Cheer Raider & SABRE Panther Ch. 13

Panther fell forward, and the monster pushed away with its left arm with enough force to send him flying backwards across the cavern. He landed hard on his back, and the damaged leg bounced upwards, ripping the rest of the way free from his body, and landing behind him. Jennifer hit the ground rolling, and quickly got to her feet and ran back towards Panther, shouting, "Matt! Matt, are you okay?" When she got close, she could see sparks and bursts of plasma leaking from the shredded stump of Panther's leg.

The cockpit door opened and Matt pulled himself up and out. "Owwww, fuck. Yeah, I'm just rattled a bit. But Panther and I are out of this fight. I've failed you," he said.

"No, Matt, you haven't failed me. I would never have gotten this far without you. We're a te—" Jennifer stopped mid-word, and realization spread across her face. "I have a radical idea."

Matt's despair quickly turned into a grin. "I love it already. I'm excited to be a part of it."

Jennifer explained, "That evil thing, we know its power is driven off by love, and I do love you, Matt. You've supported me like nobody else. We've been partners in battle, and in bed. But what do I do to show that? Look at me, this uniform says 'Cheer' on it. That only refers to me. But a cheerleader is nothing without her team. It's the reason she exists. You and that robot have always been there for me. You are my team. And now I'm gonna shout it out! Gimme a P! A! N! T! H! E! R! What's that spell? Panther!!"

[Theme Reprise: "Violet Skies" by In This Moment]

On the final word she thrust her fist into the air, and her uniform burst into a swirling cloud of golden sparkles that levitated her off the ground. The transformative whirlwind was stronger than ever before, and the leakage from Panther's wound got pulled into it. Glowing green plasma, sparkling silver dust of repair nanites, and chunks of black armor and internal mechanisms joined the cloud. At the center of the whirlwind, Jennifer was calm, overcome with the serenity of knowing that everything was going to be the way it was meant to. She could feel her power surging: the power of a mind finally at peace, the power of her magical abilities, and the power of the alien technology that was constructing itself into armor around her body.

When the sparkles lowered her to the ground and dissipated, her uniform had been replaced by a black metal version. The top of the helmet bore a feline face design, with glowing green eyes, a snout, and protruding cat ears. The yellow visor across her eyes was shaped like teeth along its bottom edge, with two longer fangs extending down over her cheeks. The armored crop top had a jewel neckline, close around the base of her neck, and extended down around the bottom of her breasts, leaving her midriff completely bare. Across the front in all-caps serif block letters, outlined in glowing green, was the word "Panthers". The skirt remained a fly away style, but rather than fabric the pleats were strips of hinged black armor squares. From the back of the skirt's waistband hung a long segmented black tail.

Encasing her forearms were huge gauntlets that ended in giant robotic hands three times larger than her own, with five fingers tipped with plasma claws. Their movement was duplicated from her own hands via remote manipulation gloves. At the back of the gauntlets by her elbows sat rocket exhaust nozzles. Her knee-high boots similarly had rocket propulsion units along the calves ending at exhaust nozzles behind her heels, and the toes were shaped like cat paws.

"Holy shit, she's leveled up to mecha musume. Panther, please tell me you're still recording this," Matt said.

"Wow. I thought that might do something, but I never imagined anything like this," Jennifer said in amazement.

"I always said you have good instincts!" chimed in Sugarshine.

"Right, then. Time to be aggressive. B, E, aggressive. Here I go!" She started running towards the slime monster. "Team spirit..." She extended her fingers, and the robot hands followed suit with the claws flaring to twice their original size, excess plasma streaming behind them. "Plasma inferno..." She leapt into the air, and her rockets blazed to life, propelling her up and forward on plumes of fire. "Conquering love..." She drew her right arm back, and then slashed forward. "Ultimate strike!"

The monster had its blades up, crossed in a blocking stance, but the blades and armor both shattered as Jennifer hit her target. Then it exploded. The blast reached all the way back to where Panther lay, forcing Matt to jump down and take cover on the lee side. After it passed, he emerged and couldn't see any remaining trace of the black slime. He heard a noise overhead, and looked up to see Jennifer coming down, her rockets bringing her in for a gentle landing.

"Jennifer!" he yelled. He ran to her, threw his arms around her, and gave her a long kiss.

When he pulled back, she said, "Mmm. Are you kissing me like that because you're relieved we beat the humongous slime thing and survived, or because you're turned on by the way I look in this armor?"

Matt looked unsure, and after a pause, replied, "...Yes."

Jennifer smiled and said, "You fucking geek. Come here." She pulled him back in for another kiss with her oversized mechanical hands. Then she released him and stepped back. The armor burst apart, and the familiar swirling cloud of golden sparkles restored her usual uniform while returning Panther's components to his damaged leg. Jennifer stepped over to the mech and placed her hand on his side. "Thank you Panther, for lending me your strength." She turned back to Matt, and said, "Let's go home."

"Absolutely. I'll just go gather up that leg and be right with you," Matt said.

"Mom, you ready to leave?" Jennifer called out.

"Over here, honey. I have something to show you," she called out from the portal receiver pillars. Jennifer ran over to see. "With the portal fully operational, I've managed to reconfigure the retrieval kludge to a wide field. We can clear the town of monsters. And look what I found in this vest." She held out two hand grenades, and said, "What do you say we leave behind a little something on our way out?"

They let Panther have a head start through the portal, limping along by using his own severed leg as a cane. Then they activated the retrieval mechanism on the pillars, and watched as a brigade of the large creatures swarmed out of the portal and into the cavern. The monsters looked around, confused. Mother and daughter pulled the pins on their grenades, dropped them at the base of each pillar, and stepped through, with Sugarshine right behind them.

They emerged on the other side to see Panther flat on the ground again, its leg in its proper place and the repair nanites starting their work reattaching it. Matt pulled the bracelet off the portal generator, and the portal vanished. He placed the two pieces in separate compartments in a miniature version of the hoverwing and stepped back as it took off into the air. "Decided not to keep those?" Jennifer asked.

"As much as the army would no doubt love to study them, it's too risky to have them around. I had Panther cobble together that little launch vehicle to dispose of them," Matt said.

"Where'd you send it to, the desert?" she asked.

"Hell no. It's going straight into the sun," he replied.

She smiled and nodded. "Cheer Raider to Artemis Command. Mission objective achieved. The enemy had been completely neutralized. We also brought, uh, a defector back with us. If you send someone to City Hall to pick us up, we'll be happy to come in for debriefing." She looked to her mother, and added, "Oh, and could you please send along a pair of pants?"

- - -

It was evening before the four of them made it back to Jennifer's house. She had changed back into the clothes she'd been wearing that morning, and her mom had on fatigues she'd borrowed from the base quartermaster. Jennifer found her father already in his easy chair, can of beer in hand. "Dad? There's somebody here to see you."

"Who is it, that General again? What's he want?" he grumbled.

"Please, Dad, just get up, okay?" she said.

"Okay, fine, fine, have it your way," he said. He stood up, turned around, and promptly dropped his beer. His mouth fell open, and he looked to Jennifer with uncertainty. She nodded. He walked towards his wife, reached out and put his hands on her shoulders, still not believing his eyes.

"Hi," she said with an uncertain smile. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get home." He immediately pulled her in close, wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, and began bawling his eyes out.

Matt felt Jennifer's hand take his and squeeze it tightly. He turned to look at her. She was smiling, and it was the biggest, happiest, most genuine smile he'd ever seen her have.

[Ending Theme: "Mechanical Love" by In This Moment]

"Debbie Woods here, reporting live from Bensonville. It's been a whole year since this community was saved from destruction by hometown heroes Cheer Raider and SABRE Panther, also known as Jennifer Monroe and piloted by Matt Peterson. Since then, they've managed to turn international fame into a thriving licensing franchise, the proceeds of which have partially gone towards college funds and nest eggs, but mostly were donated towards rebuilding the homes, businesses, and public buildings that were affected by the attacks. In thanks for all they've done, here at City Hall today was unveiled this bronze statue of Cheer Raider, Matt, and Panther. Also, by unanimous agreement of the school board and student body, Bensonville High School is changing their mascot to the Panthers, and their school colors to green and black. I spoke with Jennifer and Matt earlier, and while they are both happy to have returned to the lives of ordinary students, they assured me that if needed again, Cheer Raider and SABRE Panther stand ready to serve. Now back to you, Richard."

THE END

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