"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
Come little orange-boy, chase the tank fairy! Through the hills and dales and off to foreign lands we go!
"This is the best. Thing. Ever!"
Man, I knew the Orange thing was a major rage button for that guy, but seeing it first-hand has been the single greatest moment of my life. He's just been spouting a continuous, incomprehensible stream of angrish for the last 3 minutes. I feel sorry for Villetta. If this is the crap she has to deal with every day since Lelouch started this trolling, her life must be hell.
Gotta say, he's doing splendid at keeping up with me. My Fog Tiger cares not for terrain or obstacles, opting to just plow right through every tree or hedge in my path. I can scale near-vertical faces and jump any gap, and that's not even using my anti-grav. Orange-boy is still right on my ass.
Oh, he's not even the slightest threat to me of course. The Sutherland's 30mm assault rifle can't even penetrate my armor. His Slash Harken and jousting lance thingy exploded on contact with my Klein Field.
I think I'll ditch him near Lelouch & Co. Then... yeah I think my business here is done. Just one last check on comm chatter.
Okay, Guilford is locked down by Todo. Cornelia is making best speed back to G1 Base. Zero is in hot pursuit. Kallen is trying to move around the flank to pincer her in. Orange-kun is spouting an unending torrent of pure hatred that literally nobody but me and Villetta are still listening to. Geez, this guy needs counseling...
And the Science Division of Misfits is... um... Oh crap.
Lancelot is on the launch pad and WHOOP there he goes.
A thunderous roar and a cloud of dust is just about any normal human could see of Suzaku charging off to rescue Warrior Princess. I saw quite a good deal more detail.
As I should have. He passed like 7 meters behind me while I was flying right across his path. He very nearly scraped my Klein Field. Going by the shout of surprise and rage from Jeremiah, he caused a bit of collateral damage to my new friend on the way through. Sucks to be Orange-kun...
Well, I guess I don't have to leave just yet. I can get some more entertainment watching Kallen and Suzaku duke it out. I don't remember exactly how their first bout went, so this should be pretty cool.
I recline back in my comfy chair and cross my arms as my mental commands open the rear of the Fog Tiger. What else would be hidden there but plasma rocket motors? My quad 2 cm locks into place on my engine deck and then the motors fire, sending me from a dead stop to 200 km/h in under a second. I've got like 300,000 kilograms of thrust in this kitty and it ain't being held back for no one!
Fuck you trees! Fuck you bushes! Fuck you rocks! Fuck you, uh... ah shit, sorry dude. I don't think I hit that guy. Probably gonna be deaf for a while though.
I slam the reverse thrusters as soon as I break through into a clearing where I see Suzaku and Kallen going at it. This quickly turns into a protracted drift as I slide sideways right between the two of them and clear into a tree on the opposite end from where I entered.
Everyone stopped everything they were doing to stare at me. Everyone except Kallen and Suzaku were huddled in cover, Cornelia on one side of the clearing, Lelouch and his Knights on the other. Cornelia still had her assault rifle, so she was able to cover herself and prevent the Black Knights from advancing on her. Basically, this was all riding solely on which ace won out here in the middle.
"So, you've decided to join us Morgan? I must thank you for your assistance. Of course, I had no need of it before you decided to interfere." Zero finally said, breaking the lull in battle I'd created.
Ah yes, the posturing. Let me just get into character.
"You already understand my reasons, Zero." I respond as the Fog emblem forms above me. "You've yet to learn that war is not a game. Once you've shed the blood of good people to pursue your ideals, you have no choice but to soldier on lest you make those deaths meaningless. I would hope you don't need to learn that lesson the hard way."
"You sound as though you speak from experience."
For a moment, I don't answer. I think back to the lives that fell by my very own guns just minutes ago. How every one of them was a person who probably just thought they were serving their country honorably.
How any one of them dying would cause the same grief and pain that Shirley felt.
"I do now."
Immediately after saying that, I get a horrible sinking feeling in my gut. Why? What gives me this sense of impending doom?
Wait... I just stated an emotional vulnerability. Out loud. In front of LELOUCH.
Son of a [screams internally]
--------
Lelouch smirked behind his mask. Oh, Morgan, how she had exposed herself there. A chink in her armor was now open to him, and he would make note of it for later use.
But her words... they weren't wrong. Perhaps he wasn't yet prepared for the cost in innocents that his campaign of revenge would reap. But that couldn't stop him. It wouldn't stop him. For his ends would justify his means.
For Nunally... He just had to keep telling himself that no cost was too great to create the world that would make her happy.
"Will you assist my ace in defeating the White Knightmare, then?"
"I can do it, Zero! I don't need the backup!" Kallen objected, charging at the Lancelot, who flipped clear over her and attempted to swipe at her from behind. The fiery redhead reacted quickly, grabbing the sword with the Gurren's Radiation Claw and obliterating it in a burst of intense energy.
Sensing that melee combat with the red Knightmare was a quick way to get himself killed, Suzaku pulled back and drew the VARIS. If he could keep his distance, he would have all the advantages with the Lancelot's superior ranged firepower!
"My objectives here have been met, leader of the Black Knights. Unless you are in dire need of me, I now only remain to observe. I have adequate entertainment, don't you think?"
Lelouch growled in annoyance at Morgan's refusal. He had confidence that Kallen would win, but speeding this up and getting that blasted White Knightmare out of his hair sooner rather than later would have been nice.
Kallen knew what her opponent was doing as soon as his hand went to the linear rifle and started reversing. Not a chance!
"Like I'd let you get away with that Brrrritannian!"
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Your siren song fills my processors with joy, you crazy hot blooded badass! Sing for me more, goddess of fiery souls!
---------
With their machines nearly dead-even in speed and agility, Suzaku realized that there was no way to get out of reach if he did nothing but flee. And he couldn't leave the open field, or else Princess Cornelia would be wide open!
"Dammit! I have to stand my ground!"
Lancelot brought up the VARIS and fired point-blank at the Gurren. With a howl of turbulent energy, the Gurren's radiation wave grabbed the hyper-sonic round.
"What?!" Suzaku exclaimed as the red Knightmare struggled against the force of the still-spinning shell for a second before the VARIS lost all of its energy and burst into shrapnel.
It could block the VARIS? Not good. Now it would all come down to the raw skill of the pilots. His next move would probably be the deciding one. Drawing his remaining MVS, Suzaku urged Lancelot forward.
Kallen grasped the intent of the white Knightmare's next move as soon as she saw him charging with both gun and sword drawn. Her suspicion was confirmed when the white one swung its sword at her Gurren's clawed arm.
'He's trying to feint me into blocking the sword so he can bring his gun under my guard!'
Well, she had something to say about that! Moving to make it seem as if she was falling for it, she suddenly fired her Slash Harken, intentionally aiming low. Just as she'd expected, the white Knightmare jumped over it rather than expose his upper body by guarding there. That was when she reeled herself in at full speed, slipping right underneath her opponent before he could recover from his move. With him in the middle of that jump, still in an upper body guard, he wouldn't be able to bring his sword down far enough to barely scratch her paint.
She, on the other hand, could grab his gun. The white Knightmare fired reflexively when the Gurren's claw clamped down onto it, sending a shell zipping a scarce few centimeters past the Gurren's shoulder and through the ground. The impact released a plume of dirt and rock that blinded the both of them. But Kallen knew she had the winning stroke now!
"You won't be so special without THIS!" She shouted as she hit the trigger.
The claw sparked, whirred loudly... and then exploded.
Kallen's blood ran cold. Gasping with shock, she stared at where the Gurren's most powerful tool once was. Now it lay in a mangled mess of twisted shrapnel, burning from the bleed off of energy that had been unable to escape normally.
'No! But this... How did this happen?! What went wrong?! Was it faulty? Did it overstress from the constant fighting?'
Kallen's mind flashed back to just moments earlier when she'd blocked the linear rifle by brute force, and she realized where she'd went wrong. She'd failed to notice that the shot had damaged the claw. She hadn't been paying close enough attention to her system monitor, focused intently on countering the white Knightmare's next move.
Suzaku was just as shocked as his enemy, having apparently won the duel because of his opponent falling to equipment failure. But he couldn't hold back now while he still had a weapon! Giving a silent apology to the greatest opponent he'd yet faced, he prepared to slice off the red Knightmare's limbs with the MVS so that they could be captured.
Lelouch grit his teeth, preparing to give an order to open fire with everything they had. With Kallen's machine crippled like that, they couldn't hope to stand up against the white Knightmare. But there was a slim chance they could force it back with enough bullets so that Kallen could retreat with them.
Cornelia grinned, seeing victory close at hand.
'How can I mess up like this?' Kallen thought as the red blade came singing down toward her. 'How could I have failed so horribly?! I couldn't even keep an eye on my own machine's condition! KUSO!'
WHAM
Suzaku struggled to keep the Lancelot upright as he was suddenly slammed into from the side, sending the machine flying into the trees. Flipping around, the machine's feet kicked off a tree and allowed him to immediately recover.
Waiting idly next to the fallen red Knightmare was the strange ancient-looking tank that had interrupted their fight before. In a hemisphere in front of it, a ghostly shell of hexagons flickered in and out of existence before vanishing.
"It has its own Blaze Luminous?" Suzaku wondered aloud, instinctively comparing the tank's defense barrier to the Lancelot's own.
"If you intended to make your retreat, Zero, now would be an appropriate time."
So, they had decided to stop observing? Suzaku didn't understand what this person's game was, but if he had to go through them to capture Zero...
He raised his sword, ready to do what had to be done.
Inside her Fog Tiger, Morgan slammed her face against a wall repeatedly.
