Code Geass: The Demon and the Dragon
Disclaimer: I do not own Code Geass. If I did, then what you see below would be the show, instead of a fanfiction on the Internet.
Stage 9: Hazing and Io
-The Demon, The Dragon, and the Knight-
It was right after the final bell rang. Suzaku was walking quickly through the lawn and trying to get out of the school before the rest of the students came out from their classes.
The Student Council, however, had other plans.
"Suzaku Kururugi." Learme's voice carried an air of command with it, one that Suzaku had noticed upon their first confrontation. Lelouch, on one hand, was noted by the adults at the time to have a way of speaking that confounded and persuaded people to obey him. (More than one adult had been affected by this) Kaguya, Suzaku's relative, had said that Learme had a tone that demanded obedience (A/N: She was twisted even back then!).
Learme, with his brother to one side and Milly Ashford on the other, stood in the middle of the lawn with the rest of the Council behind him.
"Ummm.. yes?" Suzaku said, noting the rapidly growing crowd that began to surround them.
"The President has......well....she's blackmailed me into forcing you to join the Student Council." Learme admitted sheepishly hanging his head and arms, thus revealing the two katanas he had, one strapped to his back and the other held in his hand.
"I....would be happy to." Suzaku said, starting to sweat as the crowd focused their attention on him.
"I wish you wouldn't have said that." Lamented the Lamperouge. "Well, nothing I can do now. Let the Hazing begin!" Suzaku barely had enough time to stutter out a 'Huh?' before dropping his things to catch the sheathed Katana Learme threw at him, before the martial-minded twin drew his own katana and sprinted forward.
From the sidelines, Lelouch watched as Suzaku drew his katana with an inhuman swiftness to block the blade sweeping in on him from above. Learme's katana, however, wasn't there. The initial strike had no weight behind it, had been nothing but a feint, to allow the practiced swordsman to move around into Suzaku's blind spot. And yet, Suzaku knew this and was already moving to the side to avoid what may be the real attack, a diagonal slice.
In reality, it was yet another feint, as Learme kicked Suzaku in the side with enough force to send the soldier flying. Only for him to recover quickly and land on his feet, before sprinting back at Learme.
It's always like this. Lelouch mused. Counter-move after counter-move after counter-move.....an endless procession of Suzaku's reactions to Learme's attacks, and Learme's reactions to those reactions. And yet, eventually, one of them tires out.
In the past, Suzaku's aggression had landed him the losing position in these duels. Now, however, he paced himself, keeping an eye on Learme and predicting his movements, albeit not quite as well as Learme predicted his. Here, Suzaku's preternatural speed and reactions kept him in the game, as he managed to avoid what he couldn't see coming somehow.
Not that Learme wasn't quick, no. It's just that his speed revolved more around the aiming and firing of various ranged weapons, and the speed of his thought processes.
At this point, Learme had managed to force Suzaku back, towards a tree. Anyone with a smidgen of sense could see that Learme was trying to limit Suzaku's mobility. And it was apparently working, as Learme worked Suzaku into a state of tunnel-visioned paranoia, shifting his weight around, moving his sword arm around, making Suzaku think he was going to move somewhere or that it was just a distraction.
Then a black blur launched itself out of the tree at Suzaku's face, causing the Honorary Britannian to yelp in pain and agony as sharp claws started shredding his facial features. Luckily, Learme managed to get over and tug the cat off quickly before Suzaku suffered anything more serious than a long scratch.
"Alright, I think that's enough." Lelouch called out, walking towards the two. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the Fencing and Dueling Clubs' members staring at Suzaku in fear and awe, and chuckled a bit under his breath. "Come on you guys, let's go to the Club House." Lelouch stared pointedly at Learme, who nodded before offering Suzaku a hand, keeping the cat far away from the soldier.
5 minutes later in the Club House
By the time the Student Council had made it into the club house, Milly had made two declarations: First, Suzaku was the official Student Council Yes-Man (both Lamperouge twins agreed this suited him perfectly). Second, the cat that had nearly mauled Suzaku was designated the Council Pet, and named Arthur.
"Just smile and nod." Learme had told Suzaku with deadly seriousness. Then, in the ensuing insanity of Milly planning a party for the cat, of all things, the twins had slipped off with Suzaku.
The trio entered the east wing, where Suzaku was met by the sight of Nunnally. The youngest Lamperouge was sitting at the dining room, reading a braille book. Learme motioned Suzaku towards her while Lelouch went to talk to her.
"Nunnally." He called, squatting next to her chair. "We have a surprise for you." Lelouch motioned to Suzaku, who kneeled in front of Nunnally and took one of her hands in his.
Learme watched the tearful reunion for maybe a minute before trotting down the hall to his room.
-The Demon, The Dragon, and the Witch-
Lelouch slumped into his chair at his desk, somewhat exhausted by the act of showing Suzaku 'the ropes' as it was called (for whatever reason that currently escaped him), while at the same time utilizing both his and Learme's respective abilities to avoid Milly's attempts to get them into this 'Welcome Cat Party' or whatever it was.
Then he took a look at his room.
Pizza boxes were stacked in the corners, and a brand-new Cheeze-kun doll/pillow/whatever decorated his bed, held by the Witch. Despite the mess, the detritus, the pizza boxes, napkins and forlorn dip containers littering the floor, Lelouch just sighed, and started to pick up.
"Hmm. I thought you'd be a bit more annoyed by all this..." C.C commented, watching from his bed. Lelouch straightened, dumping his load of trash into a neater pile, before marching to the door and opening it, motioning for the witch to follow. The somewhat amused C.C did so, trailing after Lelouch down across the hall to what was supposedly Learme's room. Lelouch opened the door and presented the view as though in a circus.
C.C was impressed.
The floor of Learme's room was covered in all sorts of detritus, ranging from bits of metal that could pass for primitive caltrops to hamburger and burrito wrappers, next to soda bottles, wiring, chip bags, clothing, books, paper. Anything and everything covered the floor in a carpet of dirty death.
Not even the walls were exempt, plastered with multiple designs of Knightmare Frames with scribbles and doodles of obscure mechanical origin covering them, along with ship blueprints, base layouts, and what appeared to be numerous scientific reports on subjects ranging from Sakuradite reactions to nanotechnology. Not all of the walls were covered with papers. Some sections were instead devoted to an array of weaponry both archaic and somewhat futuristic, including longswords, katana, falchions, crossbows, modern composite bows, shuriken, magnums, silenced pistols, SMGs, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles, light machine guns and what appeared to be a model for an infantry-scale railgun.
Across from the door was the bed, contrasting starkly with the room in its tidy military neatness. Next to it in the corner of the room was a bookshelf in a similar state of organization, its shelves decorated with various military histories, tactics and strategy books, engineering texts, Knightmare manuals, and military science fiction novels.
Stuffed in the opposite corner among the largest heaps of junk was Learme, sitting at his desk. The part-time revolutionary/student was mouthing along to a song only he could hear while typing rapidly on the state-of-the-art and quite literally one-of-the-kind laptop.
Learme himself was completely oblivious to the gawking going on behind him, totally focused on the Knightmare Frame schematics before him on the screen.
AAX-0 Io....Even after so long, the Ashfords are still top-of-the-line. Over three years and its only now that we're getting it done....
"That the Ashford Frame we recovered from the facility?" Lelouch's voice overrode the music Learme was listening to, as the nano-earbuds switched over to a communication frequency. Learme frowned as he glanced over his shoulder to see Lelouch and C.C standing in the doorway, the latter looking around his room.
"Yep. The Io should actually be finished in a few hours. I set the nano-lathing facilities to finish with the armor and I've programmed the computer to run a few simulation of the Sukur." Learme replied, unable to stop a grin from spreading across his face at the thought of the Io's more....experimental weapon.
"And the Sakanade?" Lelouch asked.
"Ah, yes. Shall we take this downstairs?" Learme queried. Upon receiving Lelouch's nod, he quick-stepped over the carpet of mess, and joined Lelouch and C.C at the door. "It's much more secure, and we can show you around, C.C." Following that, the twins amused the witch with their security procedures, and then proceeded to bore her with the elevator wait.
"Most elevators at least have some music playing." She commented, eliciting simultaneous replies from the twins.
"I couldn't stand that noisy shrieking he played. " Lelouch said.
"I couldn't stand that boring moaning he played." Learme said.
At that point, the elevator opened to reveal the facility, all dilapidated Knightmare wrecks, gleaming rebuilt frames, central office spaces, tucked-away firing range and equipment lockers. "We managed to convince Reuben Ashford to allow us to use this old Knightmare development facility." Learme started to explain, moving out along the wall. "Most of the equipment was old by the time we got in, so we used our black market connections to acquire replacements or upgrades, gradually allowing us to proceed with our own plans."
Reaching a blank spot along the wall, Learme paused to tap in a code on his cell phone, causing the Knightmare-sized portion to slide apart, revealing a storage space. "In here, we found a very nice prize." At the back of the space was, quite obviously, a Knightmare Frame. However, it was unlike any Knightmare ever seen by anyone.
It had longer limbs, for one thing, as well as skirt armor. It lacked one of the most defining Knightmare features, the landspinners. And instead of armor like a knight, it had sharply slanted geometric shapes that C.C recognized as Chobham armor similar to that on Lelouch's Mephisto suit. The head was humanoid of course, with antennae on either side and what looked like a gun mounted in the center of the forehead.
"This was one of the Ashford's ongoing projects, before our mother was killed. The Ashford Armaments Experimental Unit 1, Io." Learme went on, obviously enjoying this chance to show off. "When we found it, it was in a rather bad state, with a lot of the armor corroded, and some of the systems badly deteriorated. Still, we managed to reverse-engineer most of it and rebuild it."
"One result of that is this Knightmare Frame here." Learme directed their attention to the side, where another frame rested. Unlike the Io, it was a more recognizable design, with smooth organic-looking armor and strange bulky landspinners that were encased in similar armor. It's head was very similar to the Burai, except instead of an Oni-like mask, it had a mask resembling an Ogre, with a gun mounted where the factsphere would normally be, as with the Io.
"The Sakanade is actually developed mainly from the Sutherlands, as the Burai were from the Glasgows. However, instead of merely performing some cosmetic and basic performance upgrades, I've pretty much overhauled the entire frame. This is just the protoype, but I think it's going to be proven as a Gloucester-killer. The speed almost equals the Lancelot, and the close-combat weapons I developed should be quite effective against the Gloucesters' lances."
"Hmm...so, whose going to pilot which?" C.C asked.
"Well, I'm going to be testing the Sakanade Prototype." Learme explained. "I've got a Knightmare for Lelouch, also based off of the Sutherland."
"And the Io?"
"Well.... we're using some strong linear actuators for the joints, so the stress on the frame, and the pilot, would be great. In order to pilot it to its maximum effectiveness, you'd have to be.....immortal." A strange gleam came into Learme's eyes as his head started swiveling on his neck, the studious glare switching from the Io and C.C.
"Alright, I'll do it." C.C said, shrugging slightly.
-The Orange-
Jeremiah stood in the conference room of the Viceroy's Palace, along with Cornelia's knights, several of the local officers as well as Lloyd and his assistant, ready to provide input in this most crucial planning stage of the operation.
"Apparently, this Zero and his subordinate Draco aren't working with the local terrorists." Cornelia said, sitting in the chair at the head of the conference table. "And while it was necessary to eliminate this terrorist group, these two are far more dangerous than any of them."
"So, what shall we do, your Highness?" Lloyd asked, leaning in with some expectant excitement. Cornelia eyed the exuberant Knightmare Frame engineer before moving on.
"Zero is apparently a prideful and arrogant person. I assume that Draco is similar enough that this strategy will work on both of them." She took a slight breath. 'We are going to recreate the Shinjuku Ghetto incident."
"Hmm....that might work." Jeremiah mused, running over the conflict in his mind. "If these two came in during the Shinjuku battle, then that would explain why the terrorists became so much more effective, tactically speaking, and how they got Sutherlands."
"Indeed." Cornelia acknowledged. "Now, onto the force deployment. In the case of standard Knightmares, I'll be taking my own personal forces, of course. I don't trust these local bureaucrats." Wisely, said local officers kept their mouths shut. "In the case of some of the more....special forces, I believe Jeremiah in his Bors should be sufficient from the A.S.E.E.C."
"Aw, and I was hoping to get some data on the Lancelot's new armaments." Lloyd actually pouted a little, although he was mollified by the inclusion of the Bors.
"We will also be taking Major James Picton's Mabinogi team." Jeremiah paled slightly at this. "Is something wrong Jeremiah?"
"Nothing, Your Highness." Jeremiah replied. "It's just that the Major may be somewhat.....hostile towards me, given my method of obtaining an Arawn." The very same Mabinogi Knight that Jeremiah had - accidentally - killed for the Knightmare had actually been Picton's subordinate, the only other Arawn pilot out of a team of two Arawns and three Hafgans.
"There should be no problems. Major Picton and his team will be on the frontlines, while you will provide artillery support and back-up."
"Yes your Highness."
-The Bone Snatcher-
Tony strolled without fear throughout the Institute, mainly avoiding areas of gathering, but managing to pull off a probably convincing guise of a scientist. It had been hell itself to get the bloodstains out of the labcoat though. Still, it was enough to get him by without too many strange looks.
Whistling lighty, he strolled into what he'd been told was the central server for the entire complex, and quickly found a USB 2.0 port to plug the flashdrive into. The light on the end started flashing, alternating between red, blue, and green. At that point, he started fidgeting a bit. It had been very easy to find the place, via following the rotund scientist that had dealt with Mischa. And it had been just as easy to get in. All he'd done was wait until another scientist came out before ambushing him and stealing his coat after a small bit of interrogating.
The problem here was the fact that Tony had spent the good part of a week on the ship, and there had been quite literally no resistence or conflict during his time in India.
The flashdrive stopped flashing, and maintained a steady purple glow, indicating completion. Tony yanked the device out of the port and stuffed it in his pocket, exiting the room. Instead of heading for the exit at the end of the right-hand corridor, he turned left and headed for the Knightmare development hanger. Inside the hanger, the Italian hitman gave a slight whistle.
Tony was by no means an expert on Knightmare Frames, although he'd been told several times by Draco that he was rather skilled at piloting them, but the constructs in the hanger seemed rather impressive.
And but for one reason, his distaste for killing civilians, he would have gladly killed everyone in the facility to get a chance to use those chainsaw swords four of them had, although the red one's claw looked interesting.
Even so, Tony briefly contemplated slaughtering everyone before shrugging and turning for the door.
-The Author-
Alright, Christmas Break over, school beginning and less free time overall.
Good things that happened: Got Modern Warfare 2. If you play MW2 on PS3 online, and have been headshotted by a guy named Exia1678 from halfway across the map, it was me.
Bad things that happened: School resumed.
Story-wise, Lelouch is no longer annoyed by C.C's messes. And Very Bad Things Are Going To Happen In Saitama. For the Brits.
Replies:
Infinite Freedom: Which one? The older or younger?
Rickrolled: It may have been a few hundred words shorter than usual.
Alex Yamato: Danke. Alex the OC will probably show up during Saitama, along with some other Zero Squadron OCs.
Haavu: I thought it was.
atmoit: Thanks
00virtuezero: I'm actually going to withhold on the Bors' file, so that I can get it, the Sakanade, Io, and Hafgan all in one chapter. On a different note, for some reason, when I start picturing Lelouch and Learme, I get them dressed in their armor standing on the Death Star.
Velshard: Funny stuff, eh?
According to an audio extra, C.C was party to the Colonials during the Geass-universe's version of the Revolutionary War, called Washington's Rebellion, since it failed.
Learme was actually closer to Cornelia.
Jeremiah served as Marianne's guard under Cornelia's command.
I suppose it was, although I think that's justified considering that the Bors participated. And thanks.
About Avatar: Saw it, loved it, preferred humans over Na'vi 'cause humans had motion-controlled mechs. Yeah, doesn't take much to please me.
Kojiro Kun: Welcome back, and thank you.