In the Government Bureau in Area 11…
The cameras ceased rolling and moved away from Clovis as he stepped down from the small steps with a pleased look on his face while his guests were clapping with impressed looks on their faces at his performance live on TV.
"You and the performance that you just gave to the media were wonderful, Your Highness!" said one of the female noble in an impressed tone of voice to him.
"One would never guess that you were actually attending a party and enjoying yourself right now." said another female noble.
"The Viceroy is the face of Area 11. You need to be able to switch roles quickly." said Clovis to the 2 female nobles as he smiled at them and the other noble guests while 2 middle-aged butlers approach to removed and take his cape away.
"My! Such self-confidence you have!" said a third female noble.
"I'm prepared. As for self-confidence? I'm just trying to pleased the media people." said Clovis as he turned to glance at the people who were part of the media.
"Oh no, no! We're pleased to be of any assistance in your reign, Prince Clovis!" said a fat-looking man happily as he and 2 other media people standing with him smiled at Clovis while a slightly tan-skinned, long blonde-haired (that's tied up into a ponytail), blue-eyed tall man wearing a red shirt with a long-sleeve dark green shirt over it, matching dark green pants and brown shoes on his legs stand and leaned against the wall with an opened book in his hands.
"A sham of a reign…" said the man in a bored and disgusted tone of voice to himself as he watched the party, the prince and the guests before a bald-headed, dark-skinned Britannian soldier rushed past the man toward Clovis while calling out to him (which surprises Clovis a little). "Hm, a soldier?" said the man in a slightly surprised tone of voice to himself now.
"How boorish of you, Bartley!" said Clovis, not amused with the sudden entrance of the soldier named Bartley.
"I beg your pardon, Your Highness, but…!" said Bartley worriedly to Clovis before he whispered something in Clovis's ear.
"Another special? I hope the subject matter will be better-" said the man as he closed his book, turned and was about to leave when the angry voice of Clovis stopped him in his tracks.
"You fool!" snapped Clovis angrily at Bartley.
"Th-The police have been told it's just medical equipment. If we scramble our entire army, there'll be records—" said Bartley worriedly to Clovis.
"Send out my personal forces! And the Knightmares as well!" ordered Clovis, cutting off Bartley's words.
"Yes, at once, your highness!" said Bartley as he quickly nodded to Clovis before he turned and quickly left the room to issued the order to the personal forces.
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Meanwhile, on the highway…
"That first move you made… why'd you start with the king, Lelouch?" asked Rivalz curiously to Lelouch.
"If the king doesn't lead, how can he expect his subordinates to follow?" replied Lelouch as he kept on reading the book in his hands.
"About that… Do you want to run a corporation or something? I'm sure you could do it since you're so smart." said Rivalz.
"No way, that's not me and dreams like that will-" replied Lelouch coolly to Rivalz before he and Rivalz suddenly heard a loud honking sound from behind them and when they turned their heads to look behind them, they saw with surprise looks on their faces at a truck driving closely toward them.
"What the hell!?" yell Lelouch, surprised.
"Ah, geez!" yell Rivalz, surprised as well before he quickly drove and steered his bike away from the truck's path.
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Meanwhile, in the truck…
"Damn Britannians! Just driving along without a care in the world…!" snapped the man angrily at the two guys riding on their motorbike in front of them before he turned the steering wheel swiftly to the left.
"Stop! Not that way!" protested the red-haired girl to the driver but her protest came a bit too late as the driver drove down a closed off road into an abandoned construction site and the truck crashed against some metal beams, causing a huge cloud of white sand to rose up into the air.
"Um… Was this our fault?" asked Rivalz concernly to Lelouch as he stopped his bike by the side of the road and glance at the truck.
"I doubt it…" said Lelouch with a shake of his head to Rivalz before he noticed some kind of faint shimmer started to formed above the crashed truck.
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"Control, the target has crashed at the abandoned V.O. building construction site…" said the helicopter pilot to the control room before he got cut off by a soldier's voice.
"Hold it! The military's taking this over. General Bartley's command." said the soldier to the pilot.
"The general?" said the pilot in a surprised tone of voice to the soldier.
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"We have to retrieve it! No matter what! That thing is…!" thought Bartley worriedly in his mind as he walked by himself down a hallway.
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"What was that I saw just now?" thought Lelouch concernly as he got up from the side-seat before he approach the railing for a closer look at the faint shimmer that he just saw appearing above the truck then he heard and saw some Britannian citizens looking, talking and taking pictures of the crashed truck on their phones near another railing to his right and do nothing to help the drivers inside the truck with a disdain look on his face.
"All these damn fools…" thought Lelouch in disdain in his mind at the citizens before he made up his mind and run off toward the truck to help the drivers, ignoring Rivalz calling out to him while the citizens saw Lelouch run down the stairs toward the truck and one of them made a comment of how helpful and brave he is while another suggested about calling the police.
"Hey! Are you all right!?" Lelouch called out to the drivers as he try to pushed a metal beam away from the door of the truck to no avail and didn't received any response from the drivers before he noticed a ladder and decided to climb the ladder to the top of the truck.
"Okay, look… I know it's the right thing to do, but I really wish he'd stop showing off that meaningless pride of his. We're so gonna be late for class now!" said Rivalz with an annoyed look on his face at Lelouch as he pushed his bike down the road.
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Inside the truck…
"Nagata? Nagata!" the short red-haired girl called out to the driver named Nagata after she regained consciousness and the air-bags in front of them deflated down.
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"Hey? Can you hear me in there!? If you can hear me, please answer me!" yell Lelouch to the drivers before he froze and fell silent when he suddenly felt a strange feeling come upon him.
"I've found you… my…" said an unfamiliar girl's voice to Lelouch before she fell silent and the strange feeling that he just felt fade away.
"What was that I just felt…? Where did it come from…?" said Lelouch with a confused look on his face before he look around the truck then he look down at the opened interior of the truck and saw some kind of large brown canister thing inside.
"Hey, are you in there?" Lelouch called down to the interior of the truck before he heard and felt the truck suddenly drive backward out of the construction site, causing him to yell out in surprise, lose his balance, fell and landed inside the interior of the truck with a loud thud sound.
"Ow, that hurt quite a bit…" said Lelouch as he winced in pain before a worry look appear on his face as he look around and saw that there's no ladder inside the truck.
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"Is that what you called a hit and run?" said Rivalz as he watched the truck drove away then look around the construction site for any sign of Lelouch, not knowing that he'd fell into the truck.
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"Oh crap and why doesn't this truck have ladders inside in!? Guess I've no choice but to use this canister to climb up toward the open hatch." thought Lelouch as he approach and was about to climb up the canister when he (and the two drivers) suddenly heard a military man's voice spoke from outside.
"Warning! Surrender now and you still have a chance to defend yourself in court! Surrender at once!" yell the stern voice of a pilot driving a helicopter above the speeding truck before the pilot started using the long machine gun attached at the bottom of the helicopter and began firing at the truck (which make Nagata swerved the truck left and right to avoid getting shot at). "The next round will hit you! Surrender at once!" said the pilot once more to the driver driving the truck.
"They've called out the army! Now what!?" asked Nagata to the red-haired girl with a frustrated look on his face.
"That's why I'm here, isn't it!?" replied the red-haired girl as she took off her hat.
As the truck kept moving down the highway and into a tunnel, Lelouch racked his brain to think of what to do next. "Right now, it's dangerous for me to get out. Sounds like there's trouble out there. Maybe I can use my cell phone to-" thought Lelouch in his mind and as he was about to pull out his phone, he suddenly saw that the doors against the wall to his left is slowly opening and he quickly run and hide behind the canister.
Once he's hidden behind the canister, he slowly look out to see who is it and saw with a surprise look on his face that it's a blue-eyed, red-haired young girl about his age walking past the canister and him as she take off her white outfit to reveal a sleeveless light brown and red-coloured shirt, light brown shorts and knee-length red socks and black shoes on her legs and long white bell-pull sleeves on her arms.
"Hm, isn't she…" thought Lelouch.
"Can you enter the subway via the Azabu route?" asked the red-haired girl to Nagata through the walkie-talkie radio tied by a belt against her waist.
"Kallen, let's just use it here!" said Nagata to the girl named Kallen.
"We can't! That would be slaughter!" Kallen snapped back at Nagata as she make her way up a ladder (while Lelouch continue to watch her in silence).
"Yeah, you're right." said Nagata apologetically to Kallen.
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"Where are you, Lelouch? We've gotta get to school!" Rivalz called out to Lelouch but didn't received any replies from him.
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"The target's moving from the settlement area to the ghetto." said the soldier to the pilot.
"Right! Corner them!" said the pilot as he aimed the sub-machine gun and prepared to opened fire at the truck but before he could do so, a long black weapon suddenly shot out of the truck toward the helicopter, struck it and caused it to explode into fiery pieces.
"What the? A Slash Harken? Don't tell me…" said the pilot in a shocked tone of voice to himself before he and his fellow pilots saw the back door of the truck opened outward to reveal a large red-coloured robot inside. "A knightmare frame!" added the pilot as the red knightmare frame robot jumped out of the truck and landed a little shakily on the road before it regained it's balance.
"Shit! These guys are actual terrorists and I somehow got myself caught right in the middle of it!" thought Lelouch worriedly as he run out of his hiding place toward the opened back door but the door swiftly closed before he could get out and run away.
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"You guys know full well how powerful this thing is!" said Kallen as she glared at the helicopter pilots through the monitor screen inside the knightmare cockpit that she's currently piloting before she swerved the knightmare left and right to avoid the helicopters opened fired at her then she fired a slash harken up toward another helicopter and took it down.
"The rest of you, stand down. I'll take this guy on. I don't know where or how you got your hands on that knightmare, but an old Glasgow… will never be able to stop this Sutherland!" ordered the deep voice of a tall and tan-skinned, short bluish-green hair, orange-eyed man wearing a dark blue body suit with yellow patterns on it inside a purple-coloured knightmare frame (that is being carried by a VTOL aerial transport) before he started speaking to Kallen as the VTOL let go of the Sutherland knightmare and the soldier fired his own slash harken to knock away the slash harken that Kallen just fired at him (as his Sutherland landed safely on the road in front of the Glasgow). "Much less a damned Eleven who can't appreciate our Emperor's leniency and affection!" added the soldier mockingly to Kallen as he aimed his grenade launcher at the Glasgow and opened fired a single grenade at it, causing it to explode and lose part of it's right arm and make Kallen lose her balance a little.
"Kallen, we need to split up! We can't both get killed here! Run for it!" said Nagata's voice worriedly to her from the monitor of the Glasgow.
"But…" protested Kallen back to Nagata as he kept on driving the truck down the road before another Sutherland appeared, jumped and landed on the road in front of Nagata (who's shocked to see another Sutherland in front of him) before the Sutherland aimed the machine gun and started firing at Nagata, causing him to swerved the truck sharply down the right path of the highway and away from the second Sutherland.
"What a simple-minded driver." said a dark-skinned, long silver-haired, dark yellow-eyed woman sitting inside the cockpit of her Sutherland smugly to herself as she watched what happened.
"What's wrong!? Dammit…!" said Kallen in frustration when she try and failed to fired the slash harken at the first Sutherland.
"Second-hand junk!" said the soldier as the Sutherland raised it's right arm in preparation to strike down on the Glasgow but Kallen quickly launch her Glasgow broken right arm at the Sutherland to distract it before the Glasgow turned and speed away from the Sutherland.
"Oh? I like your thinking and your spirit. However…!" said the soldier before the Sutherland give chase after the Glasgow.
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"Just as I thought, I'm outside my cell phones range." thought Lelouch as he glance down at his phone in his hands before he closed and put his phone back into his pocket. "Hm, this darkness and the road surface… right now the driver must be speeding down along the old subway lines and heading toward a ghetto somewhere. It'll be dangerous for me to make my exit now. Still… okay, I got it. The conditions are clear. I may not like army protection much, but if I can give them a terrorist communicator…" added Lelouch in his mind as he spotted and picked up another walkie-talkie lying nearby him.
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"Damn Lelouch… Leaving me behind in a lurch!" complained Rivalz with a scowling look on his face as he kept on walking and pushing his bike down the road.
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"Ah ha! I knew it!" said a fair-skinned, short light purple-haired, light grey-eyed bespectacled man wearing a white lab-coat over a white T-shirt, long black trousers and black shoes on his legs quite happily to Bartley (who had a shock look on his face).
"W-Why do you know about it!?" demanded Bartley to the man.
"Well, am I right?" asked the man, ignoring Bartley's question.
"Why you…" snapped Bartley as he glared at the man.
"You overdid it." said the man as he straighten himself (while several black tank vehicles drove past them). "The Eleven terrorists stole something that you and Prince Clovis were secretly working on. Retrieving it would be simple, but you want to sweep up their compatriots as well. If you let the terrorists go, you'll find their hideout, too." the man said and explain to Bartley before he turned to glance happily at a fair-skinned, shoulder-length dark purple-haired, light blue-eyed young woman wearing a long sleeve orange and black shirt with a white shirt under it and a dark green necktie around her neck, short orange skirt and knee-length dark grey boots on her legs standing behind him. "Congratulations! Your reasoning was right on the mark!" said the man happily to the woman.
"N-No, I just thought it was strange…" said the woman quietly to the man.
"That's enough! So what does the Special Corps want in all this?" demanded Bartley.
"I'm saying that we'd like to help with the cleanup!" replied the man as he glance back and smiled at Bartley.
"Help?" said Bartley in a surprise tone of voice to the man.
"Yes, I want data." said the man.
"So, what is it that they stole anyway?" asked the woman.
"Chemical weapon. In other words… Poison gas." replied Bartley reluctantly to them both.