Part 3: SAVE ME, DUMB LUCK!
The entire tower was surrounded, up high and on the ground. Squall was waiting at the parking lot, wondering when they were going to barge in and wrangle the renegade. She was staring at her watch, wondering when they were going to light up the night. A few seconds later, she saw flashing missiles being blasted into the hole in the building. She worried whether or not they were going to escape...and if they do, how Autumn would react to how Sokoto survived the week.
Up on the 25th floor, the pilots kept blasting the renegade back inside, but the Silverio Gospel (aka Silver) kept blocking the shots with her shield while Sokoto held on for dear life. Each block pushed them back until they were inside the main hallway, and the pilots closed in for the unison blast. Sokoto couldn't take it anymore and stared at the pilots intently, looking for an opening. He saw one when the pilots began charging their rocket launchers. He swiped Silver's sword from her and threw it at Laura, who stopped it with her AIC.
"Wing it!" Sokoto yelled, and Silver immediately spread its wings and blasted the pilots out of the building. He grabbed her shield and charged out from under the energy blast.
"Well," Squall commented on the ensuing battle, "Looks like he's finally done it," thinking that he has taken control of the Gospel, until she saw a yellow dot exit the building with a white thing, "IN F***ING ASSNESS?!"
Laura aimed her body downward and IB'd into the renegade. She caught the shield before he could crash into the police below and grabbed him by the collar.
"What did you think you were going to accomplish with that stunt?" she taunted.
"Exactly what you would expect," he pointed up to the sudden gigantic laser shooting out of the tower.
Two pilots already downed, Silver leapt out of the tower and folded her wings around a third pilot, concentrating all energy onto her target, and letting her drop to the ground before chasing the remaining two extras.
With Laura distracted, Sokoto swung on top of her arm, ripping off his shirt, and kicked the shield out of her hands and back in his possession. She engaged in a one-on-one fight with him, hoping that someone would notice the chaos in the sky and call for backup. As he was now, it didn't take long for her to overpower him and create a spectacle similar to what happened at IS Academy. Only this time, there's no equalizer. No vulnerabilities, since he's human, and she's in an IS. One front flip hammer heel was all it took to break Sokoto's shield and knock him down. All the police officers gathered round, guns loaded and pointed.
Silver felt her shield brake like a snapped bone. She winced and grabbed her left arm.
"Hey, the Gospel's dropped her guard!" a pilot screamed.
"Dump your load, now!" another pilot fired all her rockets on Silver.
Silver barely blocked the rockets in time with her energy field, but with her new upgrades still being synced, one blast was all they could take. Her wings started to fail as well, and she was only left with her sword. She held her own against the blades, but the rockets gave her trouble.
Meanwhile, Sokoto was pinned.
"Well, doesn't this feel familiar, renegade?" Laura hissed.
"Nah," he replied, "I get in and out of pagan asses all the time."
"What has he been drinking?" an officer asked disgusted.
"Well," Laura retracted her YT System and partially deployed her right arm, "We're about to find out," and an energy saber.
"Wait, what are you doing?!" an officer screamed.
"You don't get it, do you?" Laura said, "If you don't kill him now, he'll only make it worse for the rest of us! The longer he's left alive, the more of Japan he'll destroy!"
Silver took her eyes off the battle for one instant and saw her rescuer, and the only person who knows what happened to Silvia, being pinned by guns and a blade. On instinct, she turned to save him, but she was downed by a flurry of rockets and bullets. She crashed in front of the tower entrance.
"Hey! Silver!" Sokoto tried to rush to Silver's side, but he was instantly shot by an officer.
"Get him!" she yelled as the other officers roughed him up and dragged him by the feet to a patrol car.
Laura looked on with concern, as if he planned something.
"What's the matter?" an officer asked, "We got him, didn't we?"
"No," she answered, "It's never this easy. He must have an insider."
"What?" the officer psh'aw'd, "What are you talking ab-"
A giant golden tentacle stretched over the parking lot and struck down the officers carrying Sokoto. It then wrapped around him and gently set him down besides Squall.
"Impossible..." Laura whispered, "There's no way..."
Silver raised her head and saw the Golden Dawn. She shook in shock. She tried to get up, but she was kicked down by the two pilots. The Golden Dawn immediately launched its tentacle and slammed the pilots down to the ground. Silver cocked her head in confusion.
"I tried to be reasonable...I tried to be calm..." And then Squall's hidden motherly instincts kicked in, "BUT BOY, DO YOU LOVE MAKING THINGS FAR TOO COMPLICATED!" Squall grabbed Sokoto and slammed him repeatedly against the ground.
"WHY-" Sokoto was slammed. "DO-" Slam. "I-" Slam. "ALWAYS-" Slam. "GET-" Slam. "THE-" Slam. "SPATS-" Rocket.
"Oh...right..." Squall remembered she was fighting an entire police force, "I forgot about you." At that moment, she startled. She never takes her eyes off an enemy during a heated fight. Never! So why now?!
Silver buzzed Squall's head and brought her back in the action. Laura stood in front, with the police officers and the remaining pilots standing at the end.
"I expected better from Phantom Task's former watchdog," Laura taunted, "But I supposed the renegade did a number on you."
Squall looked down at the now close-to-puking fugitive. She also looked at Silver, who was able to sneak out of the fray and behind the line of fire.
"Any last words?" Laura asked, to which Squall remained silent. She simply readied her Golden Dawn's complete 1st Shift mode to resemble a great pharaoh, staff at the ready, blaster aimed at Laura.
"Time off," she simply said.
Silver took that as the signal. She unfurled her wings and tried to envelop the entire police force. But Laura prevented Silver from closing in with her AIC. But that didn't stop Silver from blasting the rest of the force. The entire force took a huge hit. The police units and IS units were wiped out, but the blast drained Silver of her remaining energy. Her wings disappeared, and she collapsed. Laura readied her railgun at Silver, but turned it to her backside as she realized that the Gospel was just a distraction, something she learned from the IS Academy attack. Her rocket fired an directly hit Squall's laser blast, giving her and Silver a split second to get away. Laura unsheathed her sabers and wire-daggers and flung herself at Squall, who spun her staff to catch all the daggers and give herself an opening to confront Laura head on. Laura withdrew a saber and activated her AIC, catching the Golden Dawn's main body in midair. But Squall predicted this, as her IS's yellow robes solidified and turned into snakes to attack. Laura had no choice but to drop her AIC and strike down the gold snakes. Squall charged in and tried to strike out Laura directly, but Laura was quick enough to catch Squall with her legs and curl her in with her tentacles.
All while Sokoto was staring helplessly entangled in two sets of tentacles too tight to allow for any wiggle room. So that meant he was forced to watch two multi-tentacled female robo deities duke it out for control of the world. Ain't that a sight, now?!
But it didn't take long for Laura to find the renegade. He saw her take her red eye lens off and reveal her golden eye, glowing intensely. He saw her do the same thing when he fought her over at the IS compound. Only this time, she can switch her VT system on and off on the fly. She twirled around and through the tentacle storm and effortlessly converted her IS into the Silver Streamline. It took a whole second to complete the conversion, and not one scratch to her. She grabbed the renegade and tried to wring him out.
Squall flipped over and tried to kick Laura down, but she caught her ankle and her staff. Squall used her blaster to blind her, but the hidden grappling hook knocked her, and Sokoto, out of her reach. He fell and hit the police car hard. Laura reverted back to her Schwarzer Regen and launched her tentacles at the renegade. Squall IB'd and tried to beat her to him. Silver crawled to his side to shield him from the collision.
Neither one of them hit. Instead, Laura was stopped cold by a strike from Madoka and her Black Knight. Squall was repelled by Autumn and her Shinomure. And both pilots were followed by even more pilots.
"Well, isn't this a surprise..." Madoka mulled, "No, really. It is a surprise. Why do you keep following him?"
"Why..." Laura forced herself upright, "Because he's far more dangerous than we could've predicted...he's a pure spirit, unknown to consequences his actions cause. And that's why he needs to go!"
"Yeah, I know. I'm one of those he's caused," Madoka said as she readied her twin lances and engaged Laura in battle.
The rest of the pilots flew in and tried to restrain Squall and Autumn. But they flew high and lead almost all of the pilots away from the scene of the battle. Almost all of them.
"Hey!" Squall shouted, "Sokoto's still down there!"
"Oh, crap!" Madoka suddenly remembered, "After him!" But she was knocked down.
"Don't take your eyes off your enemy!" Laura said as she blasted Madoka with her railgun. With her out of the way, she immediately opened fire on Sokoto. Only problem was, she hit the car instead of the renegade.
"How?!" she screamed, "Did he get away again?!"
"Not quite," a familiar-yet-altered voice creeped from behind her. Laura tried to counter his attack, but it was too late. The pilot already enveloped her wings around her.
Within the wings, however, that's a different story.
"What's going on?!" Laura tried to move, "Why can't I recall my IS?!" She was glued to the glowing blue-green and white floor, frozen in time.
"What's wrong?" That voice boomed. Laura looked up to view her new opponent. Her eyes widened in shock.
The renegade was fully compatible with the Silverio Gospel. Or rather, it chose him. And now, it will set him free to unleash their wrath against her. Within those wings, he was released from the Gospel to bring down judgement. He flung himself down and landed a giant punch on her gut, "You should know better than to barge in alone."
Laura felt that one. She hacked up a loogie of blood. She wondered why, though. Even if it wasn't life threatening, she wasn't supposed to feel that much pain. Then, she looked around her, and then she knew what happened. The IS pilots who are enveloped within the Silver Gospel's wings have their IS's put on lockdown, meaning they're nothing but extra wires and metal. And she was feeling its first debut since Natasha Fairs.
The feathery ground cushioned Sokoto's landing and bounced him back towards Laura. This time, it was a roundhouse kick to the jaw. But it didn't stop there. The kick send him face first against the feathery wall and bounced him back for a back kick to the head. He flew into a wall and bounced out to elbow her back. This continued for what seemed like a brutal thirty seconds.
Finally, one more punch knocked Laura unconscious. She keeled over and fell down. He hit the floor and bounced back into the cockpit. He resettled into the Gospel, unfolded her wings, and let Laura drop to the ground, IS still intact. The impact brought her back to her senses. She refocused her energy on the renegade, now floating high with the Gospel. She tried to stand herself up, but she coughed up another round of blood vomit. She collapsed and gripped her stomach.
"What...happened..." she muttered, "This wasn't...supposed to..."
"Well, let me clue you in on what just happened," Sokoto said while descending to the ground, voice still mixed in with another female's voice, "I just kicked your daylights out in thirty seconds. Actually, three seconds."
"HUH?!" Laura was shocked. She thought he couldn't have been able to learn all that. Unless...
"I did improve this 3rd Generation IS and make it competitive against the late 5th Generation," he said, "I mean, you did see me vomiting my genius intellect all over the lab, did you not?" He turned his attention to the ongoing battle in the sky, "Now, if you'll excuse me."
Laura threw a Canceller at his foot at the last minute, causing him to flip over and fall on his face.
"OW!" Sokoto screamed and pointed at Laura, "I call foul!"
"Do you even know the people you are helping?" Laura muttered, gritting her teeth to endure the pain, "What they've done...what they'll do...if they get that IS..."
"I know what they did alright," Sokoto said while sawing off the Canceller with a rock, "and I know how to get them back on the right path."
"So naive..." Laura whispered, "You think you can redeem them..."
Sokoto snapped the Canceller in half and threw it away. Then, he called the Gospel out to aid him in battle once more. "Well, I redeemed Silver, didn't I?" He said in his altered voice as he took off into the night for one last assault. Laura slipped into a deep sleep, wondering how someone so derange can reach out to the innermost of the consciousness.
Sokoto flew high to the top of the tower and surveyed the battle. They didn't need his help at all; almost all their opponents were down. All he needed to do was get the Gospel away from the eyes of the captors. He looked beyond the skyline and saw an entire militia closing in on the tower.
"Well, what do you think, Silver?" he asked, and it responded by popping up a screen showing shield energy and flight energy dangerously low. "So much for that fuel cell...Well, looks like we get to make one final impression!"
He flew even higher and unfurled his wings. Then, he twirled in the air and released energy balls to encircle him. And with a wave of his arm, they sought out their targets. One by one, they exploded the remaining pilots, the police cars, even sections of the local scenery. He did that to let them know who the world is up against.
Squall, Autumn, and Madoka froze. They wondered how their opponents fell so easily. They looked up and saw their answer. An angel of light, come down to rain judgement upon the earth. For a moment, they forgot it was Sokoto and readied their weapons for battle. Until his radiant glow disappeared and he plummeted screaming and flailing. Silver recalled and deployed herself in time to swing on a branch and catch him before he hit the ground.
"Well, hey there, Silver..." he meekly muttered. Silver popped up a screen with her energy depleted, then pointed to the entrance, where bright flashing lights and sirens grew.
"S***, we took too long!" Squall said.
Silver collapsed on the ground. Sokoto lugged her on his back and waved to Squall, "Take Madoka and go! I'll lead Silver and Autumn outta here!"
Squall genuinely got worried, "How?! You're dragging dead weight all across-"
"JUST GO!" Sokoto shouted, "Autumn, you and me, we're gonna buy them time to bail!"
"Why would I do that?!" Autumn wrenched, stunned at how Squall reacted to the renegade throwing his life away for the 2884th time.
"Silver, can you bring up the district map with traffic?" Sokoto commanded. Silver seemed to wince a bit, but she was able to project a map of the district with all things police, as well as possible escape routes, onto his companions' ISs. "Let's ride!" Sokoto screamed as he took off after the lights.
"Oh no..." Autumn chased after him, while Madoka and Squall went the other direction, withdrawing their IS units, hoping to escape undetected.
Silver tried to steer him away from the unnecessary attractions, but Sokoto kept his eyes on the lights. He sped towards the gunfire, forcing Silver to call the shield to defend the two of them.
In one of those cars, Huang Lingyin was signaling those back at the Academy for help when a silhouette came into view. She saw a man holding a woman in his arms, running to find safety.
"Ichika?" she whispered. Her companion looked at her confused before she turned her lights off. The silhouette was actually you know who and you know what, with the Shinomure closing in.
"HOLY!" Lingyin partially deployed her Shenlong's arms and broke the car's roof.
"No, not now..." Sokoto muttered. Silver quickly released her sword and gave it to Sokoto. Lingyin jumped up and fully deployed her IS. Autumn unleashed a massive gust the throw the other officers off guard, knowing that the renegade will challenge the Pr-
"What th-" Autumn stuttered. The President of China?! CHINA?! WHY?!
"Butterfly Twist!" Sokoto commanded. He jumped and twirled his body horizontally. Silver hugged tightly to eliminate the gap in between them and squeeze through the Shenlong's laser blasts. Lingyin then used her twin blades to strike at the duo, who blocked with the shield and was able to get the sword to the blind spot. They barely missed, and Lingyin kicked the renegade back, but Silver held onto him and swung him around as Lingyin slammed her sword and pinned her, leaving Sokoto an open strike to the head. But the two wing units fired on him, forcing him to block and use the resultant force to swing the sword at a wing unit and destroy it. Lingyin swung at him and forced him to block, knocking him into a nearby restaurant. Silver flipped and kicked Lingyin's chin, forcing her backwards. She threw her shield and knocked Lingyin off the car. Then, she immediately ran to Sokoto to protect him, but Lingyin quickly recovered and fired off a powerful laser blast on Silver, who struggled to hold her ground while blocking the blaze. Sokoto shielded his eyes from the blinding light and looked beyond the Gospel for a possible escape route. Instead, he sensed a powerful aura sneaking past the laser cannon.
"This could be it for us," he said as he jumped off the display kiosk behind him and leaped over Silver to confirm his tingling.
His sword was met with a double-bladed scimitar staff. The impact caused him to spin in midair, gathering just enough momentum to throw his sword at the second wing unit, destroying its cannon and saving Silver. The small explosion sent the sword back into Sokoto's hands. He swung and tried to hit Lingyin, but she detached her scimitar and blocked him and Silver's shield bash. She staggered them back several feetas she spun and threw her weapons. One blade broke through Silver's shield and pierced her shoulder. The other spun wildly as it honed in on Sokoto. He blocked its blade, but the hilt made its way to his side, knocking all the wind out of him. He dropped everything and fell down and out.
"Whew..." Lingyin panted, "I can't even...how did...No way he meant to do any of that..."
Silver staggered her way up, ripping off the scimitar from her shoulder and claimed it as her own. She stood ready to fight as Lingyin recalled her main body.
"Divert power to Ryuhou," Lingyin commanded. The two cannons that Sokoto just destroyed re-materialized above her shoulders. Silver dropped to her knees. This is it for them. Lingyin was about to fire when she was blown back by a gust of wind, misfiring the lasers. She turned around and saw a metal fist enter her face. She fell behind the counter and saw the entire building collapse on her.
When she awoke, she was surrounded by police and medical personnel who carried her to the ambulance. She dazed her eyes around the chaotic scene. Amidst the crowd of terrified women she saw a few recognizable faces run to her side.
"President!" a member of the Golden Dragon task force screamed, "No, you have to stay with us!"
"I told you this would be reckless!" Her secretary said.
"Well..." Lingyin said, "What was I supposed to do..."
"Let us handle it!" The servicewoman said, "We can bring the renegade down no problem!"
"No..." Lingyin grasped her hand, "You need everyone's help...You have to call everyone at the Academy..."
"But...what about you?" the servicewoman said on the verge of tears.
"I'll be fine..." Lingyin wagged her hand, "I can't die that easily...I'll be cured of the old people curse in a couple days..." As the ambulance doors closed.
All the secretary and servicewoman could do we watch as their beloved leader was taken to the hospital, wondering what was to become of the world now that the renegade has proven to be a worldwide threat.
Elsewhere, in an abandoned apartment complex...
"Why...?" Autumn stammered.
"We just couldn't run off leaving him like that," Squall answered.
"It was her idea," Madoka growled, "I said he could handle himself."
"Then, that means..." Autumn stared at the unconscious renegade and his new headband, disturbed at what could've happened when he was alone with Squall and Madoka. She looked back up and saw them out the door.
Squall paused and gave Autumn a solemn smile.
"That boy you're holding," she said, "Protect him. He's our only hope."
"Of what?!" Autumn demanded, to no avail. They just left her there. She is alone, in a dark room, with so many questions about the renegade's true intentions.
"Seriously, kid..." she hissed, "What are you playing at?"