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 12: The Black Knights
-The Dragon and The Knight-
The two Knightmares laid there, with the Lancelot on top of the Prototype Sakanade and both Devicers more than a bit dazed by the collision.
"Urg......" Suzaku groaned as he shook off the dizziness. Reaching back for the control yoke, he righted the Lancelot. And practically jumped out of his skin when the black-and-red Knightmare with the face of an Oni stood in front of him.
On his part, Learme was considering how to properly dismantle the Lancelot while leaving its more interesting technology intact. The Sakanade's Pile Drivers slide out, and he took aim for the CIWS gun in the head to shatter the White Knightmare's more conventional cameras.
Then both of their sensory systems detected a large heat bloom down the tunnel, and both turned towards it, the Lancelot's shoulder Factspheres and the Sakanade's chest-based Advanced Factsphere opening and scanning it. By that time, the Raikou had already sent its payload hurtling down the shaft. Learme moved the Sakanade back, grabbed the Lancelot by the shoulders, and used its superior strength to place the 7th-gen Frame in the projectile's path.
Suzaku panicked for a few seconds, before remembering the Blaze Luminous shields and activating them, overlapping them over the front of the Lancelot's body. The shell seperated, spraying the tunnel with the ball bearings it once held before impacting on the energy shields. The combination of powerful electromagnetic containment fields and photon-empowered plasma bounced most of them away, although a very few faster ones penetrated the fields to be simply vaporized by the extreme temperatures.
Both sighed in relief. Until they remembered the position they were in. Learme raised the Sakanade's right arm, the Pile Driver extended and moving sharply for the cockpit.
Then the Raikou fired again. Learme had the Sakanade grab the Lancelot's shoulder again. However, instead of retreating to lessen the impact of the projectiles, he accelerated both Frames forward, into the approaching cloud of ball bearings.
"Are you nuts!?" Suzaku cried, keeping the Lancelot's arms up under each barrage.
"What, you were going to do something else?" Learme hissed back.
That shut him up.
-The Shifter-
In the meeting room that was originally intended for the Sakuradite Conference, all of the hostages; men, women, and children, were gathered up and guarded by several JLF troops armed with pre-conquest Japanese assault rifles and handguns. There had been only one, small incident involving what must have been a Britannian Army veteran, but it had been taken care of quite quickly.
Convinced that the Brits were of no threat, and somewhat correct in that, the guards were rather relaxed, chatting about various subjects ranging from their part in the hotel-jacking to the attractiveness of a few of the female hostages. However, they never allowed any of the hostages out of their collective sight, and the rifles were loosely aimed in the hostage's direction.
They would not have been so relaxed if they knew one of them was an impostor.
I really don't have any luck today. Ian thought.
Just Before The Hijacking
Ian, at this point a blond-haired, green-eyed man of about twenty to twenty-five years old, was milling around the conference area. At the moment, he really didn't need to be here, seeing as he'd already completed his job. But one never knew how much he could learn at events like this, and whether or not any of that information would be of use later on in life, so he stuck around.
Weaving in and out of the crowd, Ian was attempting to keep an eye on a few of the people that he recognized, when he bumped into a woman with long pink hair, some of it tied into two buns, wearing glasses. Almost immediately, two men started approaching them, with an air that suggested they were more than mercenary bodyguards.
The woman straightened herself, and started to apologize. "I'm sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going." She said sheepishly.
"It's quite alright, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going either." Ian replied, chuckling slightly. "My name is Ian. And yours?"
"Euphie." Ian took a closer look at her face looking her directly an eye, apparently making her and the guards very nervous when there was a slight red flash so quick and faint it must have been a trick of the eye.
"My apologies, I have a habit of memorizing the faces of everyone I meet." He said, rubbing the back of his head and backing away. "Well, please enjoy the-"
At that moment, the doors burst open, letting through Asians dressed in old military uniforms a few shades off from green vomit, brandishing assault rifles that Ian knew for a fact hadn't been manufactured in seven years. One of them, minus the cap most were wearing and carrying a ceremonial katana rather than a weapon, stepped forward.
"We are the Japan Liberation Front. As of now, each and every single one of you are our prisoners."
Aw, crud.
An hour afterward
After an hour of confinement, Ian was still in his blond-and-green guise, and quashed in among the rest of the hostages. A soldier came in through the door, apparently a lieutenant or the JLF equivalent, considering the way the rest of the guards acted.
"Alright scum. Apparently, your leaders aren't very accommodating. So, we're going to have to take one of you for....a little trip." The grins of the guards dispelled any naive thoughts of release. "You have five minutes to volunteer before we pick one of you at random and toss him off the roof."
Ian stood up. "I volunteer." It was quite obvious none of them had expected this. The Lieutenant eyed him for a second before nodding respectfully. "Very well. Take him up top." Two guards saluted, then pushed through the hostages to grab Ian by the arm and took him out of the room, heading up the stairwell.
"Heh, I didn't think any of you Brits would be compassionate enough to volunteer." The guard on the left joked. "It's almost a pity you're going to die." Ian raised an eyebrow at that.
"Who said anything about me dying?" Ian hit the speaking guard on the chin with a hard palm strike, grabbed his gun, and shot the other guard, sending the corpse tumbling down the stairs. The surviving guard scrambled up from the ground, reaching for his sidearm before he felt the assault rifle rest against his head.
"I see you're not just a civilian." He said. "But you've made a mistake. The others will be here any minute and you'll still die."
"I don't think so." Ian said, grinned slyly.
The guard's eyes widened in shock, to a flash of red light and the sound of cracking bones.
A minute later, some of the other JLF guards arrived and saw the guard watching the hostage, now with a black hood over his head and stripped down to his undergarments, probably bound and gagged.
"What the hell happened here?" The Lieutenant demanded.
"The bastard's a veteran." The surviving guard growled. "He disarmed me and took out Seto. Damn near killed me." The Lieutenant turned to the hostage, a grim look painting his features, before slugging him in the gut.
"You two!" He barked at the other guards. "Take him to the rooftop and dispose of him as planned."
"Where should I go sir?" The guard who'd recaptured the hostage asked.
"Go back to guard the other hostages."
"Yes sir."
-The Demon-
Present
Lelouch walked briskly along the corridor, his armored boots clicking sharply rather than clomping like those of the JLF escort.
Just as I thought. He said to himself. Zero is just far too curious to ignore out of hand. The guards showed him to a door, opening for him. Through the door he walked, into the presence of 'Colonel' Kusakabe and his command staff. Kusakabe himself was seated in a chair set in front of another, empty, one. Around where his subordinates, armed and aiming their weapons at Lelouch. Under the Mephisto's helmet, Lelouch simply smiled to himself and took the empty seat.
"So, this is Zero." Kusakabe said, staring at the approximate eye-level of the helmet. "Where is your subordinate?"
"Oh, out and about." Lelouch replied airily.
-The Dragon and The Knight-
Suzaku muttered prayers to himself as the Sakanade hurtled both it and the Lancelot down the chute, meeting each salvo from the magnetic cannon at the end with a stubborn burst of speed, almost matching the Lancelots top speed. The Blaze Luminous shields were still holding up, and none of the ball bearings had penetrated, but the overall experience was rather terrifying.
"Kururugi, what's happening?" Lloyd, calling from the trailer.
"I'm being held captive by Draco while rushing towards the cannon." He replied, shaken by the sixth consecutive salvo.
"Draco?"
"He's in the Knightmare from Saitama." The line went eerily quiet at that.
"Learme, I'm in front of the good Colonel. How's your part going?" Lelouch called, having switched back over to their private frequency.
"Slight change in plans. The JLF have a pretty interesting cannon down here. Any chance we could get it?" Learme replied, working the yoke to keep the Lancelot in front of him.
"Maybe. There should be another sewer tunnel underneath the conduit. If you can get the cannon down there, we should be able to retrieve it."
"Oh yeah, I have the Lancelot. Want me to do something with it?" There was a slight choke over the line before Lelouch replied.
"No....let it go after completing your task. There's the possibility of tracking beacons, and we don't have the time to spend studying it. Although it would be nice if you could disable it for a little."
"Yes sir." The two Frames were closing in on the cannon, close enough to easily see the four Burai without the Factspheres. Once they were within thirty meters, the 'arms' on the sides of the Burai lifted, revealed to instead be some kind of gun. Which availed them little, as Learme had the Sakanade throw the Lancelot forward, sending the White Knightmare crashing into the front-left Burai and crashing the entire cannon into the ground.
Learme waited for a second, waiting for either the Lancelot or the Raikou to rise and start attempting to pummel him. The Lancelot didn't move an inch. The Raikou, on the other hand, was squirming on the ground. Shrugging to himself, Learme extended the Pile Drivers and moved to the Raikou.
-The Shifter-
Ian, disguised as a guard now, smiled. His plan worked perfectly, now all he had to do was wait and see what Cornelia would do. Normally she would of wiped them out but with her sister here she'll be more caustious with her actions.
He watched the hostage and the other JLF members closely, waiting to see what would happen next.
He watch as a careless hostage called a soldier an eleven, probably out of fear, although the prideful idiot didn't really seem to care. He watched as the two girls next to her tried to defend her and just as the soldier was about to get aggressive, Princess Euphemia made her presence known.
Ian smiled as he spoke "Well, well we have a Princess of the Empire in our midst.". He turned his head to the guard who a moment ago was about to take his anger out on the girl. "You take the Princess here to the Colonel."
"Right away sir." the guard said. He went and held the princess at gun point and started to escort her out
"And be gentle with her, she's a valuable hostage." Ian added. The guard nodded and left the room with Euphie.
-The Professional-
In the hotels courtyard, barely out of sight of the military encirclement, the news van that had brought Zero to the hotel was parked. Most of the JLF members had dismissed it as no threat, after inspecting the redhead driver, who was dressed in some kind of black uniform, complete with a visored hat that hid her face, although it had accentuated her very curvaceous figure.
Mischa and the rest of their group emerged from the van, raised their weapons, and fired. The guns coughed, a result of their silencers, and the JLF guards on the outside of the hotel were quickly felled, without so much as a chance to yell. Giving the former terrorists a nod, Mischa motioned them to the doors, picking up a bundle from the van. The armored pseudo-soldiers surrounded the door, aiming their new Type-20 assault rifles at them while Mischa moved straight up to them and started working. Half a minute later, he backed off, signaling the others to do the same. Then he signaled Qilin to move up, aiming his Type-26 light machine gun at the door, just before Mischa detonated the breaching charge with a 'thump'.
Then they moved quickly, each person filing in and quickly taking aim at the disoriented JLF troops. Seven seconds after the charge detonated, the hall was clear of targets. Taking point, Mischa led the team of ten forward, stopping every few meters to fiddle around the hall. Soon enough, the reached the doors to the main assembly area. Rather than placing a charge on this one, Mischa instead motioned Tamaki, who had been lagging behind the group, forward. When Tamaki came up, Mischa opened the doors and shoved him through.
-The Shifter-
Ian turned to see the doors open, letting a person with a riot shield of unknown make and in armor of similarly unknown construction stumble through before he steadied himself. There was a tense moment of confusion, before the JLF raised their weapons and fired, most of their shots actually missing and spraying the wall around the doors, with a very few actually hitting the shield. Then other black-armored soldiers stepped out from behind the doors, led by a man in some kind of black suit, and started shooting the guards.
Well, time to go. Ian dropped his stolen rifle and ran for the other doors, moving to keep the hostages in between him and the new force.
"Hoy!" He heard. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the one who'd had the riot shield chasing after him.
-The Dunce-
Tamaki raced after the sole remaining JLF member, chasing him through a door in the side of the room. He burst through the door, ready to grab the man-
There was no one there. The only thing in the room was a laundry chute only a four-year old could fit through.
However, down at the bottom of the chute, a small child slipped out, wearing clothes clearly fall to big for him, and wearing a big smirk on his face.
-The Demon-
"It's not polite to disguise your face in company." Kusakabe said to Lelouch, looking at him expectantly.
"Just what are you doing here Kusakabe?" Lelouch said, ignoring the Colonel's earlier remark. "What is the point of this?" Kusakabe bristled.
"It is to let these fools know that Japan is not yet dead." He replied. "To let them know it lives on, even as the scum try to stamp it into the dirt."
"How stale." Everyone froze at that, staring at the armored man that had insulted their leader. Then, before any could react, a section of his helmet slid open, revealing a gleaming violet-tinged red eye with a strange sigil in it......
-The Princess-
Euphemia took a discreet breath to calm herself as the guards escorted her to the door. She had asked for this. If she could get Kusakabe to listen to her.....
Then the guards opened the door, and the sight beyond chilled her to the bone.
The once-magnificent penthouse suit was now stained with blood. The corpses of the JLF cell's command staff littered the floor, still holding the guns that they had used to kill themselves. Kusakabe was before a chair, his katana stabbed straight through his body with his hands hanging from the hilt. In front of Kusakabe's body was a tall and forbidding figure, a cape around his shoulders. The figure turned, looking in her direction with a faceless stare
"You bastard!" Euphie heard, the only warning before the deafening chatter of assault rifle fire came next to her ears, her JLF escorts firing on the man that had presumably killed their leader. The bullets were ineffective, sparking off of the armor that had been originally designed to protect tanks from armor-piercing shells the size of a man.
Wordlessly, Zero's hand darted under his cape, before reappearing holding a handgun that Euphie had seen gracing the belts of many military officers. He fired twice, the gunshots mingling with the fire of the assault rifles, each bullet piercing through a guard's skull.
"Princess Euphemia....I must apologize for the manner of our meeting." He said, his voice sounding deep. And yet, Euphie could hear something....familiar in it. "You haven't changed a bit." She started at that, staring at Zero wide-eyed. Then she heard sounds behind her. Turning, she saw a man in a suit with a balaclava over his head, flanked by soldiers wearing armor that vaguely reminded her of what Samurai from Japan's history wore.
"My apologies Lord Zero." The man in the balaclava said, bowing his head. "They discovered her before we got there."
"It's quite alright Mischa." Zero said, moving towards Euphie. "Things turned out all right. And the rest?"
"The hostages are freed and moving to the docks. The charges have been set."
"Perfect, now if Draco has completed his task....." Almost as if cued by that phrase, there was a small eruption in front of the hotel. However, instead of the black-and-red Sakanade, it was the white-and-gold Lancelot, wielding a blue rifle-like weapon that none of them had seen before. In an instant, it fired, sending what looked like accelerated balls of plasma into the hotel's base, blasting the foundation to bits.
Lelouch stared at the Knightmare for a moment, and it almost seemed as though the Lancelot's head tilted to stare back.
I am gonna have words with Learme. Lelouch thought crossly. Then he held out his hand. Mischa stepped forward and laid a remote in it. Without further ado, Lelouch pressed the button, triggering a series of explosions around the hotel as the Lancelot landed
-The Knight-
"NO!!!!" Suzaku screamed, sending the Lancelot leaping forward and ignoring the cries of Cecile and Lloyd. All for naught, as the hotel sank further and the dust from the explosions cleared.
They were gone.
-The Fanatic-
"Do we have a feed from the camera?" Diethard snapped at the operators. Currently they were monitoring the feed from the camera that had been taken from Van 3, while keeping the feed from one of the remaining cameras on the air. Come on Zero, you can't have taken the camera for nothing.....A second later, Diethard's facial expression switched from frustration to anticipation.
-The Brits-
"Damn you Zero...." Cornelia growled. Not only had he not kept his promise to save Euphie, he'd killed her himself!
"Your Highness!" Cornelia turned to see one of the aids run out of the G-1. "You'll want to see this!" Following him, Cornelia entered the G-1 and was led to the television screen in the wall. The sight made her gasp.
It was Zero, standing with his cape tight around him. He was standing in a circle of light presumably cast by a spotlight. There were few indications as to where he was, except for the smoking pillar in the background. He's on the lake!
"Britannians" He started, his voice amplified somehow. "Fear not, for I have saved the hostages from 'Colonel' Kusakabe." The camera panned to view life-rafts, floating alongside what Cornelia realized must have been the yacht reserved for the Conference delegates. "Including your dear Princess Euphemia." It focused in on one raft, showing Euphemia alongside what looked like some high-school girls. Then it switched back to Zero.
"The Japanese Liberation Front took innocent Britannian civilians hostage, executing one of them. Clovis initiated a ghetto-wide purge, slaughtering innocent Japanese for no reason. We could not stand by and allow these atrocities to continue!" Another spotlight switched on, revealing the imposing Draco to be standing behind and slightly to the side of his leader, face uplifted just enough to show the serpentine skull of his helmet to the camera. "I will not deny the honor of battle on the field, but nor will I excuse the unilateral slaughter of civilians! The only ones who should kill are those prepared to be killed! Whenever tyrants use their power to oppress those they rule, we will appear! Now matter the strength of our foe, we will fight! Those of you with power, fear us!" He cried, casting out one arm and throwing aside that half of his cape to reveal the intimidating armor he wore, showcasing Draco, who bowed. "Those of you without power, join us!" He cast out the other arm and half of his cape, fully revealing his armoured form as another spotlight flared on, revealing a femenine redhaired figure in a uniform, bowing.
"We, The Black Knights, shall judge this world!" He finished, the rest of the spotlights revealing black-armoured troops standing alongside Draco and the woman, bowing to their leader.
-The Shifter-
Standing on the shore, Ian watched as the speech ended, the camera discarded and the lights switched off as the yacht sped off.
"The Black Knights eh?" He muttered to himself, before walking off. "Sounds interesting."
-The Bone Snatcher-
High above the area, Tony nodded as the speech ended, the radio ceasing to spout Zero's rather inspiring words. He and Mischa had known the two, Zero and Draco, for longer than they had been known to the world at large, and had had no idea that either could pull anything like this off.
His appreciative grin faded slightly when a slight coughing sound announced the failure of an engine. Looking at the gauge, he sighed.
"I knew I should have taken the boat." He muttered, cursing the Chinese supersonic bomber.
-The Black Knights-
The newly christened organization watched as a glimmer of light flared high above the lake, before flaming bits and pieces fell from the sky. Then a white parachute opened, and they could barely make out the dark-clad figure as it waved towards them.
Zero and Draco however, with their suits enhanced audio sensors, could hear him.
"Hoy Zero, Draco, I got that data you wanted!"
Zero just facepalmed.
-The Author-
And thus, the Black Knights are officially formed, although Zero Squadron has yet to be named. Still, we're well on our way. Thanks to Omegadramon2 for the OC in the form of Ian, for now one of my future plot problems are solved.
Replies:
Alex Yamato: Thank you. Don't worry, he'll probably show up to join up soon.
yep.
Thanks, but as a previous reviewer said, too many OCs and I'll start getting slowed down, or just not do them justice.
Kojiro Kun: Thank you.
He's so idiotic he makes fate confused.
Jaksio: I'm thinking about doing small 'pseudo-stages' to show some of the operations that didn't make the big screen. or, small screen, depending on monitor size.
Infinite Freedom: Pretty much just Suzaku's original part, although he actually let Suzaku do his job, instead just making off with some tech.
00virtuezero: Yep.
Turns out, if you were betting, I would have just taken everything.
Oh yeah, he's having it too easy.
aznblackhowling: Here you are.
sakurahanaalice: I thought it was appropriate.
Wonder no more.
It's possible.