Disclaimer: I own nothing. Trails of Cold Steel 1 and 2, along with the entire Legend of Heroes franchise and their plots and characters are property of Falcom and XSEED.
Hello everyone, here's Apex85 here with another Cold Steel One-Shot. A small humorous take on how Class VII would have tried to stay concealed between games.
Please read and review, but remember NO FLAMES ALLOWED!
Narration: Nice
Dialogue: "PAYBACK TIME!"
Dialogue spoken through radios and communications device: [[This is squad 2 in pursuit, requesting assistance!]]
Thoughts and Emphasis: I am going to enjoy this.
(Group A)
"This is never going to work."
"Not with that attitude it won't. Besides, you have any better ideas?"
"What I want to know is why do I have to be the one in the dress?"
"It suits you best out of all of us."
"Now that's just hurtful..."
"Quiet down they'll hear us."
Further ahead, a pair of Provincial Army soldiers stood on guard as they noticed a group of three approaching their assigned checkpoint road.
The soldier to the right immediately raised his hand forwards with his palm directed in the company's direction. "Halt. Identify yourself and state your business."
As the trio abided his command the soldier took a better look at the odd company in front of him. To his left, the soldier saw what appeared to be a bespectacled old man with shoulder-length gray hair, a thick gray beard and green eyes dressed in a black blazer over and black slacks with similarly dark loafers on his feet. On hi back was a medium sized pack while his right hand held a cello case.
On the opposite end was a frowning woman who the soldier assumed was the man's wife with similar gray hair tied into a bun on top of her head while she wore a purple turtleneck, and long blue skirt and brown boots holding a violin case in her hands. Taking a closer look at the woman's face, the soldier noticed heavy make-up including bright pink lipstick, white face powder, and blush. Probably trying to cover up the wrinkles and crow's feet.
The last member, standing between the couple was a rather short figure, barely reaching over either of the couple's waists. Dressed in a loose baggy brown coat and similarly colored cargo pants and black sneakers. On the top of the head was a brown cap that obscured whatever hair the child had, leaving only the boy's(?) face exposed as well as his green-yellow eyes.
"Ah, my apologies sir." The old man stated with a somewhat rough voice."I'm Max." He gestured to the woman next to him, "My wife Ella," his hand rested on the child's shoulder, "and our grandson Frank. My family and I went to visit a few old friends of mine by Trista and were hoping hoping to get back home to Celdic through the road here."
The soldier arched his brow at the man. "You're planning to walk all the way from here to Celdic? That's quite the distance."
The older man coughed and adjusted his glasses. "Yes, well the trains weren't running so going on foot seemed like the quicker option." From the corner of his vision, the soldier was certain he could see the child roll his eyes. "Would there be any problems?"
"I'm afraid so." The other soldier, who shall henceforth be known as soldier #2, replied. "Noone is allowed through here without a permit."
"Nobody informed us of this." The old man retorted somewhat worriedly as he glanced at his family. His wife seemed to fidget in place while the grandson sighed while shaking his head.
"Too bad. No exceptions." Soldier #2 coldly retorted. "If you don't have a permit than turn around. We've got better things to do than indulge some old commoner anyway."
The senior took umbrage with his tone and glared at him. His attempted rebuttal was cut short as the soldier harshly shoved him.
This was where it all went wrong.
"The hell?" Soldier #2 exclaimed as he saw what should have been the old man's beard fall off, revealing it to be a fake.
The false senior then brought his hands to his chin and froze in shock, with his eyes wide as dinner plates.
Any further action by either soldier were brought to a halt as the 'boy' brought out something from his pocket and blew into it.
As the dart hit his throat and his vision faded to black, the soldier could swear he heard one of them mumble "Told you it wouldn't work."
"Well that was a waste of time." Fie stated as she removed her hat, revealing her silver hair.
"Excuse me for atleast trying to find a way for us to get through without violence!" Machias snapped, his wig and beard forgotten as he and Elliot dragged the solder's body away.
"If you had those darts on you, why didn't you use them from the start?" Elliot asked, his disguise gone as he lifted the soldiers legs as he helped bring him into the hole they buried in the ground.
The silver haired girl shrugged. "Didn't bring anything to launch them from far away." She walked towards the other soldier before stopping as her nose wrinkled in disgust.
As a corpse was won't to do, she found that the guard had soiled himself.
(Group B)
"Halt!"
The guards screamed at the odd white Limo that came up their check point.
The driver of the car obeyed and slowed down before stopping an arge or so from the men. The driver door opened to reveal the man behind the wheel.
A tall man, perhaps even taller than either of the guards, who were both slightly below average height for men in their mid twenties, dressed in a black butler's suit, white gloves on his hands and loafers. His face showed tanned skin and the dark brown hair that designated him as a native of the Nord Highlands.
"Is there a problem?" The chauffeur asked, his eyes hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses.
"Yeah, noone can go through this checkpoint w/o a permit and identification." The soldier gruffly retorted.
The Nordman merely nodded, "Of course, is this the one?" He replied, pulling out several sheets of paper out of his coat pocket.
Taking the offered forms, the soldier hastily read through them and cocked an eyebrow at the name. "Baroness Alice Kruppmann? Not sure I've ever heard that name before."
The driver sighed dramatically. "Understandable, unfortunately. Though the family has stretched back centuries, they have little in the way of fame, ruling over a small rural patch of land at the far Northern fringes of the Empire." His eyes than took a rather pitying look. "And unfortunate to say, my lady isn't a warrior and hopes to return to manage her lands."
"I see." The soldier responded before glancing at the vehicle. "Interesting car you've got there. Don't think I've seen that model." A different vehicle was true. It was a large white bulky car, somewhere between a common automobile and limousine in size. Its windows were dark and opaque which kept the view of the insides unseeable.
"Not surprised." The tall young man chuckled." It was a custom made car milady commisioned to be made by the Reinford Company. She spent quite large amount of Mira for it to be made for her exact specifications. She calls it the Nuada, a specially designed cruising vehicle with the standard protective bullet and explosive proof alloys along with state of the art Orbal engine for maximum speed, stability and-"
"Alright alright." The soldier exasperatedly replied while handing the papers back to the taller man. "Your papers check out so go ahead, just don't cause any trouble for any of the Provincial soldiers you hear?"
"Understood sir." The Highlander nodded as he retrieved the documents and returned to the car. With a short roar of the engine, and an odd whistling sound the white car started and drove by.
"Nice acting there Gaius." The blonde young woman in the back seat, Alisa Reinford exclaimed. "Didn't even have to get out of the car. Good thing too, since I'd rather not be seen like this" She motioned to her apparel, of an all white business suit and skirt, with purely aesthetic red framed glasses over her eyes while her long blonde hair was fashioned into a prim bun on the crown of her head. Aside from her height, it made her appear as a genuine adult businesswoman.
It also, unfortunately(in the heiress' mind atleast), made her look similar to her mother Chairwoman Irina.
Her thoughts were broken by the spearman's lighthearted chuckle. "Not at all. We were truly lucky that Millium managed to procure convincingly forged documents from that Intelligence Division contact of hers. All the acting skills in the world would be useless without those."
"You're welcome." Came the disgruntled voice of the aforementioned child from the trunk. "Can I get out now? It's cramped in here."
"No." Came the immediate simultaneous reply of the archer a spearman in a tone that brooked no argument.
"Coooommmmmeee ooooonnn. I promise I won't make any noise or accidentally offend some Provincial army guys again. Just let me-"
"No." Alisa and Gaius repeated with more force.
An odd electric noise came from the front of the car, as the transformed Airgetlam made its opinion known.
"Lammy?! Not you too!"
(Group C)
"That'll be 1500 Mira." The deli owner stated to the customer.
"Thank you very much." The customer, a tall burly man with blue hair and amber eyes with a necklace with a bright green gemstone around his neck stated as he took the bag after giving the owner the designated amount.
"Come again soon sir." The owner waved as the patron left. He blinked for a moment as the 'man' seemed to wince uncomfortably at being called sir, but shrugged it off.
As the patron walked out, he met with a pair. A blond young man, and a brunette women.
"Did you get everything?" The blond inquired.
"Yes," He claimed as he removed the necklace around his neck and a quick flash of light overcame him. Soon the light dissipated, and in his place stood Laura S. Arseid. "This was charm was surprisingly useful. What was it you called it again? Glamour?"
"Yes." The brunette girl, Emma replied. "Its a complex illusion designed to trick the senses of the beholder to make a convincing disguise. Its a shame I could only make one so we'll have to use it in rotation." She sighed.
The blue haired girl merely smiled. "It ought to be enough. We've already obtained enough supplies so its best we be on our way."
"Let's hurry then." Jusis impatiently stated before briskly walking away, leaving both girls in a huff.
The two females than shared a glance as the blond's form left their field of vision. "It would appear he's still irritated from his turn." Laura spoke.
The bespectacled brunette flushed as she glanced to the side. "Sorry, but I didn't have time to set it to anything besides making the wearer appear to be the opposite gender."
"But, is there any reason Jusis in particular ends up looking even younger than Millium when he puts it on while we remain closer to our actual ages or older?" Laura questioned.
In response, Emma bashfully replied, "I didn't have time to fully fix it."
Unaware of the two women's conversation, Jusis checked the train schedule for a possible escape to Bareahard.
...Yeah this took way too long to get out considering how short it is. I'll also admit, that it's not the best I've written.
Sorry, but I wasn't in a good mood for a while. Some jerk threatened to take down my Cold Steel lemon which killed my writing mood. I managed to start an account on AO3 and left a copy of it there as a precaution, but I was still pretty bummed.
To make matters worse, I had a visit with my old friend writer's block so I had to brute force my way through.
Yeah, this was not my finest moment. But, my Spring semester in College starts next week so I had to get this out sooner than later.
If you enjoyed, please leave a review. But remember, just because its not my proudest work doesn't mean I'll forgive any flames.