Chapter 6: The First Challenge

The day Infinite had specified as the day he would take Ashford Academy had come. it was a Sunday, so luckily no one would be inside the school, in harms way. Suzaku wondered why Lelouch hadn't attacked on a school day, because then he would have captives with which to bargain his demands with. Some had come to the guess that he didn't want us to lose to him through sympathy and want to save civilians, but rather give in to his power.

Infinite had not specified a time in which he would take the school, so they had been in their Knightmares, waiting there since the sun rose, Although Zero had assumed Infinite would strike at noon, they weren't taking chances. Because of this, they had some food and bottled water in their cockpits. Zero was the only one who had his cockpit closed while eating, naturally.

Then, just as Zero had predicted, around noon everyone received a 'sound only' radio transmission, and it was from Infinite.

"Hello one and all." He spoke. "I see the Britanninan Knight of Rounds are here as well as Empress Cornelia and Royal Vizier Xingke. All the people I had expected to be here."

This statement rung true as Infinite had not come with a huge force, but rather with a mere 30 KnightCrawlers to match the number of their Knightmares.

"Now let us begin the battle." Infinite said as his 30 spread out and Zero's troops swung around to battle them.

Kallen flew up and noticed a black version of her Guren SEITEN and that it was heading for her. Zero and his Lancelot were going strait for Infinite and his Gawain. The Shen Hu and Xingke were heading into the battle and were attacked by a black version of the Siegfried. Cornelia piloted a custom Knightmare that had been made for her once she became the Empress of Britannia, and it had been named after her: Corneli MK. She was about to go in when what she thought was the Lancelot for a moment cut in front of her, but she realized quickly that it was a black version of the Lancelot, just like all of the Reverse Rebellions KnightCrawlers.

Everyone had been locked into one on one matches with one of the KnightCrawlers, and Kallen was the only one who realized exactly how uneven the stakes really were in this situation. They could put up a fight, but when it came down to the long-run, Knightmares were clearly out-classed in battle.

Kallen and her opponent exchange strikes, then turn and strike again, locking claws. "What do you call this thing huh? You couldn't have kept the name 'Guren' right." Kallen posses the question to her opponent.

"This is the Reverse Rebellion, so we made a point by reversing the name of the Knightmares designs. So we have simply named this one Nerug (pronounced as it looks.)" The pilot answered, and although Kallen did not know, the pilot was C.C.

"Siegfried? But only one man can pilot that." Xingke was bewildered.

"Yes, that man has joined the Reverse Rebellion, Jeremiah." Anya told him. "He tricked me and used Gefjun Disturbers so he could escape me while I was fallowing him."

"Indeed, it is I, Jeremiah Gottwald. I now pilot what you shall be known as the Deirfgeis (pronounced: deer-f-guise.)" Was Jeremiah's reply.

The Corneli MK and black Lancelot crossed blades.

"So, who is it that pilots a Reverse Lancelot?"

"You have no need to know my name, and this is not the Lancelot. This is known as the Tolecnal (pronounced: toll-eke-nil.)" The man inside answered.

"That's interesting," Zero said as he did battle with Infinite. "Why have you not reversed the name of the Gawain like everyone else?"

"I have not done so because that would be disrespectful to His Majesty Lelouch Vi Britannia, as this was the Knightmare he piloted."

"I see," Zero replied simply.

All thirty members of each side had been plunged into head off battles. Kallen couldn't see much of a way out of this one; she felt like they wouldn't be able to protect Ashford Academy from being captured. Like they were just postponing the inevitable. But she knew no one hear, especially not Zero, would give up just because they thought that. So neither would she.

Kallen used her Guren and flew in circles around her opponent Nerug to try and confuse her. C.C. was quite displeased at her lame attempt and stretched out its right arm out toward the area she was circling in. Kallen saw this and took her chance, she reached out with the Guren's left arm and grabbed the Nerug's wrist, as to avoid the energy pulsar in that hand then reached around with her own right arm to strike the Nerug.

The Shen Hu was fighting the Deirfgeis, who the only pilot on the opposing side they actually knew who was. Jeremiah spun his KnightCrawler to make it difficult to approach him. Xingke used his slash harkens and swung them around both sides of the Deirfgeis and rapped around it to try and stop it. He was successful in this but then Jeremiah mad two if the spikes on his KnightCrawler burst out toward him and Xingke used his newly equipped energy wing to fly himself up, and didn't let go of his opponent so he could finish him off. But once he had shoot upward, Jeremiah shoot three more of the spikes toward him as the first two returned, and Xingke was forced to let go in order to dodge.

Cornelia had been pinned off against the black Lancelot: Tolecnal, but her new custom Knightmare was putting up a good fight against it. The Corneli MK was truly a more offensive Knightmare. it was equipped with the same kind of blades as the Lancelot, and had twice the number of slash harkens as a normal Knightmare. Since the Tolecnal had the same kind of blades as her, they had paired each other off in sword battle. After a few clashes her opponent jumped back and pulled its gun and fired a few rounds at her Knightmare, but with energy wings, those weren't difficult to dodge. After he stopped firing the rounds, she made use of her slash harkens and had them strike at her opponent from multiple angles. But the Tolecnal was to fast for them, it jumped at Cornelia and kicked it, and Cornelia rounded back around it.

Zero and Infinite were in an all out brawl on each other, But Zero was being pushed back. Infinite had used his Gawain's many ploys to get the upper hand. Zero's Lancelot was able to put up a fight, but just as Kallen knew, it was no match in the long run. If there was even one more Knightmare with energy wings on their side, they might have a chance of winning, but not as there were. Suzaku wondered what Lelouch's plan was in this situation, why hadn't he come with more KnightCrawlers, that way it would have been easy to beat them. But that wasn't what Lelouch wanted in the long run, So how was Lelouch planning to win this exactly?

That question was answered soon. And once it had formed it was almost to obvious to believe he missed it. All of the KnightCrawlers were setting everyone up in a formation for a final strike. Almost simultaneously the KnightCrawlers fired their Hydron Cannons at their opponents, and all the Knightmares in answer used their Perfect Barriers and were knocked back by the beams. This was when they realized the plan, because they had all been knocked into each other for the fact they were fired from different point all heading the same direction. They had been set up in a circle so this would happen, and the Cannons didn't cease fire after a moment or two, they continued on. Neither the Cannons or the barriers could hold out forever, and everyone felt that it would be the shields that ran out of juice first.

Zero wanted to stay and fight to protect Ashford Academy, but the Geass Lelouch had placed on him to "live on" was still active even now, and it screamed at him to run away from here, he had no choice anymore.

"Everyone, retreat!" Zero screamed at his followers and they all went downward to escape the rays of the Hydron Cannons, then dropped their shields and raised their cloaking devices and flew away, leaving Ashford Academy to Infinites disposal.