Turn 04: The Morrigan screams
"... of all subjects, four have displayed exceptional skills in the Knightmare simulator. As planned all of the subjects with sub-par skills were disposed of…" "… As per planned, the four subjects had all non-essential memories removed by the emperor. The first names were preserved…" "With the completion of the Geass Suppressor, all four subjects had a contract formed with the supervisor, V.V., results are acceptable…" "The development of specialized Knightmares to support the different Geass' was deemed to be too expensive…" "The cancelation of the "Irregulars" project is now approved by both parliament and Emperor Charles. Subjects and Professor Madd to be reallocated to Area 3, Brazil in South America."
Excerpts from the "Irregulars" Project reports.
"In the second phase of this tournament, battles will be fought one-on-one on real Knightmares. However, as talked prior with the maintenance teams, weapons and Slash Harken points will be substituted by an alloy with resistance lower than that of the Knightmares' plating to ensure security of the participants, any sort of laser or energy based weapons such as a Hadron Cannon are not allowed. The Knightmares will be equipped with an impact detector which will decide if the hit was heavy enough for a point to count, judges will decide whether it was a clean hit or not. Scoring is as follows: A limb one point, the torso or visor unit two points. The devicers will fight until one of them has five points. Pauses may be requested by judges, but they only take effect one second after the signal, that is all. I would like to request the presence of the devicers Shinichiro Tamaki and Alice so we might begin the first round." With that, the two gates to the arena started opening. A Knightmare walked out of each with their cockpits open. They stopped at roughly fifteen feet of distance to each other. "If the devicers would now please shake hands." Both devicers exited their respective Knightmares and walked toward each other.
They recognized each other as they did so. Tamaki was the first to talk. "You!" Alice regarded him coldly for a moment. "If your reactions are the same inside a Knightmare as outside, maybe you should concede right here and now." She said as if to nobody in particular. Tamaki flared up. "Why, you cheeky brat!" But before he had finished talking she had already turned her back on him and started walking back to her Knightmare.
The first impression one got from it was that it was a mild modification of the Vincent; however a closer look would reveal many differences. The frame in general was slimmer, as if to cut weight, it was equipped with five Slash Harkens: Two in the waist, two in the shoulders and one in the chest. Strange ring-like devices were all over the frame: Back, chest, limbs. Something that looked like a float unit was on its back. The Knightmare was painted entirely with different shades of black.
Alice could hardly believe it as she reentered the cockpit. "Do I really have to fight against a joke like this? Well, at least I won't have to use my Geass against him." The screens lit up as she turned the Knightmare on, a name was displayed: GX-02 Morrigan S.C.R.E.A.M.
Superconductor
Computer
Reinforced
Electric
Alignment
Magnetism
As always, the acronym baffled her. "It's like some moron tried jumbling some words together trying to make it make sense and sound cool. Well, anyway I'm sure that with this beauty I will be able to win this entire tournament." The familiar humming of the working Knightmare eased some of her tension.
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The Knightmares took position at each side of the arena. The countdown started on the Stadium's main screens, as it did so, Blaze Luminous shields surrounded the arena. Somehow Tohdoh felt uneasy about that Knightmare piloted by that girl Alice. Did Tamaki even stand a chance with his modified Akatsuki? No, somehow Tohdoh felt that if Tamaki lasted even thirty seconds it would be a miracle.
"So, which will be the one to walk out victorious?" The narrator tried to hype it up. As the countdown reached zero, both Knightmares started rushing. "There they go." The black Knightmare shot its right shoulder Harken at the Akatsuki's left arm, which raised its right arm bearing a sword to defend it. Tohdoh's thoughts flared. "Tamaki, you moron that's a feint, just dodge it! Don't try to destroy the harken, it's got five of those!" Immediately as the Akatsuki raised its arm, the Black Knightmares' left shoulder harken was fired at it, at an speed much higher than expected. "Harken Booster? No, that's even faster, maybe something more?" It shattered as it hit against the Akatsuki's arm, also unbalancing it. Then, with a swift movement, the Black Knightmare shattered both of its swords, one against the Akatsuki's visor unit, the other against its torso; both were easily seen clean hits.
The entire Stadium, including Tohdoh himself, was dumbfounded. The machine's specs seemed to be comparable to well known powerful prototypes such as the Guren or the Lancelot, and the devicer's skill was on par with the aces of these machines. The entire fight had not lasted more than fifteen seconds.
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Cornelia was quite a skilled devicer; moreover, she had seen many skilled devicers fight. Especially after the last war she was quite sure that it would take some the next time she would be impressed by somebody piloting a Knightmare, but there it was. That girl had exceeded her expectations. "Madd, you bastard, that is on a completely different level." She muttered to herself. Nunnally was looking at her with a quizzical look. "What is it sister? You look quite surprised." She wasn't sure how to reply to that. "I guess that because I am, I did expect Madd's work to be worth something, but I must admit that my expectations have just been surpassed. It's almost as if… No, they couldn't have, could they?" Nunnally's face turned serious when she realized what Cornelia was thinking about. "Geass?" Cornelia nodded.
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By the end of the first day, the list of participants had been narrowed to half.
Alice
Gino Weinberg
Sergei Bolkonsky
Kyoshiro Tohdoh
Madd thought that most of the people were probably quite surprised, and it did his ego good to know that one of the surprises was the result of years of his labor. The other surprise though, was the same for him as everyone else. Nobody expected the Chinese to lose the quarter-finals, of course he was not as good as Li Xingke, but he was piloting the Shenhu. The Russian on the other hand piloted a slightly modified version of the mass production model Volgograd, which had specs slightly lower than that of a Vincent. Sure, the chest cannon of the Shenhu was disallowed, but somehow, Madd had a feeling that that wouldn't have changed the outcome.
Russia, eh? Now that he thought about it, that woman had a companion with a Russian accent, aside from those two girls. He shuddered as he remembered it, what he needed was results, not questions, or else she might use it again. He still remembered it vividly despite it having happened months ago back when the tournament had first been announced.
Madd was enjoying a walk in Manaus, located in the Amazon, relaxing after he had finally finished the last of the four custom Knightmares. It had really paid to trade research information with that genius guy, Lattes was it? The guy found a solution for every single one of his problems… His thoughts were broken as he bumped into someone. "Oh, I'm sorry, excuse me." The woman he had bumped into just smiled and got in his way. "Sorry, no can do that Professor Madd, I would like to take some of you time if you don't mind." Madd was surprised being addressed by name by a stranger."Excuse me, do I know you?" A tinge of irritation crept into her smile, as something jabbed Madd somewhere below his ribs, making him almost fall with pain. A man who seemed to accompany her held him before he could fall to the floor. "If you would please, professor? The mistress is quite adept at hitting painful spots, I don't it would be wise to refuse what she asks." Madd could only nod amidst the pain.
"Alright, what do you want from me?" He almost lost his breath as pain gripped him the same time the woman gripped somewhere on his neck. "You don't do the talking." He could only nod again, and sigh in relief as she let go of him. They were in his hotel room, considered he didn't want to take them to his base in the middle of the jungle. "You must have heard of the upcoming tournament sponsored by the new Empress of Britannia surely?" He nodded. "Good, what I want you to do is, get your best devicer, participate in the tournament and get that devicer appointed as the Empress' personal knight, in other words: The knight of one." Madd opened his mouth to speak, but was quickly silenced once again by a poke in his shoulder which nonetheless caused extreme pain. "Of course, the reason I want you to do this is because it would very much like confidential information, the likes of which only the Knight of One can get his hands on." He only nodded again. "Oh, I think he is starting to learn. So then, I will contact once you have succeeded or failed, don't try to run, we will be watching." The smile she wore never touched her eyes, and she blew a kiss to him before leaving. "Try not to look over your shoulder too much. Okay?" Man and two girls followed behind her.
Of course he had told Alice that they were aiming to impress the Empress enough for her to be made Knight of One, but he didn't tell her why he wanted that. Somehow he knew the girl wouldn't think good of spying on the Empress, he himself couldn't feel comfortable about it at all, because after all he had worked his entire life for the glory of Britannia, even after the former Emperor Charles had abandoned him. However, only a few minutes had put into him a fear of that woman that he could only consider irrational. If only he could find a way to be rid of her.
He had even asked Alice to look for a group of a woman two girls and a man, as irrational as it was. "Maybe I should just give up and tell Alice, that girl does have some brains." He muttered to himself, as nobody was near. Suddenly he felt something in his chest, and touched it, blood? He was unable to think as a strange girl appeared in front of him, with a long dagger buried in his heart. "What?" The girl only smiled as imagining being praised by someone. "Sorry mister baldy, but master said that if it was confirmed Alice didn't know about your contact with That-stupid-bitch-M.M. to kill you, now Athina is happy because Athina can go back to Master's side." Before Madd could think of anything else, the girl twisted the dagger and he fell dead, no more thoughts in his mind.
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Tohdoh could hardly hide his surprise at what he heard Zero say. "The other countries formed a coalition and intend to strike Brazil as soon as possible, what about the pact's conditions?" Zero nodded and let out a deep sigh. "The Russians have managed to convince most of the other members to still send the troops, they are however only for defense, deployment will be a week from now plus at least another two days or so to the coast of Peru with all the stops, but they intend to strike tomorrow, the fools, I don't have a good feeling about this whole thing. After the Coup the Brazil has become eerily quiet." Tohdoh considered for a moment. "So, do you believe that Brazil might push them back?"
"You can call it a hunch. I heard the tournament is full of surprises, is that right?" Tohdoh nodded at the screen. "Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if Gino Weinberg was defeated by that Alice. And I will probably have quite a lot of work with that Russian." Zero chuckled. "Anya ended up eliminated by her, no? I can't imagine what it might be doing to their pride as former Knights of the Round." He sighed again. "Russian… For some reason they seem to be only giving us problems ever since they joined the UFN. Anyway, good luck on your fight tomorrow, and if you see Gino tell him I wished the same for him also."
"Will do."
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Alice woke up with a knock on the door, who could it be, that bastard Madd didn't knock. After putting on some clothes, she went to answer the door. She felt some surprise as the one who greeted her was Guilford. "What can I do for the personal knight of none other than the prime minister herself?" Guilford coughed a few times, taking the time to think about something. "You seem to have certain fortitude to you, so I will be direct. Yesterday, the corpse of Professor Madd was found in the stadium." The words hit her like a truck, but instinct and years of training made her keep her calm. Who would do such a thing? Was she next? Despite her thoughts she managed to keep a calm countenance. "I, see." What about the others? Were they fine back at the base? Now that she thought about only Madd knew how to contact the base.
"You don't seem troubled by this." He had no idea how troubled she actually felt. "You could say that my relationship with Professor Madd was merely… Professional." Guilford seemed taken aback a bit, and didn't press further. "I wonder, would I be able to see his corpse, just to see it with my own eyes." Guilford nodded.
She could hardly believe as she saw it. Somehow deep inside she thought that Madd would be there always, with his chains around all of them. Perhaps this could be their chance to be free; somehow she needed a way to be able to contact them. Also, she needed a position of enough authority to trespass Brazilian territory, and she knew just which it was she could get.
No thoughts were in her mind as she turned on the Morrigan. In the screen she could see the famous Tristan, the custom Knightmare used by the former Knight of Three, certainly nothing to scoff at. She accepted the incoming radio signal. "I heard your technician was assassinated earlier, you sure you are fine?" She calibrated, with her thought, the Geass Suppressor to ten seconds. "I'm just fine without him; I was taught how to do any kind of maintenance on my own Knightmare." Right then the countdown ended and both Knightmares rushed at each other. "That is not what I meant." Alice just stood silent.
As they neared Alice activated her Geass, immediately as the sigil appeared in her right eye, time seemed to slow down. She was able to react far faster than any other human could, she could see and predict every single one of Tristan's movements. But after ten seconds it all became fast again, alongside the sharp stab of pain cause by the suppressor working. Still, reactions were fast and the Morrigan continued fighting with Tristan, parry, lunge, block the Harken, fire the Harken with regular booster, then another with the electromagnetic booster also. Thus a few minutes passed with the ominous humming of the wings on the Morrigan's back.
Alice checked on the meter the level of electromagnetic particles in the air, she was pleasantly surprised. She smiled and took some distance away from Tristan. "I'm sorry Former Knight of Three but this battle is mine." The voice that replied back seemed of one who was having fun. "What do you mean? We are just warming up; I don't believe that what you have been doing is your best." Alice could only chuckle. "Actually I have been trying to defeat you, but I guess not as hard as I would if I didn't have a trump card."
"And do you intend to play it now? Show it to me then."
"Oh, you will see it in a moment." She pressed the SCREAM boost switch. She activated her Geass and took a deep breath. "Here I come."
The air crackled behind the Morrigan and it moved, as a sonic boom and a screech echoed through the stadium, with astonishing speed to which no human could naturally be able to react to. But Alice's Geass allowed her too, and that was the whole point, a Knightmare that could move and function at such ridiculous speeds, so that only Alice's inhuman reactions would make it possible to be piloted.
Tristan did not stand a chance, and a few well put swing and Harkens granted victory to the Morrigan. The whole thing needed a review with slow motion cameras to be judged.
Alice could not help but feel happy as she saw the Prime Minister's personal knight a second time that day. The words being what she hoped for. "If you won't mind, the Empress would like to talk to you." She smiled. "Of course not, if you could lead the way."
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Nunnally felt excited, this tournament did really turn out to be a box of surprises, mostly of all that Alice. Even as she was an extremely skilled devicer, she seemed so sad. "She must have had a really hard life." Cornelia was looking at some of the records of the fights. "She, must have been forced to train and pilot Knightmares since a very young age, I wonder if she bears a grudge against the royal family. Now that I think about it, you really think it is a good idea to make her Knight of One?" Nunnally closed her eyes and put on a thoughtful face, after a few moments she replied with a sterner voice than usual. "Well, that is what we will find out soon. Besides, you were the one who insisted so much on it!" Cornelia sighed. "Well, you are right about this."
Guilford's voice came from the other side of the door. "The participant Alice is here." Nunnally simply replied. "Let her in." Alice entered the room and knelt at a few paces from the door. "It is an honor to speak with the Empress." Nunnally approached with her electric wheelchair. "Please, no need for that much formality, stand up." She almost giggled at the expression Cornelia had as she did that, she could easily guess what her older sister was thinking, something about the Emperor's ideal attitude or some such. "But I am but an honorary Britannian." The difference in her eyes did not go unnoticed by Nunnally, on the photo she saw, it seemed akin to an almost dead person's, and as if she had resigned to her destiny and felt she could do nothing about it. Though it somehow disturbed Nunnally, considering Alice had just lost a person who was probably close to her, it was good to see eyes so filled with hope, possibilities and expectations.
"Do you truly feel nothing about Professor Madd's death?" Alice got taken aback by the question, but under the gaze of those honest and demanding eyes, she could do nothing but reply the truth. "To me, no, to us, he was more like a taskmaster. He ordered something and we did it. Though to be honest, he was the only person who treated us remotely normally during the time we lived in Britannia."
"Do you hate Britannia?"
"I've grown past that. There were times I dreamed of stealing my Knightmare and destroying everything, killing the emperor. But something like that won't bring back what Britannia took from me. But then again, considering we had our memories altered by the Emperor Charles' Geass, it is almost as if I have never had it right?" Both Nunnally and Cornelia were shocked by this. "But, why would they do something like this?" Alice just shook her head and sighed as if it was the most obvious thing to do. "To destroy our identities of course, the same reason a number was set to a conquered area. Since we didn't even know our homeland's name or where it was we could not fight or take vengeance in its name, we were merely tools of the Empire."
"That is too cruel, so Britannia really was this kind of place all along." Alice smiled warmly. "Don't worry Empress; it doesn't have anything to do with you. Besides, not all was tragedy in this bargain." At that, the Geass sigil appeared in her eye. Nunnally and Cornelia were taken aback. The sigil disappeared fast as it came. "My Geass allows me to slow down my perception of time, affording myself much more time to think and react than normal people, it's one of the reasons I manage to pilot the Morrigan." Cornelia remembered the time when she searched about Geass to clear Euphemia's name. "But, if I remember correctly, a Geass will eventually run out of control as it is used, how can you have it for nine years and it not have run out of control yet?"
To answer it, Alice merely turned her back and pushed the hair out of the way. The in the back of her head, near the neck there was a strange device. "That is a Geass suppressor; it prevents my Geass from running out of control, but at the same time causes me immense pain every time my Geass' activation time ends. As for the why, I learned later that it was so none of us could steal V.V.'s code. Apparently forced transfer of code is only possible when the Geass is extremely strong in the user. I can say for sure they weren't worried about us as it was installed in us before we made a contract with V.V." Cornelia nodded. "It is a very interesting story, I cannot imagine what else you have had to go through." She bowed. Something which took Nunnally and Alice by complete surprise. "As a member of the royal family during that time, I wish to apologize." Alice's expression was a bit sour; she seemed uncomfortable, as if she had said too much. "I'm sorry, but apologies now are as meaningless as vengeance, if you don't mind, I would like to excuse myself." She started walking Backwards to the door.
"Wait!" Cornelia and Alice were surprised by the unusual commanding tone in Nunnaly, though it felt natural. "I have made up my mind." Cornelia opened her mouth to argue. "No, I'm sorry sister but I have made up my mind." Cornelia closed her mouth. She seemed resigned, as if exasperated but having conceded there was no way to stop it now. "Alice, after this tournament ends, would you like to be my knight?" She smiled at the end. Alice was stunned, she was unable to speak for some time, and then she could only say weakly. "Being the Knight of One?" Nunnally put on a thoughtful face. "I guess you could say, but I don't know if I will be able to reform the Knights of the Round any soon. You don't have to answer now. Take your time thinking." Alice was extremely clumsy as she exited the room. "Ah, yes I will. Thank you. Then. Please excuse me."
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Alice felt foolish as she got to her room. Why did she feel so inadequate just then, as the Empress asked of her the very same thing she had been hoping for? And why did she tell her all that about herself? But, there was something about the Empress Nunnally. Something soothing, which made one want to be honest, Alice felt she would be unable to hide anything from these eyes, but it didn't feel uncomfortable, as if the Empress would understand anything. Something inside Alice made her want to protect her. One part of her told her she was not worthy, the other told her that being by Nunnally's side was her destiny.
After some time she decided. "I will be her knight, but not only for my sake, but hers also!" She muttered to herself.
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Jeremiah was in a good mood as he arrived in New Pendragon. "Alright, time for information gathering."
Turn 4 End.
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Author's note: Hey, it's the Author here. To be honest this might be more ranting I guess but here it goes.
You might think it doesn't matter! But it does, I would really like if I had more communication with my readers =P if you have any suggestion, question, comment or criticism please do tell me about it. I would really like to make this fanfic a pleasant experience for all. Example: if you think someone is acting out of character. I for one didn't think Tohdoh turned out very good at the beginning, I'd like to think it has gotten better in turn 3 and 4 but I'm not sure. Also, grammar Nazis don't need to hold themselves back! I myself try my best (especially considering English is not my native tongue.)
So please review :O