A/N I'm back, with another chapter to feed to the masses (exaggeration).
The Wanderer took down the make shift tent and began walking even though it was day time, he had a job to do, now with a motive and a target defined he could make a plan, and it was going to be flawless because he knew everything before it happened, he would reach his destination soon, but he would remain unseen for a while, so he could wait for his chance to strike. He didn't want to do it, but it was what fate had mapped out for him, he had to prevent himself from being destroyed… again. But little did he know his actions were going to influence the future of the world as we know it (this will be canon to the actual events of the C&C storyline, and C&C fans will notice this, as for those of you who don't play I will explain as we go).
Two hours later…
Tigress woke up before I did, she yawned lightly. The morning gong would ring in 10 minutes.
I had my forehead on her chest, she had her chin on top of my head, and she had her arm laying over top of me hugging me to her, and I was smiling in my sleep. She looked at me lying there so peacefully and she smiled too.
"Stay this way Niko, its 1282 not 2077 and you don't have to fight anymore." She mumbled lightly, and then she got up slowly and got her sandals on without waking me up.
I began to move in my sleep but then I stopped, she listened to my heart beat, and my breathing patterns and she could tell I was still asleep.
"Like I said stay that way" she said looking at me.
She sat down on the bed next to me and waited for the gong to ring so she could be right on time as usual.
She decided she better wake me up so I could be ready for the gong and it wouldn't scare me to death.
She began gently rocking me back and forth "Niko… Niko" she said softly.
I eventually opened my eyes and rolled over and looked at her.
"The gong is going to ring soon." She said softly.
"Good morning" I said as I looked up into her eyes and smiled lightly.
I got lost in her eyes as I always did; she looked back into mine she had never really been a big fan of blue until then.
After a couple of minutes of starring deep into each other, we broke out of it.
"I'm… I'm sorry… it's just your eyes… they're beautiful." I stuttered as I looked up into the fireballs
She had never been a big fan of blue until then…
"You're eyes are beautiful too Niko" she said starring back down into my eyes, and then there was silence.
She mindlessly put her paw on my chest and leaned in towards me.
I didn't resist at all… our noses touched and then our lips touched, and there it was, the first time I had ever kissed a girl let alone a Tiger, and the first time that Tigress had ever kissed a guy, let alone a human, especially considering we were both extinct in each other's worlds.
After a while she began to purr loudly, and I tried to hug her close to me but she just forced my arms against the bed and we continued to kiss (no it's not… so just stop right there, if it ever excels past kissing it will never be in my story, it's a moral issue).
When we eventually broke out of it; she giggled and then blushed wildly.
She smiled warmly at me, while I blushed and stuttered.
"W-w-wow- that was… a first, T-T-Tigress-y-you-k-k-k-kissed-m-me" I said looking up at her.
"Yes I did, and you will never tell anyone" she said letting my arms go, and getting up and walking towards the door.
Her blush faded as she pointed said "you go through that door".
I looked at the door that led next door.
"Uh-um-o-o-k" I stuttered as I stood up and went towards it, but I stopped at it and turned around.
"See you around… I guess" I said as my blush faded.
She just smiled and turned around and winked and then turned back around.
I opened up the door and went in; I calmly shut it behind of me.
When I turned around the room was clean again and the other 4 where standing there looking at me with questioning looks.
Even Anton wasn't happy.
"Well, we have been waiting two hours" Deimos said.
I thought up a good lie.
"I wanted to give you plenty of time." I said looking down.
"Well I guess that explains why you were in Tigress' room" Jeremiah said.
I just sighed.
"Vell vas it fun?" Anton asked.
I looked up and blushed "wait… what… no that didn't happen."
They all smiled.
"Vell vhat exactly did you do?" Anton asked.
"Um… we slept together but nothing happened" I said turning around.
RIIIING!
The gong rang out all over the valley.
They didn't even move while they stood there and starred at me, but I jumped.
"Look nothing happened, so let's just go say good morning to the others." I said.
"We thought you did" Frank said walking past me with the other following and opening the door.
We all stepped out of the room and lined up and did a Nod solute and said "good morning" in unison.
Shifu was at the other end of the hallway "good morning" he said putting his fist in palm and bowing, then turning and going around the corner.
Everyone followed in behind of him including us.
"Ok so Nikolas, since you feel better now we can begin your training." Shifu said.
I and my soldiers exchanged glances.
"What kind of training?" I asked.
"Well Kung Fu of course, it's the best way to achieve inner peace" he said.
I didn't want to be rude, but I didn't want to do Kung Fu either.
"I always felt the best way to relieve stress was to go and pop off some rounds." Jeremiah said gaining nods from us and hateful glances from all of the Kung Fu warriors.
Everyone stopped and starred at us.
"Vell it's true, ve Nod Militia men enjoy shooting our rifles." Anton said also gaining hateful glances.
"Hmm, so you don't want to learn Kung Fu." Shifu said with a disappointing look on his face.
Tigress turned her attention to me and gave me a hateful look, now I had to act.
"They aren't saying that they don't want too, it's that it can't help us in our ring" I said trying to get the pressure off of me.
"I believe you are all missing the big picture, this isn't your 'ring' anymore, and it's not about knowing how to fight, it's about inner peace." He said turning around and continuing to walk on with all of falling in order behind of him.
There was silence as he led us to the kitchen.
Po began cooking noodles as usual, while we grabbed a seat where ever we could.
We got on our knees around the table and waited for the noodles to be served I sat beside of Tigress, Anton was in between Monkey and Crane, Diemos was on what would be Po's left when he served up the noodles and sat down and Jeremiah was on what would be Po's right, and Frank shared a corner with Shifu..
"So… how much fighting do you guys know" Po said trying to start a conversation, it was a dumb question, but I would try to stop him from looking like an idiot.
"Well I grew up in the middle of a revolution, and spent the rest of my life in the barracks so… I know a decent amount." I said.
"Ja, I heard about zat, when I was younger, where Nod separatists ousted the GDI out of power, vat vas it about?" Anton asked.
I sighed…
"Well after the National Party's defeat in the 1994, there was much hate against the White South Africans after Apartheid, ANC members began targeting and killing us, but some said their lives where better under Apartheid but they were dismissed, meanwhile the UN (GDI) sat around and didn't say anything, we tolerated it for 60 years, but between Tiberium and racism the already endangered South African white population was almost extinct, Kane had never really paid attention to South Africa until then, even though we were a GDI state he couldn't bear to see us being persecuted like that so he started sending troops and weapons in to arm the Boers, the terms were if we started a revolution and the GDI where thrown out of power we would become a territory of Nod… the war was very brief it lasted one week, the garrisons of Pretoria battled the Boer revolutionaries and the GDI backed ANC was thrown out of power after close to 70 years of control over our government, and the old National Party was reinstated which my family supported very much, anyway after they got back into power the National Party banned the ANC and all like them, to make sure the persecution of whites never happened again. I am a member of the National party. I agree with everything they have done, they have given the right bear arms back to South Africans of all colors, they have reduced the debt, and increased the GDP, they even made the new flag the old one (pre 1994), now production lines are running again, South Africa's vast amount of raw materials has been tapped into, and exports are up. The National Party has done a number of other things too, they cut the taxes by 50% and cut the social benefits by 48%, and they put that money towards the soldiers training and pay. We are now a world leader in medical research, and we have the 5th fastest growing economy, everyday record breaking growth never seen before in South Africa, all and all it has benefitted us. Everyone wants to forget the past and have a new start. As long as our economy booms, we have a stable government, and knowing that your country prospers no one cares who is in charge." I concluded with smile.
"I keep on hearing South Africa, I don't even know where that is." Crane said.
"Well allow me to clear things up" I said using my implant to make a holographic world map.
I highlighted China in red "that's China" I then zoomed in on South Africa and highlighted it in blue "that's South Africa".
I zoomed out and went to Kosovo and highlighted it "that's Kosovo".
I zoomed in on Germany "that's Germany".
I zoomed in on Britain "that's England".
I zoomed in on the U.S. " and that's the United States".
"I see now, but wait there land over there across the ocean" Crane said.
"Yes of course, the Earth isn't flat, its round" I said closing the hologram and gaining giggles from the Nod soldiers.
"Soups up" Po said passing out bowls full of soup.
All of the Nod soldiers with the exception of me exchanged glances, I tried some and then they did the same.
They were quite impressed…
"Zis is vunderful" Anton said with delight
"I wish they served this in the mess hall".
"Damn that's good".
"This is the vest meal I've had in years".
They were all very pleased.
"Po you have got to show me how make zis" Anton said.
Me and Tigress looked at each other and giggled.
"Well maybe another time, but after this we have to train" Po said with a smile as he himself ate.
Everyone ate their noodles, including Shifu who had chosen to have breakfast with us and we didn't know why.
There was small talk here and there but I stayed quite the whole time I didn't have anything to say.
After we were done we put our dishes on the dirty dishes pile.
"Well if we are going to train we had better get our armor on" I said to Shifu.
He nodded as me and my soldier walked back to our room to get our armor on.
Once we got back to the room we decided whose suit was whose.
We began talking while we got our battle armor on.
"So we are going to learn Kung Fu, huh" Frank said.
"Yep" I said as I started getting my armor on.
It was actually very easy you simply put it on section by section.
First the boot covers, then the leg armor, then the mid-section.
To put the boot cover on you simply get your boots on and step into them and then you clamp them shut around the boot and then clamp it on the side.
The leg armor worked somewhat the same way you just open and close them around your legs and clamp them on the side.
The mid-section was a little bit tricky though.
You had to open it up, bend over and lay it on your back and close it over your chest with your left hand and then clamp it on the die.
Then came the helmet that was simple you just put that on and it all seals together and remains that way until you take the armor off.
I clamped my gun belt on and grabbed my pulse rifle and they did the same and we were ready to go.
"Ok let's go learn Kung Fu" Jeremiah teased as we walked down the hallway.
"It might even be fun" I said.
I watched my visor as Legion scanned everything and made useless calculations.
I could use that visor for anything really, I could scan life forms, vehicles, other soldiers. It would tell me everything it knew about that particular thing.
We were all suited up as I led them into the training room.
When we walked in we were greeted with the sounds of dummies being destroyed, chains swinging, flame throwers, and of course… the adversary dummy being hit.
Shifu appeared out of nowhere in front of us, "I don't know how you train but this is how we train" he said turning around and walking, he signaled for us to follow.
And we did… "Run this course and let's see how well you fair" he said with all of his students gathering at his side.
I and my guys looked at each other.
"Alright then" I said.
We got at the starting end of the course.
"Begin" he commanded.
First we had to go through those things that spin; this was going to be the hardest.
We gripped our weapons close as we carefully hopped across little did I know there was a club flying at my head…
"8 o' clock, Niko" Jeremiah said over the radio.
I turned and lifted my pulse rifle as I fired a single shot and it disintegrated.
We began shooting them as we hopped across.
Once we got to the other side I thanked him.
"No problem, we are Brothers" he replied.
Now we were greeted with a big bowl like thing.
We stopped and wandered what it was.
"Skip it, you work as a unit you could never pass that" Shifu said.
So we did and now we were greeted with wooden dragons that had spinning arms.
"You are clear to engage" I said.
We all did so; we mowed them down as we walked through.
Now there was a whole bunch of pipes in the ground we walked on top of them and wandered what they were.
"What are these" I said stopping along with the others.
I turned around to see the masters running towards us with panicked expressions, yelling "no".
Tigress was almost within arm's reach when the flames lit us up.
They just stood there horrified as the flames engulfed us…
"No" Tigress mumbled to herself as her and her colleagues stood there with scared looks.
She just froze there.
The flames shot out for close to 15 seconds.
They slowly went down as 5 fiery figures came walking out.
We were on fire but we were not hurt or being hurt.
The flames eventually died off and then there were just 5 charred figures standing there.
"I never will complain about having to wear 100+ pound armor, ever again." Diemos said.
The master where shocked.
"How did you survive?" Mantis asked stunned.
"Well see during and after the second Tiberium war, flame weaponry was finding a place on both sides of the battlefield so they developed armor that could withstand flame damage." Frank said.
They looked shocked but it had worked.
"Well…" Shifu said straightening up and pretending he had not just seen that "you didn't perform the way I preferred, but you succeeded, and on your first try".
"vhat do you mean?" Anton asked.
"Well… but you didn't act as if you were fighting, you acted more like you wanted to kill" Shifu said.
"On the battlefield, they don't give you a chance to decide, you kill or be killed" Frank said,.
We nodded.
"There aren't any of your enemies here, so you can stop thinking like that" Shifu said sternly.
Almost on queue all of our built in legion programs said…
"Unidentified aircraft headed North-East bearing 60 Kilometers per hour, standby".
All of us rushed outside.
"That's the average patrol speed of a GDI Orca fighter" I said nervously.
We heard a soft roaring in the distance.
"It's headed right for us!" I said.
"Everyone hide!" I ordered.
Everyone scattered as the Orca began to take shape while it got closer and closer.
Me, Crane, Mantis, and Shifu hid behind of a building.
I put my finger to my lips as I slowly peeked around the corner.
We saw the Orca land on the ground inside of the arena. (If you ever played Tiberian Sun you know, they will land where ever you send them, regardless of the consequences).
They couldn't see us at our current location.
4 GDI soldiers got out and walked around.
They walked around inside of the arena.
I spotted some shadows behind of a tree, and then saw a red visor peek around at me.
I pointed at the orca and we began advancing with speed and stealth, we eventually united our 5 groups and hid on the side of one building.
"Stay here" I whispered to the Kung Fu masters.
We crept around the building and took aim.
I turned around to see Tigress staring at me.
I turned back around "set rifles to stun, and fire at will".
They looked at me with questioning looks but they did it, stun setting is used for taking prisoners…
We all opened fire at once and the GDI soldiers hit the ground.
We ran over to where they were laying and took their weapons away.
One of them looked up at me and said "you remind me of the cooking in the mess hall, fucking burnt to a crisp, you dumb bastard".
I paused for a second and then I stunned him again.
"Don't blow a gasket in that space suit" I said with a laugh.
"You can come out now" I said loudly.
The masters came out.
"Well there you have it, four GDI shit heads in one place, and they even brought us a present" Diemos said pointing to the Orca.
"What is that thing anyway?" Crane asked.
"It's an Orca fighter, they are good air attack vehicles" Jeremiah said.
"Ve just have to figure out how to get it off of the ground." Anton said.
I looked at Tigress who just smiled and nodded. I had done the right thing for once.
A/N Ok so this is where things are going to get interesting. We will just have to wait until next weekend to see though. Also I am sorry if the layout of the Jade palace doesn't sound right, I don't know the layout of the place that good but as long as you get the picture we are good.