Man & Machine (Infinite Stratos x Male Reader)

Grudge Match

The next morning, you went through the morning routine. More exercise, more studying and all of that before breakfast. It was the weekend, thus there were no classes at that time. You and Charlotte were inbound to the IS bays to train further for the upcoming tournament.

"Do you intend to train as much as you can today?" Charlotte asked, masking both her voice and uniform in her male disguise as she was out in public.

"Yes. Fact of the matter is that there's still an experience gap between me and other representatives." You replied. The simple reality was that your record was one win and one draw. One could also argue that you won against Alcott due to catching her by surprise.

"Three Representative Contenders are having a practice match in Arena 3!" A girl shouted while she ran past with two others. You and Charlotte started, then ran after them. There were already spectators by the time you arrived. Sure enough, it looked to be a two on one match. Rin and Cecelia versus Laura Bodewig.

"What's this?" Houki ran up beside you. An explosion and ensuing dirt plume interrupted a chance for conversation. Unfortunately, the two allies were on their knees before Bodewig.

"What are they doing? They're nuts." Ichika made his appearance known.

Rin fired on Bodewig with her shock cannons. The German merely raised a hand while speaking. A discoloration in the shape of a concave circle could be seen before the projectile exploded harmlessly in front of Schwarzer Regen.

"How did she stop Rin's attack?" Ichika voiced.

"It's an AIC!" Charlotte exclaimed.

"Of course. And because she's equipped with one, she didn't even need to evade." Houki deduced.

"AIC? What does that mean?"

"Active Inertial Canceller. It will render any incoming attack motionless." You explained quickly. "So that rules out frontal attacks."

Rin gained altitude and fired down on Bodewig. The Schwarzer Regen evaded the first three and uses the AIC on the fourth. Two black grappling lines shot outward towards Rin. Shenlong went evasive, but one managed to wrap around a leg. In her gloating however, Laura came under plasma fire. Blue Tears blazed away and Cecelia fired her two missiles. Laura jinked right, then left to evade the pursuing weapons. While she evaded those, Laura used her AIC to stop the Blue Tears drones. A mutual shot between British and German collided and exploded in the sky.

This was a ruse however, as Laura hurled a still lashed and screaming Rin into Cecilia. The two slammed into the ground hard. You tensed up from seeing a massive hit like that. A taunting Laura came down to hover in front of them. Rin made ready to fire her shock cannons again, however unwise that would be at close range.

Instead, it was Cecilia that made the reckless choice. While Laura's railgun took out one of Shenlong's wings, Cecilia shot a missile at Laura point blank.The allied pair managed to slide away from the explosion.

"That's gotta hurt." You remarked. Then you looked closer into the dust. "I spoke too soon."

Laura was hovering, undamaged with her arms folded. Four grappling lines shot out. But this time, to your shock, they wrapped themselves around Rin and Cecelia's necks instead. She yanked them closer and started to punch a choking Rin. She kicked Cecelia while she was down and proceeded to keep striking Rin.

"Sacre Bleau! The shield energy won't hold out much longer at this rate!" Charlotte shouted.

"And that's bad." Ichika stated the obvious p.

"Worse, if the damage doesn't stop, the IS mandatory unlock will activate. And in this state, it can kill them!" Houki voiced her own worry. Yet Laura did not cease, starting to destroy pieces of the two IS units while strangling the pilots. Something that was setting you off.