[AUTHOR'S NOTE]
This is a spinoff idea I had in mind that takes place before the start of The Centaur Women, even going on until way after The Centaur Women ends. It's a mix of kinda-what-if ideas I had in mind, merged with my An Axl Story Rewritten-The Centaur Women AU canon to the Original An Axl Story. Reading this story that focuses on a human living in this universe (kinda drawn directly from Tales of Vesperia) kind of needs AASR and TCW knowledge; it is appreciated if you read those fanfics, dear readers. Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy this random rambling of a crossover fanfic. (This story will be written to completion)
Chapter 1: Lady in Pink
A pink-haired teenage girl in blue pyjamas woke up. It was six am. She was in full cold sweat.
It was another night of worry and concern. Estelle Heurassein sat up, sighed and reached for the nearby glass of water on her table and drank a light sip.
"Think, brain, think. You can overcome this. Somehow. I will work it with the guys tonight … no need to worry." She uttered and wiped the sweat on her face away. "You can do this. Let it come."
She peeked through the curtains and looked upon the dark dawn of Brooklen City in America. She resided in a room part of an orphanage in a high residential building, looking down at a lot of people, vehicles and streets.
The year 2182, month of April. Reploids seem to rule the world for real now. Years ago, when it was declared that the Corp would decide global policy from then on, some were afraid, some weren't. In due time, those who weren't wished they really hadn't messed with the Reploids.
Estelle was 14 when she witnessed vagrants and unruly people taken in and executed in broad daylight. Bodies hauled up into trucks for incineration. Fear has remained ripe to this day.
Estelle also had the most unfortunate memory of seeing her entire family, save herself – descended from an unknown noble family from western Europe – slaughtered in cold blood one afternoon two years ago. She would later find out the reason why, and it smashed her opinions of her family dead and broken.
They were involved in generations of secret smuggling of goods; only recently quelled when the white Reploid ordered brutal merciless murder of all. She was raised to think she came from a noble creed; apparently not.
She was hauled off into brief police custody, given decent amounts of cash to live on her own in an orphanage after her entire Heurassein family's assets were confiscated, and … never elaborated upon.
"Sigh … soon … I will get over this malice, and get some kind of life back." She sulked to herself while in the shower, letting the warm water run down her head and hair for at least two minutes.
After cleaning herself, and dressing in a blouse, jeans and pink jacket, she picked up her bag with all her homework in, left the room, had it locked and made for the public transportation pods.
A high school building sat upon several layers of buildings looking over the ocean. That was Estelle's school. She got off the five-minute travelling pod and stood in front of its gates, waiting for her friends.
Just one more year plus of education, and then she'd have to move on with life on her own. No more Federation support, just harsh cold life. Life would be cruel to her, if not outright kill her soon.
Well, that wasn't how she saw it. She has been secretly raking in with the monies for the past six months, keeping them all in an auxillary account in a different bank than the one she currently uses. It was her safe stash, for the future. Good, right? Well, she'd be long gone if the authorities ever found out how she got them.
"I wish I was a princess in some fantasy land where magic runs freely and things, like blastia, controlled them and helped everyone lead a decent life. And there'd be mythical and mystical creatures abound …" Estelle sighed. "Not this … giant cruel machine … on Earth."
"Hello!" A bright-looking brunette in a dress and leather shoes came over to her. "Estelle! Ready for another round of intel update? I wonder what good news we will get from around the world now."
"Urgh." Estelle sulked. "Not so loud … besides, I think our luck might be running down. There are hints lately from the syndicate around the world that these vigilantes will really screw us over in the long run."
"Huh." The brunette tilted her head left. "Well … I'm sure you can figure out our plan and profits soon."
"Easier said than done, Evalyn." Estelle shrugged lightly. "I mean, I'm grateful for you helping me with homework, but exams are something I have to ace on my own so it matches up with the homework …"
"True … but no worries! Later in the noon, we can go back there and it's all bliss." Evalyn smiled.
"Hey guys." A black-haired, slightly taller, tough and strong-looking peer came over. "What are you doing here? It's almost time for the day school to start. Seven am to one pm of classes, remember?"
"Oh yeah, Mona." Estelle gasped a little. "Let's go to class … and then we get updates."
"Yay!" "Awesome!" Mona and Evalyn cheered. Nine months prior, they'd never thought they'd be part of an identity that presided over a large illegal syndicate that had them raking in monies they'd never imagine getting after a lifetime of work. Illegal for sure, but why stop there and instead bask in the billions?
Estelle, Evalyn and Mona rushed to school. Six hours of classes – more like every hour has fifty minutes of lessons, and ten minutes to rush from one classroom to another. The typical high school subjects.
One pm came. After the last class, the girls rushed from the common wings to a lesser wing which is rarely frequented – and had a secret pathway to their secret hideout. It was built by unknown persons, and no one used it, so it was made their special haunt.
A single ladder hidden between a fake wall which they knew how to access led very far down into the sewer network underneath the city. They climbed down carefully, rushed on the well-known route and approached a transformation chamber. It was time to be their identity of secret dark controlling.
"I'm gonna be quiet now. Lead us all well." Mona held Evalyn on herself. "Indeed, Estelle. Come what may, we can do it. We've invested in this too long to fail now." Evalyn held Estelle on herself.
"I hope so." Estelle became cold and stoic, and that was the girls' cue to be silent if not supportive. The machines prepared their get-up to assume a singular identity, and Iron Madame was formed.
Iron Madame walked in a long stiff robe of pink and many orange buttons, pink cape and hood. The chamber let her through, and she was in a chamber of many henchmen and henchwomen interacting via headphones and computers to associates around the world on the Righteous Strike syndicate's latest scoops if not failings.
"West Wing managed to transport the cannabis over from Outer Front south to Hilly Ranges! Expected raw shares of five hundred million zenny harvested! Good news from the Sandy Bars to the Upper North as well!"
"We lost contact with the Eastern Front! We've shut down the comms to avoid Federation cop and army tracking! We did lose billions on that front, but most of our allies have scattered and are going to Upper North to regroup clandestinely and relaunch Righteous Strike operations there!"
"We've got backup! The twenty billion zenny deal in the Green Parse and Lower Black went through and all the syndicates there have united with us! This really makes us now the dominant syndicate on the planet!"
The voices of henchmen and henchwomen shouted through the large chamber. Iron Madame walked up to her throne and sat, not paying attention to some henchmen trying to talk to her.
She gazed at the huge screen arching over the entire chamber and went through the visual cues and markers. At first, she was depressed with the low numbers, but upon drawing two and two with multiple checkpoints and gang hideouts here and there, she smiled to herself.
"Change the targets of Sector Gamma from north to southeast. Delay the deliveries in the Midwest. Rope in the northern supplies. Re-route all of them southwest and have the mainland fire up more scavenging."
The henchmen and women head the instructions and proceeded to work. Iron Madame rose from her throne and walked to the left; a path which led down other corridors and to her personal chamber.
"Not bad. I was wrong." Iron Madame surmised. "It looks as if it's an imminent multi-billion dollar loss, but … if we re-route strategies here and there, we can recoup the losses and earn even more. It just takes weeks. And then … we'd get another eight digit payoff in each of our secret accounts."
"T – that sounds great." Mona whispered inside the pink robe. "It's win-win again." Evalyn cheered lightly.
"Indeed. Alright, let's head back to our room and recline a little." Estelle whispered. The huge Iron Madame walked quickly on her pre-determined path. Other henchmen bowed before her and resumed their work.
How did Estelle and co come to manage this giant syndicate in the quiet, evading Federation cop and military fronts on various areas around the world? A lot of history built up to this, but let's just say that when the Prez Corp fully consolidated control over all the conglomerates it invested in over two years ago, many fled and hid underground, for a long while unsure of their next course of actions.
Estelle happened to chance on a rogue gang and minor syndicate. Having a desire to reclaim the equivalent of the Heurasseins' wealth taken away by the Corp (and in so doing, claiming a normal life back), she initially presented herself as an agent for a secret boss with huge ambitions, and one thing led to another.
The gradual pilfering of goods products and raw materials in very minor amounts led to increased illegal sales and profits. The many criminal groups heard of a secret alliance in America, wanting to pledge allegiance and direction to it for their own survival and wealth-seeking, leading Estelle to abandon her identity as an agent.
She managed to recruit Evalyn and Mona. Even though the two knew what Estelle was doing was wrong, she promised that they three will never be caught, showing that creepy white Reploid in Prez Corp a thing or two, and offered huge compensation for their services. They were to blend together as the Iron Madame.
And thus, Iron Madame became the public yet secret face for the global clandestine economy.
Iron Madame's room was large and spacious, walled in pink, and had a curious sliding window and balcony overlooking over an underground channel of sewage that poured to a bigger channel for treatment. Why Estelle wanted that balcony there, no one in the syndicate knew – except Evalyn, Mona and the intended guest.
"Ugh, I'm just so tired from today's class. Can we split up?" Mona sighed. "I need Evalyn to teach me stuff."
During Iron Madame's walking to her private chamber, a henchman and two henchwomen who were curiously of age with Estelle Evalyn and Mona checked out from their workplaces – it was the end of their shifts – and walked off to a quiet corner outside of this central nervous chamber.
"It's time again to do that, Carl?" A blonde of long-pointed hair asked. "Yes, Jennifer … it's time to go and see how Estelle is doing … just continue on as normal." The blonde dude sighed and started up a ladder.
"Man, you are seriously so lucky to have your fraternal twin sisters come with you to this hideous sack of a place, away from our night school, and work for that giant monster you call a girlfriend." The other short-haired blonde Emily followed behind. After she climbed, then only did Jennifer follow.
"She's … she's wounded inside, that's all. There's still good in her, and to perhaps abandon all this." Carl sighed, hastening his climb. "Again, I really thank you two, dear sisters, for following me in this charade …"
The three arrived on a secret path, covered with plastic to seal off the horrid sewage running far below them, and ran on that path. At the end, a large get-up was ready for them to quickly assume.
Carl remembered himself and his sisters being childhood friends with Estelle for ages. They played and mingled together, and even shared in Estelle's horrible memory of her family slaughtered in cold blood by the white Reploid's minions based on hard proof of goods smuggling.
Carl Emily and Jennifer were traumatized by the affair, but unlike Estelle, they escaped back to a normal life of a middle-class family, decent income, and did not suffer cruel ostracism from society. That was what led Estelle to invest into this massive criminal organization, to claim her wealth and somewhat-normal standing in life.
Carl never forgot seeing the dark eyes in Estelle's face, and vowed to do anything to claim her back. He made his sisters aware of the Iron Madame façade assumed by Estelle, and he had them assume something similar in order to raise familiar ground to try and talk some sense and help Estelle be back to normal.
"Ready." Jennifer held Emily on herself. "Make sure she feels comfortable, okay?" Emily held Carl on herself. "I know …" Carl assumed the get-up of a long red-buttoned robe, blue cape, and balaclava mask.
Count Cape walked on the pathway upwards, and happened upon the balcony of Iron Madame's private chamber. There, Mona asked for them to rest and recline, but Estelle saw Count Cape outside.
"Hush! Count Cape's here! Resume personas!" Estelle hissed. Iron Madame stood up and rushed towards the balcony to allow her guest in. Immediately, they embraced on another.
"My dear! You've come to visit me again! Quick, let's have another round of tender moment together!" Iron Madame squealed in some sort of formal language as she was being tightly hugged by Count Cape.
"Oh my dear." Count Cape felt his entire being cuddle against hers. "I just came to see how you are. Maybe linger, and then … I'd have to go back to my own place in society."
"No! Please! Stay with me!" Iron Madame held onto Count Cape even harder. "I … I need your presence to calm down so much … please … running this movement every day is driving me nuts. There's no moment of sanity left here … I can still shower you with all the money you want. Please, just don't leave."
Count Cape saw a glimmer of tears on the exposed parts of Iron Madame's face. They flowed onto her cheeks and down to her neck. He felt his and her beings wobble, inching to be even closer. He sighed.
"Alright … but it's not for the money. I just want you to be you." Count Cape said. "Just be the normal happy person I knew from our young childhood days, okay? And … maybe another time."
"Huh?" Iron Madame looked up to Count Cape's face. "What another time?" "No no, it's nothing." Count Cape instantly denied. "I meant, I was thinking of some other thing on my mind, that's for another time. Our tender moment, that's now. Not postponed." The two then gently broke off the embrace.
"Sweet." Iron Madame beamed with joy instantly. "Come on!" She ran over to the far corner of her chamber and sat on the large couch there. "Let's watch some movies! Any one you want for tonight only!"
"Aw come on. Can't it be that I choose the movies every time?" Count Cape sighed and walked slowly to her. "You always choose the not-so-nice movies, and I know ones that fit your tastes and mine perfectly!"
"No no, my darling." Iron Madame did a finger tut. "I insist, since you are the guest here and I am the mistress of this entire enterprise. Now, let us have our moments together before time cruelly sets us apart."
Both Carl and Estelle knew it was one another under their own hood and mask (it's just that their colleagues under them do not necessarily know who is the other). That is why Count Cape and Iron Madame have never addressed each other directly with their names, let alone the names of their secret get-up identities.
"Alright, alright." Count Cape shrugged. He sat down and inched as close to Iron Madame as possible.
The two identities watched an action-cum-romantic movie together. They enjoyed the romantic scenes of the couple loving each other, terribly separated apart before reuniting eventually, and the numerous action sequences in space. Her hand reached over to touch his hand, and his hand grabbed hers firmly and gently.
After the ninety-minute movie, they went over to her bed and lied down on it softly. No one spoke. He turned over to his right, and she to her left. The silent embrace began. Occasionally, she sobbed and sniffed, and he rubbed her back gently to soothe her. The bodies occasionally wobbled, but it didn't ruin the mood.
Sadly, they had to say goodbye hours later. Estelle just wished she could have everything in life, even her boyfriend by her. Alas, only the Righteous Strike was dominant, Count Cape was fleeting in presence.