Part 5: Can we flip out now?...

"This is why I hate women. They never know when to shut up..."

That's something that was burned into Madoka's heart ever since she was escaped her near-brutal raping. Yes, those words were spoken by a man. No, they weren't from her dead captors. They were from her savior. A savior whose beautiful blonde hair had been hand-torn into a disgusting yellow calamity. But why does she remember these words? Is it because she has heard them constantly from her father? Or is it from her savior, who never once said a word while delivering judgement on the men who were constantly talking their lives away to an inevitable death? Whatever the reason, she could not bring herself to lift her head and gaze into neither his nor anyone's battle scars ever again. But her soul was moved far enough to muster up the courage to defy his words just once,

"Will I see you again?"

Nothing. Not even silence. All the answers the world around her was willing to give was a very harsh ultimatum,

"If everything goes according to plan, no."

And that was the end of it. She would go on to struggle against the oppressors in secrecy, whilst he would become the center of attention, diverting all victimizers and criminals to target him instead of her. Light and dark, forever separated by the temporal tides, always to protect each other, but never to see each other again.

Or, at least...it was supposed to be that way.

Only after eight long years did Madoka complete this first puzzle. That tattered hair...the demeanor spoken to all bad people, regardless of gender...

"Dammit...I saw that bastard again..." She breathed heavily while scrambling to find him, "That bastard's the renegade! That can only mean-"

That the "plan" fell apart well before he resurfaced. He tested her, and she failed. (Somehow.) Now, he gave her another chance, but something happened to call his attention and intervene. At least that's what she believes. (He can't remember crucial details for s***!) She continued her frantic belief test while searching for the man that would be until-

*BOOM!*

"YOOOHOHOHOHOHO~"

-Until she saw him fly across the street, tailed by the Schwarzer Regen.

"We're in deeper s*** than five years ago..." she quickly rasped before darting after them.

There was no possible way to keep this mission a secret with him running loose like this. He knows nothing about restraint, only which buttons to push to set his opponents over the edge, giving off the impression that his they are the demented maniacs, when in reality, there's no one who could act more demented on purpose than he could. And that's if he's trying; help the time, he's just plain immature! But even that could fool the onlookers who are witnessing this game of hide-and-kill.

"Yagh...uhh..." Sokoto is struggling to keep his body intact. It's an absolute wonder that "PAGAN WITCH" only used her mechanized fists throughout this venture. Each blow he was dealt sent him rocketing towards another structure or vehicle. Till at last, he was catapulted for a seventh time, this time into the hotel. He crashed through a window and into the closing ceremony of the delegate's induction, where he was greeted by a sharp pain in his side and a ghastly gasp from the crowd of politicians.

"Uh..." he stammered, "Howdy do? Friends?..."

"Madame!" The representative-elect shouted, "It's the renegade!"

"Get everyone to safety!" The governor responded before deploying her own IS, "I'll deal with this vermin myself!"

"Heh," Sokoto laughed, "Funny thing about that-" He timed his finger-pointing to the exact moment when Anna, now fully recognized as Laura, crashed through the walls and smacked into the governor. The newly-elect were still trying to keep as many people as possible away from the ensuing scuffle, inadvertently clearing a pathway for Sokoto to escape.

He ran as fast as he could, trying to gain some distance between him and Laura. He could wait for her to launch her Ignition Boost to charge at him, but not only would that cause considerable collateral damage, the instant he tries to jump-kick her when she'd least expected, she would've already had her barrier at the ready, freezing him the moment he came within proximity. he just had to run, bob and weave.

He turned at every corner, jumped into every room, used every shortcut he found, hoping to confuse her sense of direction long enough for him to get out in the open.

"Don't you turn your back on me!" Laura let loose her wired daggers, marking his trail as they closed in on him with incredible speed. he doesn't have much time now. It was either stay and fight, or run and delay. He kept looking behind him to see where the daggers were going to him him next, and sidestepped and flipped accordingly to dodge the dangers and position himself for the next obstacle ahead. This continued for half a minute. Because as soon as he saw the exit...

"Surprise, m***********!" the governor popped up from the hallway next to the door and charged him. He braced himself for impact. But as she threw her leg to kick him, he slid his knees across the floor and got as low as possible to avoid the attack. He then recovered just in time to escape the hotel...

...only to see the place surrounded by armed soldiers and bellowing bystanders.

"Huh..." he muttered to himself, "Now, where have I seen this before..."

"Attention, renegade!" Clarissa called over the microphone, "We are giving you one last chance to surrender and return to the IS Academy! Put your hands over your head and come forward slowly!"

Well, he could allow himself to be captured AGAIN, or he could drag this on until a window of opportunity lets in the fresh air. By that, I mean-

"And what if I refuse, PAGAN WOMAN?!" -yeah...I think you get it now.

"Rrgh..." Clarissa dropped her microphone before communicating to all soldiers surrounding the premises, "Fine...BRING HIM TO ME IN PIECES!"

The soldiers charged and fired at him. He hopped up, grabbed the ledge, flipped himself over, and kicked the wall back hard enough to get him into another hallway and out of the bullets' wrath.

"Ok. Those bucket heads are coming...now, what to do about-" *BOOM!* "THE!" A dagger narrowly missed him, but it was enough to fell him. "AGH! Uhh..." The impact was harsher this time around. He recoiled and steadied himself, only to meet two angry metal robot costumes come rushing at him like an angry mob without pitchforks or torches. One of them has a barrier that's only good for one target; the other is a standard close-quarter-combat model. The solution came to him when Laura finally loosed her barrier. He jumped right when the governor was about to cup him in her grasp and twisted his body to leer right into both their eyes with a condescending gaze. More than enough for the governor to IB towards him at full speed, which was just enough to interrupt Laura's targeting.

The governor was frozen. Laura narrowly avoided collision. Sokoto ran away, finally breathing a sigh of relief. But it didn't last very long as Laura kicked her "partner" into the wall and roped him back in her clutches.

"AGH!" He was pinned under her cold, metal feet.

"This is the last time you will refer to anyone as "pagan"," Laura hissed.

This was it for him. No way out this time. He was escorted towards the entrance, where they were interrupted by the governor breaking back into the hotel, mad.

"That...THING...is mine," she declared.

"Actually, under the First Article of Section 17 of the Alaska Treaty," Laura stately explained, "this belongs to me."

"You will have no jurisdiction over our fugitive!"

"If he comes into contact with Infinite Stratos anything, we have total jurisdiction without contest."

"I...am...ordering you...TO SURRENDER THAT MAN-" she was about to strike when Laura froze her in her place. Just in time for her soldiers to storm the interior and completely poke their guns at the renegade!

"You lot! Stay away from my target-" the governor screamed, before one of the soldiers forcefully "Removed" her IS. Yet, she still remained in suspended animation, without being paid any mind to.

"Secure the renegade for transport and experimentation," she ignored the governor's ramblings and continued with the operation.

"You! Give me back my IS!"

"And arrest her for interference and aggravated assault," she finally loosed her barrier only for the governor to drop into handcuffs at gunpoint.

"You...you'll hear from my lawyers..." she let out a harrowing grunt, which Laura took for a feather slap across a rocky cheek.

"Hah! And you'll hear from the winner of the First Mondo Grosso, as well as a heavyweight on IS-related affairs."

"UGH..." Instant defeat. She had no choice but to allow two burly men to drag her away. She bowed her head in defeat, but secretly vowed vengeance. In the form of corrupted politics, I'm sure. Uncreative drag queen.

And Sokoto was out as well. Trapped within the wires of the Schwarzer Regen, carried across the park to the transport vehicles like a circus parade whose main showcase lie trapped in a cage. He was raised up high for all to see: an army of weaponized soldiers humiliating a prisoner of war for all the spectators to see. And they all let loose a raucous roar of dissent. They yelled for the IS pilot to squeeze the life out of him, for all the soldiers to shoot him, for anyone to put an end to his pathetic existence.

And yet, all he could focus his energy on was containing his laughter. In his moments of impending doom, he found hilarity in the people who got what they wanted, and yet still demanded more. All those incoherent screams and angry faces showing more wrinkles than necessary were met with widened eyes and a restrained grin. The governor, however, was not pleased. She felt as though her livelihood had just been robbed by the people whom she was trying to appease all her life. She looked up in disgust and read the minds of the vast majority of her audience through their facial expressions. And looking at them right now, most would say she just lost half her supporters due to the outburst of the renegade. Then man that she was supposed to subdue, not this silver-freaked upstart. And a very few used that logic to call for her immediate execution as well.

At last, they were tied together and thrown in an armored transport van.

"Yow! Oof!" Sokoto landed face-first, "Get offa me, Ol' Stinky and Wrinkly!"

"Why do I have to be bound to this creep?!" the governor yelled at her captors.

"So you can take your sweet time getting along with each other," Clarissa mocked.

"Oy vey..." Sokoto muttered.

"I will not apologize to this wretch for anything!" the governor yelled back.

"Good," Clarissa responded, "then we can drug him and force him to kill you."

"What?! No! You can't do this!" her screams yielded no change. The soldiers just slammed the doors shut, ignoring her constant pleads, "Let me go! You can't do this to me! Nooooooooo!"

"Get over it, already," Sokoto butted in, "We're done for, and they ain't gonna let us breathe fresh air anytime soon."

"Argh-Shut up!" the governor tried to ram his head into the wall, but he ducked in time to flip her face-down to the floor.

"Why don't you cool your face off for a while?!" he snapped.

"Get off off me-"

"Nope!"

"AGH! OWOWOWOWOWOW!"

"You settled down yet?!"

*SLAM!*

"UGH...uhh..."

"God damn, FINALLY!"

"Ugh...what the hell? I was this close to securing my position as the forerunner of female dominance...I was about to taste ultimate victory-"

"Ok! Not helping when you're tied to one of those dirty apes you're talking about!"

"Shut up! What would a dirty hairy ape like you know?!"

"I know that you've horribly tampered with SOOOOOO many books..."

"What?!"

"I know that you've changed the Berlin Wall thing. I know that you've mutilated the statue of Mao Zedong and turned it into an ugly hag bag. I know that you've replaced the angels on the Arc de Triomphe with man-demons. I know that you've-"

The governor interrupted his long rant with a shriek and tried to swing his head into the wall-

"NYANYANYANYA-" but he swung hs head down and strained her back, almost breaking her neck. He waited until she begged for mercy on her spine to reset them back to upright sitting position, "You no sneak up on me, woman!"

"Will you please just shut up!"

"Make me, wicker woman!"

"So help me that I'll-"

The van suddeny stopped.

"Whoa...the heck is going on?..." Sokoto questioned the environment. They heard someone step out nd run to the back doors. A rush of blinding light swept in and uncovered to reveal a female soldier.

"This way!" She called.

"The hell?" the governor asked dumbfoundedly.

"M!" Sokoto immdiately recognized her voice, "How did you set this up?"

"No time for that! Get out and get moving!" she untied them and dragged them out and into a nearby cave.

"The f****** f***, you f*****?!" she suddenly slammed him for causing the scenario to unfold.

"Hey!" he snapped back, "What's it to ya?!"

"Will someone please tell me what is going on-" the governor was about to flip her mind, but Madoka shoved a gun to her head.

"Not. One. Damn. Word." She silenced the governor, who now feared for her life. But there was one more problem to address. Madoka swerved the gun to Sokoto's head, "And YOU!"

"EEP!"He shot his hands up high.

"You just can't resist being the center of attention, can you?..."

"Oh, come on! I had it under control!"

"Did you really? 'Cuz you hella looked like her plaything-LOOK OUT!"

Madoka protected the group from a flurry of plasma bullets that struck at the cave's entrance, unknowingly opening up a huge weak spot for a certain blonde British woman to charge forth and ram into the trio.

"Guess who, renegade," she said violently.

"Ngh..." Sokoto felt her metallic knee on his stomach, "Glad to see Hogwarts trained you well, Miss Grainger-AAAAGH!" Of all the offensive jokes you could've avoided...

"Ugh...what in the-" Madoka recovered from the impact of the strike just to see what had become of their last encounter, "No...Oh, no no no no no WHAT DID YOU DO THIS TIME?!" The Blue Tears wasn't supposed to have a Second Shift! What keeps awakening these hidden powers?!

She didn't have time to worry about it. She quickly strapped a "Canceller" onto Cecilia, forcefully recalling her IS and freeing Sokoto, who immediately ran for the cave entry. But he stopped short of two feet when he saw three more IS pilots and two army transport vehicles coming in fast. "Heheh...some homecoming party, eh?" he said nervously.

Madoka rushed to his side to witness the ensuing kickoff, "What in the holy mother of f***?..."

"RRRAAAAYAAAAA!" Cecilia broke the Canceller and redeployed her IS. The two turned around and faced the now fully enraged Mermaid's Tears, who delivered an ultimatum on a global scale, "We have your surrounded and overwhelmed. All footage is being shown to the international community. What do you plan to do now, dillweed?"

"Well?" Sokoto turned to Madoka, "Any ideas?"

She quickly scanned her surroundings to find a way out. One IS in Second Shift in a narrow tunnel leading to God-only-knows-where, and a giant army right behind them. She took just five seconds to formulate a plan.

"Just one," she finally said, "Charge ahead!"

"What?" Sokoto screamed in disbelief, but Madoka simply turned to face Cecilia.

"Follow me!" she literally ran towards Cecilia.

"Hey, what-" Sokoto was dragged into Madoka's escape plan yet again, only this time into certain doom. Cecilia launched her drones at them while they ran along the opposite sides of the wall, dodging the drone fire as they climb towards the top. They were about to cross overhead when Cecilia jammed her arms into the tunnel walls, catching them off the ceiling and shoving them into the ground. What nobody knew was that Madoka had stolen a flash-bang-sound and EMP Burst grenade from a soldier she knocked out earlier to sneak into the van. She made sure to close her eyes while she loosed them both during her collision with the arm. When the other pilots arrived to subdue the renegade and his accomplice, the grenades fell right behind Cecilia. The explosion caught everyone's attention and stunned them.

"UHH...I...can't...ugh..." Cecilia let go of her captives to try and fight off her urge to puke, plugging her ears as a form of recoil.

"My IS!" Clarissa sounded out, "Commander, something's wrong!"

"Come on, blubber ball!" Madoka got up and carried Sokoto away from the confusion towards the back of the tunnel.

"Milady!" Somebody shouted, "They're escaping!"

"Commander, circle around to the back!" another soldier shouted, "Everyone else, chase them to the dead end!"

"Um..." Sokoto questioned as he was literally being heaved all the way, "Not to be a buzzkill or anything, but...where the hell are we going?"

"Away from here!" Madoka said under her breath, "We have to stall until we can find a safe place to hide!"

"Hide? WE'RE IN A TUNNEL! WHAT PART OF HIDING DO YOU FIND BENEFICIAL IN THIS GIANT FALLOPIAN TUBE?!"

"Why don't we get you a joke book after we-"

Dead end. Well, not really, if you don't count the 100-story pitfall, which technically doesn't count as a dead end. Instant death? More than certainly.

"Dammit...what do we do now?..." Madoka exasperated.

"Surrender or die." The sound of Clarissa's commanding voice swerved the fugitives' attention towards the battalion, who were now pointing their guns at them.

"We have to fight them off!" Sokoto said as he stared down the menacing gazes of the soldiers, "We can't let them take us in for their taboo practices!"

"We're f****** outnumbered 100 to 1, a**wipe..." Madoka muttered.

"Just die already!" someone shouted, "Open fire now!"

All the soldiers in the front row fired on the two of them. Since Madoka had bulletproof armor, she immediately shielded Sokoto from the gunfire and nudged him closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.

"Rrgh..." Sokoto hissed, "If only Silvia were here..." Still missing her, apparently. Even more so now that-

"Out of my way!" Cecilia emerged with her Blue Pierce FULLY CHARGED, "They're mine!

"Madoka!" Sokoto pointed at the rifle.

"No...that'll kill us!" For the first time ever, Madoka now feared for her life, if only for a moment.

"Ok. Fine." Clarissa recalled her IS and backed the f*** off, "They're yours. Everyone cower in fear."

But they never got a second's rest before Cecilia unleashed a gigantic laser right at the renegades. Madoka ducked and hugged Sokoto to shield him from the blast. A pointless gesture, as it blew their clothes and half of the cliff off and sent them plummeting to their deaths 500 meters below.

"Clarissa!" Laura contacted from the ridge above the tunnel, "Who fired that blast?!"

"It was Alcott, Commander."

"Right...we needed them alive..."

"It was a justified action."

"What is justified about-"

*WOOSH!*

"The hell?!" Indeed.

"What was that?!" one of the soldiers pointed to the moth-like flying contraption in the sky, causing a commotion among the ranks.

"No way they're escaping," Cecilia hissed after recovering from the shock that someone actually rescued them, "I'm going after them! Everyone else tell the public everything there is to know about this menace!" And she immediately took off after them. Everyone else just stood there, still unable to process the events of the past minute.

"You heard her!" Clarissa called everyone back to attention, "Back to your stations! The entire world must know! Phantom Task is still active!"

Meanwhile, on the ground...

Madoka and Sokoto were gently awakened by the touch of a mother's hand brushing against their hair. They slowly opened their eyes and worked their way into the living world around them. They questioned whether they were actually alive...

"What the heck..." Sokoto was still reeling from the blast's aftermath.

"Who...could..." Madoka's major functions were satisfactory, but combat-wise, she is out of commission until further notice.

... until their shoulders were burdened with arms pulling them closer together. Suddenly...

"Caught you, my little sleeping angels."

"AYATOLLAH RINGA LINGA!" Yeah, count on all of his jump scares to include random gibberish from now on.

"Ngh...shut up!" Madoka tried to swing her head towards the imaginary alarm clock-

"Come on, is that any way to address the person who saved you?"

"Huh...?" he took a few seconds to recognize that person, "He-he-hey! Squall!" He immediately embraced her.

"Hahah, it's good to see you too, renegade," and she responded by hugging him and patting his head.

But they had to postpone their reunion because she saw some soldiers spot them:

"It's..."

"They're here!"

"I've got them now!"

Squall shoved Sokoto back to Madoka's side, "Get M to the rendezvous point as soon as possible. I'll deal with these pests." She slowly walked towards the horde of soldiers with only a gun and plasma knife.

"Wait, what!" Sokoto couldn't believe it Not two seconds after he finally reunited with his companions must they now separate once again, "When will we meet up again?!" he asked her.

She turned back and look at him apologetically, "If everything goes according to plan...in a few weeks."

He blushed a bit. Before realizing what those words actually meant, "Ok...I trust you..."

She nodded, "Thank you, Sokoto..." She returned to her normal demeanor and jumped in the bushes, dropping bodies and stealing bullets a few moments later.

He contemplated jumping in to help, but the he noticed her companion in the skies. She was wreaking an immeasurable amount of chaos among the IS pilots, manipulating the situation to her favor with ease.

"Nah..." he silently said, "They got this."

"Th-this-this is REALLY reaching it, bro," Madoka brought him back to their current situation, "This is really reaching it."

"What? What'd I do?"

"Not only did you blatantly disobey the number one rule to stay f****** quiet...you were completely unaware that "Annalise" had metal-bending friends..."

Sokoto carried Madoka away from the fight zone and carried the conversation while on the run, "Yeah, so what?"

"So...now the country and its branches know we're alive now."

"And that's bad for us...why?"

"Squall and Autumn raided their target without making so much noise."

"News flash, pipsqueak. That's not how I roll."

"Pipsqueak?! Oh, now you're gonna get it, you flea-ridden-AGH!"

"Ok! Ok! Ok! I'll tone it down until you're fully restored..."

"Ugh...is everything a game to you?..."

"Nothing is a game to me because everything is LIKE a video game to me. Well...a video game with one save file and no opportunity to replay any part of Story Mode, anyway..."

"Ugh..."

And with that, they finally trailed away.

"Autumn," Squall said under her breath over her private comms, "M and the Renegade are out of vicinity."

"Good," Autumn responded, "Keep 'em busy." A wicked grin stretched across her face as she spread her arms (and wings) as if she was proclaiming the beginning of a new world order. "SHINOMURE! UNLEASH!"

One hour later...in an undisclosed location...

"So, that's how bad the crisis has become..."

"Yes. And if we don't act fast, this virus will spread to our homeland, which is the epicenter of Eastern IS Development, mind you."

"I am quite aware of our standing in the world, thank you."

"What should we do, President Lingyin?"

"Well, for now, we'll send an envoy to the IS Academy. Let them know that China has joined the hunt for the renegade."

And yet, another player joins the fight against the virus.

Unbeknownst to them that they have already infected the world now that the field operatives on the ground have taken to worldwide media to alert the masses of the impending attack.

What will become of those operatives, who can do little more than watch the world around them slowly lose its composure?

What is to become of Phantom Task, who must now stay separated in order to survive?

How will the players that be and the players that will be prepare for the viral attack?

And how long can two star-crossed soulmates withstand the torture of being indefinitely separated?

The longer they are parted, the stronger their bond grows. Until it becomes uncontainable and destroys the world around them.

Burn these words into your hearts as we await the next episode of Infinite Stratos: Virus.