Cheer Raider And Sabre Panther Ch 01

"All characters participating in sexual activity are age 18 or older."

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

EPISODE 1:

"A Mecha Falls to Earth!

The Magical Girl Needs My Help!

Now She's in My Bedroom?"

It was quite late, well after midnight, but Matt had to watch it just one more time before going to bed. He took his web browser back to the video and hit play.

"There's been another remarkable incident in Bensonville today, our Debbie Woods is still in town there with the story. Debbie?"

"Thanks, Richard. Another attack, and another save by the hometown hero calling herself Cheer Raider. This time in broad daylight, in a shopping center parking lot. We have exclusive footage gathered by eyewitnesses."

"Baton Twirl Blazing Shield!" the girl dressed as a cheerleader shouted in the smartphone video that had captured some of the action. Matt had spent the better part of the evening, after the report had first aired, learning more than he'd ever wanted to know about cheerleader uniforms in order to analyze what she was wearing. The sleeveless top or "shell" was primarily red, while the striped trim at the top and bottom, more properly called the braid, was arranged yellow-white-orange-white-yellow. It had a "sweetheart neck", which meant a sort of crooked V shape rather than a straight V, and the bottom was also cut in a wide V shape, high enough to expose her midriff. It said "Cheer" on the front, in the typical all-caps serif block letters, colored white with a yellow border. He also couldn't help but notice that she filled it out well, she definitely had a nice set of tits underneath.

The skirt was red as well, cut in a 16 pleat style generally known as "fly away", which meant the individual pleats were not connected to each other and fast movement would cause them to rise up away from her legs due to centripetal force. This revealed that the undersides were colored in alternating orange and yellow, and showed her red briefs, also known variously as bloomers, spankies, or lollies. Each pleat ended with a V shape as well, known as "gladiator" style, decorated in the same braid scheme. At the other end of her long, sexy legs, her shoes were the typical plain white, but they resembled hiking boots more than they did athletic shoes.

Also, unusual for a cheerleader but prudent for battle, she wore a helmet. It had an open-faced style that didn't cover her mouth or jaw. The yellow-tinted visor was chevron-shaped, coming to a point at her nose and sweeping back into pointed tips on either side of the helmet. The top of the helmet was white while the sides and back, below the visor, were red. A single braid of blonde hair came out from under the helmet in the rear and reached halfway down her back.

The shield she had called for formed in front of her twirling baton, glowing sparks shooting from its circumference, and protecting her from the long chains that a monstrous creature was flailing around. A voice-over from Debbie said, "This was the scene here earlier today, where this chain-wielding creature started attacking everything in sight, including these shoppers and their cars. Suddenly, a savior arrived. The mysterious Cheer Raider appeared and attacked, ultimately defeating the monster." The video showed the girl impaling the creature with a spear- or pike-style weapon. "This is the second such attack to take place here in Bensonville. The first was less than a week ago, and I was able to speak with the local police officers that witnessed that event."

"Damnedest thing I've ever seen, I can tell you that. We thought it was a guy in a costume at first, but it wrecked a power transformer with its big pincers like it was nothing. We got our of our car and shouted at it, but that just drew its attention to us."

The second cop continued, "We shot at it, that didn't do any good. We got back in the car, but it started tearing into it, ripped our engine completely apart."

The first cop resumed, "Then she was there, hitting it with fireballs out of nowhere. Then she switched to a megaphone that send out a big blast wave, and the creature just exploded."

The second cop finished, "We got back out of the car, we didn't know what the hell we just saw, so we asked her. All she said was her name is Cheer Raider, then she took off running, did some flips, and vanished into mid-air."

The video returned to the then-live shot of Debbie. "So far nothing further is known about the invading creatures or the mysterious defender, but officials here say there may very well be more attacks. Reporting live from Bensonville, Debbie Woods, KHNT 34 Action News. Back to you, Richard." The video ended there.

It really was a real live magical girl. These things weren't supposed to happen outside of comics and television. Yet it was happening, and not in Tokyo, not in any big western city either, but here in suburban Oklahoma. Matt was so excited at the prospect that he wasn't sure he could sleep, even given the late hour. He needed to try anyway, and shut his bedroom lights off.

Before he had a chance to settle in and close his eyes, he noticed the unusual bright light outside. He went to the window to see, but his view was obstructed. He raised the window, undid the latches on the screen, and pulled it inside. His window was over the front porch roof, and he crawled outside onto it for a better look. He was just in time to see the fireball streak low across the sky with a roar, and land with an mighty crash in the forest preserve outside town. "Holy shit!" he exclaimed.

Monsters and magical girls were momentarily forgotten at the prospect of a fresh meteorite crater within easy reach. He would have to take his bicycle; if he took the car it would leave him on foot in the woods, plus it might wake his parents.

- - -

With flashlights tied down to his handlebars and using his smartphone's GPS receiver to keep track of his search pattern, Matt rode through the trees looking for the second most incredible thing to happen in town since, well, ever. Even sooner than he'd hoped, he found the swath of damaged trees, their tops demolished, and followed it to the crash site.

He was amazed to find, rather than a space rock, a giant humanoid form sprawled out on its side against some intact trees, having apparently been thrown from the impact. It appeared to be composed completely from a black-colored metallic material. A green glow spilled out from various vents across its body, but shone most prominently from the angled eyes. Electrical sparks and fumes billowed out from several points of damage. It had been a hard landing. "Fucking shit, no way," Matt said in amazement. He freed one of his flashlights and carefully crept closer. He estimated it was about thirty-five or forty feet tall. The head had a decidedly feline look to it, with pointed ears on top and a snout with pointed teeth around the mouth, though they appeared to be decorative only. Other than that, it was clearly designed for function over form, as the body was fairly plain and without ornamentation, no extraneous spikes, fins, giant shoulder guards, or anything of the sort. "Hello? Can any life form hear me?" Matt said nervously.

A section of armor was hanging forward off its belly area. Matt approached it slowly. The flashlight beam showed a seam in the metal there. He reached out and touched it, and the panels popped inward, then slid sideways in either direction, revealing the inside. It was a cockpit, and an empty one at that. "It's a mecha. An extraterrestrial mecha," Matt whispered with amazement. Rather than a seat with controls, the cockpit was a fully open space with a remote manipulation armature in the center, held in place by a support beam to the rear. Mechanical limbs attached to the pilot's, and his movements would be copied by the larger robot. Potentially very user-friendly. The space required to allow the pilot a full range of motion also explained why the mecha had a bit of a potbellied appearance.

Everything was on its side, but Matt stepped in for a better look, walking on the cockpit wall. As he reached out to touch the armature, a sparkling mist sprayed onto him from the cockpit ceiling. He wondered what it was, and then he started screaming and fell to his knees, clutching his head.

"Aaaaaah! Stop! It's too much, too fast! Stop! Stop! No more!" He was able to bring his hands down as the pain ebbed. "That's better," he said. "I can't process that much at once, so you're going to have to keep it closer to a need-to-know basis, okay? Right. So, neural interface nanites? That makes me the official pilot? Awesome. My very own space alien battle robot. Hey, that's one letter off from a pretty sweet acronym. So then E is for... exoframe. And your face looks like an animal we have here called a panther, so I'll call you SABRE Panther."

Matt pulled himself up into position in the armature, and it attached around him, automatically adjusting to his body size. He noted that there were only four fingers to the armature gloves, leaving his pinkies free. The species that built Panther must only have had four. "It's a good thing you have self-repair nanites too, because I certainly wouldn't know how to fix you. Alright, then let's see how the mobility works," he said. The cockpit hummed to life, and he could see the woods outside around him. He tested an arm. "Nice response. Smooth and instantaneous." He got to his feet and looked around. He put his hand up onto one of the trees and pushed. It felt solid. "Force feedback to the armature, nice. What else can you show me, anything else online yet?"

He heard some mechanical movement from behind him and then a solid clunk as something latched into place. He reached an arm back behind his head and took hold of the handle that was there. He felt the thing release from Panther's back and brought it forward. The handle had telescoped out from a round central core, which also held two semicircular blades. "An axe. Nice," he said. He could see how the blades slid together into the core for the axe to stow compacted on Panther's back. In his hand the core looked about nine inches across, and the blades a diameter of twelve inches or so. That meant the real blades outside were roughly six feet tall.

"This might be big enough to block some incoming fire, too," Matt mused. "Yeah? No kidding." He checked the axe, and could see the two attachment clamp points on the back face of the core. Then he looked at Panther's forearms and saw matching clamp points on both of them. He placed his left arm against the axe and the clamps engaged. The handle retracted and the axe was now a shield. Matt chuckled. "Awesome, man. You are one sweet-ass ride. Damn, I really need to stash you somewhere to finish your repairs and get home though. I'm probably going to sleep through all my classes tomorrow now. Yeah? Oh, that will definitely be useful. It must be in the impact crater still, let's go pull it out."

- - -

Matt rushed into the family room when he heard the channel 34 nightly news theme music on the television. He hadn't previously been so dedicated to it like his parents were, but since Cheer Raider showed up he never missed it. "We start out with breaking news from Bensonville, where a third monster is on a rampage. Debbie Woods is on the scene. Debbie?"

"Richard, it is a scene of horror here as the new creature has set fire to a series of homes. The fire department is out in force but they are being overwhelmed. Wait, what's that?" Debbie turned and the camera panned off her and zoomed in on a figure in the distance. "And here she is, the heroine Cheer Raider! This is a live exclusive on KHNT, Cheer Raider in Bensonville fighting the fire monster!"

"What?" Matt exclaimed. "Cheer Raider's attacks are fire based, she's going to have a lot of trouble against a fire adversary!"

"So that's what all those sirens were," said Matt's mom. Matt moved to leave the room.

"Hey, aren't you going to watch? I thought you were a big fanboy for her," Matt's younger brother Neil said.

"No! I've got to... go... to my room, because... I can't stand here and watch her lose," Matt stammered.

"Suit yourself. I'll record it for you in case you change your mind," Neil said.

Rather than heading upstairs, Matt quietly went outside. Sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night to visit Panther was starting to become a habit. So was his mom scolding him for leaving his bike outside. As he pedaled off down the road, he said, "You know, this wasn't such a big deal when it was just goofing off with weapons practice in the woods, but this is a real emergency. At this rate I'm not going to make it in time." Then he came to a quick stop and dropped his feet to the ground. "No kidding? Well alright then, let's give it a try. Emergency pilot retrieval, dimensional fold, activate!" Matt and his bike promptly vanished in a burst of light.

- - -

"Well, they do say to fight fire with fire," Cheer Raider said.

"Wouldn't that be just a metaphor?" asked the squeaky voice in her head.

"Not tonight it isn't." Then she switched to a shout, "Hey, ugly! Over here!" The creature was insectoid in form, same as the others, like a guy in a big ugly bug suit. Except this one was launching gobs of goo out of its arms, and where the goo from both arms mixed together, they instantly burst into flame. It ignored her. "Maybe this will get your attention. Pom-poms!" Her pom-poms appeared in her hands with short puffs of flame. They were a mix of red, orange, and yellow, matching her uniform. "Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!" She put her hands together and thrust them forward, launching a fireball at the creature. Then several more. "Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst! Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst! Fighting Spirit Fiery Burst!"

It finally turned towards her, firing from both arms. She jumped aside, dodging the blasts, but she could tell she wouldn't be able to keep that up. She tossed the pom-poms aside and they vanished back into puffs of flame. She brought her hands together and called out "Baton!" As she moved her arms apart, a twirling baton appeared in her hands, starting with the metallic red shaft and finishing at the white tips. Once it was fully formed, she transferred it to her right hand and started twirling it. "Baton Twirl Blazing Shield!" Hot embers shot out from the ends of the spinning baton like grinder sparks as the glowing shield formed in front of it.

Flames licked around the edge of the shield as a continuous barrage of the monster's flammable goo impacted upon it. Cheer Raider started falling back as the monster approached her. Eventually it stopped shooting, growled and chittered at her, then turned away, back towards the houses. "Dammit, distance hits aren't going to cut it. I need to take one of those arms out. Time to be aggressive. B, E, aggressive." She tossed the spinning baton in the air. "Spinning..." When it came down again, now half again as long as it had been, she caught it and kept the spin going. "Ignition..." She tossed it up again. "Burning..." This time rather than waiting for it to come all the way back down, she thrust her hand up and caught it tightly, halting the spin. It was now double the original 28-inch length. "Pike!" One end of the baton burst into a blaze of sparks as a ten inch pointed spike appeared.

She lowered the weapon, took it in both hands, and ran at the creature. "Hey, fucker, I'm not done with you yet!" It turned back and resumed shooting at her. She managed to dodge most of the blasts, but one finally got through. It hit quite hard, somehow she managed to maintain her charge, knowing that another hit meant she would be cooked. She aimed for one of the arms. At the last moment, it thrust its arms upwards. She tried to adjust, but it threw her off balance. The pike glanced harmlessly off the creature's armored carapace, and she lost her grip on it while she fell to the ground, her momentum causing her to roll for several feet. The pike hit the ground and vanished.

She looked up from the pavement, the creature had her dead to rights, aiming at her with both arms. She instinctively closed her eyes and put her own arms up to guard her face, not that it would protect her in the least. The creature fired. She heard two large impacts, one to her right and other directly in front of her. She also wasn't consumed in flames. She lowered her arms and opened her eyes. Embedded in the ground in front of her, shielding her from the creature's attack, was a huge axe with what looked like green fire around its blade edges. She looked up along the axe's handle, past the large arm holding it, and saw the giant robot with a cat-like face and green glowing eyes. The pavement was cracked where it had landed on its knees.

The robot gave her a thumbs-up with its other four-fingered hand. Then ports on its shoulders opened up, and the guns concealed inside shot yellow energy bolts towards the back side of the axe. It pulled the axe free and stood up, revealing the creature in very sorry shape. Cheer Raider called out, "Megaphone!" At her command, an acoustic megaphone flamed into existence in her hand. It too matched her uniform, red with "Cheer" written on each side. She aimed it at the creature and shouted into it, "Roar of the Crowd Scorching Sonic Blast!" The resulting wave of condensed heat and sound slammed into the creature, destroying it utterly.

"Nice!" said Matt inside the cockpit. "Panther, can you detect life signs inside the burning houses? Give it to me. Oh shit, look at that. Let's go. Activate the plasma claws." He stowed the axe on his arm in shield mode, ran to one of the burning houses, slashed the wall open with bright green claws that appeared on each fingertip, and plunged first one arm, then the other inside. He stepped into the street and lowered his hands to the ground, depositing the child and the firefighter he had rescued. "What else needs doing, let's see, what are the firemen focusing on? Over there!" Most of the affected houses had been abandoned to the fires as lost causes, the main effort now was to keep it from spreading to the other houses. Matt deployed Panther's axe again and used it to smash down the ruined homes that were putting their neighbors at risk.

Cheer Raider watched the robot finish its assistance to the firefighters, then some kind of aircraft, really just a flying wing, descended from the air. The robot reached up and took hold of handles on the underside, and the wing lifted it off the ground. "And I thought all of this couldn't get any weirder. Sugarshine, can you follow that thing? I want to know everything about it." Suddenly, the robot and its wing vanished into thin air. "Holy shit!" she said.

"Shouldn't be a problem," replied the voice in her head. "It may have turned invisible, but I'm pretty sure I can still follow it."

- - -

"This is the house?" Cheer Raider asked.

"I followed him on his bicycle back to here and saw him through the window above the porch. The light went out a few minutes before you got here. He looks to be of high school age, like yourself."

"Thanks, Sugarshine. Time to go say hello." The porch roof was about has high as she could jump with her magically-enhanced body, but she made it up okay. She pushed the window up and climbed inside, noticing the screen had been removed and was leaning against the wall beneath it. The room's occupant did not stir, apparently he had fallen asleep immediately. She turned on a lamp and sat down on his bed next to him, which was enough to wake him.

"Oh my God! Cheer Raider!" he said, sitting up. Seeing her up close for the first time, she was even more beautiful than Matt had expected.

"And you're the one who was piloting that robot thing?" He nodded. She smiled, and said, "You were a big help. Thank you." She removed her helmet and dropped it on the floor, then she leaned in, putting one hand behind his head, and kissed him. It was a nice, deep kiss, but he didn't respond at all. He just sat there stiffly. She pulled away. "What's the matter, haven't you ever kissed a girl before?"