AND WERE BACK, LADYS AND GENTELMAN, WITH THE 6TH INSTALLMENT OF THE STARGATE IS!
James: (Pops open some confetti) yay…
I'm honestly surprised you actually put the effort forward to use a confetti popper James.
James: Eh, whatever.
So, I guess we should probably get on with the show, right?
James: Probably. You did say you weren't satisfied with the last chapter after all.
Yeah… It just didn't sit well with me. I liked it, but it felt off, ya know?
Yui: Yeah, it did just feel… off.
James: whatever, I'm just a figment of your imagination aft-WHAT IS YUI DOING HERE
She wanted to help, so how could I say no to her?
James: VERY EASILY SINCE YOU ADDED HER IN THE STORY
But I didn't plan for her to act as she does now.
James and Yui: WHAT?
Yeah… She was originally just going to act like Yui from SAO… but since I like her as a trouble maker ill keep her as is.
Yui: YAY!
James: NOOOOOOOOO!
Hehehe, anyway, this chapter shall be an action packed one. Yes, yes, you're welcome everyone, however I am not confident in my action writing capabilities, so I apologize in advance if it seems… bad.
James: At least this will be fun for me for a change.
Yui: Things are always fun when your involved J! And im sure you'll do your best Mr. Writer!
Thank you Yui! Be sure to give James hell for me!
Yui: I WILL!
James: WAIT WHA-
Let me say just one last thing. In this chapter, there are some changes that haven't been implemented in the previous chapters. I WILL be going back and changing those. Also, I feel like how I address "Charles," or rather Charlotte, was a bit strange at times. It might just be me, but if you feel the same way, let me know. I promise it won't happen in later chapters.
CHAPTER 6
ROBOT BARFIGHT!
(It's a song title, alright?)
The day of the tournament had arrived. It had been a week since Casandra and I had started training, and she was a quick learner. She also had amazing potential as an IS pilot, but I think that was more due to personal issues about the Stargate, namely the Goa'uld, that gave her the drive to learn as much as she could. I already had figured out that she wanted to be on a SG team after graduating, much like I probably would be doing after this was all said and done.
I also still had to tell Ichika, but had decided to wait until he passed my test before I told him anything. His test; manage to nearly defeat me in battle, both in and out of an IS. Even if he put up a valiant effort I might tell him. Might being the operating word there, this was Ichika were talking about after all. He probably wouldn't know I was telling him he could fulfill his dreams of going to the stars until we came under fire by a squad of hostile Jaffa or something.
Thankfully, Robert had been training him quite well during the past week, with Ichika getting actual IS training with Rin and Cecilia. From what little I had seen and heard, he was turning out quite well, but still had a long way to go.
"MR. REVERAND!" Ms. Orimura yelled as her clipboard collided with my shields. There was a small pop-up that appeared immediately after the damage was done, reading: warning, shields have taken damage from a friendly target. Shield points currently 620/625. Threat level: HIGH.
'well this is new…' I thought before her clipboard collided with my shields again. WARNING, shields have taken damage from a friendly target. Shield points currently at 610/625. Threat level: DANGEROUS. 'GEE, YOU DON'T SAY!'
"What is it Ms. Orimura?" I asked, not wanting to piss her off even more by calling her by her least favorite nickname.
"Don't you remember what I told you last night!" she yelled. We were currently sitting in the classroom, with classes about to start for the day, so that comment brought a LOT of unwanted attention from the girls in class.
"I didn't know Ms. Orimura was into him!" a pair giggled
"No fair! I wanted to be with her!" another wined.
"I WANT TO BECOME A POKEMON MASTER!" a third shoute-WAIT WHAT?
"SETTLE DOWN EVERYONE!" Ms. Orimura yelled, getting the class under control. "I was merely reminding James that he has to introduce our new transfer student, since they will be rooming together."
"Ohhhhhh, Right! That!" I said, having no clue what she was talking about.
'J she came by last night and told you all of this!' Yui said
'She did? Why don't I remember that?'
'Because afterward you said something about Houki and she came in and hit you in the head…' Yui explained.
'Oh, that makes sens- WHY WERNT MY SHIELDS UP YUI?' I mentally yelled.
'BECAUSE YOU DESERVED IT!' she mentally yelled back
'IRELAVENT! WHO AM I INTRODUCING AND WHY ARE THEY ROOMING WITH ME?'
'Their name is Charles Dunois, and your rooming with him because he is the third male IS pilot.' Yui said. Huh, you would think I would remember something important like that. All well. I stood up and started to walk to the front of class before I turned to Ms. Orimura. "Wait, where is he?" I asked.
"He'll be arriving at the school shortly, so you are to go and meet him at the gate. After that, come introduce him to the class before I dismiss you two so you can show her around the school. Think you can remember that this time?" She said, clearly frustrated.
"Sure thing…" I said as I finished walking to the door, "Chi-Chan!" A quick duck to avoid the ruler coming through the BLOODY WALL allowed me to escape unscathed, at least until my return.
'It's fun to pick on her and all, but I might stop shielding you.' Yui said with a snicker.
"That would be rude, and not very smart. We do share this body ya know. If I die, you'll probably die also." I said out loud.
"Right… I'll keep your shields up from now on…" she said as she materialized and walked with me. I continued to not ask her how she was able to actually do that, despite Roberts increasingly annoying attempts to get an answer out of her. I knew that she would tell me when she was ready and saw no need to push the subject, and while Yui didn't say it directly, I knew that my efforts (or rather my lack of efforts) was greatly appreciated.
"So what does Charles look like?" I asked. "It shouldn't be hard to spot him, considering we'll probably be there when he pulls in, but it's helpful to put a face to a name."
"Here ya go J." she said, swiping her hand towards me while causing a holographic image to appear in my vison. A short haired blond with purple eyes. It wasn't much of a picture of his body, being the typical head shot that personal ID cards had, but I immediately thought the guy looked feminine.
"I don't know what I was expecting, but that wasn't it." I said, pointing to the picture. "I'm no expert, but damn that looks like a girl."
"You've taken too many hits to the head for you to say he's a girl." Yui said with a mischievous smile as we walked outside.
"That's your fault!" I said, grabbing Yui and putting her in a loose head lock. As soon as she registered what I had planned, she started flailing her arms and legs, letting out screams of terror and apologies for her antics. It didn't save her, however, from me doing the one thing she hated: ruffling her hair. Between her yelling and my laughing, we didn't hear the person's approach until they cleared their voice.
"Um, hello there." The person, upon looking up I realized it was Charles, said with a confused look towards us. "A-Are you two the people I was told would be waiting for me?"
"You were told there would be more than one?" I asked, only to be hit on the head by Yui. "OW! What's with people hitting my head today?"
"Yes, were the people you were told to meet. I'm Yui, James' IS core." Yui said, receiving a shocked expression from Charles. "Before you ask, I'd rather not explain the overly technical reason why you can see me."
'Well at least there's a reason' I thought, making sure Yui couldn't hear me. "Yeah. She's annoying, evil, and at times homicidal, but she has her uses." I teased. "I'm James by the way. Nice to meet you…"
'Yui there's no way that's a guy.' I thought, making sure Yui could hear me this time.
'J, what are you talking about? It's totally a guy!' Yui complained.
'No way, that's a girl. Mark my words it's a girl, or I'll give you whatever you want.' I declared.
'OH, YOUR SO ON!'
'Ground rules: we can't ask directly, and we can't spy on him/her. He/She has to slip up on their own.' I said, leaving no room for argument.
'Fine.'
"It's a pleasure to meet you both." Charles said, drawing us from Yui and I from our private conversation. "I hope that we can become friends"
"I'm sure were going to get along great, otherwise being roommates is going to suck." I said, getting a laugh out of him, or rather her. That laugh sounded just a little too feminine. His voice when speaking, however, was pretty good. Clearly French, despite speaking English at the moment, due to her heavy accent. His posture was also quite well, but I could tell that it was rehearsed. It was the subtle cues that were hard for most people to see. Even I, despite my best attempts to learn, hadn't been able to properly grasp the concepts. I had learned just enough though to help me out.
Basically there were things that just couldn't be hidden. Most of it resides in the actual skeletal differences between males and females, like the hip and cheek bones. These could be covered up by surgery, but the way a person acted often betrayed that. Things like when a girl would put her hand on her hip when giving sass to someone, or how their body's muscles developed to compensate for the added, um… chest weight. Naturally, changing how one acted required having to act a different way, almost constantly, until it became how the normally acted.
Charles had the tell-tale signs of someone who had gone through the training to change her actions, but hadn't finished. Thus, his head tilt and smile looked VERY feminine, but it had a second, unwanted effect as well.
It made me feel damn awkward.
"Right. Well, shall we get to class? I'm supposed to introduce you to the class." I said, trying to get over my weird feeling.
"Oh, right! Please, lead the way." He said. No wait, she. Gah, this was going to be confusing until it was all sorted out. I let Yui lead the way while I walked behind Charles. Immediately, I realized her hair was actually longer than it appeared in the picture, mainly due to it being in a ponytail behind her. I also noticed that she had a small orange winged necklace that was undoubtedly her personal IS. It didn't surprise me really, seeing as to transfer into the academy, one had to be very smart and talented with an IS. Most of said people usually had their own IS already. Eventually we reached the classroom, and boy were they surprised.
"Alright everyone, this is Charles Dunois. He's joining our class as of today and is also going to be my roommate." I said, ignoring the loud complaints and protests coming from about half the girls in the class. The other half simply glared daggers at Charles, but he just kept smiling. "MOVING ON!" I yelled, taking on a drill instructor voice and quieting everyone down better than Ms. Orimura. "I expect you to all treat him with the same level of respect you would give me, Robert, or Ichika. Are we clear?"
"Y-YES SIR!" The class responded, and the girls who were glaring at her quickly averted their eyes.
"Good, is there anything you want to add?" I asked Charles.
"Yes, thank you." He said in his weird half boy, half girl voice that was OBVOUSLY that of a girl. "I hope we can all get along great and be friends." He said, giving another smile and head tilt that ended up making me feel awkward again. Apparently I wasn't the only one, because Robert raised his eyebrow and sent me a silent question. We both wanted to know just who this "guy" was.
"Thank you James, Charles. You can continue your tour of the school now. Ill expect to see you both in class on Monday." Ms. Orimura said. Charles and I both nodded and walked out, meeting up with Yui who had stayed outside the classroom.
"So, where do you wana go?" Yui asked with her trademark innocent smile. Too bad for her I knew better than to trust that smile.
"Well, why don't you show her around Yui?" I said, getting surprised glances from the both of them. "I need to take care of a few things. I'll catch up with you both back at the room ok?"
"Sure thing J!" Yui said happily.
"Oh, ok then. Ill see you later then James." Charles said, giving YET ANOTHER HEAD TILT SMILE. Gah that just made me feel weird! I turned and headed towards the IS maintenance bays, eager to go over the new upgrades to the Mark V.
It took me a little while to walk over to the maintenance area, this place was just freeking huge and the maintenance area was clear across the campus from the classrooms. As I walked up to the door, I flashed my ID card and strolled on in, walking up to my IS's pen. Standing there in the center of the pen was the Mark V, looking no different than it did last week, with the exception of two golden bands on each arm. One was around each of the wrist plates, and the other was up towards the elbows. Other than that minor change, which only looked like a paint job, there was nothing else that made it look different.
And that's just the way I wanted it.
A FEW HOURS LATER.
I whipped the grease off my forehead onto my sleeve. Never have I been so happy than I was at that moment. Despite the lack of any change in appearance, I now had quite a few new toys to play with, courtesy of losing a bet with Tabane. While I still feared what she wanted me to do for her, I largely felt it was completely worth it for the massive amounts of goodies she had sent me.
"Well, guess I should be getting back. Don't want to hear Yui's speech about 'when you make a girl a promise' again." I muttered to myself before locking down the suit and leaving the area. Thankfully, Yui was always monitoring the IS, so if someone who wasn't allowed to use it started messing with it, I would know immediately. After the long trip back to the dorms, I walked into my room and immediately took off my shirt, only to hear a VERY feminine yelp from my left.
"J-James! W-What are you doing?" Charles asked, her face reddening as I tossed my shirt into the dirty clothes pile.
"Well, my shirt was dirty and greasy, so I was going to put on a new one." I stated flatly. If Charles was going to be this obvious it almost made it not worth the bet with Yui.
"O-Oh… Right." He said, trying to recompose herself. "Still, could you warn me next time? I… don't want to see another guy naked."
"Pfff, good luck in the military then." I said with a small smirk. "Most of the time were just lucky to get a shower, so we don't care about being seen by either gender."
"S-So you're in the military?" He asked.
"I guess I am still, all things considered. I learned I could pilot an IS in the military, despite what the news says, and they let me come here. I wouldn't be surprised when the swoop in out of nowhere and demand me to go off on some mission for them." I said, pulling on a clean shirt. "What about you? How did you learn you could pilot an IS?"
"Oh, you didn't hear about it on the news?"
"Don't watch much news. Most of the time Yui just gives me a rundown of what's happening in the world. Speaking of Yui, where is she?" I asked, and put on a confused look when Charles chuckled.
"She's in the cafeteria. Something about the cooking there being better than yours." He said with a giggle.
"Ungrateful little… Anyway, no, I didn't see your news broadcast." I sighed, getting us back to my first question.
"Right. My father is the CEO of Dunois Industries, so naturally I grew up around IS units. Because everyone universally thought that only males could pilot an IS, I only studied about the IS until you and Ichika were discovered as IS pilots. After that, I was given a chance to try and pilot a basic training unit, and everyone was surprised when I could." He said, though his expression had changed. He was happy before, but now his face held a slightly pained expression. "After that I studied up on different languages and was sent here by my father."
"I take it you two aren't on the best of terms?"
"Yes… To say our relationship is strained wouldn't be inaccurate."
"Well, he can't touch you here, so you're going to be fine." I said, sitting down in a chair before coming to an idea. "Hey, you have your own IS, right?"
"H-How did…" she started to say.
"Well, you're from France and are probably like me. They asked you to be a male representative contender for the country like the US did with me, so you would have to have your own IS."
"Yes. The Raphael-Revive Custom II. Why?"
"Well there's a school wide tournament this weekend. I don't know if you could still join, but it could be fun." I said with a smile. "Those with their own IS are in a separate category, so if you make it far in the tournament, we could have a battle."
"That does sound like fun, but do you think I could join when it starts so soon?" she asked.
"I don't see why not." A voice came from the doorway. "Glad to see your adjusting well."
"Hey Chi-Chan." I said offhandedly, and surprisingly I didn't get hit this time. "What, no clipboard or book to throw?"
"Don't get coy with me James. I know you had the room soundproofed. As long as no one overhears, I couldn't care less what you call me." Chifuyu said, showing a surprisingly easy going side.
"Dear lord, I didn't believe in miracles before, but now I do!" I said jokingly, only to have my shields take a hit. Warning, shields have taken damage from a friendly target. Shield points currently 600/625. Threat level: VERY DANGEROUS. I looked down at what she had thrown at me, only to see a pencil. "Ok… you officially scare the living shit out of me."
"Then stop with the smartass remarks." She said simply. "Now then, Dunois, if you want I can put you into the tournament. A slot opened up today in a training accident where a student broke her leg. Needless to say, she won't be competing. Your welcome to the slot should you want it."
"Thank you. I greatly appreciate it." She said with a small bow. "As long as it wouldn't pose any issue, then ill happily accept your offer."
"Then it's settled. The tournament starts tomorrow at noon. You will be in the first match against James." She said with a smirk.
"Oh, that's just low." I muttered. Warning, shields have taken damage from a friendly target. Shield points currently 550/625. Threat level: STOP TALKING YOU IDIOT! "A FUCKING ERASER CAP!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"
"Still got it." Was all Chifuyu said before leaving a stunned Charles, and a VERY CONFUSED AND CONSERNED me, to our awkward situation.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Well shit." I said. "That's not how I expected that to go."
"Yes, I wasn't expecting to have to battle my roommate in the first battle." Charles said.
"No not that! That demon just brought my shields down a full 75 points using a pencil and an eraser cap!" I said, my voice full of terror.
"J, shouldn't you be focusing on how were going to beat a custom IS?" Yui asked, appearing out of nowhere.
"Oh… nah, I'm sure we'll be fine." I said. "Besides, this isn't the place for that. The last thing I want to do is create a strategy with my opponent STANDING INFRONT OF ME."
"Oh…" Yui said as she turned around to see Charles standing there. "Right."
"Well, you did say you wished me to go far in the tournament so that we could battle. Now we just need to get to fight earlier." Charles said, giving a determined smile.
"Well, if your fine with it, then I am too." I said.
"Best man wins?" Charles asked, offering her fist for a fist bump. Hopefully she couldn't tell I had figured her out as a girl.
"Let's take it a bit further. Loser has to tell the winner whatever they want. Any dirty little secret the winner wants."
"Deal." He said without hesitation.
"Then let's have fun tomorrow!" I said, pounding my fist with his.
THE NEXT DAY
"How many do we have up and running now?" I asked Robert as we went over our strategy in the morning. We were sitting in the maintenance bay eating breakfast again, though this time we had better supplies.
"Roughly six." He replied. "Don't know if you count your own modifications as one, so not counting that one, five."
"Oh, it counts, and it's up and running just fine… I hope." I said, muttering the last part.
"It should run just fine. I haven't detected anything wrong, and I stayed up all night running simulations." Yui said, taking another bite of the waffles I had made. "Hey, these aren't half bad!"
"Gee, glad you like them compared to last week's pancakes." I said, glaring at Yui. "Charles said you were in the cafeteria complaining about my cooking."
"NO I JUST LIKED THEIRS BETTER!" Yui yelled, clearly embarrassed.
A FEW HOURS LATER
I was walking into the male changing room. Normally, it was quiet in here, but with three guys (Or should I say two guys and a girl) it was a bit louder. Not in a bad way, but it was a bit strange changing with a civilian girl.
"So Charles, how are you adjusting?" Ichika said, getting ready for his match against Cecilia in arena two. "James hasn't gotten into a fist fight with you, has he?"
"W-What? Of course he hasn't!" Charles said.
"What's this!" He yelled, knowing I had come in. "You going soft on this guy and not me? Or is it that your attracted to him and don't want to hurt him."
"Sod off Ichika. He's been here for a day and is entering the tournament! Obviously I wouldn't do anything beforehand." I said, giving the two of them a smirk. "Wouldn't be a fair fight otherwise."
"Oh, that's new. Normally you're not this eager to fight. It's mostly a calm Zen like trance when we spar." Ichika commented.
"This isn't training, and it's not a real battle." I raised my hand to stop their protests. "What I mean by that is that no one can die. To me, this is basically full contact sparing and I have a few new toys I want to try out."
"Ohh that explains it. You got a big new gun. Should have figured, since that's really the only way your eager to actually get into a fight." He said. Charles had walked around the corner to get into his combat outfit.
"Like I said Ichika, sod off. It's not every day you get a grenade launcher that doubles as a fucking railgun! I just had to try that out!"
"Un-huh, and you just HAD to try it out on me."
"Well yea. You're the only one dense enough to say yes." I teased, getting a laugh out of Charles as he walked around the corner in his combat outfit. 'Not obvious at all Charles… not obvious at all.'
"From what little I've heard about you Ichika, I think that he, how you say, hit the nail on the head on that one." 'He' said.
"Don't forget our little bet Charles. I can't wait to see your face when I win this tournament." I said.
"Still gota go through me and Charles, James. Don't get cocky." Ichika chuckled. "Otherwise you might lose like Cecilia has a habit of doing."
"Oh, low blow there man." I said, quickly putting on my combat outfit as Ichika did the same. Charles quickly and conveniently ducked out, saying he was going to his staging area.
"Alright man, what the hell is going on between you two." Ichika said the moment Charles left. "And don't tell me it's nothing, I'm not as dense as everyone things I am."
"I doubt that." I muttered. "It's nothing to be worried about. And before you ask, no, I'm not gay damn it!"
"Well then what is it!" he pressed. "If it's nothing to worry about, then why can't I know?"
"Tell you what, if you and I fight at some point, I'll tell you if you win. If I win, you basically become my bitch for a day. Deal?"
"What if we don't end up fighting each other?" he said. "There's probably a good chance we'll end up not fighting since most of the personal IS users are 2nd and 3rd years."
"Whoever lasts longer in that scenario wins. So do we have a deal or not?" I asked.
"Yeah, you're on man. Deal." He replied.
"Good. Now I have two reasons to go out and whoop Charles ass." Upon seeing Ichika's smirk I continued. "NOT LIKE THAT YOU BASTARD! Now get out of here, our matches are about to start!"
We both left the locker room, telling each other not to lose to anyone else before our fight. Unfortunately, based on the bracket system, we would have to win 5 matches each in order to for us to fight. We gave each other a fist bump and went our ways.
As I walked into the IS launch hangar, Robert and Yui were waiting for me. Unfortunately, their waiting often ended in yelling and arguing, followed by Yui threatening him in some way with some files on his computer.
"Alright, Yui, I want you internal. No offence, but I don't think it would be a good idea for the world to see you just yet." I said breaking them up. "There's a lot of companies, sponsors, and generally important people out there today, including SG-1. Their mostly here for Cassandra, but I'll put money on Carter being out there as well for our match, so let's not show you off until we have to."
"Got it J." Yui said, jumping into my head.
"Robert, I honestly don't have much for you. I want you to go and watch the match for my next opponent so that I have an idea on who it is and what their skillset is."
"No problem. What set are you going to use against Charles though?" he asked.
"Since we don't know the specks on her IS, let's just leave all options open. Just in case. Don't worry, once I use one, I'll stick to it. Don't want people getting a good idea of all our tricks."
"Got it. Ill head up to the control room and make sure their all up. After that ill head to the arena for recon." He said, walking out. "Good luck to ya man!"
"I don't need luck," I yelled back to him, "I HAVE AMMO!"
'Wow, you went there?' Yui asked mentally.
'Yui, I yelled IM FIRING MY LAZOR, when I used the Unibeam. Of course I'm going there.'
'Fair enough. Now let's go win this J.' And with that, I started walking.
By the time I reached the edge of the hangar, there was a large roar of approval from the crowd. The stands were completely packed, but that didn't surprise me. This was the first match of the tournament, and it was two of the supposed three male IS pilots fighting. It would be just about all eyes on this match, with more than enough eyes still on Ichika's match.
Looking over to the student section, I managed to spot Casandra and Cecilia with Yui's help. They were both waiving, but were far enough away from each other to not realize they were doing the same thing, while close enough that my return waive made them think I had been responding to them.
"You ready for this?" Charles asked, opening up a private channel with me.
"But of course I am. What gave you the impression that I wasn't?" I teased.
"Well, for one your standing there with a briefcase… and you don't have your IS."
"Ah, that's where your wrong." I said with a smirk and tossed the briefcase onto the floor of the hangar, leaving everyone who was watching (which was EVERYONE since Charles had already flown out of her hangar.) confused. The briefcase changed to its true metallic colors and prepped for deployment. One glorious and drawn out armor-up later, I stood there in my Mark V IS in all its glory. For added effect, I had Yui hack the speakers and play none other than Thunderstruck by ACDC.
And the crowd went nuts.
'Gah, that's such a cliché!' Yui complained.
"Wait, is that not the Iron Man from the movies? How do you have an IS such as that?" Charles questioned over our private link.
"uh-uh, nice try Charles. You only get to ask questions like that if you win, remember?" I said with a smirk. Now then… LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!" I yelled, launching up into the air as the final buzzer went off, signaling the start of the match. Charles quickly materialized a Vent, a .55 caliber assault rifle with a detachable magazine that held 16 rounds. Rather than immediately trying to fire at me, Charles instead aimed down her sights and waited for the right chance to fire. When she finally did, I was very impressed.
If I had been in the Rouge, or as Cassandra called it 'Invictus', the round would have hit my left wing and sent me to the ground. Thankfully, being in a much smaller frame that didn't require the wings for flight, the round grazed my shields, only dropping them by a point.
What had really impressed me was the range at which she had taken the shot. Her Vent, while having a longer range than a sub-machine gun or shotgun, still didn't have the range of a sniper rifle. Despite that, she still managed to hit me at double the standard distance for her Vent.
"Nice shot. Not many people could pull off something like that." I said via the private channel.
"Why thank you. I did learn from some of the best in France!" Charles replied, firing another round. This time I had moved a bit closer and the round collided with my shields dead center. To make matters worse, it had been an HE round, so there was extra damage from the explosion. "Hopefully you will be putting up more of a challenge than that!"
The smoke from the explosion was still lingering around me, completely obscuring Charles' view of me. I needed to get in close and see what other weapons she had before I could properly counter her, so I did something stupid. Naturally.
Bursting through the smoke, I shot towards her at full speed. Apparently, she was shocked by my maneuver and didn't fire another round until it was too late. When she did fire, the round went flying and hit the stadium's shields harmlessly. The reason it didn't hit me? I had barreled into her like a battering ram and brought both of us crashing into the ground.
'Please don't do that again J.' Yui muttered. 'I think I'm actually dizzy from that.'
'Trust me, I don't plan on doing that again anytime soon.' I replied. 'What's our shields at after that?'
'Holding steady at 600. Most of the damage was from her HE round and not the crash landing. Can't say the same for her shields though.'
There was a bright flash as the dust started to settle. Fearing the worst, I quickly got up and combat rolled to the right, narrowly avoiding a blast from her new weapon. A .62 caliber heavy shotgun with the words "Rain of Saturday" etched into the side.
"Just hold still would you!" Charles said as she fired another round, only to miss yet again. I fell back, just outside of her effective range with her shotgun and fired my repulsor gauntlets at her, forcing her to dodge for once.
"Be careful of what you ask for!" I teased in an evil tone. "You just might get it!" I kept firing at her, making sure that at least a few blasts managed to hit. I could tell she still had more in reserve, but I had a pretty good idea of what her IS was capable of now. Just had to be sure before I truly went on the offensive.
Turns out I didn't have to wait long, as Charles' shotgun vanished as a pair of Garm .61 Caliber SMGs replaced it. She immediately opened fire and took a chunk of my shield points. If there ever was a time to use my ace in the hole, it was now.
"Yui, Defender!" I said calmly, making sure Charles heard me over the private link.
"Already ready!" she replied as I moved my left arm out in front of me. Coming off my armor, the two golden bands flew off and hovered in front of me, the bottom one went to the ground while the top one hovered roughly 2 and a half meters above the other. The instant they were in place, a blue force field appeared and blocked the rest of Charles' rounds with no damage being done.
"W-What is that!" Charles asked through the link.
"This is Safeguard. A defensive shield that blocks just about everything while on a separate power supply. This baby won't go down from power loss and doesn't take away shield energy." I explained before dashing forward and swung my arm forward, using Safeguard as a battering ram and sending Charles flying back.
She recovered quickly and did the next predictable thing; she glided around me in a circle while firing, intending to use her speed to get around Safeguard. This would have worked, however, if not for me firing a round in her path from my shoulder mounted grenade launcher in its Railgun form. The explosion, enhanced by the liquid Naquadah tip of the round, sent her flying clear across the arena.
IN THE CONTROL ROOM
Chifuyu's PoV
"Ms. Orimura, there was a large explosion in Arena one." Ms. Yamada said, looking up from her screen. The control room was under the arena instead of outside in the stadium, mainly for safety reasons incase the academy was attacked.
"I'm well aware of that. Their match is up on the screen." I said, feeling like Maya had just stated the painfully obvious.
"I understand that, but the shields in the area took a huge hit! We lost roughly five percent of the shields strength from just the one blast." Maya said, a bit of fear in her voice.
"Let me see." I said, moving Maya out of the way a bit forcefully. I felt bad slightly, but if what she said was true, and it was, then there were a bunch of new problems I would have to address. The first one being…
"What the hell did he shoot?" Maya said, slowly getting backup after falling.
"And what the hell else is he capable of?" I added in a quiet whisper.
BACK IN ARENA ONE
"MY WORD! ICHIKA LET YOU USE THAT ON HIM!" Charles said, her face visibly paling as she got back up. "JUST HOW DENSE IS THAT MAN!"
"Very dense." I said with a laugh. "Of course, he didn't know what he was getting into until it hit him. Literall-HEY!"
I was cut off by Charles slamming her shoulder into Safeguard, causing me to do a quick roll backwards to still be protected by the unbreakable shield. It was then that I noticed Charles grinning slightly, presumably thinking she had the upper hand.
A piece of her armor came off and reviled a small, cylindrical tube with a muzzle coming off of it. Etched on the side of the muzzle were some words, but I couldn't make them out. Immediately firing while still basically on top of me, the round slammed into Safeguard. Instead of what I was expecting, the round started digging through the force field, but thankfully stopped roughly half way. Apparently this surprised Charles as well, as she fired two more times. Her last shot broke through, though it had the effect of a regular pistol instead of whatever force had been behind it before.
Spinning around and sweeping Charles off her feet, no not that way damn it, I repeatedly bashed the weakened Safeguard against her shields. While stunning her, I had Yui prep the grenade launcher to switch to its railgun firing mode, which was twice a powerful. Now staring the railgun down the barrel, I gave Charles a choice.
"You and I can keep fighting, or you can surrender." I said in a completely calm voice. "I really don't want to fire this at point blank. Last time I shot something explosive at close range, I nearly died."
"I-I-I yield." She muttered and another buzzer went off, signaling I had won. Smiling, I deactivated the railgun and Safeguard while reaching down and offering my hand to help her up.
"Damn good fight. Just what the hell is that under-armor cannon?" I said as she grabbed my hand and I pulled her up. She was blushing heavily after stumbling and all but kissing me in the process, but she recovered quickly enough.
"It's called Grey Scales." She said, rotating her arm so I could properly see the inscription. "It's one of Dunois Industries few success attempts at a shield pierce weapon. Its limited to extreme close range though. I'm more interested in knowing how a grenade could cause that much damage."
"That's my little secret." I said before walking back to my hangar. "At least, for now it is. Oh, and don't forget our little bet."
"How could I forget." I heard her mumble before she walked back to her hanger.
HALF AN HOUR LATER
"Dude you were epic!" Robert yelled. "I didn't think that Defender would work so well!"
"Are you saying you didn't have faith in my engineering skills?" I asked, acting offended. "Robert you know I out preformed you in every test we had back during training. Why would now be any different?"
"Because while you aced the classes, every single experiment you tried ended up failing miserably.." he deadpanned.
"Shut up." I said. After the match I had taken a shower and was now sitting in the stands watching a match in the regular student bracket. Casandra's match was currently going, but by the time I would have made it over to her arena it would have been over. Other than that, there were no personal IS matches going on, the next ones starting in another hour and mine wasn't for another hour after that.
"So why didn't you use all of Defender's capabilities?" He asked. "You only used Safeguard and the grenade launcher."
"Gota have some secrets still. Plus I was confident in beating her with just those. Almost got worried when she started to pierce Safeguard though." I commented. "Still, it took her a few shots with a shield pierce weapon, so it should be fine."
"J you designed that to withstand a shield pierce weapon" Commented Yui, who was in her Pixie form and was sitting on my shoulder.
"Yeah, but not multiple strikes in the same spot. Sure it's an energy shield, but sti-OW!" I yelled as someone grabbed my ear and started to drag me. Looking up, which was quite painful, I saw that it was Chifuyu. "OW STOP DRAGING ME BY MY EAR! I CAN WALK YOU KNOW!"
"Follow me then." She said, tossing me forward. I slowly got up and started following her, with Yui and Robert following closely behind. After a bit of walking, an elevator ride, and some more walking, we reached the underground control room.
"So, mind telling us why we're here? And why you literally dragged me part of the way?" I asked, clearly irritated.
"How about you answer my questions!" She yelled, startling everyone. "How the hell did a single grenade cause an explosion that dropped the stadiums shields by five percent?"
"What do you mean?" Robert asked, not as scared as me and Yui. Sighing, Chifuyu pulled up the shield readings from my match with Charles.
"When James fired the round from his launcher, it missed Charles and collided with the stadium shields. Despite that, the explosion was large enough to send him flying and dropped the stadium shields by five percent. Had that round impacted directly on his shields, he would have died."
Robert, Yui, and I stayed silent for a couple seconds. This was quickly going bad in all the worst ways possible. We couldn't tell her about how the grenade worked without telling her about classified information. Plus she thought I had tried to kill Charles, so she wouldn't be taking 'sorry, it's classified' for an answer… or was there?
"Mam." I said, addressing her as a commanding officer. "To clarify, revealing this is a breach of classified information. Are you asking me to disregard my orders?"
"Yes damnit! A student could have died, so I don't care about things being classified!" She yelled, clearly agitated by my response.
"Very well." I said, stunning everyone in the room. "Knowing your relationship with Tabane, you'll probably find out from her anyway. Regardless, you must hold this information under the HIGHEST classification of top secret. Do you understand?"
"Start talking." She said, sitting down and calming down.
"The round works by replacing traditional HE round components with a new element called Naquadah. This element, discovered by the US military, has been discovered to enhance explosions by a minimum factor of two. That said, I knew it would have killed her with her shields as they were from a test with Ichika not too long ago." I stated.
"You tested this on my brother?" Chifuyu said, barely holding in her rage.
"Yes, but I had warned him about the dangers beforehand. He knew exactly what he was walking into. The results were that it all but depleted his shields. Using that information and knowledge of the rounds explosive radius, I fired it at the shields to get what damage I could on his unit."
"On Ichika's?" Robert asked, clearly confused.
"No you idiot! On Charles!" Yui said, slapping Robert.
"That being said," I continued, ignoring those two, "it is only fired from the railgun, not the launcher, which gives it its additional destructive capabilities. Typical HE rounds with a Naquadah tip won't do nearly as much damage. Also, don't ask me why, but Tabane saw it fit to send me grenades with a mixture of micrograms of Naquadah and Potassium, while enveloped in a gel saturated with another classified element mixed with Deuterium. When it goes off, the grenade produces an explosion somewhere around one kiloton."
Upon hearing this, Chifuyu visibly paled. Understandable, considering I had just told her that I had the equivalent of a nuclear grenade minus the radiation. However, nothing could have prepared me for what she said next.
"That will be all."
"Just like that!?" Robert questioned. "But… He just said he had a super grenade on steroids!"
"I am aware of that." Chifuyu clarified. "And while it terrifies me, I couldn't do anything to take it from him even if I wanted to."
"Wait… did I just hear Chi-Chan admit to not being able to beat someone?" Yui asked, her voice laced with disbelief.
"That's not it." I said, eying Chifuyu who nodded. "It's a respect between warriors. She trusts me to not use it. Honestly the damn thing scares the hell out of me too."
"Plus I had said I wanted to know how you did it. I never said anything about punishment or taking action afterwards." Chifuyu added. Despite her ability to kill me with a damn eraser cap, I think she was actually warming up to me.
Warning, shields have taken damage from a friendly target. Shield points currently 457/625. Threat level: STOP TRYING TO DIE!
"I'm not even going to look down at what the hell that was. Just know that you terrify me almost more than that damn grenade." I said as I turned around and started to leave. "Oh, and there's a LOT more than meets the eye about all of this."
"Ms. Orimura! There was another explosion. This one from arena three!" Ms. Yamada, half the time she was called 'sexy teacher' by Robert, yelled as she ran into the room.
"Casandra." I sighed. "She and I both came from the same organization, so it makes sense she would have similar, if not the same, grenades."
"Have a talk with her after her match ok? Make sure she won't use the kiloton." Chifuyu said before following Ms. Yamada. Robert, Yui, and I proceeded to arena three after being allowed to leave.
"So… Why did you tell her that?" Robert asked. "You know were not supposed to talk about shit like that unless we can get them to join… you bastard! You're trying to get her to join the Stargate program!"
"Of course I am. Having the first Brunhilde helping out at the SGC would be AMAZINGLY valuable." I said. "If she could train people operating SGC IS's, think of how much better our forces would be when off-world."
"True, but I'm iffy on her joining." Robert said.
"That's just because you like her. Like I said, she would be training, not operating off-world." I explained. "In the end its general Hammond's decision, but I'm pretty sure he would be influenced by my opinion."
"Whatever, let's just drop it. We do have two and three quarters of a year to go through still before we have to make the decision."
"Your right. For now, let's just enjoy the tournament and go see how Casandra's match ended." I said, getting a cheer out of Yui. A few minutes later and we were standing in the stands, watching the match continue to our great surprise.
From the looks of it, Casandra was going against the Canadian candidate. Her IS, a dull rust red with yellow stars on the shoulders, looked to be an early second generation Predator. Initially designed as the Canadian's equivalent of the French Rafale-Revive basic and the Japanese Uchigane, it had proved to be costly to mass produce. By the time production stopped, only ten Predator frames had been created.
This one in particular looked like it had been heavily modified. Or maybe it wasn't. There was very little known about what the original frame for Predator's looked like, since all ten had disappeared, only showing up every now and again, each time looking different than the last.
"Sir, I think that IS is using technology retrieved from the Stargate." I heard someone say, immediately getting my full attention. Looking around, I sighed in relief when I spotted none other than SG-1.
"Hey Carter! Daniel, Jack, Teill'k!" I yelled, getting their attention as Robert and I approached them. Yui immediately ducked into my head so Carter wouldn't question her constantly.
"Well, well, well, look who it is! The shower answerer! Where's the girl who was with you?" Jack teased, knowing I hated that call and had used the bet to get back at her. We exchanged greetings with everyone before he continued. "You know, making that woman work her ass off for a whole night is rather rude. Especially when we were off-world at the time."
"Right. I'm so sorry about that." I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "So anyway, how did she do?"
"Tabane preformed surprisingly well." Teill'k said. "I was quite surprised at her understanding of hand to hand combat."
"You didn't…" I muttered
"He did." Jack, Carter and Daniel all said together.
"Well that's only mildly terrifying. So how's Casandra's match been going?" I asked, taking a seat behind the group. Thankfully we were located in a fairly empty area, so there was plenty of seating.
"Pretty well actually." Daniel said, turning back towards the match. "I should feel surprised at this, but then again she has a lot of motivation."
"I'll say." Robert and Carter said together. Nodding to Carter, she continued. "Being used as a human bomb as a child defiantly would make a person want to get as strong as possible."
"It's not like she hasn't expressed an interest in joining the SGC either." Jack said. "The girl's developed a stubborn streak. Won't take no for an answer when it comes to joining."
"That why she's here?" I asked.
"Yeah. Doc Fraiser wouldn't let her join outright without some form of training." Jack continued. "Certainly helps to be able to pilot one of the most deadly weapons ever created."
"Well we think that part of that has to do with the Naquadah in her bloodstream." Carter said, raising her hand to avoid interruption. "We don't know how, yet. Were still running tests."
"Hey guys…" Daniel said, "Look at that."
We all turned our attention to the match, and were fairly shocked to see Cassandra's IS in a smoldering ruin. Thankfully, she appeared to be alive and well, but it didn't look like it was going to stay that way for long. The Canadian Predator had walked up to Casandra and aimed what looked like a modified staff weapon at her.
"The match is over, right?" Jack muttered. "Carter, tell me the match is over."
"Its over sir, but it doesn't look like that girl is going to stop." Carter replied, her voice slightly higher due to her nervousness.
'J, Chi-Chan is telling the student to stand down, but she isn't listening.' Yui said.
'Think we need to intervene?' I asked.
'Considering how pissed off Chi-Chan is, I'd say yes!'
Before anyone could say anything else, I had burst from my seat and had Yui deploy the Mark V. Screw being fancy and dramatic, I needed it NOW. Slamming into the shield between the stands and the arena, I had Yui hack the emitters around me to go faulty for a couple seconds, allowing me to go flying in and hit the Canadian pilot with Safeguard.
"Cassandra, you ok?" I asked, ignoring the enemy IS to turn and check on her.
"Y-Yeah. I'm more worried about what Mom's gona say about this when she hears it." She said, giving a half-hearted laugh. "James… can you do something for me?"
"Sure." I said immediately. Casandra's eyes turned cold and serious.
"Kick that bitch's ass for me."
"With pleasure." I smiled at the Canadian pilot. Not a normal smile, but a smile that said 'I'm going to thoroughly fuck you up for hurting my friends.' A private line opened up, and Chifuyu's face appeared.
"JAMES WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOUR DOING!"
"I'm subduing the rouge pilot so that you can get Cassandra out of the arena and to medical attention." I said sternly.
"We have personal waiting to do just that!" She argued.
"Then you should have sent them in when that bitch was about to kill Casandra." I replied, my voice filled with rage. "Get your people here soon and get Casandra out of her, or by god I'll use that grenade to end this."
"Humpf. Very well. Just know that you're going to face punishment for this."
"Whatever." I said before Yui cut the link. Immediately, a new one opened without visual.
"You are in my way. Move." Came a female voice. Clearly it was the Canadian pilot.
"And let you hurt my friend? I'll die before that happens."
"So be it." The pilot said before firing a large rifle at me. Slamming Safeguard in front of me, I was surprised when I was actually pushed back from the blast. A quick look at the gun, and it was clear that it wasn't anything standard in the IS markets.
Charging forward, I swept my arm out when the pilot fired again. Most of the blast was deflected and let me keep running forward. Just as the pilot fired a third time, I deployed the safeguard on my other arm and pulled the same movement until a grenade was inside both Safeguards.
Yui quickly dropped both shields before the blast went off, preventing the full explosion from hitting me. Meanwhile, I got sent flying back into the stadium shield. Groaning as I got up, I quickly realized what I was up against.
'J that's a HMG Devastator .50 Caliber rifle with liquid Naquadah tipped rounds. The grenade is also Naquadah enhanced!' Yui said, coming to the same realization as I did.
'I know. I just remembered hearing Carter say that IS had Stargate tech.'
'What are you going to do?'
"OPPRESSOR!" I yelled. Yui, understanding what I was thinking, activated the necessary systems.
The Mark V started changing. Flashes of light appeared all over as armor plates were equipped, while both Safeguard bars returned to their slots. After a few seconds, the changes had finished, leaving me in a much better armored IS.
Thankfully, the Oppressor was one of the few alterations that were up and running, and one of my personal favorites. The extra armor, and with it came additional shield emitters, gave me extreme explosive resistance and nearly double my normal shields without any serious changes in appearances. Mostly, the suit just looked bulkier, though plates had been put over the Safeguard bars so they couldn't deploy.
Shooting forward, I completely ignored the rounds hitting my shields as the Canadian pilot fired in precise bursts. When she fired a grenade at me, I shocked her by grabbing it and throwing it right back at her. She dodged to the left, only to get hit by a grenade of my own.
As the pilot flew through the air, two Eradicator SMG's flashed into my hands. Specially modified to fire energy blasts similar to my repulsors, but at a much faster rate. Turning immediately, I lit up the Canadian Predator as it flew and crashed, continuing to fire at it despite the dust in the air from said crash.
Suddenly, a golden energy blast shot out of the dust cloud. It being a relatively fast projectile, I only managed to dodge a direct hit, but was quickly horrified to see that the energy blast had BYPASED the shields entirely and impacted my left shoulder.
'J! Are you ok?' Yui asked, just as startled as I was that the blast hadn't hit the shields.
'I'm fine. How's the damage?' I asked as I continued to fire into the dust cloud while dodging more golden energy blasts.
'Negligible. Most of the energy had dissipated due to the armor we added. No damage to the shields, though that doesn't matter since those blasts can shoot through them.' Yui answered. 'J, Chi-Chan just told me that Cassandra was evacuated and will be alright. The stands have also been evacuated. We don't have to hold back.'
'Good. Then let's go with THAT load-out.' I thought
'What, the chest laser? THAT'S NOT EVEN A WEAPON, LET ALONE A LOAD-OUT!' Yui yelled.
'Yui… I'm referring to the Buster Load-out.'
'But you told Chi-Chan that we wouldn't use it!' She argued.
'Yeah, but to be honest I REALLY want to see that thing go off, even if it scares me more than Chifuyu. Besides, everyone was evacuated.' I countered
'Fine…' Yui sighed. 'Loading it up now. Just be sure to have a direct line of sight so we don't miss.'
'I make no promises.' I said with a smirk as I dodged yet another golden blast.
The grenade launcher extended from my shoulder, slowly converting to its railgun form as I flew back to a… relatively safe distance. This was honestly going to hurt no matter what, but I saw no sense in needlessly hurting myself more.
After landing on the ledge of the hangar, the dust cloud finally dissipated. Standing in the center was the Canadian Predator pilot, looking like nothing interesting had happened. The railgun was charging up and was nearly ready to fire when the pilot, who had been facing the other hangar, turned around.
And as soon as he finished turning, I fired.
The blast shook the whole academy. Warning sirens and lights were going off and there was a large amount of screams coming from the distance. I couldn't see anything at the moment, everything was pitch black at the moment. I could tell my eyes were open, I was feeling myself blink after all, but I wasn't seeing anything.
Then a bright light lit the room. I thought I was dead for a second, but quickly realized it was just a flashlight. I still couldn't see much, but thankfully I could tell I was in the hanger I had been standing near before firing. How I ended up inside, and why it was so dark, I didn't know.
"Who are you?" I said, my voice cracking from the waves of pain washing over my body.
"James? James! Is that you?" The person holding the flashlight yelled. Her voice sounded familiar, but I was in too much pain to remember.
"Yeah… Its me…" I said weakly.
"Oh god!" She said before hugging me. It was only then that I recognized the accent and blond hair.
"Cecilia… Could you please not hug me so tightly?" I said through gritted teeth. "Kinda hurt all over."
"I-I'm sorry!" she said as more flashlights came into the room. She turned to them and waved them over. "Over here! James is injured!"
"It's not that… bad." I said. "Nothing like when I nearly died… or after the fight with that wackjob."
"Wait, you've nearly died before!" Cecilia yelled as I was put onto a stretcher.
"I'll explain another time." I said. "For now, can I just… get some rest?"
"Only if you promise to wake up again." Robert said as he walked in. Unfortunately I wasn't able to respond.
Because I passed out from the pain.
AND THAT DOES IT FOR CHAPTER 6!
James: I'm surprised yet again. That turned out better than I hoped it would.
Yui: Yeah! It actually went smother than expected.
Gee. Thanks for the vote of confidence you two. Anyway, PLEASE let me know how I did with the fight scenes and leave critique. It's the only way I'll be able to get better and trust me, I want to get better. Before any of you ask or go telling me that Canada doesn't or does have a representative, I DON'T CARE. This is supposed to be different from the cannon story. I got a few PM's from people complaining saying the story wasn't following the story and that people were too different. I ADDRESSED THAT IN AN EARLIER CHAPTER PEOPLE, DON'T YELL AT ME!
James: I don't think he's stopping any time soon. –Loud ranting in the background.-
Yui: Yeah… I don't think so either. Should we end this for him?
James: Might as well.
James and Yui: SEE YOU ALL NEXT TIME! AND BE SURE TO LEAVE A REVIEW!