Bet y'all thought I was lying.

Anyway, most of this was written a while ago, and I'm sorry for not finishing it. That said, I've forgotten most of the nuances of this plot, so I'm adapting some plot points of Delconn Paxis, albeit in weird ways. That said, there are things I'd like to change but won't. So things are going to be different than they were supposed to be, beginning with this Chapter. It's a bit short, but hey.

Also, there seems to have been some confusion. Delconn Paxis is not a rewrite of this story. It is a separate entity, owned in its entirety by me.

Anyway, let's get to it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Chapter Eight.

NOTE: Most underlined things should be in italics. Scrivener is stupid about that sometimes.

- 8 -

"Fury of Your Lonely Heart"

Two weeks passed by like nothing. My training progressed seriously and I was getting exponentially better every day. Of course, every day everyone seemed to hate me more. Charles and I were doing fine as room mates (we still hadn't decided if we were more or not) and the others seemed to be warming up to her. Him. Whatever.

Chifuyu'd excused me from classes for the day so that I could recuperate a bit more from my injuries, which turned out to include a cracked rib and several torn muscles. Honestly, I really wanted the satisfaction of ramming my fist into Bodewig's face again, but I knew it would do me no good at the same time.

The tournament was in just under a week. Was I nervous? No. Was I confident I could win? Not really, no.

I was taking a walk through the school grounds to try to unwind a little bit. You know, de-stress after all the crap that's been happening. Frankly, the cool Fall air was doing me a world of good. Maybe I'd take a shower and go into town later?

I was just passing the park bench where I'd texted with Tabane when I heard stomping feet behind me. I turned and saw a familiar face. "Valerie?"

"Shut up and listen, you little prick," she snapped, pushing me down onto the bench. It hit one of my bruises and I groaned in pain.

"What the hell, woman!"

"I said shut up! Did you really do that to Olivia?!"

"It's been almost a month-why not ask me that sooner?"

"The teachers wouldn't let me near you, but I slipped under the radar today. Now answer the fucking question!"

"Of course I didn't! She'd just apologized to me and we'd made up! Why the hell would I do this to her?" I put my hands up in surrender.

"What the hell do you mean, 'apologized'?!"

"For abandoning me!"

Her face twisted into a sneer of disgust as she pushed herself back and rubbed her forehead. "Are you just stupid, or did dad not tell you the truth?"

"Huh?"

"Mom told us that dad didn't want us, but she did, so he kicked her out."

What the hell? No, I remembered that day like it was yesterday! There were times when it seemed like it was.

"Yeah, well she's a lying bitch! I was there and I remember!"

"You were five years old!"

"AND YOU ABANDONED ME!"

She flinched and I breathed hard, trying to push down my anger before I totally lost it

I got up and started to walk away, when she spoke from behind me. "I'll make you a deal."

"And why the hell would I want to make a deal with you?" I asked, stuffing my hands into my pockets.

"Because when the Interpol comes a'knocking to arrest your sorry ass, I'm pretty sure you'll want someone to vouch for you.

Okay, now I was curious. "I'm listening."

She walked up to the vending machine and slipped a five dollar bill (Canadian bill, all you weird Americans with your monochromatic money) into the collection slot before tapping a button. A can of Sprite clanked down. "You and I will have a fight in a few days, just before the tournament. If you win, I'll be on your side when they come to arrest you."

"And if you win?"

"Then you pack up your stuff and leave the academy, no questions asked."

"You know, you're all coming across as kind of obsessed with my leaving."

"Because it will be better for everyone," she said, before holding out her hand, "Do we have a deal?"

I stared at her hand for a minute, just thinking. Valerie was a Representative Contender and a third year, meaning what little chance of winning I had was slim and on the other side of a hard fight. Then again, was I ready to leave? For the first time in my life, I'd made friends not just because they lived close, but because I liked them and they liked me. Was I ready to give that up?

On the other hand, having the twin of the person accusing me would go a long way toward getting suspicions off of myself...

I slapped a hand into hers. "Deal."

We shook hard.

"Better start packing now, Sten, because I've never lost a solo match before."

"And you better start coming up with a cover, because there's a slight chance that I won't be utterly crushed."

She chuckled maliciously and walked away, her drink to her lips and her hand in the air, waving a goodbye. I waved back briefly, not entirely sure what I was doing. It wasn't like she could see me.

She rounded a bend and I finally allowed myself to collapse on the bench and take deep breaths.

I slapped my hands into my face. This wasn't good...

I thrust my arm to the sky and brandished my middle finger, screaming, "HAPPY NOW?!"

Almost as if in response, a speck of light appeared in the sky. "What the hell?" I muttered, checking the time. It was barely quarter past 10:00, so there was no way that a star could be out.

A star that was yellow.

And getting bigger.

And falling right toward me.

Can I please just catch a little bit of a break? Once?!

I dove out of the way as some sort of torpedo impaled the ground like a meteor. Paxis burst to life around me to protect me from the shockwave and my back slamming into and through a small tree. I groaned and pushed myself off the ground, deploying Yukihira Nigata and taking a fighting stance as I moved toward the Thing From Above.

As I got closer, I could see the shape of it. It looked like some sort of inverted triangle with undulating waves up and down, and tailfins on the broad end.

In other words, it was a carrot. A big fucking metal carrot.

A seam split down the middle.

"Oh, shit," I sent Paxis away and braced myself.

"STENNIE-KUUUUUUUN!"

A blue and pink blur whizzed out of the carrotorpedo and tackled me. I activated PIC to keep myself upright, but the arms around my neck threw me to the ground.

Unsurprisingly, said blue and pink blur was the creator of the Infinite Stratos platform. Ladies and gentlemen, Tabane Shinonono.

The eccentric woman babbled about how much she missed me as she nuzzled closer and hugged my head to her chest (which was fun, but no). "OHHH IMISSEDYOUIMISSEDYOUIMISSEDYOU! NEVER LEAVE ME AGAIN, STENNIE-KUN!"

"Mph," I noted.

"It was awful! Poor Taba-Chan was sitting in her workshop, all lonely and alone, when I had a thought! You know who probably misses me buckets? Stennie-Kun!"

"Mph."

"So I put together a thingymabob and used my handy-dandy-Stennie-tracky system to appear right near you!"

I sat up and pushed her off a little bit. I wanted to tell her that she should get back into the carrotorpedo and head back from whence she came, but her puppydog eyes were perfect. I cracked. "Well, Tabane, I have to say that surprisingly, I did miss you quite a bit."

"REALLY?!"

No. "Yeah."

"AH!" She hugged me tightly again and I shoved her to her feet.

"So aside from bothering- seeing me (I totally said seeing), what are you here for, Tabane?" I asked, dusting off my hoodie.

I took in the disaster zone around me and realized that if anyone knew that I was around when this happened they'd think I'd tried to kill Tabane and she'd shot a giant metal carrot at me in self-defense.

She put a finger to her lips and the mechanical bunny ears on her head twitched. "Weeeell... I may have come to see Chi-Chan, but-OH! I came to see my super-cute little baby sister, Houki-Chan!"

She started to run off, but came back. "Stennie-Kun, gimma a piggyback ride!"

"Flat-out, irrevocable, non-refundable no."

Five minutes later I was walking through the first year corridor in the academy spire with Tabane vicegripping her legs around my waist and waving her arms around overhead like an excited child. Which I supposed she kind of was.

Up ahead I could see the glass sign, CLASS 1-1, and a glimmer of hope ignited in my heart. Tabane lowered her arms and rested her kinda heavy boobs on top of my head. "Thanks, Stennie-Kun," she said.

"For what?"

"For just being you!" the pink-haired woman put her arms around my forehead and smiled happily.

Well, maybe Tabane wasn't so bad after all. I started trudging again and made it to the door. It whooshed open, and I saw Maya and Chifuyu standing at the lectern, with Maya holding some sort of miniature IS dummy. The entire class turned their heads as I came in.

"Your problem now," I said to Chifuyu.

Houki dove under her table.

"CHIIIIII-CHAAAAAAAAAAAN!" Tabane burst off my back like a rocket and hurtled toward her fellow Japanese woman.

Chifuyu, however, was none too impressed by the display. She held out a fist and Tabane ran straight into it, effectively punching herself. I struggled to keep from bursting out laughing as she sank to the floor.

Tabane righted herself. "Come 'n gimme a hug, Chi-Chan!"

Chifuyu held her at arm's length and ground out, "I'm in the middle of a class, moron."

"Sten, who is this?" Cecilia asked, standing up and marching to the front of the classroom.

"This," I said, "Is Tabane Shinonono. Genius extraordinaire, and stuff."

The entire class let out a joint gasp as they realized that the reason that they could fly and hit me really hard was standing right in front of them.

"That's right!" Tabane cried as she leapt on top of my desk and threw up the peace sign, "I'm the great Tabane the Genius, come to see Stennie-Kun and Houki-Chan!"

Speaking of Houki...

She'd managed to crawl to the very front of the room, and was about halfway to the door when I grabbed her and pulled her up to her feet. "Oh, Tabane!"

She stomped her heel on my toe. It rather hurt, actually. She then glared at me and whispered, "Sten, you rat bastard- whoa!"

Tabane grabbed her and twirled her around. "Houki-Chaaaan! How's my little baby sister doing?"

"Just fine without any help. Thanks for the visit! You can go now."

"Why would ever leave you, sweetie-poo?!" Tabane pulled Houki into a very gropy hug and succeeded in thoroughly amusing me as she squealed and said, "Oh, you've grown so much, Houki-Chan! Especially your boobies...!"

*CRACK!* (Yes, the blow was so mighty it required an exclamation mark.)

"I will so hit you!" Houki seethed.

Tabane rubbed the flaming spot on her cranium and pouted. "You should say that before you hit me, Houki-Chan!"

Chifuyu stepped between them. "Alright, Tabane, let's go talk a bit more privately. Shinonono, back to your seat!"

Houki nodded and sat back down. Chifuyu took Tabane by the arm and dragged her out of the classroom, leaving just under thirty girls staring at the door and wondering what the hell that was all about. "Uhhhhh, Sten?" Maya asked.

"Yeah?"

"You're not supposed to be in here..."

My senses came back to me and I jolted. The girls were glaring daggers at me, but Laura definitely had laser vision. I waved and ducked out, following the sound of Tabane's rambunctuous voice. It eventually led me up to one of the unused third year classrooms. It was the same one as a month ago, except the IS units were gone; probably in use. "Come in, Murdoch."

I sat on one of the IS unit racks and leaned against a wall, before I was startled as Tabane planted her butt in my lap and sat happily.

"So, Tabane," Chifuyu started as she sat behind the teacher's desk, "What brings you out here really."

I expected the eccentric older woman to do something cutesy, but for once she was dead serious. "Someone framed my Stennie-Kun, and now everyone hates him. No one hurts the people I love without having to answer to me."

That was... wow. I really hadn't known Tabane had that in her.

"And how do you plan on doing that? All evidence says he did it, and nothing but his word puts it to the contrary. I trust him enough to believe that he didn't do it, but the evidence is quite compelling."

"Tell me."

"Well, to begin with, he was caught doing it on camera. We've yet to recover the knife used, but the fingerprints we found at the scene match his."

"Wait," I said, "You never told me that the prints matched."

"Because we only recovered a partial set. Even then, it took a few days to ID you."

I slapped a palm to my face and grunted as I grazed the bruise in my hairline. This was just perfect. Every piece of evidence there was pointed to my guilt and I...

Well, I was really starting to understand the 'I didn't do it' spiel.

Tabane threw her arms around me and buried her face in my shoulder. "Don't be sad, Stennie-Kun! Taba-Chan'll make everything better!"

I let out a breath and raised my arms in a hug. "Thanks, Tabane, but I've sort of given up on this stalemate."

"Sorry, Sten, but how is this a stalemate?" Chifuyu asked.

"Without the camera footage, they don't have enough evidence to discredit my alibi. They could still convict me, but it'd be fucked."

"WAIT!" Tabane cried, leaping into the air, before pointing at me, "Did you say that there was missing camera footage?!"

"Yeeeeah...?"

The eccentric woman practically did a backflip as she sprinted for the door with a skip in her step.

"TO THE SECRET LAB!"

I was surpised to learn that we actually did have a secret lab.

Chifuyu and I followed Tabane to one of the auxiliary labs in the subbasements of the academy, where very few students were allowed. Not that any would come down for a picnic-it was dark and it smelled a bit like a turtle's ass.

It was kind of a testing area, with a catwalk leading to a console that was supended over a pit of dirt and sand, where one could deploy and test an IS.

Tabane sprang into the seat and started tapping away at the keyboard like a hyperactive bunny. She kind of looked like one, too, now that I thought about it-what with the ears she'd somehow stuck to her head (there was no visible headband and I was pretty sure not even she was insane enough to graft them onto her own skull).

"You said you had camera footage?" she asked.

"They should be filed on the-"

"Secure dataspine. No match for my supergenius hacking skills!"

She busted through the firewalls like a battering ram and started searching. The Japanese woman then played the selected video file until the static appeared and disappeared. "I assume that this is the spot."

"Yeah," I said.

Tabane attacked the keyboard, occasionally pausing to groan at how much of a pain it was, but it was fine because it was for me. I really wanted to take her by the scruff and get her to stop calling me Stennie-Kun, but I knew it'd do me no good at all.

As I watched the static, I could start to make out the vague outline of the hallway outside the IS storage hangar. The video kept clearing as Tabane kept typing. I was in utter shock. If this kept up, we'd be able to exonerate me and I'd be back in good standing. But then the guy who did this would still be on the loose, though...

The video cleared to HD quality and Tabane finally leaned back in her chair and let out a gasping breath. "Woooh! That was a tough one!"

Both she and Chifuyu seemed troubled by how long it took, but neither let it bother them too much.

"Are you ready, Sten?" Chifuyu asked.

"You should be asking that to yourself more, Chifuyu. I already know I'm innocent."

I clicked the mouse over the 'play' icon and the video restarted. It was quiet for a moment, but then I walked by outside the window with Ichika, Ran and Dan. We walked behind the wall, and a second later the fake me emerged from the hangar with Olivia.

"I'll be damned...," Chifuyu muttered, "Sten, you have a twin brother."

"No, I don't. I don't know how that guy looks like me, but we're not related at all."

I sat down and leaned against Tabane's chair, feeling kind of crappy. "Why the long face, Stennie-Kun?" Tabane asked, wrapping her arms around my chin (and resting her boobs on my head again).

Chifuyu crouched beside me and patted my shoulder. "I'm not sure I understand why you're upset. This means you're clean."

"I'm upset because we can't tell anyone."

"What do you mean? Of course we can. Don't you want everyone off your back?"

"You don't understand, guys. I want to tell people-I want to tell freaking everyone, but you have to remember that he's still out there. If I expose him, then he won't come back and finish the job."

"Finish the job?"

"He screwed up by not leaving a full set of prints and taking the knife with him. If he wants me arrested he'll have to do it again, and he'll probably strike soon."

"Oh my god, you're right," Chifuyu realized, "And if it happens again I'm pretty sure I know who it'll be."

"Well I'm pretty sure I know when it'll happen. The information about my fight with her's probably gotten a fair way around by now."

"You fought Valerie?!"

"No! No, no, she challenged me to a match in a few days that there's no way I can win."

"So he'd strike after you lose, to make it look like revenge...," Tabane surmised, "Well then I'll have to stick around, Stennie-Kun!"

Nuts. "Why?"

Tabane took one of her arms from around my neck and put it between her breasts, pulling something from her cleavage. She held it in front of my face. "There are nano-camera-tracky things. They fly and they're totally invisible to any form of hypersensor. A swarm will follow Valerie around and another will keep guard on the arena on the day of your match. Sound good?"

I took the little test tube from her and examined it. The thing looked like it was full of silver and pink glitter, and it was only sealed with a cork. "I think that sounds real good, Tabane."

She hugged my head tightly, and Chifuyu sighed. "And what'll you two little spymasters do if she goes to the washroom?"

"The swarm'll wait outside," was my answer.

"Oh, don't be silly, Stennie-Kun! They'll follow her in!"

"TABANE!"

I managed to slip away a few hours after with my chastity intact-which was surprising, considering how stupidly forward Tabane was.

"Stennie-Kun," she'd screamed at one point, mashing my face into her boobs, "Make babies with Taba-Chan!"

It was actually a little bit unwarranted. Her affection toward me, that is. It bordered on obsession just from living with her for a week.

Not that I was complaining. She was a very beautiful woman, and I would've been lucky just to have her like me.

I turned a corner leading away from the athletics department and sighed as I was bathed in the harsh light of the midday sun. I was starting to wish I had bipolar Canadian weather back, because even that was better than the stupidly frequent temperature changes here.

School had just let out for the day, which meant it was time for training. Arena three again, of course. Frankly, I was getting kind of tired of spending all of my free time cooped up in a dang arena, but realistically it was the best thing to do. I knew I had to get better.

((((This is where I left off, and where the story diverges from how it originally was.))))

That said, I was in for a kind of nasty surprise when I got there.

You know that thing where you leave your friends alone with a bitch who punched you in the face for five goddamn minutes and they start an argument?

"STEN!" Houki shrieked as I walked into the bleachers. "DUCK!"

I didn't think. I just reacted.

I threw myself into a backflipping leap out of the way as Rin and Cecilia, clad in their IS Units, slammed through the seats just next to me. Paxis sprang into existence around me and Yukihira Nigata was in my hand just as quick. I jetted high up into the air, railgun shells following the whole way up.

Laura.

I ground to a halt, turned, and dove down at her with Yukihira held out like a horn. She stepped out of the way of the jab, but I pounded my feet into the ground and turned back to strike again. A pair of plasma pitons flared out of her wristbands she swung them to catch my sword. "A weak strike, fool."

"Weak this, bitch."

I pushed closer and bashed my forehead against hers, stunning her for the slightest fraction of a second. I used the opportunity to kick the bitch away and took a more defensive position, even as my hypersensor tore information in as fast as it could. From the amount of railgun shells on the ground, Laura had fired about thirty-two times. Rin had been spamming the impact cannon. Cecilia was sniping and the dents and dings in Schwarzer Regen told me her aim was still gnarly good. There were barely any disturbances in the sand, so most of the fight had been in the air.

"Houki, make sure they're okay!" I shouted even as Laura pounced.

Dropping Yukihira and dematerializing my wings, I charged too. She swung the plasma pitons and I leapt over her head, planting both of my feet on her back and pushing her off balance. She was smirk, though. Took to the air instead of hitting the ground, even if she landed a second later. A pair of... were those energy tentacles?!

"That's just gro-ptpheh!" one of them slammed into my face I felt every little painful part of one of my molars splitting in two.

The other wrapped around my ankle. Laura spun around and the tentacle hurled me up to where Cecilia and Rin had been tossed. I fired my boot jets and redeployed my wings momentarily, landing beside them and Houki. "Are they okay?"

"Rin seems to be okay aside from a few broken bones, but Cecilia..." Houki bit her lips. "I don't know for sure, but it looks like she has a really, really bad concussion."

I pulsed my hypersensor over the blonde girl and... oh god.

"Her vital signs are barely registering... Houki," I asserted, grabbing her by the shoulders and snapping her out of her daze. "I need you to go get Maya or Chifuyu or someone, okay? Tell them to get a doctor."

"W-what are you going to do?"

I gripped Cecilia's hand and triggered her particle exchange. A one-handed assault rifle sprang to life and I took it opposite Yukihira. "I'm going to cap a bitch."

Sure, that sounded cool and leaping back into the fray afterward was a fun idea, but when you have a big black death machine waiting for you with a crazy German chick piloting it? Murdoch, you fucktard.

Laura screamed something in German as she brought her railgun to bear and spammed it. I serpentined around the blasts and brought the rifle up. I squeezed the trigger and had a sigh of relief moment as I realized they were energy bullets.

Laura raised a hand and they all stopped midair, just in front of her.

I ground to a halt and stared at her. "What the fuck are you doing?"

Laura smirked. "Tremble before the offensive capabilities of the AIC-"

"Yeah, yeah," I waved her off. "I don't give two shits what it's called. What I wasn't to know, Neo, is why you think you have the right to almost kill two of my loved ones and then imitate one of my favourite movies!"

I jetted back at her and as she raised her hand to AIC my ass, I pushed myself down to the ground and skid under it and between her legs. My sword smashed against her back and she went flying like a baseball, but I was angry enough that I wasn't going to stop. I followed her and blasted her with my gun the whole way to the arena wall.

"That's how that feels!" I roared.

The energy tentacles shot out of the dust and debris and both wrapped around my neck, but not before I got my arm in there. My shield energy was plummeting but I didn't pay it any mind as I slashed the tentacles and soared up high, continuing my bullet barrage. I figured she had her Unit locked, because hell if I could see her shield energy. That said, I wasn't about to stop attacking.

It was only when something clanged against the back of my head that I realized that other people had arrived. I grunted and caught the fist-sized iron ball that would have killed me, were it not for my shield.

There were hundreds of girls in the arena... all baying for my painful death. Houki was standing where she had been the whole time, but a few doctors and technicians were huddled around the two fallen girls now.

How much to you wanna bet that they thought that I'd done it?

Laura pushed herself out of the wreckage and I was preparing to defend myself when the booming voice of the Iron Lady blared over my headcomms. "What the hell do you think you're doing, Murdoch?!"

"First of all," I groaned, "Ow! You almost blew out my eardrums! Second, She almost killed Cecilia and I think she would've finished the job if I hadn't stopped her."

"Proof?"

"Houki saw the whole thing-ugh!"

The ground tasted like crap. Especially when you get a faceful of it after a fifty-foot fall.

Laura brought her pitons to bear and I caught them both on the sharp of Yukihira's blade. I turned the rifle on her belly but the tentacles whacked it out of my hand, before they both jabbed into my stomach and pushed me most of the way across the arena, loosening my grip on Yukihira enough to make it slip to the ground. The energy blade collapsed with a hiss and the metal one slammed back into place.

All of the pain.

I rolled to a stop on my stomach. I couldn't breathe. My shield was starting to get a bit thin and that had just rammed me right in the solar plexus. Still, I could see the angry little midget slowly marching toward me, like she was trying to intimidate me.

I was going to die and nobody would care. Everyone there would be glad.

A piton charged and sprang out of her wrist, this time with a sharpened point.

It was over.

A pair of yellow feet skimmed across the ground and Laura covered her head as a hailstorm of ordinance rained down on her. She launched a tentacle but that only prompted the delivery of a bomb. The German girl was engulfed in an explosion and blown far away.

"Sten!" French voice. A gauntlet hit the ground next to me before a soft hand skimmed along my cheek. "Mondieux... what has she done?"

"Thanks, Charles." I croaked. "Got her just in time."

"Ah, mon cheri, where does it hurt?"

"Oh, just- agh!" I cradled my ribs. I could definitely feel a few broken ones. "Everywhere but where she's hit me. I'm fine, babe, really!"

The term of endearment burst past my lips before I could actually register it. The heavy blush that set in on her face as I sat up beside her was just one of the few signs that told me that she'd gone and noticed, too. Her eyelids fluttered for a moment and she leaned slightly closer, her lips parted ever-so-slightly. I pushed against her shoulder to stop her and she snapped back to reality. "Pardon moi?"

"Kiss later, Blondie. Help me up."

Embarrassed, she snaked an arm under my shoulders as her gauntlet flew back to her and clamped into place. Laura, for her part, had already recovered and was standing there waiting, as if she had more honour than to hit me while I was down.

Bullshit, by the way.

"Sten," Charles whispered, "Have you ever heard of the Cross Glaive Maneuver?"

"I think I know it, yeah."

"Replace the finishing jab with your Reiraku Byakuya. I believe this would be the most effective way to defeat her."

I smirked. "Dirty fighting, huh? Why Charles, you sound positively naughty."

"Only for you, mon amour. Bon chance."

Wait, amour means love, right? It does? Oh... shit.

Well, I could do worse than a gorgeous blonde, eh?

I blasted away from her just as she did from me, scooping up Cecilia's assault rifle again. The barrel tipped down at Laura and the shit fight began.

With a second person to distract her just slightly, it was easier to avoid getting hit. That said, Yukihira was sitting on the ground, mashed underneath her foot.

This was, of course, a problem. I needed the sword for our plan to work. Charles also seemed to understand that, because she immediately went to work trying to get Laura to give some ground.

A pair of hookblades clanked out of her forearms, both with foot-long handles and half-lengthed, serrated blades. It was only when she threw them that I realized that they were also attached to chains.

My chest thumped. She was a girl after my own heart. Well, and my d-

A bludgeon hit me in the face and attenuated my shield more.

"NEVER MIND!" I roared out loud.

Charles' hook blades looped around one of Laura's arms and clamped into place, even as the Frenchwoman heaved them mightily. The German girl was yanked, but she balanced herself quickly and pulled back.

Being the heavier, stronger Unit, Schwarzer Regen easily won the quick battle of strength and Charles went flying, a quick yelp escaping her.

"Why hasn't anyone stopped this fight, yet?!" I yelled, demanding an answer from Chifuyu.

"Because the little bitch turned on the arena shield as soon as Dunois put himself in play," the Japanese woman answered sternly. "We're trying an override, but Bodewig is a hacker, too. She might have disabled it."

"Fucking lovely."

I spun out of the way as Charles soared past, catching her hand and using her momentum to hurl her right back, this time with a pair of pistols in hand.

I was just behind her, and as Laura blocked the attack and slapped the poor girl out of the way, I leapt over her defences and blinded her with the muzzle flash from the rifle.

"Agh!" she covered her eyes, and that afforded me the chance I needed to plant both feet on her stomach and knock her away with both a kick and a full-speed pulse from my bootjets. Screaming, Laura flew back easily dozens of metres and slammed against the arena shield, a glob of blood spewing from her lips.

Scooping up Yukihira and igniting the blade, I redeployed my wings and roared after her. The slash that I heaved at her would have been enough to cleave a building in two, but she ducked it, only to be hit by... a railgun?

"Make the strike!" Charles screamed, hefting a carbon copy of Laura's railgun, only with the Rafale Custom II's colour scheme.

I nodded and pressed my attack.

"Your attacks are sloppy and mistimed!" Laura taunted as she shoved my blade away and jabbed at my chest.

"Your attitude is bad!" I snipped back.

The flurry of blows continued as we traded insults. I could hear the comm chatter between Charles and Chifuyu as well, but it hardly registered.

"I cannot take the shot, Miss Orimura! Sten is too close to her!"

My blades locked with her pitons and it became a battle of strength and will. My shield was fully visible and was about half a point away from going offline completely, and hers was still going strong. One strike by either of us and the other was dead.

"Why would you involve yourself if this skirmish?" she asked, her voice ragged. "My fight was with the English cow and the Chinese harlot!"

"Because, you self righteous twat, you tried to kill people that I love!"

Her eyes twitched at the word. "Love? Ha! You would put your life at risk for a notion so childish as love?!"

I bucked the blade, throwing her off balance and slamming my elbow against her small nose. She shrieked and fell backward as the bone broke, but I grabbed her by her collar piece and yanked her close. "Spoken like an idiot who has no idea what the fuck she's talking about!"

Both of her arms went stiff as my furious green eyes, mere inches away from own face, bore into the single red orb that she had exposed.

"You make all like you're this aloof bitch, like you're emotionless and the best fighter in the world, but that's just a big lie, isn't it, huh?! You just make a loud bark to cover up how fucking LONELY you are! Because YOU pushed everyone away and you have no fucking idea how to get them back!"

"Shut up..." she demanded, her voice quaking.

"Well there it is, sweetheart! YOU DON'T GET PEOPLE BACK BY ACTING LIKE A SELF RIGHTEOUS BITCH!"

"Shut up!"

I shook her once. "Wake up, Laura! You and I both know that this is NOT who you want to be!"

"I SAID SHUUUUUUT UUUUUUP!"

A blast of energy like nothing I'd ever experienced exploded out of the screaming girl with the force of a hundred-thousand kinetic energy blasters, triggering my Absolute Defence and throwing me and Charles back into the arena walls. The shield failed and a concussive blast radiated into the bleachers, throwing the defenceless girls every which way as well.

My head buzzed and my hearing was completely shot. Dust and dirt obscured my vision and I was having a hard time breathing against it.

Darkness swirled where Laura had been. Pure, thick darkness. It was like her armour had just become a writhing mass of liquid steel.

She was in pain-screaming like someone was tearing her heart out.

The mass was consuming her.

"Laura!" I tried to cry out for her, but it just came out as a strangled yelp.

Despite that, she locked her pained gaze with my own as her eyepatch flew away, revealing the glowing yellow orb beneath.

Nothing was said.

But I heard her.

Just as the metal mass of darkness swallowed her whole.

...oOo...

If Houki had thought that a spinal fracture wouldn't hurt that much, she would have been very, very wrong.

The blast the Laura had emitted had slammed into the pit that she, Miss Orimura and Miss Yamada had occupied with the force of a bunker-buster and had thrown her back against the wall and the edge of a console.

In a way, she was glad that she didn't have the strength to get up. The air was so thick with smoke that she probably wouldn't have been able to breathe anyway.

"Is anyone else alive?" Miss Orimura shouted from the other side of the room.

"I'm here!" Miss Yamada replied.

"Shinonono? Shinonono?! Houki!"

Sucking in a breath as hard as she could, Houki did her best to make a sound. Any sound. Something to make Chifuyu realize that she was alive.

Something.

Anything.

Come on, Houki.

"S-... Sten!" she whispered, the pain in her back too much for her to be any louder.

But it was enough.

"Houki? Houki, don't worry! I'm coming to get you!"

The sound of the remains of the room being thrown aside were enough to make her wince. Why was it so loud?!

"Oh my god," Chifuyu breathed, now standing over Houki. "Oh, no... Houki, you've got a rafter on your back, okay? I'm going to lift it. Maya, get over here!"

The green-haired woman hobbled over, on an ankle that was sprained, at the very least. Probably broken.

"Maya, when I lift the rafter, help Houki get out from under it."

"Yes, Miss Orimura," Miss Yamada grunted, getting down on one knee to relieve her ankle.

"I'm not going to be able to lift it very long, okay?"

"Okay!"

"Okay?"

"Just lift the fucking rafter!"

If she'd cared enough to register it, Houki would have been startled by the outburst.

"Okay, one..."

Houki held her breath.

"Two..."

She squeezed the pipe under her hand.

"Three!"

There was a loud snapping sound as the rafter lifted off of her back, and she screamed.

She screamed.

Like every part of her body was turned into fire.

"MAYA, MOVE HER NOW!" Chifuyu cried, the tendons in her neck bulging out as she strained herself to keep the rafter up.

Maya grabbed Houki by the wrists and heaved her away.

Even the colossal bang of the rafter hitting the floor was overpowered by Houki's wail of complete and utter agony.

"Houki, Houki!" Chifuyu coddled, dropping to her knees beside her. "Are you okay? Houki, are you okay?!"

Five words.

Five words.

Breathe.

Say them.

"I- agh! I c-ca-aaaagh!"

"Houki, what is it?!"

"I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS!" she cried.

Boom.

Jumping back in with gusto, eh?

As always, reviews are valued, but especially now. Have I gone to far?!