying to think of the correct choice of words for the situation. Finally, she said: "Of course not."
"See? They're kidnapping innocent people! She was a complete wreck when I found her!", CC2 added.
The sharp woman closed her eyes and analyzed the situation in her head. "I'll dig into my employer's background some more and draw my own conclusions. If I do, in fact, find some evidence to your claims, I will cut off all contact with them and report them to the proper authorities", she said, "Though I will continue to work for them in the meantime."
"And you'll let us know what you find, right?", the thief pressed.
"If I find something, CyberConnect2", the woman replied.
"How do you know her name?", Joker butted in.
"I do routine repairs on her partner's robot.", the woman replied.
"Oh, then you must be Generia G.!", CC2 said with a surprised look on her face, "You better let us know if you find something, you hear me?"
"Roger that. Now please get off of me", Generia said, with a hint of annoyance in her tone. CC2 pulled her daggers away and stood up, now stepping away from the woman. Generia got up onto her feet and dusted off her uniform before giving the two girls her attention.
"You're looking for the one K-Sha brought in recently, right? It's that way. Two lefts then a right", Generia said with a salute.
Joker crossed her arms. "...Wouldn't that just bring us back here?"
"Two rights then a left", she reaffirmed.
Joker shook her head.
Generia pressed a button on one of the consoles and a small robot entered the room shortly afterwards. "Just follow this, de arimasu."
CC2 and Joker glanced at each other and exchanged shrugs.
At around the same time, IF, Nisa and C-Sha finally reached the room they thought B-Sha just had to be in. They utterly decimated the poor mechanical door as they burst into the dark room. The only sign of light was from the hallway behind the three girls. Suddenly, the door shut behind them and for a moment, the room was pitch black. A moment later, a spotlight shot down and revealed the trio amidst the darkness.
"Glad you three could finally make it!", K-Sha's voice said. The instant after she spoke, a spotlight shone down on a distance away from them to reveal the crimson schoolgirl. "You've kept us waiting. Well, not me. I was having fun with my dear Lid~!", the schoolgirl swooned, "But when your little friend interrupted us, I had no other choice but to have her join in on the fun as well!"
Two more spotlights lit up behind K-Sha, revealing Lid and B-Sha bound with mechanical braces by the arms and legs. B-Sha looked up frantically and called out to her friends, while Lid was panting heavily with her head staring at the ground.
"H-hey! This is no way to treat kids!", the blonde complained.
"Wait, don't say that!", Lid butted in as she glanced towards her fellow captive.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. We're all friends here, right?", K-Sha smirked as she took held up a remote, "And friends LOVE to play with each other, don't they?"
With a push of the remote, B-Sha and Lid began to shiver slightly. Two robotic arms appeared around both girls and began to tickle the both of them. They tried to hold back their laughter, but their shivers made them all the more sensitive to the touch. They began to cry tears of what would usually be joy.
"Hahaha… ahahaha! No more! Stop, plea-hahaha!", B-Sha snorted.
"K-Shahahaa… Leave them… ehehe...pshahaha! Out of...kehehehe… THITH!", Lid managed to blurt out.
"Fear not! We shall rescue you from the clutches of this jealous yandere!", Nisa called out to them. She stepped forward and began to run right towards them.
"Wait, don't-!", Lid tried to to speak up, but was way too late. The ground underneath Nisa lit up until she was completely enveloped in light. After a moment, the light died down, but Nisa was nowhere to be seen.
"Where did she go?", IF asked. She looked around the dark room, but failed to see any sign of her partner.
"Why, she's right here!", K-Sha answered. She held up a card between her index and middle fingers for IF and C-Sha to see. Though they had to squint to actually make out the image on it from afar, what they saw was undeniably Nisa with a silly look of shock on her face.
"Ugh, that idiot!", IF sighed.
"Did you seriously just turn her into a card?", C-Sha asked.
"I don't know. Can you seriously suplex a bear?", K-Sha responded.
"That's more of Tekken's thing", C-Sha shrugged.
"What do you do, then?", K-Sha asked.
"Cars", the taller brunette responded nonchalantly.
"Isn't that a bit impractical?", K-Sha replied.
"Says the one who just turned someone into a playing card", IF grumbled.
"Whoops, got sidetracked there for a second", C-Sha smiled awkwardly.
K-Sha fanned herself with the Nisa card as she smirked at the two brunettes. "If you want your friends back, then you're going to have to duel me for them!"
"What is it with you people holding people hostage over a damn game?!", IF barked. She seethed in place for a moment until she felt C-Sha's hand on her shoulder.
"Hey, relax. If you lose your cool, then you've already lost", the woman said reassuringly.
"How am I supposed to react, then?", IF responded in a frustrated tone.
"Just smile! Great adventurers should be able to keep their spirits up in the most trying times", C-Sha answered. She complimented her remark with a smile of her own. Before IF had a chance to respond, K-Sha called out once more.
"Hey, are you two listening? Your friend's lives are in the balance here", she said in a more serious tone. She pushed another button on the remote and all the lights in the room turned on, revealing a holographic arena between K-Sha and the two brunettes. The two ends before both parties had an elevated platform attached to the arena.
"Before we begin, you two are going to have to decide who's going to fight", K-Sha explained with a sinister sneer growing on her face, "I think you know what I mean by now."
IF grit her teeth as C-Sha took one step forward. "You can't seriously be considering this!", she cried out.
The brawler glanced back at IF. "Hey, I'm open to any other ideas you may have. I'm not exactly one to turn down a fight and we don't really have any other choice. One of us has to bite the bullet here." She gave the shorter girl a thumbs up accompanied with her usual, natural smile. "You're a smart girl, IF. I know you can handle this!"
Without hesitation, C-Sha stepped forward and was enveloped in a bright light. After it died down, a single card hovered in the air as if it were daring someone to take it. "Gee, way to lay out the all the pressure one me", IF said in an annoyed tone. The remaining girl walked up and extended her arm to grab the card. Her sleeve slid down her arm as she reached for it, allowing her to actually get a solid grip on it.
When she turned it around, she was greeted with C-Sha holding her left fist up and winking back at her. IF looked up across the room and saw that K-Sha had already started walking towards her platform. Following suit, IF walked up the steps to the platform opposite of her opponent. K-Sha arrived at the same time and stood at the ready.
Before each girl was a blank holographic interface awaiting their demands. IF scanned it with her eyes and looked up to show her opponent she was ready.
"I'm looking forward to this game. I've never had this many friends to play with before!", K-Sha smiled. Though oddly enough, this smile was different. IF didn't see a smile of mockery or insanity. It was… genuine.
"I've had enough 'games' already this week. I'm gonna send that smirk of yours straight to hell!", IF shouted.
"You're going to have to beat me, first", K-Sha responded. The smile on her face was washed away and replaced with a more serious look. "Very well, then."
After a few moments of intense staring and camera close-ups to both girls, K-Sha finally shouted, "Draw!"
Both girls intensely pulled their cards back and raised them up into the air, intent on slamming their cards onto the holographic interface so hard that it would take a camera several takes to accurately capture the impact. As the two girls laid their cards down, they cried out in unison.
"It's time…"
"...to duel!"
CHAPTER 7… Seeking Friends in a Maze of Relationships... END.