AN: Spoilers/References: Team Fortress 2, Skip Beat, Rose is Rose.
It wasn't long before the ground troops infiltrated Ouran, and the battle proper commenced, fought mainly in the still-standing gym and the training grounds.
Some of the mercenaries were proving troublesome, Kyoya noted, as he took his time, surveying the panorama of the battlefield before him, before entering the fray himself.
Among the fighters, he recognized the three Gumbos, who were tearing the place apart, as was par for the course for the deadly family of mercenaries. They were Rose: the femme fatale, spy, and deceiver; Jumbo: a man who knew his way around a non-living weapon, and no small expert in stealth operations; and Pascal, the intellectual, child of the two most deadly killers in their entire organization.
And, if he wasn't mistaken, those were Kyoko Mogami and Kanae Kotonami fighting the Nekozawa siblings over near the center of the room. Those two girls had been probationary members of the LME Assassin's Academy ever since a stunt that had been mostly Kyoko's fault, at least according to the official record. Because of said probation, they were forced to wear hot pink jumpsuits which read, 'Shoot Me' on the front, and which had targets on the back. The fact that they were both still uninjured and fighting testified greatly to their skill, since Kirimi seemed to be taking the targets as a personal challenge to hit with her ice-bolts.
Then, there were the nine men in red, who hadn't been in his files at all. He would have to find out which agency they were from, as it appeared to be one of the halfway competent ones. Kyoya wasn't sure how they were doing it, but this team seemed to already know all of Ouran's battle plans. The little skinny guy would run out ahead for reconnaissance and sabotage, sure, but even he didn't seem to be that effective in damaging them, all by himself. Regardless, they had carved out their own little alcove, protected by turrets, which served as antagonists for Ouran's own turret allies from Aperture.
The nine even had their own healer, who kept his eight teammates all going strong, even if he did seem to be a bit on the sadistic side. The pyromaniac in a gas mask kept people from taking out the turrets. The sniper, for his part, hadn't been seen since the first few minutes of battle, nor had the guy in a ski mask. The explosives-lover was running around like crazy. The big guy and the general were nearly as bad, with their gigantic guns and such. These folks definitely ranked highly on Kyoya's list of people to take out of the fight, should a convenient opportunity present itself.
And then there were the fairies. The fairies were... well, frankly, they were ridiculous. It was probably above Kyoya to look down on people based on mere appearance... but they were about the size of Tinkerbell, and with all the snooty attitude and disdain of the upper crust nobility.
The fae were cold and deadly in battle of course, and showed no more concern for those opposed to them than a human would show concern for an irritating insect... but they were six inches tall. And they were trying to act like eight foot elves. Honestly, he thought, shaking his head, there were some PR miracles that just didn't work without a 'kill all who laugh at us' policy, and this was one of them.
The Cats were, indeed, broken out of Shibusen's jail system, and were playing back-up to the Empire's Death Scythes. But, seeing as said Death Scythes and their accomplices were the most obvious threat, most of Ouran's forces were concentrated on them, anyway. Chloe the Cobra Cat and her weapon were having a glorious time of it, by the looks of things. Of course, a snake doesn't have much use for a gauntlet, so she fought in her natural form. The two of them were doing major damage to his forces.
As for their own side, no-nonsense Excalibur was a sight rarely seen by those who knew him. He was a bit like Lord Death, in that people focused on his off-kilter personality rather than the fact that he could kill them without even trying. When he met an enemy, however, gone was the living embodiment of a non-sequitur, and present in its stead was the Holy Sword whose powers had inspired one of the greatest legends in history.
What he was even doing there, Kyoya wasn't entirely sure. The Shinigami hadn't exactly been expecting the Holy Sword to show up, in all truthfulness (or as much as Kyoya ever used, at least).
A few of the Cores from Aperture were carried by the Ouran Weapons, giving the portals some dynamic use, as opposed to the passive portals already in place.
The Hitachins were a force to be recognized, especially when you threw Haruhi into the mix. Hani and Mori were working together with Tamaki quite nicely, though Suoh's contribution was questionable. The rest of Coven Nekozawa, save Kirimi, were wielding Death Scythes as well. Nekozawa wielded Reiko, Kasanoda was with Ayanokoji.
A team or two here and there seemed to have their acts together, especially those that contained a Death Scythe or two, but the rest of the Alliance... well, to tell the truth, it was embarrassing. Half of them were running away from the enemy rather than facing them head on. It was only the sheer hyper-competence of the people who were actually doing any fighting at all that kept them from a speedy defeat.
However, since this was a war between Shinigami, it was also primarily a war of territory. None of those struck could be killed, only injured. Anything fatal healed. The trick seemed to be either toss enemies through a portal of no return to Aperture (with which the battlefield was riddled) or to injure them just to the point of incapacitation.
On the Death Empire's side of things, they seem to have taken similar measure to protect their own side. Kyoya wasn't sure how this was possible, as this 'soul-sealing' that the DMD Shinigami practiced was unknown in the Ouran-verse, but the fact remained that they were unable to kill anyone from the Empire, so it was, indeed, a a strategy fight, and a contest for the best territory and position.
Now, Ouran didn't have all of their own extra-dimensional allies there, of course. Shibusen's forces were being held in reserve, but the SOS Brigade was there in full fighting force. And Vash the Stampede on a deathless battlefield was much akin to a kid in a candy store.
Though, it was probably time to send in the reserves. He'd gotten a good enough feel for the enemies' strength to judge that much. Just as Kyoya was reaching for his phone, however, he suddenly sensed something... off. Before he had time to do anything else, he first called a different number on his phone. "You were right," he said. "I think it's starting now."
Then, he hung up and made to go over to join Tamaki and the others, already dialing Shibusen's number as he did so. But before the call could connect, he was interrupted by a massive disturbance that rocked the entire battlefield.
In Aperture, GLaDOS surveyed the bank of monitors. The fighting was currently in Ouran, not in Shibusen, and very little of it taking place in Aperture.
Aperture was more or less business as usual. She'd regularly spaced a great number of one-way portals throughout the battlefield that allowed prisoners to be thrown into the Enrichment Center. A few had already been thrown through, which she'd quickly incapacitated and put into stasis, overseen by Blue and Orange, since Moron had lost that qualification some time ago.
Things were harder than expected for the Alliance, but not altogether hopeless, especially not so long as GLaDOS was still there, to manage the portals and the captured prisoners.
She suddenly became aware of another presence.
"Welcome to Aperture Science," GLaDOS said to the intruder: a woman with pale skin, red eyes, long black hair, and an elegant, if spindly-looking, neck. It took her a moment to match the face against her databases and find a match, but find one she did.
"Thank you," said the Yuuko Ichihara, the Butterfly Witch.
