Part 3: Still Just Kids
The next morning was a haze. Sokoto slowly opened his eyes, struggling to work the alcohol through the rest of his mind. He kept blinking in and out of awareness just to see if it was all a he finally woke, he found himself in the hotel room, alone.
"Squall?" he called weakly. No response.
He wondered what could've happened, but then he saw a bag of goodies on the table, addressed to him, left by Kanzashi. What went on last night? What else should he have not told her? He grabbed the bag and left the room. "Kanzashi? Squall?" he repeatedly called. Still nothing. No other noise.
Or people for that matter, "Hello? Anybody?" he called as he made his way to the lobby the corner hotel was completely empty, save for some furniture and water. Everything was still.
Sokoto rubbed his head as he tried to process the events of last night. It began with an honest effort to get Squall to forget her worries for a day, and it ended up with them causing a ruckus at multiple outlet malls, fraternizing with the enemy Cecilia, holding a binge-drinking contest and a parade, and ending with a one on one with Kanzashi. But that last part was sketchy. She figured out that he was the renegade, he removed his disguise inside the room...
"Uh-huh," he facepalmed. In a glaring moment of weakness...he did-
"Huh?" he shrugged, but not from the cold air, but the suddenly cold atmosphere. He could feel something build up outside the walls. Was it tension? Feels like anger...a devilish aura moving slowly...turning the corner...and stopping just short of the emergency stairway.
He ducked down and prepped himself to sprint, "In 3...2...1..."
Two rockets crashed through the front and emergency doors. He took off for the exit, running up and flipping over one of the rockets, but their collision caused a massive explosion, blowing him out of the hotel, and smash against the safe house inside the main office. Debris came down and sealed him inside.
He was now trapped, and it won't be long before someone came to relieve him. He quickly checked the bag's goodies. Some anti-IS grenades...huh? A...wrist-shield? This is all to help him survive being turned in? "What is her deal?" he exclaimed, "I can't do anything in this cramp! How do I-"
A very familiar rifle barrel pierced through the debris and shredded the barrier. Sokoto start to feel a fiery aura...and couldn't resist a smirk as he locked eyes with her.
"Hello again, little man," Cecilia hissed.
"Long time no see, FATTIE!" Sokoto crashed a flash bang grenade to a piece of metal behind him. It disrupted everyone'seyesight long enough for him to escape the room, and jump into a occupied lobby. He activated the wrist shield to counter the gunfire. Five IS units, three behind, two in front, twenty-five heavily-armed soldiers, all female. Battle plan set. Someone tried to swing a knife at him but he wrested it from her hands, and proceeded to attack the only attackable weakspot: the guns.
Cecilia recovered from the flash and was once again in a blind rage, "GAH! KILL HIM!"
"Our orders were to take him alive!" a pilot protested.
"Orders be damned!" Cecilia charged her rifle, "I want him brought to me on a casserole!"
Sokoto crashed into a pile of soldiers and relieved them of their guns. He felt something grab him by the shoulders, but there's nothing there! Yet. He ducked down as soon as the sensation intensified. Whatever that was helped a lot; he just avoided a double sword strike from two pilots. The other two opened fire above as he struggled to navigate through the other soldiers. Things got even more hectic as Cecilia charged her rifle again. The soldiers back away as the other pilots closed in to reduce Sokoto's mobility. As soon as she fired, he jumped at the point of impact. The laser propelled him through the lobby, but not before he suffered a brutal gut punch from a pilot.
"He's escaped!" someone shouted.
"But he's weak," Cecilia hissed, "Ground soldiers continue to fire! All pilots in the vicinity, search for the target marked on your radar by yellow dot!"
"Ok...I'm ok...I'm ok...I'm ok..." he panted as he limped through the streets, trying to block the gunfire- "NO I AIN'T-HOLY-" and the traffic. Amidst barely leaping over cars and stumbling over bullets, he felt a harsh aura from above. He allowed a car to knock him out of the street and into an outlet store, narrowly avoiding a stomp attack. He recoiled and tried to steady himself, but the pilot grabbed hum by the shirt.
And again with the familiar faces, three of them, "Remember me, you filthy pig?"
Sokoto couldn't resist another exhausted smirk, "Listen, I'd love to reminisce on our extraaaaavagant-"
"DON'T TALK BACK TO ME, YOU YELLOW YUMP!" she threw him back outside and pelted him with bullets.
"The hell does that even mean?!" he screamed as he continued to block. Behind him, Cecilia and two more pilots readied their guns. Cecilia's drones launched and charged straight at Sokoto. Through the bullet-fly, he managed to draw out the trio's anger by mooning them. They charged straight at him, forgetting about the crossfire already happening across the street, and colliding with Cecilia's group as a result. The soldiers and drones had to chase him down, but he was able to pull off the most insulting of rip-offs using the shield and gun, temporarily stunning the drones and downing the soldiers to escape to the mountain road.
"Heheheh, too easy!" he laughed as he ran up the road, towards the sports bar. "The clearing! I'm almost-"
Super pissed off aura to the left "DETOUR!" He jumped over the rail, and into the forest. He avoided detection by a pilot, but the drones have already recovered, and it won't be long before the rest of the pursuit group catches up.
-NAHA POLICE DEPARTMENT-
The TV was lit with live coverage of the hunt for the renegade. Without thinking, the entire police force put out an all-points bulletin for anyone who fits the renegade'sphysical description, and left the ground entirely. The underground prison was empty, save for the two pilots who sensed the urgency of the police.
"Autumn..." Madonna whispered.
"I know..." Autumn responded.
On the count of three, they swung their legs at each other's restraint device with enough force to malfunction it for a few seconds. They partially deployed the limbs to break the chains, but the devices rebooted, sending them in free fall. They dove headfirst, building enough velocity for the moisture to seep through the cracks, short-circuiting the devices. Then, they finally deployed their units, to Autumn's satisfaction.
"About f****** time!" Autumn shouted.
"No, it ain't," Madoka sighed, "Everything went wrong, as expected."
"Shut it," Autumn blurted, "The sooner we find Squall, the better."
For once in their lives, Madoka seemed to be in agreement with Autumn, "Fine. Lead the way."
They IB'd out of the abyss...only to be greeted by Xia and Mei, two of the Chinese envoy.
"Oh, f*** me..." Autumn hissed.
But Madoka smiled for some reason.
-LAKE HARUNA-
Sokoto barely managed to escape by diving into the water, and off the radar. He knew he had to save energy for the fight ahead, but that brutal gut punch has taken its toll. He barely managed to stay undetected through slow strokes and constant surface breathing. With each stroke, he could feel his body temperature dropping, his bones stiffening. He's been through worse, but his body finally felt the brunt of improper healing.
When he finally resurfaced on the clearing on the other side of the lake, he was exhausted and shivering uncontrollably. He managed to keep his composure throughout the swim, and mustered enough energy to swallow a recovery pill. He felt his body warm up, just enough to allow him fluid movement. He coughed up chunks of last night's food, nearly collapsing. He held it together and stood himself upright-
"Ow, cramp burn..." and felt a very burning sensation all over his body. Only, it didn't come from his body. It came from the ten pilots and hundred soldiers surrounding him, guns loaded and locked. He felt like he was being stabbed with a thousand chainsaws.
One of the pilots stepped forward, "And for the final touch..." and threw a very dazed blonde woman towards him.
"SQUALL!" he ran to her and tried to shake her awake. She just lay there, wearing a goofy smile, unaware of the situation she effectively forced him in.
"She turned a new leaf," Cecilia taunted, "Promised to change her life for the better...in exchange for taking you."
Yeah, there's no way that happened. Her auras are too jumbled, indistinguishable. "You mean, she SMOKED a new leaf!" he shot back.
The trio stepped out, "We don't need to hear from you, penile twig! GET HIM!"
This was it for Sokoto, no possible escape maneuver without getting shot. Too exhausted to run, he shielded Squall from the oncoming knives. But somewhere in the rampage, he sensed...mischievousness? Cunning? What the heck is this-
*SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*
An ear-splitting, ungodly high-pitched mechanical squeal emitted from his shield, piercing everyone, the pilots, the soldiers, even him! He winced, squinting his eyes and concentrating long enough to catch one last glimpse of the surrounding party. Cecilia tried to fire her shot, but her weapons system has been compromised. She shook off the noise as she looked around. The soldiers were down, and every IS has short-circuited. Her drones had been recalled due to malfunction. She was one-on-one with her target. She charged head on to stab Sokoto, but his shield cranked up the Hertz. They both writhed and vomited in pain, and succumbed to the sound wave and lost consciousness.
One hour later...
Cecilia woke up with a horrible migraine. She felt her hand being guided by a soldier, towards a glass of water. Its cool chill somewhat relieved her head, letting her eyes open slightly, "Ugh...what happened..."
"I don't know," the soldier said, "Apparently his shield had a sound cannon, developed for anti-IS purposes."
"Ugh, where did he get that?" Cecilia asked, still very dazed.
"According to surveillance," the soldier said, "it was handed to him at a beach. A woman wearing a brown wig gave him a seashell."
"That has to be Squall in disguise," Cecilia mumbled, "Where is he now?..."
"Um..." the soldier backed away a little bit, very aware of Cecilia's UK status.
"Hello?" Cecilia opened one eye and tightened its lock on the soldier, "I asked you a question? Are you going to give me an answer?"
"One you won't like..." the soldier stammered.
"So, he's gone." She got the message.
"We have other soldiers in the area-" the soldier got cut off by Mermaid's Tears crashing the tent and firing several shots at Mount Haruna, some barely hitting the sports bar. She stomped loud enough to get the attention of every person still in the clearing, if the random drone fire wasn't enough...
"Where is he?!" she screamed, "I want him decapitated in full public view, not in a spec-ops environment!" Then, everyone erupted in rage and her migraines came back. Splendid.
Didn't help that her IS radioed in some static: "Come in, Mermaid's Tears! Repeat, come in!"
Cecilia gritted her teeth and muttered, "Mermaid's Tears, come back IS Academy?"
"Remain at current location," static, "Reinforcements arriving in 5 minutes!"
"Understood!" Cecilia screamed back before shutting off all comms, "Finally, some progress!" She sighed and fell back on the ground.
Someone rushed to her with a washcloth and asked, "How long until we can finally put an end to his creeps?"
"Not long, I assume."
Well, please hurry up, because-
"AAAAAAAAAGH!" somebody got taint-faced for the third time, "MY FACE! MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!"
The trio were overlooking the entire mountainside, trying to display their displeasure to every search party ever.
"Forget the police, forget the Academy!" one of the women shouted, "Let's go after him by ourselves!"
"And risk everything we have all in the pursuit of revenge?" another questioned.
"At this point, I'd give anything to see him die before our hands," the self-proclaimed leader curled her fists, "We will be the ones to rein in the renegade!"
"And then, we'll have our way with the rest of the world's men as well," one of the women said silently.
And where in all probability is that damn renegade?
Fully bathed in the signal-blocking stench of the sewers, of course! Because, reasons! "Hahaa! There ARE some depths a woman won't...descend...to!" His body is aching, so he stopped to rest on the ledge, listening to the sewage rush past him to who knows where. The mildly toxic air won't give him much fresh air, but anything is better than dealing with the side entourage!
Well, almost anything, "Ok, think. I am all alone, in a sewer. All three of my friends are held captive somewhere, and then there's Sylvia."
Throughout the entire shpeal, he hasn't forgotten about the Silver Streamline one bit. If anything, it strengthened his resolve...if only he strengthened the rest of the inappropriately-named "Phantom Task" before this mess happened. With the weird aura detection ability comes a sense of loneliness, because there's no one around to make small talk, no auras, no voices, no nothing. And he realized that he caused a huge mess on the surface - he just now realized what a mess he made. He thought hard to find a way out. But there was only one way out: get back in and clean house. Meaning he has to go rescue everyone now.
He slammed his fists against the wall, "Is there really nothing I can do?!"
Then another strange sensation, eerily similar to the one he felt in the compound began to envelope him. It seemed to lure him even further into the sewer, most likely to a stealth type mission.
"Oh, there is," he mumbled, "And I ain't gonna like it..."
-IS ACADEMY ISLAND-
"All 6 arenas are reconstructed!" Ichika shouted.
"Good," Houki responded, "Let's get two teams per arena and begin renovations immediately!"
Reconstruction on the main areas have finished, and everyone else has either begun prepping the ISs for the mission at hand, or refurbishing the leftover areas for better equipment or defenses. Which would be great news if it weren't for two things...
"How's our ground team doing?" Yamada communicated over Arena 2's temporary modulus.
"Bad." Thing #1: the punchline.
Chifuyu walked up behind, "How's Cecilia?"
"They've lost the renegade again," Maya sheepishly answered.
Chifuyu punched a wooden post down on several tech junk, "HOW?!"
Several women rushed off to the comms post, but the instructors reassured that everything was okay and encouraged them to stay put.
And it failed. One of the women asked, "Were there any men involved with the pursuit?!"
"Hey!" Chifuyu shoved her head aside, "Buzz off, peabrain!"
Houki looked at Ichika and his team, "Ichika..."
"No," one of the pursuit women responded, "The takedown and pursuit teams were entirely composed of women."
"Let me guess...Gunma," one of the workmen sighed.
"Yep...yep..." Ichika splashed himself with water to try and put himself to sleep.
And then...this...
"How absurd!"
"What are they, a bunch of lazy apes?"
"This is exactly why only women can use ISs!"
The fervor somehow rekindled a hidden superiority complex that came with the IS. And many of the staff took offense to that including Houki, who stormed to the comms post. But the men had to keep their mouths shut for obvious reasons...
"What's gotten into you?!" Houki screamed, "Have you forgotten about why we're even doing this in the first place?!"
Then, the brigade over the mainland...said this:
"Look. I'm only going to say this once."
"We want...all men...to step down from their pedestal...and take their rightful place as slaves to women."
"They abused their power by imprisoning us to a lower place! We deserve to be treated equally!"
"How is that equal treatment?! You want to be treated equally, yet you demand absolute power!"
"If you don't understand our cause, then f*** off, b****!"
"Where are you?!" One of the male staff interrupted the signal.
"Why should I tell you?!" the women screamed before getting hit with a shockwave.
"Who?!"
Right from behind them, a recent IS Academy graduate slapped all of them silly before unleashing her IS and punching them into the next block, "God, I wanted to do that for SO LONG!"
"Have you gone mad?!" Clarissa screamed, "You'll lose your status as a Designated Pilot!"
"Who cares?!" she snapped back, "It's all the renegade's fault! If he hadn't surfaced and wrecked our s***, none of this would've happened!"
And right at those words, all eyes turned to Ichika. He felt something over his shoulder and looked over, only to get caught in their death stares.
"Well?" Clarissa demanded.
"Well, what?" Ichika shot back.
"Aren't you going to say something?!" Nohohon of all people asked.
"Do I get to say something? Or am I gonna get shut off within two syllables?" Ichika shut himself off, resolving to talk to no one.
"What's his f****** problem?" Nohohon began leading the group into a rant.
"We asked him nicely, and then he just stoops us off like-"
"That better not be what I think it is!" Tabane popped from the tree above them.
"Tabane! What are -" they all screamed in unison.
She just snapped her fingers to open a passage to the bunker, "Downstairs. Now. All of you," And shoved them together in front of the entrance.
They just left. With Tabane shoving them all down the bunker. Houki looks worried, but Ichika thinks there's something going on down there, and they've got just the right amount of hatred to test it out.
"He's really testing our patience, isn't he?" A male worker mumbled.
"It ain't our patience he's testing," Ichika sighed as he rummaged through leftover debris.
"You saying we brought this on ourselves?" the worker asked while pointing to a blueprint and some parts
"I'm saying that we should've seen it coming, " He found them...and a bit more. He strapped a small USB to his bracelet and continued foraging for some sign of core development.
-KOCHI PREFECTURE, SUSAKI BEACHSIDE-
For all their contingency plans, this was the most hated one. Kill off nearly everyone in their escape route, and board a ferry to the mainland, while remembering that they are under the constant watch of the whole of Japan. It didn't help that Madoka wore a sadistic smile the whole time, and Autumn damn near hated her guts.
They stopped short of the beach huts when Autumn shoved sand in Madoka's face, which almost caused her to retaliate, but instead let of a restrained growl, "Well? Where are we gonna go now?"
Autumn scanned the beachside. No one here, and the city looks like it's still in low-tech, not enough to draw out IS activity, but could still alert authorities on the mainland.
"Hello?" Madoka demanded, "You have a brain, don't you, Anna?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Autumn shot back.
"Try not to fall behind..." Madoka just shoved Autumn aside and walked towards a motel.
And just like that, the two formed a temporary alliance. Without Squall, whatever happens now...is pretty much their fault.