Bubblegum Hime

Chapter Thirteen

The giant turtle lumbered it's way towards the ca,pus, and the signal went out. Scouts for the student police force spotted it and used their phones to call in the data, reaching the hub at the school church. In the unused choir hall Nao Yuuki stood by a area map as she listened, then plotted the course on the map using red pins.

Dialing her own phone Nao waited until it was picked up, "Miss Suzushiro, a Orphan has been sighted. It resembles a giant turtle, and is approaching campus from the northern hills."

"Thank you," Haruka answered, "the Hime are already mobilizing. How is the gawker situation?"

"There are a lot of students out on campus," Nao admitted with a sigh, "Takeda and the majority of the student police are out trying to keep them back."

"Thank you, tell Takeda we appreciate his efforts," Haruka answered.

In their suite Yukino was settling her helm in place even as she listened to her girlfriend talk. 'Things seem to be working better than we hoped,' she mused, activating her armor systems and deploying several drones to fly towards the hills.

"Be careful," Haruka warned Yukino as the brown haired girl prepared to head out through the patio door.

"I will, I promise," Yukino smiled, then activated the cloaking technology in the suit. While not perfectly blending in with it's surroundings the technology was quite good, making Yukino nearly invisible to the naked eye.

Haruka watched the curtains shift, then Yukino was gone into the night. She jerked as the phone shrilled again and answered it, "Yes?" She blinked, "Mashiro?"

At the same time Natsuki Kuga was mildly happy she lived off campus, the wolf-like Duran armor letting her bound her way towards the Orphan. Her blue and silver armor gleamed in the moonlight as she ran by stunned men and women, students watching in awe.

'Too damn many people out,' Natsuki thought grimly as she leaped over one knot of people, 'someone's going to get hurt.'

"Duran!" a cheerful woman's voice called, and Natsuki saw Shizuru in her Kiyohime armor coming in from the side. They were soon keeping pace with each other as they cleared the school grounds, following scout reports to where the Orphan was.

"Good to see you," Natsuki said gruffly.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to watch you change into the armor," Shizuru gave her a sultry look, "it's so much fun."

"Shizuru!" Natsuki muttered, blushing.

There was a bright glow in the sky and Mai Tokhia appeared, trailing flames as her Kagatsuchi armor soared above them. "I spotted it up ahead," she called down to them, "I think it's heading right towards you two."

"Good," Natsuki smiled wolfishly. She raised a gauntlet then muttered, "Load silver cartridge!"

Mikoto came out of the woods hauling her claymore sword, her eyes glowing red in the armor. "Ready," she reported intently.

A bunch of trees crashed down as the Orphan ploughed it's way through the woods, lumbering forward heavily. It looked a bit like a younger Gamera, with a heavily armored shell, short stubby arms and legs and eyes that seemed to glare in irritation. It's opened it's slightly beakish mouth and roared, annoyed at the interruption.

Yukino hovered above them in her Diana armor, monitoring the situation. "I'm scanning the shell but I'm not picking up any obvious weak points," she told them over tight beam radio, "looks like we'll have to make one."

"Let me try first," Shizuru said as she gracefully bounced up to the turtle, the one snake head on her armor spraying a burst of acid. As she moved the turtle reared on it's back legs and swiped at her with a clawed arm, dangerously fast.

"Look out!" Natsuki yelped, but Shizuru dodged in time.

"Hit the belly!" Yukino ordered.

"Fire!" Natsuki barked the order to her armor, but the turtle flopped forward once again, shielding the less armored belly. The ice bolts pinged mostly harmlessly off the armor and deflected away, only a few worsening the damage Shizuru had done.

"We need to get it to rear up again," Shizuru frowned as she landed near Natsuki. As they talked Mikoto tried a attack with her heavy sword, but she could barely chip the heavy shell.

"Mai, see if you can get it swinging at you," Yukino ordered, "Natsuki, Mikoto, get ready to attack when it does."

"Right!" all three chimed.

Mai darted and danced above the turtle, peppering it with fire bolts and trying to piss it off. Sadly it seemed to have learned it's lesson and merely hunkered down, taking the flames on it's nearly unbreakable shell. "It's not working!" Mai growled.

Yukino's drones swirled around the battlefield, scanning the armor and the effectiveness of their attacks. "We'll just have to wear it down," she conceded.

Just then a squeal of feedback made her wince. "Yukino, this is Mashiro," the voice sounded tired but satisfied, "the new suit is ready. I'm deploying it with a pilot I've chosen, along with a new weapon I designed."

"Who's the pilot?" Yukino snapped, wishing that for once Mashiro would keep her in the loop!

"Launching now!" Mashiro ignored her, signing off.

Yukino bit back a annoyed noise, her suit sensors detecting the armor being launched from a railgun from their secondary base. "Get it's attention," she ordered the rest of the team as she told them, "help is incoming from the west."

"Let me guess, a new suit Mashiro didn't tell us about?" Natsuki asked as she loaded up a chrome cartridge and fired.

"Exactly," Yukino answered wryly.

"She does this often?" Shizuru asked as she fired off a acid mist to temporarily blind their foe.

"That's how I joined too," Natsuki conceded.

"Interning!" a voice yelled as the red and gold armored figure plummeted from the sky carrying the biggest mace anyone had ever see.

"Don't you mean incoming...," Yukino started then her eyes went wide, "Haruka?"

Haruka Suzushiro grinned as she hefted the giant mace, her armor resembling some kind of lion. She swung down as systems in the armor activated, the new strength enhancement technology kicking in right on cue.

THOOM!

The ground literally shook as the mace came down, and the turtle's shell buckled and cracked under the blow. Of course hitting that hard staggered Haruka too, leaving her staggering away from the monster, her armor actually steaming.

"Look out!" Yukino zipped in and yanked Haruka aside as Mai and Natsuki did their special fire and ice combo.

First Mai bathed the now badly damaged turtle with superheated gasses, until it glowed a rosy red. Then Natsuki fired off a super-cold shell from her arm cannon, plunging the hot armor to deep cold and causing cracks to spring up all over it. Finally Mikoto and Shizuru struck, shattering the turtle and leaving just smoking wreckage.

"Holy shit," a voice breathed out, and Natsuki turned to see Chie Harada filming the battle, the young women standing in the shadow of a old tree.

"Crap," Natsuki muttered, hoping her helm hid her face well enough. "Everyone scatter," she yelled, the group bounding off into the darkness.

Yukino bounded alongside Haruka, deploying her drones in a sphere around them to spread out the cloaking effect. Nearly invisible they reached their shared apartment, though it took some effort getting the mace inside...

"Haruka, how did this...?" Yukino asked, blinking in confusion even as she pulled in the suit's cloud of drones.

"Mashiro called me just after you left," Haruka admitted as she pulled the helm off then began stripping off the suit, "said she had a new suit ready and needed a pilot."

"Well, your timing couldn't have been better," Yukino conceded, moving over and helping Haruka with the bulkier sections.

"Don't worry," Haruka said gently as she helped Yukino with her lighter suit, "I'm sure Mashiro intends the suit for someone else."

"Oh, I don't know," Yukino admitted as she smiled up at Haruka and said, "I think that armor kind of suits you."

"Oh, uhm, thank you,." Haruka smiled back, blinking as she noticed something odd in her lover's eyes. "Uhm, Yukino..."

Yukino put her hand on Haruka's shoulder, "How tired are you, Haruka?"

"Yukino, someone is sure to call you about me being in the armor," Haruka protested uselessly as Yukino pushed her back towards the bed. 'Sex Kitten' Yukino didn't come out too often, but most commonly appeared after battle. Maybe it was the adrenalin or something.

"They can wait,' Yukino said firmly then practically pounced on Haruka.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Wonder if we should tell them they left the door open?" Mai muttered, peeking inside to where Yukino and Haruka were collapsed on the bed.

"Bring it up later," Natsuki decided, ushering the others out.

"Aww, I wanted to watch some more," Shizuru pouted.

Mikoto sighed, "Mai wouldn't let me see at all."

"Let's get out of here before Yukino kills us," Mai decided, the four sneaking out and locking the door behind them. "Think Chie got any good images of us?"

"Hope not," Natsuki said, "but there's not much we can do if she did."

To be continued...