Part 5: See The Assault Through
-REFLECTION POOL-
Sokoto had been through some pretty rough times before, and he'd always shake it off with a joke and a crackle. But this was a rare moment of uncertainty for him, in that he wasn't sure he could keep up the act. He knew...sooner or later, he'll have to face the music. He really screwed up. He got everyone separated, probably captured. All because of that one moment he decided to haul ass after the three people that never meant a damn thing. What was he thinking? More than that. though, where is he thinking?
Sokoto rolled over and propped himself on his knees, "Where am...hey, I know this place..." The same place where he first synced up with Silvia. But why was he thrust into the realm this time? He didn't have an answer, so he washed his face to shock his system into clarity. WHen he was done, he heard footsteps sloshing through the water creeping closer to him, but he couldn't sense its aura for some reason. He dried his face and looked up.
"Hey, blubberball..." it was Autumn.
"Huh?...What're you doing here?" he doused his face with more water.
"While you were gone, I've been working on this little side-project," Autumn explained, "Squall pulled me in before she died, and I've been working on how to do the same."
"Squall...she showed you how?"
"Sort of," Autumn turned around and motioned someone else to come over, "It's how I've been able to pull them in."
Cecilia and Chelsea appeared from behind, with concerned looks all over their faces.
"Hey...it's you two!" Sokoto exclaimed.
"Yeah," Cecilia said, "Long time no chat..."
"Real long..." Sokoto commented, "So, anyone know where this place is?"
"IS Subspace," Autumn said, "This place acts as a hub world for those in the heat of the moment to console their hearts and fortify themselves before being thrust back into the real world. In a sense, we've uploaded our consciousnesses into this place to fix us here."
"Really? And what happens to the us...es...in the now?"
"That's the problem," Cecilia interrupted, "We know we're here now, but we don't know what's going to happen to our bodies."
"Bodies?" Sokoto heard that phrase before. One of those off-putting sentences back in Canada, "Oh, god...you don't mean..."
"It happened," Chelsea pointed to her neck, "They strapped these control collars on us right after we were pulled into a white van. We have no idea where we're heading. Our ISs have been disabled. We're completely sealed off from the outside world."
"Control collars?" Sokoto questioned, "Like...you don't mean..."
"Yes, those collars," Cecilia said, "They house nanomachines that not only restrain our ISs, but also destroy the brain cells that are not in constant use. As long as those collars are on us, we can't go back."
Sokoto really felt down now. This definitely could've been prevented had he just stayed with them, "Shit, man...Guess I shouldn't have ran off like that..."
"And what does that have anything to do with this?" Cecilia asked.
"Everything...I...I can't contact Silvia. I lost you all. I'm pretty sure lost those news guys, too."
Autumn knelt down beside him, "Listen. You still have time to turn this around. It's just not gonna be right now."
"What do you mean?" Sokoto wondered.
"I suspect we have a double-agent working alongside us. That person will be able to provide support wherever we may need it. And trust me, we're going to need it now."
"How come?"
"For one thing, I can't contact Madoka anywhere," Cecilia butt in, "She may have closed off her heart yet again, preventing us from bringing her in."
"Why?"
"It's..." Cecilia fought the urge to spill the beans to Sokoto, not wanting to put any more pressure on him, so she lied and gave him another thought to mull over on, "We got onto her for killing her parents."
"Cece-" Chelsea attempted to protest, but Cecilia glared at her, demanding she keep silent.
"Soki," Autumn said, "You and Maokda are all we've got now. You have to try and reach out to her. You need to let her know that it's not as bad as everyone says it is. We'll be in touch until you can get us out."
"But how? I don't even know where I am..." Sokoto said, right when everything started to fade around him, "Hey! What's happening?!"
"You're being called back to the real world," Autumn stood up and walked away, "You still have a job to do."
"What if I get stuck?!" Sokoto shouted over the widening black gap, "What if I can't go on?!"
"You'll find a way...you always do..." was the last thing he heard before everything went dark. he was confused on his next objective, but at least he knows he can't stop moving.
"Goddammit...now what..." he muttered, "Gotta get someone who can decipher all...this...blah..." he was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and intense heat. He fainted before he could move any further.
-UNDISCLOSED HIDEOUT, WAKULA COUNTY; 09:57, THREE DAYS TO ELECTION-
"Ugh...what happened?..." Sokoto's head was still throbbing, "Feels like I put acid on my b-" Suddenly, he felt a body on his back. "Wh...what...part of the body...am I contacing right now?..." All he had to do was move his shoulders to get his answer. He desperately wanted to freak out, but whoever was on him was still asleep. He tried to slowly wiggle his way out, and upon doing so realized exactly who his captor was. "Good go-DARYL?! WHAT THE WHAT?!" He kicked her away and scratched all the sweat off him, "GIIOOOOD-cooties! Cootie! Cooties everywhere! Cooties! Cooties, damn you! I don't care!"
Daryl landed on the bed and woke up, "Whoa, who the-uh..." She saw Sokoto continuously rolled on the floor due to an imaginary diesease and couldn't help but laugh.
Sokoto heard that, "Oh, whaddaya want now?!"
"Nothing!" Daryl chuckled, "Just...why are you so freaked about a nonexistent virus?!"
"You don't know that! I came across dirty men and dirty women...doing...dirty...thiiii..." Sokoto suddenly realized where he was, who he was with, and what she may have been doing to him, "Uh...I'mma go now..."
"No, you won't," Daryl clicked a button to seal off the exit before Sokoto could leave.
"D'oh!" He ran smack into the door, then stumbled back into Daryl's clutches, "Ok, we're going there, aren't we..."
"What are you talking about?" Daryl's aura suddenly shifted from light pink to purpley pink, "We went there five times. I feel like going there again."
He felt a tongue and a smooch all over his neck, "COOTIE LUST PAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"
-BROADWATER HOT SPRINGS FITNESS, LEWIS AND CLARK COUNTY; 10:24-
"Sokoto!" Madoka gasped. She looked around her surroundings, but found nothing unusual, "Huh...could've sworn I heard..." She shook her head and denied it, then sunk her head below the hot water.
She spent the last few hours deal with insecurities she never had before. From her personality 180, to the fact that someone could tell she has breast cancer just by feeling her up, to this newfound feeeling of loneliness, she's managed her internal struggle well by hiding from large crowds of people. But everything's happened so fast, that nothing is familiar to her anymore. She knew what Sokoto, Autumn, everyone meant when they said family, but she felt like they skipped several steps. Even now, she couldn't trust Autumn or Sokoto to be her stand-in parents, given what happened last time she had real parents (and the fact that Sokoto is two-thirds her height!).
Ironically, it was in a japanese hot spring similar to this one that her rage began to surface. She slowly raised her head to embrace the mist rising out the the clear blue water to meet the green scenery. She envisioned the same pool full of red, the day sky blacked out by the moon, and her own father drowned by the water in his lungs. Her mother was right next to him, screaming for everything to be undone. She also screamed at a very young and distraught Madoka for basically being a human deformity. And that was the last straw for them both. Her mother tried to drown Madoka, while Madoka herself was mentally going through all the times her parents berated her for not getting everything right the first time every time like Chifuyu, or being a saint like Ichika, or just not having the level of common sense that they felt like she was required to have. She saw it all. Her younger self digging into her mother's forearms, then pitching a hot towel at her writhing mother's face, then going into those terrified eyes. The mind was a terrible thing to her. She remembered wandering all over Japan, surviving only by picking off what people wouldn't keep. Then one day, she came across a live city-wide broadcast of the First Mondo Grosso, the awards ceremony. Really bad timing, as she never got over that smug face. She walked away in pure rage, venting her angry in the nearby trees for a week until Squall found her and brought her into Phantom Task.
She was angry back then, but now it's just mellowed out angst. She imagined what life would be like had she just not kept silent about her issues. Probably would'be been beaten up more than she beat up those trees, but someone would've noticed. Maybe she'd have lost her mind and fled anyway, except she'd be able to make her own house in the countryside. Sure, it's relaxing, a mental sanctuary, and no one would be able to find her. But compare that to now, what good would that do? It's just running away again. She's been roped into this insane speedrun for...a reason.
"Goddamn me..." she muttered, "What am I doing with my self..." Here she was mulling about parents and cancer, when she took it as a joke just a few days ago. Her mind really was unstable if she was that susceptible to mood swings. Deep down, she wanted to just focus on finding a reason for her being here, but with all the ditractions tampering with her mind, and her progress, the best she could hope for is another distraction to get her back on the right track.
"Where do you think you're grabbing, pervert?!" And lo and behold, someone interrupted her serenity time. Madoka turned around and saw flurry of women surrounding someone.
"Double goddamn me..." she groaned and slowly ascended out of the pool.
"I was on the other side of the fence!" a man protested.
"Don't give me that crap!" the lady snapped back, "I'll have you arrested for this!"
"For groping?! I wasn't anywhere near you!"
"I have footage of you, you can't deny!"
"The phone was never on!"
"Ok, ok, where's the footage?" Madoka suddenly bombarded the lively conversation.
"Thank god you're here!" A woman yanked her over to her side, "This man tried to rape my daughter in front of my eyes!"
"I thought it was grope-hey!" Madoka was shoved away.
"Admit it, you sicko! You tried to put your hands on her!"
"No I didn't! You're lying!"
"Ok, tone it down," Madoka tried to silence them, but the arguing only got louder. Luckily, it was quickly brought to a halt when Madoka was shoved right into the man's arms. They both looked into each other's eyes for a long while, but that look gave her all the information she needed. She recovered and slowly dropped her arms. "You got the footage, right?"
"Uh...yeah?" One of the women seemed nervous.
"Let me see it," Madoka demanded.
"Wha...you're seriously gonna side with this lecher?!"
"Lady, look above you!" Madoka shouted. The woman's eyes worked her way up to a small black dome which sounded a massive alarm in everyone else's head. Madoka knew that look in their eyes and continued, "If he really did grope you, we can use that as evidence against him. Just show me the footage and I'll share it."
"We don't need to show you anything!" A woman protested, "Just hurry up and put this leech down!"
"Triple goddamn me..." Madoka finally had enough. He contacted the man's torso, grabbed his hand and forced them on her butt. Then she wrapped her only towel around him. Everyone was shocked silent. The women were horrified at the mere sight of it. THe man was stupefied. Madoka just stared into his eyes, "You didn't do it, did you?" The man slowly shook his head. Madoka then turned her attention to the rest of the crowd, "Did I re-enact it just fine? He groped someone else. Happy?" The women had their bluff called. They had no choice but to admit defeat. Madoka suddenly yanked the man forward, "Your bedroom. Now," and pulled him away from the spring and into his car.
-12:02-
Luckily, his house was far enough for the women to not follow, so she made temporary shelter there. Unluckily, neither of them bothered to hold their inhibitions in check and spent an hour getting to know each other. By the end of it, Madoka was stuck on his bed, and the man was giving himself a double shower.
"Oh...man, I needed that..." Madoka was gasping for air, whie the man was drying himself off.
"Ok...what the hell just happened?" he said, "One minute, you're trying to roll me away, and the next...well..."
"Yeah, I tend to do that a lot," Madoka said, "I just lose my mind when people take advantage of other people like that..."
"So...you screw other people when you need to vent?"
"Pretty much," Madoka stretched her body on the bed.
"So, what got you all the way over here? Runaway? Relationship issues?"
"Just a wanderer," Madoka said, "Tough living on my own...in one spot. Thought it'd be easier to keep moving."
"No parents or anything?"
"God, no! The operated on the "get everything done right the first time, everytime" mentality. I absolutely hated it. My parents bode me good riddance, and I flicked them off."
"Really?"
"Yeah, I think I'll crash here for a little while, thanks."
"You sure you don't want to stay for a while longer? I mean, it gets cold this time of year."
"I can't. I have a...well..."
-16:42-
Madoka emerged from his house like she just came from the best fight of her life. Not only did she finally get all of her frustration out, but she also left with his blessing: a backpack full of clothes, and his leftover motorcycle. She felt ready to take on whatever lies ahead of her on her path to self-recovery. Thanks to the man's presence and eagermess to get the truth out, she can deal with her inner conflict a little better. She just has to plan for the inevitable moment where she crosses paths with her former siblings, which will no doubt cause another mood swing to disrupt her thinking again. But if that ever happens, she can bring them down with her greatest, and probably her one effective, weapon against them: she heard her parents' last words before she slaughtered them. If they rattled her, they'll certainly rattle Ichika. Chifuyu, one the other hand...those words would only offer a split-second opening. Madoka would have to use the "unnecessary conversation during a decisive battle" cliche to wear them out if she was ever to stand a chance against them. She nodded in satisfaction as she drove out onto the highway, but she couldn't help but wonder what Chifuyu was doing now that she refused to leave the country.
-NEW COVENANT UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, SUMTER COUNTY; 16:45-
Chifuyu was also relaxing, in her own way. During the Battle of Tallahasse, she noticed that the renegade was defending a certain news van, when he could've easily let it be gone in a fiery explosion. That told her that he has use for whoever was driving that van, so instead of following the renegade, she tracked that van from far. As it turned out, the renegade has been following numerous leads that suggested that the world has been sabotaged long before the renegade came into play.
The discovery of a hidden amendment to the Treaty was one thing, but a systematic exposure of the possibly most well-kept secret of all time? No one was daring enough to just go along with the renegade's plan, coerced or not. She kept tabs on the crew until the made it to a church, where a special gathering was just about to begin. She made sure to disguise her most noticeable features before going in the crowd. She noticed some of the crew near the main doors and hid behind the columns, keeping herself silent as she listened in on their conversation:
"Man, I have no idea what to write..."
"Wait, we don't need an entire script. Just some notes and key pointers. We're gonna ad-lib this."
"Ad-lib the monologue?!"
"We've done this before. Just keep him on track, and we'll be able to get the message out no problem."
Chifuyu took note of that. She sneaked her way out of the mingling and searched for the van, where she knew that her target was resting in because of his profile being easily recognizable. She found it parked nearest to the highway, and she found Sean stretching to relieve the tension built from this crazy experience.
"Oh, god...Hoo, boy!" Sean finished stretching and opened the van, "Man, I needed that...Ok, how far am I?" His map showed him 8 hours away from the target destination, "Wow...maybe I should get some interviews in...liiiiike, now..." He felt someone approaching him from behind and tried to confront that person, "I'm sorry, I don't carry any-WHOA!" He narrowly dodged a sword strike, a kick, a jumping sword strike, and a sword thrust before being pinned against another car. He felt the blade against his neck, but he didn't feel any more forceful movement. The grip on the blade loosened. "What are you after?" He gasped.
"Relax. I just wanna talk."
"That voice..." Sean saw the person remove her disguise and let her hair loose, "What are you doing all the way out here?"
"You know me?" Chifuyu said.
"The whole world knows, fights and speeches and et cetera. I don't know what you're doing all the way out here! The renegade's still in the panhandle!"
"I know. But you're my priority right now."
Sean got nervous, "Uh...ok. Let's talk..."
-17:03-
While the rest of the crew were out asking people about the renegade and the upcoming election, Sean and Chifuyu were discussing one major headache that tied them together.
"Not really a headache, just a little prick in the neck," Chifuyu muttered.
"Everyone's got an MO, and he's no exception," Sean commented while prepping the van for another long tavel, "There's gotta be a good reason for why he's hellbent on destroying the IS."
"Wouldn't the numerous men and women being chained up for the pettiest reasons count?"
"No, then'd he just be a vigilante hack. Gotta be deeper than that..."
Chifuyu decoded those words as seeing some good in the renegade's rampage. She had to get more out of him, but she spotted a peculiar picture popping from his phone: Madoka, with the maniac and the moth, holding a dead woman's hands...Squall's hands! "What the hell..." she exhaled.
"Huh?" Sean had never seen the Brunhilde lose her composure before.
"Your phone...that...thing!..."
"Oh, found that thing this afternoon. The renegade said something to me about redeeming them. Squall was able to apologize to those two, and pass the baton to him...right before she died."
Chifuyu was stunned. She never wrested a word from Madoka; she only heard about her possible involvement from Laura. She couldn't figure out how a little yellow prick could not only melt Squall's ship-sinking iceberg of a heart, but launch two lifesaving raids as mere afterthoughts.
"Though the more I think about it," Sean was finishing up preparations for a long interview-edit gauntlet, "maybe...really BIG maybe... he didn't have a family, but he found one and realized there are people who are way less fortunate than him who are being exploited for that. IF that's true, then I gotta set him straight. But...again, that's a pretty big stretch." Sean then tested the connection, "Plug that here..." *FZZTTT* The van started humming, "Haha! It's on!" He hadn't heard anything from Chifuyu and decided to include her in this insane narrative, "You know, if you still wanna find out his MO, we're meeting him near the No Name Key. Supposed to be this nasty prostitution factory, or so he says..."
"Did he say what was in it?..." Chifuyu almost regretted asking.
Sean grimaced before saying, "The missing pilot. Charlotte Dunois. Can't confirm; he's only heard."
Chifuyu was now at wit's end. Not even she knew what had happened after Charlotte's sentence hearing. She could only think of one way that her location would be revealed: either the renegade went straight to the source, or he's of the source. She thought the renegade had an ulterior motive, and that "destroying the IS" crap was just crap. "God...yeah, I'll tag along. I'd like to see this so-called MO for myself."
Right when she said those words...
"She's gonna WHAT?!" The crew just finished their round of questions, when they overheard the Brunhilde not using her swords.
"Oh, you're all done?" Sean asked.
"Yeah, but...but...the...the Brunhilde!" The writer stammered.
"Yeah, I'm gonna be a contributor for tomorrow only," Chifuyu mindlessly blurted out an excuse to latch her onto the trip.
The cameraman just stared. The writer gave up and slumped in the van's back seat. And everyone else just prepped their equipment and climbed in the van.
"So, what do we do now?" Chifuyu asked while driving the van onto the main road.
"Ok, we have until tomorrow 9pm EDT to film, interview, edit, set up, write, plan, and rehearse," Sean said as he took the passenger seat, "We're gonna send a message to the renegade that the world isn't as bad as he thinks it is, and call out the usual deep state for actually creating something that didn't need to exist. If this doesn't get through to their heads, nothing will. Everyone clear on the objective?"
Everyone, including Chifuyu, let out a half-hearted grunt.
"Well, too bad," Sean flatly stated.
"By the way," Chifuyu mused, "Why did he choose you to break the news?"
"I'm the first guy he saw. He took what he got, instead of waiting another month."
"But why? Does he know you're a hyper GOP fanboy loyalist hypocrite?"
Sean let out a half-hearted grunt.
-UNDISCLOSED HIDEOUT, WAKULA COUNTY; 17:10-
"So, see if I have it right," Daryl confirmed Sokoto's story, after "nourishing" him for EIGHT HOURS! "Phantom Task is lost to a prostitution ring, and the key to saving them is in the No Name Key?"
"Yep," Sokoto prepped himself for a very long run, "and I gotta be ready for when I expose this nasty little shit snail to the rest of the world."
"You sure you want that?" Daryl questioned Sokoto's life-carving choice, "I mean, we have everything we need right now. We don't need anyone else-"
"Uh, spend the rest of my life in a dung hole-a literal luxury dung hole? No," Sokoto made his intentions clear, "And I can tell that you don't either."
"What! Pbbttt, you don't know-"
"Lady, I have aura sense. I do know."
Daryl grimaced. Tatenashi had warned her about that ability, and how he got it. Daryl didn't want to believe that he actually had it, but seeing as how he was able to navigate himself out of public aggravation after the chaos of Tallahassee, and how he dug up her inner feelings in literally one swoop, she had many questions and many more mixed feelings-
"Uh, your aura's coming off like Taco Bell's vomit special..." Sokoto cringed.
"Exactly how many women did you sleep with..." Daryl muttered in a monotone voice.
Sokoto immediately recognized this aura from a comic he happened upon en route to North Carolina: yandere. Normally a dangerous kind, but Sokoto quickly figured out a way to manipulate it for his own objectives. He just answered, "A lot, including everyone in Phantom Task."
"Is that so?" Daryl packed her bags and opened the door, "Well, if anyone were to approach you with ill intentions, you will need a very capable bodyguard."
"Oh?" Sokoto did not expect that reaction, "I suppose you're going to keep all the bad guys away from me? Even though I can one-two punch everything already?"
"Well, you never know," Daryl took his hand and walked him outside, "Those people are far more manipulative than you know."
"Well...yeah, you have a point..." Sokoto sighed and followed her onto the road.
"Just stick with me. I know this state like the back of my hand," Daryl smiled.
Sokoto nodded, but he knew she knew, and she knew that he knew that she knew that he knows that she's hiding something. Daryl's going to try everything in her power to sway him away from the main goal, no matter how long it takes. Luckily, Sokoto's life was still in the trash can waiting to be picked up, so he'll have no problem sacrificing himself to give her the worst headache she would've ever faced. Although he could welcome her into Phantom Task...
'Nah,' he thought, 'Whatever gets me my family back takes top priority.'
The pieces are finally falling into place. Finally, the moment of truth is nigh. In two days, everything will be shown to the world. With the fate of Phantom Task in the hands of the one who first set off the chain reaction, Sokoto now finds himself at odds with a relic of the old Phantom Task. Meanwhile, the new Phantom Task has found themselves a powerful safe haven until they are able to reconnect with the real world. However, Madoka has gone off on her own path of recovery, completely diverging from the original mission, while her older counterpart has joined the mission, allying with one of the country's most prominent voices in politics, on her own path of discovery.
All of these threads, only the renegade can weave together. He started this mess, and only he can decide where it goes. The Taskforce will be taking a backseat to the greatest confrontational, and political, show in recent history. Three years after the Alaska Treaty had been ratified, and the preceding US election resulted in a woman being president, legislation was passed to change the day from Tuesday to Wednesday to fit the personal needs of women. Maybe a bad decision given how quickly bombshell news reports can be processed, which will be corrected soon enough.
Mark your calendars. The greatest show on earth will begin, in the Season Two Finale of Infinite Stratos...Virus.