Part 2: Quiet Homing Signal
(Guitar)
(...aaaahaaahaa x8)
Sean was so focused on finding a way out of the chaos that he barely paid any attention to the music blaring out of Silvia's ears. He took one glance into the rear-view mirror, "Uh, why's music coming out of your megaphone ears?"
"It's onii-chan!" Silvia said, "He's triggered the Emergency Override"!
"What?"
"It means things are about to get way too explodey!" Silvia hopped in the passenger seat, "I'll guide you out of here! Just focus on not getting hit!"
"Right," Sean was out of shits to give at that point, "Everyone grab hold of something! We're about to break some laws!"
(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)
Believeing that he was now in the same vane as the renegade, Sean cleared the street and made it onto the highway.
(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)
He could see the destruction the renegade was blanketing on over the park, as well as the few cop cars that were chasing after him under orders from Xingjia.
(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)
Sean increased the speed and kept his eye out for any potential exits, while blowing past the traffic and the pursuit.
(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)
Silvia pulled up a map and began to lead the van out of the area.
(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)
Meanwhile, the battle was already underway over the park, with Sokoto already delivering a double kick to Xingjia, and rushing his way over to the other pilots.
(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)
They all got together and formed a barrier to protect themselves, but Sokoto's hook got through right before the barrier closed.
(THUNDER!)
Sokoto reeled himself in and immediately charged a, "GRENADE!"
(THUNDER!)
And shattered the barrier on impact. He immediately rocketed towards a pilot, flinging the hook at her and making sure he didn't fall for that trap again.
(THUNDER!)
The three pilots scattered, and Xingjia lept up to meet Sokoto's fist.
(THUNDER!)
The two engaged in a very brief CQC exchange before he had to back away from the pilots' projectile attacks.
(I was caught in the middle of a railroad track [THUNDER])
Sean continued to drive his way out of the city, when Silvia suddenly fizzled the wheel a hard right, sending the van into a skid across the sidewalk, and a very long drift across the entire road.
(I looked round and I knew there was no turning back [THUNDER])
Sean and Silvia struggled to keep the van under control, while the rest of the crew were peeping out the windows for a possible way out.
(My mind raced and I thought what could I do [THUNDER])
Sean immediately saw an incoming intersection and forced the van left, narrowly missing several cars.
(And I knew there was no help, no help from you [THUNDER])
Silvia immediately swerved the car across the road, dodging every single car without touching them and causing headaches for those in pursuit.
(Sound of the drums)
Meawhile, Sokoto practically ruined the park, blasting everything in sight and forcing the fight onto the lake.
(Beating in my heart)
The three women tried to trap him in, but he seemed to know what was hiding behind their thighs.
(The thunder of guns)
He caught the mysterious chains and allowed them to hold him up.
(Tore me apart)
He dropped down, retracted his IS, barrel-rolled his way past the chains, and smacked his shield on the leader's face.
(You've been...Thunderstruck)
The leader tried to retaliate by swinging her chains at him, but he very quickly redeployed his arms and legs, and fired a low-powered Radiant Gallic Grapple, giving him enough time to avoid the chain attack and land two brutal kicks on her neck and her chin, all the while latching his hook onto another one of the trio, and flinging himself straight into the Shadow Spell.
(Rode down the highway, broke the limit, we hit the town)
Sean and Silvia led the police past a bridge and into another neighborhood. When they came across an intersection, Silvia slammed the wheel to the left.
(Went through to Texas, yeah Texas, and we had some fun)
Right into the opposite flow of traffic, which made it all the more harder for them to concentrate. They kept dodging until the went into a curve.
(We met some girls, some dancers who gave a good time)
When the came out, they found a police cruiser ready to intercept them. Silvia floored it and charged straight ahead.
(Broke all the rules! Played all the fools! Yeah yeah they, they, they blew our minds!)
The rest of the crew braced themselves for impact, while Sean looked above and saw an opening. He steered the van a little to the right, causing the van to knock into the cruiser with minimal knockback to them, and causing Silvia to try and right the van, sending it into another drift.
(And I was shaking at the knees)
The van drifted into the main highway, blowing past every car in the way.
(Could I come again please?)
With that one drift, any car that was hit was forced into a makeshift roadblock.
(Yeah them ladies were too kind)
Most of the police were trapped, but a couple cars found an alternate route to cut the van off.
(You've been...Thunderstruck)
Silvia noticed two cruisers coming and suddenly hit the brakes, narrowly avoiding being rammed by the police and creating an opening for the van to speed past them.
(Thunderstruck)
The police radioed for backup and kept the pursuit going.
(Yeah yeah yeah, thunderstruck)
Meanwhile, Sokoto has figured out how to counter the Shadow Spell that kept him from landing crushing hits. He just had to charge power and slam the chains themselves with energy grenades to temporarily cancel out their power sucking abilities.
(Ooo, thunderstruck)
And the rest flowed naturally. He could maneuver those chains to ram into someone, and they'd either take a huge accidental hit, or by the time the chains regained their functions, have their power sucked instead.
(Yeah...)
It drove the three women uncontrollably crazy how much he learned about their attacks in that short amount of time. Especially the leader, since the Shadow Spell did not affect the IS's ability to withdraw. They all resumed their triangle formation and launched their rockets and bullets.
(I was shaking at the knees)
Sokoto resumed dodging those projectiles, keeping an ear open for any sign from Xingjia.
(Could I come again please)
And he felt it. He felt a huge surge of hatred and disgust...with an ever so small hint of curiosity. He instinctively IB'd upward to get away from the charge attack.
But it wasn't a charge. It was a gigantic energy ball that blew up the lake. Sokoto was shocked that it wasn't actually Xingjia, so he twirled around thinking that she'd follow it up with a surprise strike. Instead, he was met with an energy blast that flung him across the city and into another park. The pilots pursued him across the water, while Xingjia managed to hide herself in a nearby neighborhood and kept blasting him out of the sky until he was brought to the ground.
(...aaaahaaahaa)
When Sokoto touched the ground, he swung on a branch, retracted his IS and hid himself in the leaves.
(...aaaahaaahaa)
The three women touched down and scoured the park in search of the renegade.
(...aaaahaaahaa)
Sokoto used their tall metallic distractions to their advantage to sneak his way out.
(...aaaahaaahaa)
He slowly weaved his way past the trees and the woods, in the direction of what he thought was Xingjia's aura. Once he made it onto an open road, he immediately deployed and fired off a Radiant Gallic Grapple at the bridge. The other women caught onto his act, but he reeled himself away from the park and cancelled the Gallic Grapple right before he was set to collide with the bridge, giving him enough speed to flee the fight.
(Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah, said)
But not enough to outrun Xingjia, who smacked him right in the jaw. He reeled back and forth, unwittingly launching his hook at her. She caught it and fired her cannon, but he dodged the shot and tried to kick her. She blocked that hit, and stayed within CQC range to try to overpower him, given his short stature and subpar attack power output. But in her power-hungry rampage, he used his size to his advantage and blow past the majority of her attacks.
(Yeah, It's alright, we're doin' fine)
Sokoto suddenly landed an uppercut on Xingjia's neck. The surprise hit, and the fact that he got in so close to strike, that Xingjia completely lost her composure. She activated her One-Off Ability, flinging energy bullets in a circular wave throughout the county.
(Yeah, It's alright, we're doin' fine, fine, fine)
Several bullets were headed to the van, which Sokoto was barely able to defend thanks to his E.O. increasing his speed. But most of the police in pursuit were hit and immobilized by the bullets.
(Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah)
Sokoto saw the three pilots gunning towards the van and immediately IB'd into them.
(Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck)
They had their Shadow Spell chains at full power ready to strike, but since he rushed into them, the chains trapped all four of them.
(Thunderstruck, baby, baby)
They rolled down the street like a giant steel barrel plowing through the miniscule cars.
(Thunderstruck, you've been Thunderstruck! ...aaaahaaahaa)
Any police in pursuit of the van immediately stopped and u-turned back to the renegade being pinned down. Xingjia also stopped firing to dive down into the mayhem.
(Thunderstruck! ...aaaahaaahaa)
She charged one more blast and fired, stopping the tumbling pilots from causing anymore damage and cancelling the Shadow Spell.
(Thunderstruck! You've been Thunderstruck!)
While Sean and Silvia were able to make a clean getaway. They turned into a road that would lead them out of the city. The crew was unconscious from what they had to experience. The remaining two were shaking their heads, still wondering what drove them to cause such a ruckus alongside the renegade.
Who was trapped in the chain wrap along with the three pilots.
"Ow...my childhood..." Sokoto muttered...
"Shut your mouth!" the leader shouted, "And get me out of here!"
"Hey, watch were your heeling!"
"Get your stupid ass hair outta my face!"
"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!" Xingjia boomed. She arrived when the police came in to observe the scene, "I ought to have all of you detained right now!"
"Actually, we'll need to bring you in as well," one of the policewomen said.
"What? Why?!" Xingjia demanded.
"One, for entering illegally. Two, property damage. Three, aggravated assault. Need I go on?"
"I am here on request of the State Department!"
"We'll look into that," one of the police officers apprehended her, "after we lock you up."
"Bring the rest over here, too!" the police started to untangle the chain wrap. And tasers.
"Oh no..." Silvia sensed the IS's paralyzation and performed...hand signs.
"Ok, we lost them!" Sean shouted, "Where to next?!" No answer. "Hey! Where do I-what are you doing?"
"He's in trouble!" Silvia said, "Override Zero-Zero-Zero-Soul Release! Code, Time On!"
EMERGENCY OVERLOAD INITIATED. ONE MINUTE TO MELTDOWN.
"What in the gibb-HOLY..." Sean muttered before seeing a yellow pillar of light burst from the renegade's location far away, "Just keep swimming." He just kept going, turning onto a road leading south.
"What the hell is happening?!" a woman shouted.
"I don't know!" A police officer shouted, "It's gotta be his core blood!"
But they didn't have time to process that, because they were overwhelmed by a multitude of simultaneous occurrences. The giant glow, the steady rumbling of the air, the sudden dramatic music blaring throughout the street.
(FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY!)
Sokoto, however, started to lose control of himself. Under the glow of the light, his consciousness caved into a sudden impulse to destroy everything. His IS started sucking in energy from the other pilots, giving him enough power to rattle the chains.
(FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY!)
He started to charge a Radiant Gallic Grapple from within the wrap, causing the other pilots to be affected and lose most of their shield energy. Xingjia saw what he was doing and tried to put a stop to it. She deployed her IS and tried to lance her way through.
(You can't stop him! Aaaaaaaaaa!)
But she was too late. The chains burst, and the renegade stepped forward, with a blisteringly golden energy cloak, and his One-Off Ability now active.
(You can't stop this motherfucker!)
The other pilots tried to launch an attack from the rear, while Xingjia tried again to lance him.
(HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)
With one swift roundhouse kick, he downed all four of them. He walked forward and blasted the daylights out of the three pilots. Nearly all of the police tried to shoot him down, to no effect. He saw one of the officers try to ring a Canceller around his neck. He triggered an Ignition Boost on his left foot that shot out a burst of air, pushing the officer back and impaling her on a signpost.
(HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY!)
Xingjia tried again to take him down. She blasted out from her cannons, but he was able to dodge all of them, making the cannons hit the city instead. He got in close to her back, but she swung her lance at him, preventing him from landing a huge hit, but still knocking her back against a building.
(SHIT BALLS! OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)
She tried to free herself, but Sokoto hammered her deep with his feet and IB'd the consciousness out of her. He lept off and flew up, while blasting the rest of the block.
(OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)
The police who tried to intervene were injured, and those who didn't had no choice but to try and escape, despite Sokoto blasting most of the vehicles.
(OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)
Once Sokoto was 200 feet up, he launched his last Radiant Gallic Gun at a building far from his location.
(OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY SHIT!)
When it touched the surface, it immediately pulled him in. When he punched the building, it caused a massive explosion that rocked the city and obliterated everything in a 300 ft radius.
Sokoto himself was flung out of the pile of smoke at a rapid speed, without his IS. He splashed down in a lake. Five seconds after he was submerged, he re-emerged gasping for air, "PLI-KLA...HOLY MOTHER OF...*COUGH*COUGH*...ugh...what in the holy..." He drudged himself out of the water and stuffed himself in the nearby bushes, throwing his clothes out of sight before anyone can see him. He then spread himself out, "HOOOOOOH boy...what was that?...Felt like if Iron Man lost it and made a Broly suit and stuffed me inside it..." Then, he heard people screaming. He peeked through the leaves and saw his unconscious handiwork.
An entire block eradicated. Nothing but smoke, rubble, and blood.
"Whoa...did I do that?..." He muttered before hearing his bracelet beep. He quickly pressed one of the blinking charms to stop it, but it opened up a communication link to Silvia.
"Sil? Hey, Silvia? Can you hear me?" No response. "Silvia, what's happened?!" Still nothing. "Sil, everything's blacked out! I can't deploy or text or anything! I think I just caused like a half billion dollars in property damage without remembering a single thing about it!" Still nothing.
And that's when a very harsh realization set in. Once again, he was all alone, cut off from all possible contact. No one to turn to. Not even his "hostages" that could've ran off to Destination Fucked. Just the massive numbers of people running away from the explosion site, and the very few people running towards it to try and clean up the mess. No one saw him.
"Ok...don't panic...what do I have on me..." He examined himself and found only his shield bracelet, "Huh...ok. We can work with this...I'll just be...that guy who took too much acid...yeah..." He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to find a way out of the city without being detected. But he felt a very familiar aura. It was...devilishly pink.
"Oh, holy rabbit shit balls! " he growled as he dashed off towards the main highway.
Sean, on the other hand, was facing a different dilemma. Silvia guided him and his crew to safety, but she's disappeared. Fizzled out of existence. She left behind her clothes, but no directions.
"Hey," a cameraman said, "she's gone now, right?"
"I'm trying to focus on the road," Sean muttered.
"Why?" A writer asked, "With her gone, he can't keep tabs on us anymore! He won't know a goddamn thing!"
"But the rest of the public knows!" Someone shouted, "Who's to say they won't lump us in with the renegade?!"
"They can't. They don't have concrete evidence."
"They don't need evidence to smear our names anymore! Reputation goes a long way both ways!"
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Sean demanded.
"It means we are wanted, just like the renegade!"
"Yeah, I figured out that much. Anything else?"
"It also means we can't go back," a crew member said, which shocked everyone else except Sean, who was too busy weighing his options to be at all fazed about that revelation. He's driving a van that was now considered an object of interest. He has no way of knowing whether or not the renegade has made it out alive. Probably did thanks to Silvia's magic incantation, but why would she do that for him? Does she owe him?
And what was up with that last blockage? He could've easily just let the bullets through and that would be the end of it, yet he chose to block them, thereby ensuring his, and the crew's, survival.
Sean was thinking about how to move forward with that wild revelation, while listening in to his teammates' argument for an answer.
"We cannot go on. Not like this."
"Oh, and let the renegade into our families? No chance!"
"What can he do without that thing?!"
"We shouldn't get involved like that! Who do you think will come for us now that he's gone?!"
"No way, if we're staying, I'm outing."
"And go where, exactly?"
"Anywhere that doesn't involve him!"
Until he stepped in, "Not an option."
The crew was stunned. Someone spoke, "What do you mean, not an option?!"
"The renegade's face is seen everywhere now," Sean reasoned, "There's just no escaping him wherever we go."
"That doesn't mean we have to involve ourselves with him!" The cameraman said, "He involved himself with us!"
"And due to that fact!" Sean snapped, "We are now trapped inside a giant white van heading the opposite direction of our now-missed flight back home! And don't forget, those policewomen clearly did not want us here!"
"He's right..." someone whispered, "We're clearly wanted."
"In other words, we're criminals?!" The writer asked.
"And they sure as hell won't believe us if we say "the renegade captured us"," Sean said, "So I don't know if we should wait for them to jail us, or screw it and just go to whatever key he wants us to go to."
"Oh, no. No, no no no no..."
"You're not saying..." the crew assumed the worst.
"Yeah, I am saying," Sean said, "because I have a daughter, and she took the IS compatibility test out of curiosity. She never studied, never prepared for it... and she got a B rating."
That silenced the van. They never heard him say anything that vital about his family. Ever, not even to his most trusted friends. And they could tell that the renegade has gotten to him.
"But, no one knows, right?" The writer pressed, "The police can still protect her without knowing that, right?"
"One: it's in the government records," Sean explained, "Two: thank God that the IS Academy is optional in America, but what if that were to change? What if that's the first thing the next president decides to do? Three: protection is never guaranteed. MS-13 has always been on the delivery end of the trafficking crap. And thanks to...that Pennsylvania bust, we now know that they've delved into that arena, too. So, if it happened over there, who's to say it can't happen on Long Island, or LA, or even Austin?"
"Oh..." a crewman muttered, "...we don't have a choice, do we?..."
"No, we don't," Sean reasoned, "and like it or not, I just witnessed two instances where the most wanted criminals on earth saved our hides. We're literally running on borrowed time. We owe them."
The crew members thought long and hard about Sean's monologue, placing themselves in his shoes. Finally, they came to the realization that they just wanted to get out of this alive, but to do that, sometimes they have to break their own rules. This was one of those times.
The writer chuckled, "You haven't finished processing everything that just happened, have you?"
"Neither have you," Sean smiled.
"Fine, I'll bite," the writer responded, "but after this, I'm quitting."
"Me too," the cameraman said, "this is not what I signed up for."
"Well, then...apparently since this is the last job we've got," a crewman said, "can we make this one a memorable one?"
"God, please, no..." the writer sighed.
"Oh, man what are we doing?!"
"I'm not sure," Sean sighed as he drove the van out of the region, readjusting his mindset to fit the unreasonable circumstances he's trapped in. He figured, if he was going down, it would make no sense to go down quietly. If what the renegade's been saying about this whole Provision mess was true, and it very much looked like it, the country would go down with him.
One last call was in order. Sean took his cellphone out to call his wife: "Honey, are you there?"
"Oh my god, Sean! Are you hurt?! Did the renegade do anything to you?!"
"No, just some threats, but that's all. Listen, he...he wants me to go to the Florida Keys."
"What? Why there?!"
"Says he wants me to break some giant story, otherwise he'll come after you."
"Oh lord..."
"Yeah, scary, I know. Listen to me. Take everyone out of Long Island. Hide away someplace, just not anywhere near home."
"But what about you?"
"As long as I do what he says, I'll be fine. He knows who I am. He won't kill me so recklessly."
"Ok...I'll keep in touch."
"Thanks, and I love you."
"I love you too..."
Sean hung up and resteadied his gaze, "Ok, guys. Write me up some script notes. We're gonna spill a scoop so big the renegade will instantly forget about us."
"But how are we gonna fill the gaps?!" The cameraman asked, "You always have people talking with you on the show!"
Sean took a peek at his side mirror and noticed some trees rustling slightly unnaturally, "Oh, I think we have that covered..."
He saw their leaves open up when one of his friends tried to jump out. This time, it was a woman in black.
Somehow, Chifuyu had weaved her way down to their area without getting caught by the renegade. She had a hunch that Sokoto would try to get his message out the biggest way possible, so she tailed them from afar to try and decode the renegade's exact message. Quite the interesting conversations she had heard around town, too, as they made her suspect that something bad was coming. Especially the fact that the van kept its course even though the renegade had left.
"Clarissa," she radioed, "I'm pursuing the van. It's people have decided to stay true to the renegade's mission. Track Phantom Task and their exploits as well, and bring them down whenever you see an opening."
Meanwhile, Tabane took herself off the hunt momentarily to survey the damage her latest tech upgrades have done to the city.
"Wow!" She marveled while rubbing some dust off her fingers, "Quite the damage output!"
"Get everyone inside!" A policewoman shouted, "Contact the governor! This is now a state of emergency!"
"Oh, great..." Tabane groaned, then walked up to a firefighter, "State of emergency, eh? Curfew, I assume?"
"Yes! The renegade is on the loose, destroying towns just like he did here!" The firefighter yelled, "Now, get outta the way!"
"Huh..." Tabane stretched her arms, "Did I ever reveal myself to this corner of the world?" Maybe that's why no one's jumping the gun to get her autograph. At least now, she can take a stroll at her leisure while she slowly challenges the renegade's sanity.
But, there's one person who's already lost it, and she's freaking out while the other three pilots are being detained.
"No revenge, no humiliation," Xingjia vented, "Apparently the only thing I have is three incompetent traitors!"
"How?!" The leader protested, "We did everything you told us to do-"
"Shut it! As far as I'm concerned, you are all accomplices!" Xingjia flipped them off and stormed off in the direction the renegade was last seen.
"Take them away," the commanding officer ordered.
Tabane was eyeing that outburst with a ravenous smile, "Well, well...looks like I'll have an accomplice of my own..."