Code Geass: Duty of a Nobody
Chapter 2: Plans of War
Mikey loaded up an ice pack, which he gave to a grateful Ohgi, who was situated on the couch. Kallen meanwhile was pacing, trying to makes heads or tails of this situation. The mystery girl, apparently named C.C. sat down trying to eat one of the multitudes of Pizzas Mikey had leftover in the fridge. Donnie had opted to pour some tea and left the rest on the coffee table for everyone.
"So, so, you grew up knowing the Shredder?" Splinter nodded as Kallen asked. "And after he went power mad, you got mutated by the same ooze stuff that turned that Kewell guy into a cockroach thing?"
"Scumbug," Mikey corrected.
"And you two," Kallen pointed to the vi Britannia siblings. "Were kicked out of the throne because your mom died, and Lelouch wanted to know why the Emperor didn't do anything,"
"That's correct," Nunnally said, sipping some tea.
"I thought you knew about that?" Lelouch asked.
"I'm having a panic attack, let me vent!" Kallen bellowed angrily.
"Sorry, continue," Lelouch apologized.
"And you," Kallen pointed to Lelouch. "Now have some mind control power this weirdo gave you?" She pointed to C.C. at that.
"It's called a Geass," C.C. corrected.
"Well, you're taking this well," Donnie brought up.
"Well, oh no I'm having by far the worst freak out I've ever had," Kallen said exasperatedly. "I wouldn't even begin to know how. Plus giant turtles in the sewers, I'd sooner believe in that whole crocodile myth."
"What I want to know is," Ohgi began, wincing slightly. "Is why Shredder wanted to kidnap all of those people?"
"I've known Saki for years, and especially in his later years, he developed an obsession with power." Splinter began. "Likely he wants to expand the forces of the Foot Clan, but he will not take no for an answer."
"And his best idea is kidnapping?" Kallen asked astonished.
"Evidently," C.C. said, eating some more pizza.
"Where do you put it all?" Raphael asked amazed.
"So, now for the elephant in the room, what the hell even are you?" Lelouch finally asked.
"Among other things, immortal," C.C. said bluntly.
"So, why did you give Lelouch this power anyway?" Leonardo asked.
"He felt right," C.C. shrugged.
"For what, what makes it so valuable that I can make people do what I want by looking at them strangely?" Lelouch asked astonished.
"I don't pick the powers, it comes from your inner desires." C.C. said honestly.
"And you said you didn't want to rule the world," Mikey chuckled. Lelouch tossed the remote at him for that.
"A question C.C., do any members of the Royal Family possess a Geass, aside from the Emperor?" Splinter asked. This caused everyone to look at the rat man. "I highly doubt Clovis kept you locked up only for your immortality,"
"No, he did, he wanted to become immortal," C.C. said bluntly. Her face then turned to a reluctant one. "But you are correct, Emperor Charles himself has one. What it can do is something not even I am aware of."
"At a guess, the power to make someone forget how to open their eyes." Splinter's focus was then shifted to Nunnally.
"What are you all talking about?" Ohgi asked.
"At first we believed the trauma from the attack on our home was why Nunnally couldn't open her eyes, but Master Splinter was able to fix that." Lelouch said, fist clenched in anger.
"Damn, I heard rumors Charles was awful to his kids, but I didn't think he was this bad," Ohgi admitted.
"How don't you know?" Raph asked confused.
"There's another who can bestow Geass, isn't there?" Splinter theorized sipping tea.
"You have got to stop doing that," C.C. said annoyed, then turned reluctant. "I don't know the name, but there is someone else yes." Splinter accepted the answer, but knew she had hidden something.
"Wonderful, so we have to kill his majesty long distance, with who knows how many empowered wackos," Kallen said annoyed. "Just another reason to hate those Britannian Bastards," She paused sheepishly for a moment. "No offence,"
"None taken, I don't see myself as a Britannian anymore," Lelouch admitted.
"Me neither," Nunnally said in the same tone.
"So now," Ohgi said, wincing slightly as he moved. "We have to get everyone back."
"Dude, you look like you escaped a meat grinder," Raph brought up. "It'll be a miracle if you can even stand for the rest of the day,"
"I can," Ohgi began trying to stand, only to fall back to the couch. "No, no you're right, I can't,"
"Maybe, we need a little extra ninja power," Leo theorized.
"I'll call Sayoko and inform her of our problem." Splinter said firmly, knowing she could help.
"So it's our turn for questions," Leo said. "Why would the Purple Dragons turn to you specifically?"
"Tell you if I knew for certain," Kallen shrugged. "My family is rich with connections all over Britannia, so I couldn't tell you why specifically."
-Imperial Palace Server Room-
"Mutants?" Emperor Charles asked annoyed over video chat to Clovis, Cornelia, Villetta, and Jeremiah. He had been shown the remaining footage from the damaged Knightmares of the turtles and Lelouch fighting Scumbug. However, what remained was heavily blurred and damaged, primarily showing what Kewell had been turned into.
"Yes your hi-"Villetta began.
"I DON'T CARE WHAT THEY'RE CALLED!" The Emperor bellowed infuriatingly. "It's bad enough some street gang has weapons capable of destroying our best weapons and one of them humiliated the Imperial Family."
"But your highness, what about Kewell?" Jeremiah asked worried.
"If you ever see that insectoid traitor again, kill him." Emperor Charles demanded. He ended the call.
"That seemed odd." Jeremiah admitted worried. "Kewell turned into a creature that bested the latest Knightmare, for him to dispel it so easily,"
"Yes, completely odd that father just ended the call like that," Cornelia said suspiciously. She attempted to tell him about what Bebop told him about Marianne, only for him to dismiss the claims just as quickly. Charles had always held her in high remarks, even after death.
"Weirder yet, I don't remember much about the fight," Villetta admitted.
"This is just getting more and more confusing," Cornelia admitted. She then turned to Clovis. "If I were you I'd promote Suzaku to Warrant Officer, that should help people calm down with the Purple Dragon riots."
"That sounds, odd, an 11 promoted so quickly?" Clovis shrugged confused.
"This Suzaku, he does sound like he brings hope to the 11s, so perhaps it would help ease things off," Cornelia explained.
"Agreed," Clovis nodded feverishly, quickly running off to do just that.
"How he's survived this long, I'll never know," Cornelia said with an exhausted sigh.
-Staffeldt Manor-
Having parted with the turtles, Kallen headed into the front door, having traded in her rebellion uniform for a school one. Ohgi decided to stay down in the lair to recover.
After closing the door, Kallen heard the all too familiar sound of glass shattering.
"You useless 11!" Kallen heard her stepmother bellow.
Kallen walked into the kitchen seeing her stepmother scolding her biological mother. Ayano Kozuki, clad in a maid outfit, was on her knees, a shattered teapot and cups from a fallen tray lay nearby. Elena Staffeldt stood before her, angered at the maid. Her blond hair had been groomed with the finest products and she was clad in a very expensive white silk dress.
"Oh, Kallen, you're home," Ayano said, trying to be cheerful.
"I was wondering if you would return," Elena scoffed annoyed. She walked past her stepdaughter with a whiff and snorted. "What, were you hiding out in the sewers?"
"N-no," Kallen stuttered, keeping up appearances.
"Whatever, dinner's in the microwave for you," Elena said annoyed, leaving the room.
"So, Kall,- I mean Mistress, why were you so late?" Ayano asked with a concerned look on her face. "Did you make some friends?"
"I hardly see why it's any of your concern." Kallen said sharply. She grabbed her dinner and immediately went to her room, slamming the door behind her. She set the plate of beef on her table and slowly started to cry.
"Why, why do you stay you weakling?" She demanded silently, turning to a picture of herself, Naoto, and Ayano from long before the Occupation of Britannia. A small sticker was placed over Ayano's face. "Splinter was permanently turned into damned rat and he's shown more spine than you,"
-The Lair-
The next morning, Lelouch shifted on the couch as he slowly awoke. C.C, had taken his bedroom, leaving him with little options. He could faintly make out Ohgi snoring too on the adjacent part of the sectional. Just then, his eyes snapped opened and he quickly rolled off.
"OHGI MOVE!" Ohgi shot awake as Lelouch bellowed. He turned to see a woman in a black hooded cloak, and a white mask with a frowning face painted in black which blocked most of her features above him. In her hands were two folded tessen fans, one of which was about ready to stab Lelouch. Lelouch quickly dodged, delivering his assailant a powerful kick.
"And this is why I usually sleep with a sword nearby," Lelouch said, pulling his blade from under his pillow. The masked assailant unfolded both weapons and swiped at Lelouch, who leaned back to dodged. Lelouch attempted to stab her, which she dodged.
"GUYS, GET OUT HERE!" Ohgi called out horrified.
Mikey came stumbling out of his room first, his mask hanging loosely off his neck, and barely awake. Blinking a few times, the orange turtle let out a yawn. "Morning Sayoko,"
"Morning Michelangelo!" The woman, apparently Sayoko shouted offhandedly as she parried with Lelouch. The other turtles soon woke up too, with Nunnally rolling out of the room nearest the living area, wearing her pink and yellow school outfit.
"I thought we agreed Sayoko, no doing this until I leave for school," Nunnally said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
"Apologizes young miss," She said respectfully. Sayoko and Lelouch continued to battle, leading the duo right to the training area. "Given that I was called so early today, I figured an earlier exercise would be appropriate."
"Wait, she's the friend of yours?" Ohgi asked astonished.
"Yeah, Sayoko does this at Lelouch's insistence for sneak attacks," Donnie made his way to the kitchen first, turning on the coffee pot.
""I like to be prepared." Lelouch called out over the clashes of metal.
"H-how did you even get in?" Ohgi asked, still confused.
"Splinter," The chorus of everyone except Mikey answered as the turtles and Nunnally gathered around the table for breakfast. Mikey's head was in the fridge, rummaging around for breakfast.
"She cleaned us out man," Mikey said annoyed.
"C.C. ate all of our pizza?" Leo asked annoyed. "Now you know how we feel,"
"Oh no, now how will I live without one of Mikey's Banana and Coleslaw Pizzas?" Donnie said sarcastically.
"I don't want to know, do I?" Ohgi asked Raph.
"Nope," The red turtle said annoyed.
"Just cereal for me Mikey, I got to get to school," Nunnally said, rolling up to the table.
"Coming up kid," Mikey pulled out a gallon of milk and grabbed a box of corn flakes from the cupboard.
"Speaking of, is our mystery girl even in Lelouch's room anymore?" Ohgi asked, as Leo handed out coffee.
"I have motion sensors throughout the tunnels, she hasn't left yet," Donnie explained. Just then his wrist device beeped. Donnie looked at the results and became horrified. "Guys, stop for a second and come here," Lelouch and Sayoko stopped for a moment, and did as the purple turtle asked. Splinter left his room too, sensing something was wrong. "So I ran a comparison algorithm on that weapon Ohgi grabbed, but I couldn't find a single match to any known metal. So, I scanned something I knew that had the same problem."
"Our canister," Leo said shocked.
"The one that mutated you guys?" Ohgi asked confused. "You still have it?"
"It's practically our mom," Mikey said offhandedly.
"That, actually makes a weird form of sense," Ohgi admitted reluctantly. He turned to Donnie worried. "But you mean to say, that whoever made the ooze, is likely to have made all of Shredder's weapons?"
"It's too early to say yes or no, but that is a theory," Donnie admitted.
"But still," Sayoko said, taking off her hood and mask, revealing her brown locks and eyes. "These weapons are more advanced than anything we've seen from Britannia. Saki had to have gotten them from someone,"
"We have much to do," Splinter said with a sigh. C.C. stood at the closed door of Lelouch's room, listening in.
-Ashford Academy-
Kallen yawned as she walked through the school grounds that day during lunch. She was still having a hard time processing everything. She was now allied to a homeless prince and princess, and sewer mutants.
"Kallen Stadtfeld?" A girl asked from behind. She turned to see a blond girl in the school uniform, Milly Ashford, granddaughter of the principal. Aside from the status as the Student Council President, it was well known that Milly was set up on multiple blind dates by her mother in a desperate attempt to restore the Ashford name to higher social status.
"Yes, that's me," Kallen said confused. "You're the Student Council President, right?"
"I wanted to inform you my grandfather thought it would be a good idea for you join the Student Council," Milly said, holding up a series of papers.
"What for?" Kallen asked confused.
"With your constant absences, Grandfather thought it would help your grades and your chances for graduation," Milly said with a smile. "Meet us at the Clubhouse after school, we're getting everything ready for the funeral for Prince Schniezel,"
"Oh sure," Kallen said with a nod. Milly smiled and turned to leave.
"She seems nice," A familiar voice said offhandedly.
"Very," Kallen agreed. Her eyes then bulged out of their sockets seeing Michelangelo standing right next to her.
"No you didn't, no you didn't, no you didn't," Kallen grabbed Mikey and pulled the orange turtle into a nearby supply shed.
"No you didn't!" Kallen shouted, throwing him into the shed. "How long have you been here?"
"I've been following you since your second class, it was Splinter's idea." Mikey said with his iconic goofy grin. "He was thinking since the Purple Dragons targeted you specifically, it would be best to have somebody keeping an eye on you today. That and I wanted to see if this would be a good school for Lelouch."
That got Kallen's attention. "Why would he need to go to Ashford, doesn't Lelouch already go to school?"
"Nope, ever since we found him, he sticks to the lair training, only to go out to be Nobody. Splinter and Sayoko teach him stuff, but it can only go so far," Mikey said honestly. "We're all worried about him putting his ninja stuff ahead of his own mental health, or something. I don't remember."
"So he's basically a social outcast," Kallen summarized. "Have you tried getting him to go to school at all?"
"A few times, but he was always afraid somebody would recognize him. Sayoko even thought about putting a disguise on him once or twice." Mikey admitted.
Kallen put her hands to her temples annoyed and angered. Angered at Mikey for almost blowing his cover, and annoyed for how much work they'd need to do with Lelouch. He wanted to liberate the world from Britannia, but he needed to live, not survive. "If it isn't one thing it's another."
"And before I forget, we got you a Shell Cell," Someone said from above, tossing down another Turtle Shell themed smart phone.
Kallen looked up to see Leonardo hiding in the rafters. "What, you didn't think Master Splinter would let Mikey out in broad daylight by himself did you?" The blue turtle asked with a whimsical smirk.
"I have renewed faith in that rat," Kallen smirked.
Just then, several students began to shout loudly. The trio rushed to the window, to see a very massive flaw in Mikey's plan: A new student in the form of one Suzaku Kururugi. While the shouts were hard to hear due to the multitude of them, the general idea was that no one wanted an eleven at Ashford. Despite the distance, the trio could make out that he tried to put on a brave face, but was still hurting.
"Lovely, we can't have Lelouch here, or we'd risk this bozo hauling him back to Britannia," Kallen said annoyed.
"What about you?" Leo asked worried.
"I'll find out soon enough if Lelouch's spell on him still works," She admitted.
"Godspeed," Mikey saluted.
Over the course of the next few hours, Kallen hadn't seen much of Suzaku. But hearing about him, was a different story. Everyone constantly complained one way or another about how an 11 was sullying the good name of their school, even if he was a private in the military.
As she turned the corner to go to the clubhouse, she bumped into someone. The one and only Suzaku.
"Oh, you're Kallen right?" Suzaku asked.
"Uh, yeah," Kallen said bluntly, realizing it was so far so good.
"You wouldn't happen to know where to the Student Council Clubhouse is, would you?" Suzaku asked worried.
"What for?" Kallen asked confused.
"I've been asked to be a new member." Suzaku said with a friendly smile.
"You too?" Kallen asked shocked. She recovered quickly, noticing Suzaku's confused look. "I was asked today too,"
"Weird coincidence," Suzaku shrugged.
The two made their way to the massive complex that was the Ashford Student Council Clubhouse. As they trekked, Kallen took a quick glance every once in a while to see if Leo and Mikey were still following her. Soon Kallen and Suzaku were at the front door, and Kallen couldn't help but think it would be more accurate to call it a small Victorian mansion.
"How rich is the Ashford Family?" Kallen asked astonished.
"Very," Milly said as she opened the door. "Please come in you two,"
Kallen walked, and noticed the student council was consistent of three other students. The first was the only other boy in the room, presently on the ground looking for something, he had spiked hair pointed downward. If Kallen's memory served her right, this was Rivalz Cardemonde. The second was a girl with longer orange colored hair, Kallen recognized as Shirley Fennette, as her father was a Britannian Scientist she looked into beforehand. The other person hiding behind glasses and a laptop was a girl with longer green hair, if memory served this was Nina Einstein. Then, the girl looked shocked seeing Suzaku for an obvious reason.
"Hey Nina, I found it," Rivalz said, finally finding a flash drive. Kallen vaguely noticed the drive had a piece of masking tape on it, which had the words Tem, written on it. Anything else was under Rivelz's hand. He then noticed the new recruits. "Hey, welcome,"
"Thanks," Suzaku said sincerely.
As the five members of the Student Council planned for the funeral event, Kallen kept her eye on Suzaku. Honestly, nothing seemed out of the ordinary with him. But the one thing that bothered her was why the son of the last Prime Minister of Japan joined the military of the country that stole their home?
"Something wrong Kallen?" Suzaku finally asked after they had left the Clubhouse.
"Well, I was just curious, I heard you were a part of the Britannian Military. So why-,"
"Why did the son of the last Japanese Prime Minister join with the enemy?" Suzaku said getting, a worried look. "I get that a lot. It's because I want to change Britannia. By doing it within I can show them how," He said determined.
"How, how interesting," Kallen said shocked. She was needless to say surprised at this answer. It was noble to be sure, but it did kind of seem impossible. Many of the upper crust nobles she had seen at her families various functions had made it clear that 11s didn't deserve to breathe the same air as they did.
Meeting up with the two turtles, Kallen passed on the intel she gathered as they traversed the sewers to the lair.
"What was the saying Master Splinter said about stuff like this?" Mikey asked as he walked with his arms behind his head. "You can take a bro to a stream but you can't force them to take a drink?"
"It's lead a horse to water, but yeah." Leo agreed.
"What about a horse?" Everyone looked up to see Donnie, wearing a pair of welding goggles, hanging upside down off a celling pipe, with a few tools in hand. A small tool box hanging from a grapple line he attached to the pipe as it held a lit flashlight into Donnie's work area. The turtle was working on something wedged between the system of pipes.
"Talking about my new classmate Suzaku," Kallen explained. "What are you doing?"
"Routine maintenance on a motion sensor," Donnie said offhandedly. He looked up from his work and lifted his goggles. "Suzaku as in Kururugi, right?"
"Yep, it looks like he still doesn't remember what happened yesterday," Kallen said. "Still not sure,"
"Well better safer to keep an eye on him," Donnie said with a shrug. "And BTW I fixed the Glasgow and got rid of some programing. It looks like due to a security update the Army can now turn off their Knightmare's remotely."
"Any chance you can use that against them?" Kallen asked hopeful.
"Work in progress," Donnie said, finishing his patch work, and put his tools back. "I'll meet you down in a second."
"Coming through," Lelouch called out from behind. To Kallen's surprise, he was riding a skateboard. This board itself appeared to be home made, while the wheels and axles looked to be salvaged, having mix and matched colors of faded blue, yellow, green, and white. Lelouch himself was clad it a simplistic blue t-shirt and jeans, while wearing a black helmet with matching pads. "Just the girl I was hoping to see,"
"Why?" Kallen asked confused.
"Well it's Good News, Bad News," Lelouch began. "The good news is we've found where the hostages are. We did some searching while you were at school and ran into some not too bright dragons who told us everything. From what we can gather, Shredder's set something up at an abandoned hospital on the other side of the ghettos."
"Great when do we leave?" Kallen asked firmly.
"Well that's the bad news, you and Nunnally are sidelined for this fight." Lelouch said sheepishly.
"What, but why?" Kallen demanded.
"Because you are the one who wants to give the appearance of a high school girl with an immune deficiency," Lelouch explained. "Our best time for this rescue op is tomorrow during Schienziel's funeral. Everyone in the world who wants to show Britannia any form of respect has to be in attendance one way or another, including watching the broadcast. This way we can rescue the Foot's prisoners without the Imperial Army knowing."
"Otherwise we risk their capture and ours," Kallen realized. "Even if I stayed home with the sickly girl routine, my stepmother would most likely force me to watch the broadcast."
"Hey Kallen," She turned to see Raph and Ohgi were fixing up a motorcycle Raph found months ago, and were set up in Donnie's workshop. The two were quickly bonding with one another over the love of sports. "Kindly tell this shell for brained moron he doesn't know anything about Hockey," Ohgi insisted, tightening a bolt. "The Tokyo Shoguns had those guys beaten ever single game."
"Are you mad you bone head," Raph said, connecting a series of wires from the headlights. "The South Kyoto Strikers are better on every front."
"Is Splinter in?" Kallen asked concerned. "I just wanted to talk to him for a while."
"Meditating in his room," Raph said offhandedly.
"Thanks," Kallen said walking into the lair. She turned and smelled something foul, and being in the sewers she smelled a lot of strange smells. Kallen saw C.C., mouth drooling at what looked like pizza at one time, at the kitchen table. It was covered in dark chocolate, anchovies, sprinkles, and pistachios. At her side was a large binder filled with pages, titled Mikey's Pizza Recipes. On the opposite end was Nunnally, some books of her own spread out doing her homework.
"I have never feasted on such marvels, Michelangelo knows how to cook," C.C. said astonished.
"He makes me never want to have pizza." Kallen groaned horrified.
"More for me," C.C. smiled, holding up a pizza cutter.
"How are you ok with this?" Kallen asked the paraplegic.
"Mikey's experiments have been worse," Nunnally said as she continued to write her report. "You should have seen it when he tried to do a pizza milkshake."
"Please tell me it was an ice cream themed one, and not a blended pizza," Kallen said, turning green.
"What do you think?" Nunnally asked flatly, looking up.
The others made their way in with Lelouch smirking as he approached his sister. "You got that wrong,"
"What?" She asked confused.
"That," Lelouch said with a trolling grin.
"What did I," Nunnally began, only to realize. "I told you not to do that,"
"Do what?" Lelouch continued, as Donnie and Leo laughed. Kallen smiled slightly at these antics, it kind of reminded her of how she and Naoto would play.
Kallen then walked up to the double sliding door that was Splinter's room. She raised her fist to knock on the door.
"You may enter Kallen," Splinter said from the other side, causing Kallen to flinch in shock.
"I hate that whole mystic shtick," Kallen grumbled annoyed. She walked in, and felt like she should take her shoes off seeing Splinter's room. It kind of reminded her of a traditional Japanese house. It had a large area rug with gold symbols engraved in it. Several wax candles and incents lit about the bookshelves. On top of one of them were several pictures, most of which had burns in them, likely from the remains of the Hamato Clan's destruction. On the walls were a series of Calligraphy scrolls, again burnt, as well as several weapons of all kinds. At the back wall was what Kallen assumed to be the Hamato Clan symbol: A red five pointed shuriken with nubs and five dots in the middle, divided evenly. From one side it looked a turtle. Splinter was kneeling before a small table, a pot of tea nearby. His bed, a futon mat lay in the corner, next to the most out of place thing of all: A novelty cheese wheel phone under a glass dome.
"Michelangelo's idea I assure you," Splinter said with a light laugh. "He thought it would be best to have an emergency line to me directly."
"That sounds like him," Kallen laughed a bit. She then knelt at the table too, adopting a series expression. "Well I wanted to talk to you about Lelouch,"
"Am I correct this is not just about his past with Suzaku?" Splinter asked worried. "He doesn't like to talk much, but his emotions give off a powerful wave of displeasure. Likely this worries Lelouch as much as his brother's death."
"Mikey told me that Lelouch spends most time down here in the Sewers," Kallen told the rat man.
"He has been that way not long after I found him," Splinter said with a sad chuckle.
-Flashback Seven Years ago-
Splinter ran with the four turtles as the tunnels shook violently from the war outside. "Boys hurry,"
"Coming," The four young turtles called out. The four had run behind the aged master. The family of five each had a backpack of some kind on, caring the little possessions they could grab from their previous home. What the family of five didn't know was another duo was running in the adjacent tunnels.
"Hang on Nunnally!" Lelouch shouted as he dodged another bullet, his blind sister on his back. A squad of seven armed Japanese soldiers ran at the duo, wadding through the waste.
"Brother, I'm scared." Nunnally whimpered. Lelouch wanted to say something supportive, but he was so frightened himself, he didn't know what to say. The turtles, having stumbled and lost track of Splinter momentarily, saw the larger men approaching the two frightened children.
"We're all thinking it, aren't we?" Donnie asked worried.
"We have to, we're ninjas in training." Leo said frightened.
"Even if Master Splinter gets mad at us, he'll understand why," Raph reasoned.
"Let's do this," Mikey said, pulling out some smoke bombs.
"Do what?" Splinter said darkly, coming from behind the quartet. Instead of being frightened by the aged ninja master, the four turtles pointed at the frightened forms of Lelouch and Nunnally. Splinter's angered expression didn't waver, instead it was shifted to the armed adults.
"Aim high and stick to the shadows, I'll handle the rest," Splinter ordered.
"Yes sensei," The four agreed as they held up handfuls of smoke bombs. The five mutants split up to save the other children.
"We weren't responsible for the attack!" Lelouch called out, trying desperately to get the men to stop. He tripped, landing into the sludge. Both children embraced each other in fear.
"Goodbye for good you Britannian bastards!" The lead gunman declared, holding up his rifle.
Lelouch was in paralyzing shock as he stared down the barrel of the gun. The lighting was terrible, but Lelouch could faintly make out the long jagged scar going through the lead gunman's left eye. Just then, the seven were pelted by smoke bombs, two of which hit the lead gunman straight in the eye. It was here Splinter with his hood up, attacked. Faster than Lelouch had seen someone move, Splinter struck down all seven and scooped up Lelouch and Nunnally.
Lelouch was stunned at the display of power Splinter had performed. Nunnally was confused, being she was blinded. But couldn't help but notice how fuzzy her savior was.
Lelouch couldn't say anything as he and his sister had been pulled from safety. He then panicked seeing the four turtles. The one in orange looked up and asked with a cheeky smile. "Can we keep them?"
-End of Flashback-
"He didn't," Kallen chuckled bit.
"He did," Splinter agreed with a similar tone.
-Back in the Past-
Lelouch sat down his legs hanging over the alcove in the sewers. He looked down with an angry expression. He had told his and his sister's story to the five mutants, and allowed them to absorb the information.
"Sensei, can you beat up the emperor for us?" Raph requested.
"Please!" The other three turtles joined in with puppy dog eyes.
"Yeah can you?" Nunnally asked with a similar tone.
Splinter turned concerned to the silent ex-prince. "And what of you Lelouch? What were you planning to do next?"
"Take down Britannia," He said flatly.
"By yourself?" Splinter asked concerned. "You won't stand a chance,"
"I know that, I can't take on a whole country by myself," Lelouch said spiteful.
"Well then, your highness, you can count us in." Leo said firmly.
"Don't call me that, I'm not a prince, and I hate that I'm Britannian." Lelouch spat.
"Your past young one, is a powerful weapon, it can hold you back as well as help you grow from it," Splinter said, inserting his words of wisdom, sitting next to the rageful boy. "It all depends on what you chose to do with it."
"How would you know?" Lelouch asked after a moment of silence, looking up at the rat man confused.
"I have felt the same as you, when an old friend of mine tried to destroy me. Instead he destroyed my home, and my wife," Splinter said trying to comfort the boy.
Lelouch looked at the rat man for a moment, and for the first time in a long time, he started to cry. Instinctively, he grabbed onto Splinter for comfort. The rat man was caught off guard by this, and proceeded to put his arm over Lelouch. Leo and Raph picked up Nunnally, and placed her next to Lelouch, allowing her to hold her brother too. The four turtles shrugged, and decided to grab onto their new members of family too.
-End of Flashback-
"I mean, in his defense, Lelouch has every right to hate his home country," Kallen said concerned.
"I do not blame him," Splinter agreed.
"Still, we have to get him out more, I just wish I knew what to do," Kallen admitted.
"You've already done the best thing you can, you've become his friend," Splinter said with a smile. "And perhaps in time, you too could learn the art of ninja, just as Lelouch and the turtles have."
"I definitely won't say no to that," Kallen said caught off guard.
-Ashford Clubhouse-
Nina Einstein continued to work on her project, not bothering to look up from her laptop. She opened the file name, Tempestra.
And here we go with the second chapter, also quick shout out to The Knight Galahad who pointed out I forgot to describe Rocksteady last chapter. I fixed it by the way, and hopefully, the changes were added by the time this got updated.
Next time out, Lelouch and the Gang track down the other members of the Kozuki Cell, and discover the turtles aren't the only mutants.