Hello everyone I'm back with another chapter of A New Dawn! It's kinda short-ish, but take it as my "welcome back" gift. I've got some good news by the way: I FINISHED MY BOOK! Right now I'm in the editing stage, so when I get further, I'll be sure to inform you guys. I just wanted to tell all of you that, as my book was the main reason why I haven't been updating nearly as much as I should have. Who would have thought that writing a novel would take so much time? However, now that it's done, and I've got more time to write, I can finally start shoveling out updates for this, and some other stories. Anyways, that's all I wanted to tell you guys for now. Basically, I finished my book, and that equals a more-frequent release schedule (like a chapter every two weeks, or a week once we get in December) compared to my previous record of a chapter every couple of months! So yeah, look forward to that!

Now then, with that out of the way, I'm going to close this off, so now then, without further adieu, let's get on with the show!

Disclaimer: I don't own -man or CG, all rights go to their respective owners.

Chapter 13: Laughing Devil

For a brief moment, time seemed to have stopped dead in its tracks. In those precious few seconds, the millions of Britannians who were watching, alongside Lelouch, his Black Knights, and thousands of others, could only stare in abstract shock as their minds tried to process the impossibility that they were witnessing. They all simply stood there, and took it all in.

After tossing the Britannian soldier aside, Allen could only step back and marvel at the crushing silence which now hung over the city. "It's so quiet that I could hear a pin drop." He thought as he tensed his legs and jumped over to one of the other knightmares. As he flew through the air, his white coat flapping in the breeze, Allen raised up his arms and prepared himself for another attack. Like with the one before it, his blades easily cut through the knightmare's hard metal shell. Within moments, he had carved his way to the device's pilot. Not wasting a second, Allen tore the cockpit open and proceeded to drag the man, who was still very-much in a state of shock, out of the knightmare. After he tossed the pilot aside, he clambered up to the top of the, now-ruined, device, and surveyed his surroundings. In total, there were three more knightmares scattered throughout the area, along with a veritable army of military police. By now, the cogs in his audience's heads had finally started to turn. And soon, the air was filled with the screams of thousands of onlooking citizens.

"It-it's a terrorist!" One of the Britannians screamed. Like a spark to a pile of gunpowder, a massive panic soon erupted amongst the Britannian citizenry. Hundreds immediately turned to flee into some of the surrounding alleyways, and many rushed into the neighboring buildings in an attempt to find cover. Several pedestrians, many of them children, got trampled underneath the rush of the crowd. And, off in the distance, Allen could hear the sound of several vehicles screeching to a halt as escaping civilians ran into the roads. The military police, who were obviously still trying to process the fact that he had torn-through two knightmares with his bare hands, immediately sprang into action.

"Units one, two, and three, hurry up and form a perimeter around that terrorist! Somebody go and check on those two pilots, I want to make sure that they're okay!" A man in his late-thirties, who appeared to be this contingent's commanding officer, yelled as he hastily drew his pistol from its holster. "All of you be careful, he must've used some form of controlled explosive to get those cockpits open." With his orders given, the commander took a step back, and allowed his men to get into formation. Within seconds, Allen was completely surrounded. Every soldier had their gun fixed right on the center of his head. While the three knightmares that were left moved onto his flanks, cutting off any means of escape. Once they were all in position, the commanding officer lifted up his megaphone and looked straight up at him. "Listen here, terrorist, you may have gotten lucky by destroying a couple of our knightmares, but don't let that go to your head! We have you cornered! If you don't surrender now, I can't promise that you'll get out of here unscathed!" The man yelled as Allen heard several of the soldiers ready their weapons. Like moths to flame, a small group of reporters, who were no doubt working for the Britannian propaganda-machine, dotted the area surrounding him.

"Hmph, they must think that it's all over for me." Allen thought as his lips spread into a small grin. Ever since he sliced through that first knightmare, a mellow sense of happiness and nostalgia had washed over him. He wasn't sure why this was, but, for some reason, being back on the battlefield seemed to stir him on like nothing else. "Heh, some things never change..." The sensation he was experiencing was similar to that when he had first laid eyes on a level three akuma. The feeling of his frozen heart starting to thaw. "Okay then..." he mumbled to himself as he readied his blades, "I guess it's time for the show to begin!"

"W-what?!" The commander yelled as Allen jumped off of the broken knightmare. Not wasting a moment, he immediately dove into the crowd of military police and started his assault. The speed with which his legs, arms, and blades, moved at was simply inhuman. Compared to the akuma that he had faced every day, these men and women were little more than teddy bears. By the time any of them had the chance to react half of the soldiers were lying unconscious on the ground.

"Holy shit..." one of the soldiers whispered as he stared at the destruction that surrounded him, simply too shocked to move. Most of the remaining Britannian forces were in a similar state of shock. They all just stood there, in complete silence, and watched as their mysterious assailant made his way to his next target. This time, it was two of the military police's remaining three knightmares.

"What the hell are you idiots doing?! Are you all a bunch of rookies?! Hurry up and shoot him!" The regiment's commanding officer, who had managed to break himself out of his shock, screamed as he started to fire several shots in Allen's direction. As bullets flew past him, like raindrops in a thunderstorm, Allen detected the faint scent of gunpowder that now filled the air. As his nostrils slowly filled with the familiar smell, Allen felt his heart start to beat, and then, for a brief moment, he could the blood coursing through his body.

"This feeling!" He thought as he moved on to another group of soldiers. Like the previous group, they were no trouble at all, and within seconds he was within arms-reach of one of the knightmares. "My frozen heart is starting to beat..." Allen wondered as he sank one of his blades deep into the wires and mechanics of the knightmare's leg. Since it was still a machine, the attack did next to no damage. However, with his blade now firmly sheathed in the robot's metal hide, he could use it to fling himself up to the machine's cockpit.

"Dammit! Who in the world is this guy?! His strength is inhuman!" Allen heard the knightmare's pilot roar as he began to pull off the cockpit's protective casing. As he did this, what little was left of the Britannian's forces tried to stop him. Several soldiers, once again, filled the air with bullets. And the remaining two knightmares, who were hesitant at first to attack him, immediately started to hurry to their comrade's side. To avoid being turned into a pincushion by the Britannians' machine guns, Allen sank his blades back into the knightmare's hull, and crawled to the robot's opposite side.

"Tch! This terrorist is as nimble as a monkey! Do you think he's part of the Black Knights?!" Allen, once again, heard the knightmare's pilot say from within the cockpit. He sounded panicked, which, considering what was happening, wasn't that surprising. Thanks to the knightmare serving as his cover, the regular Britannian soldiers were forced to stand down. In this brief moment of silence, Allen was able to press his head against the side of the disheveled machine, and was able to listen in on some of the pilot's conversations.

"There's no way he's a member of the Black Knights." He heard someone else, who he assumed to be one of the other knightmares' pilots, say as he scrambled up to the top of the machine. "For one thing, if he was, we'd be getting mowed down by artillery fire by now. The fact that he's alone is more than enough evidence for us to conclude that he's a lone wolf. If I had to bet, I'd guess that he's probably a disgruntled Eleven or something."

"You honestly think some random civilian is responsible for causing all of this chaos?" Another soldier said as Allen dug his blades deep into the robot's armored shell. "Hey, watch out, I think that terrorist is trying something..." the panicked tone in the man's voice spoke volumes, it was obvious that they were terrified of him, why wouldn't they be?

"You've got to be kidding me! This armor is made out of a triple-bulletproof casing! There's no way that a single soldier could break through it! Especially if they aren't using a knightmare!" Like a horse trying to swat flies away, the knightmare Allen was latched on to started to flail its arms wildly through the air. However, by that time, he had already started to claw his way into the giant machine. Before any of the soldiers realized what was happening, Allen had dug his way into the pilot's cockpit. "Dear God... Sir! I'm not sure how, but the terrorist, he broke through the armor!" The pilot screamed as he reached for his pistol. Sadly, before he had the chance to fire it, Allen had reached up and clamped his left hand around the man's neck.

"What's wrong?! Soldier! Answer me!" Allen heard the regiment's commanding officer yell from the pilot's now-broken earpiece.

"Sorry for this," he said as he wrapped his hand around the man's throat and began to squeeze. The soldier struggled for a second or two, clawing at his mask the entire time, before he finally ran out of air and passed out. Besides the mask itself gaining a few unwanted scratches and dents, Allen was completely fine. "So this is what it feels like to fight humans..." until that day, he had never used his abilities on normal people before. These men weren't members of the Noah Family. Hell, they weren't even Crows. They were, at least in his eyes, no different than the average civilian. And that fact terrified him to no end. Sure, he was doing all of this to protect people, but that didn't change the reality of his actions. "I wonder what they're all thinking right now..." Allen thought as he clawed his way out of the knightmare. As he fell unceremoniously down to the ground, he looked up, saw the Britannians terrified faces, and clutched his chest. Once again, his heart started to beat erratically. Over time, it got worse and worse, until he could feel his body shake with every pulse. "What... is this?" Allen asked himself as he dodged another hail of bullets. For some reason, he felt strangely... happy. And that unnerved him to no end. "This feeling... this isn't normal." It wasn't unusual for his heartrate to elevate in the heat of battle, but this wasn't like that. Instead, it felt as if he was starting to wake up from a long dream. Or, would it be more accurate to call it a nightmare?

"Look out, he's heading this way!" One of the soldiers screamed after he had torn through the last of the knightmares. It was about time for him to bring this party to a close. And so, as he headed towards what few adversaries remained, he sighed, and looked up to stare at the starry sky above.

"This uneasy sense of foreboding, what could it mean?"

"Holy shit! That guy's amazing!" Tamaki yelped as he watched the last of the Britannian soldiers fall to the ground. In the span of just a few minutes, an entire regiment of the Britannian's military police, including knightmares, had been taken out by a single man. After knocking the final soldier unconscious, the mysterious costumed-adversary immediately turned around and dashed into one of the nearby alleyways. Immediately after this, the channel they were watching cut to a commercial break, one that was no-doubt ordered by the Britannian government. As an ad for sugary cereal rang through the Black Knights' mobile headquarters, several members shot up from their seats to join Tamaki in utter-bewilderment.

"I can't believe it..." Ohgi mumbled as he turned to face Kallen and Rakshata. "Did you two see how he disabled those knightmares? It looked as if he clawed-through their armor using just his bare hands. But that's impossible, right?" As he spoke, Rakshata nodded and nervously pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You're correct, even though those knightmares were nothing more than basic models, their protective shielding should still be top of the line. To remove their armor like that would require a pulling force of several-thousand Newtons, at least. Simply put, with what that man had, he shouldn't have even been able to dent them." Rakshata's words ushered in an uneasy silence that washed over everyone present. None of them knew how to deal with this situation.

"Do you think that man might've hidden some sort of small strength-enhancing device in his clothes?" Kallen asked, Rakshata just laughed and shook her head. After all, if technology like that were possible, then the Britannians, who were at the forefront of the world's military-development, would've used it on them already. No... as crazy as it sounded, the source of the mysterious assailant's immense strength was probably biological in nature.

"They must've used some sort of performance-enhancing drug, there's no other logical explanation." Rakshata mumbled as she scratched her chin and looked back up at the screen. "However, without a sample of their blood, I can't say that for certain." This entire situation was positively vexing for her, and she had no doubt in her mind that other persons of science were also puzzled by the assailant's neigh-inhuman strength. "I wonder... what would the Earl of Pudding say if he were watching this broadcast?" Knowing him, he'd probably rush straight to the scene to research the event and record data. Even if they couldn't find anything, their efforts would sway other scientists and agencies to take action.

"You seem intrigued, Rakshata." She heard Zero say from his seat at the other end of the lobby. The Black Knights' leader had watched the entire broadcast in silence. As expected, unlike the rest of them, he had remained calm and collected. However, that didn't mean that he was perfectly fine. The average layman or soldier wouldn't have been able to spot it, but Kallen, Ohgi, Rakshata, Diethard, and all of the others in the Black Knights' mobile headquarters, noticed that their leader had become slightly agitated. There wasn't any reason in particular for this. It was just that, after working with the man for so long, they, his commanders, had gotten used to dealing with his strange mannerisms. It was his slightly-quickened breath, and a tiny change in his tone, that gave him away. And when they all realized that, several of them, especially Kallen, felt an odd sense of relief.

"You know, even as one of Zero's most-trusted soldiers, sometimes I forget that there's a human being resting underneath that mask." Kallen thought as her lips curled into a small smile. It was moments like these that made her feel truly blessed. After all, besides them, nobody else ever had the chance to see Zero like this. To see him shocked, and off-balance. Sure, he hid it well, but they all saw it. Even the world's best gamblers had moments where their poker face fell off. And in a strange situation like this, such a reaction was normal. After all, all of them had just witnessed something that, just yesterday, they all thought impossible. A single soldier had taken out an entire regiment of Britannian soldiers, using nothing more than a pair of blades and his bare hands. Even Zero, their genius leader, had to have been surprised by such a sight.

"Yeah," Rakshata said as she nodded her head. "I'm really curious as to how that person managed to defeat those knightmares. I may have to ask some of my partners back in India to do some research, would that be okay?"

"Hmm... I'll have to think about that. Go ahead and contact your affiliates, but be ready to halt the investigation on a moment's notice." Zero said, causing all of them to raise a confused eyebrow.

"Why do you say that, Zero? I mean, that clown isn't connected to the Black Knights, so I don't see a reason why we have to be so cautious. It isn't like the Britannians can link him back to us." Tamaki said as he sank into one of the red couches. In response, Zero just sighed, got up, and grabbed the remote. As he slowly flipped through the many channels, he turned back to Tamaki and started to explain.

"In many ways you're correct, Tamaki. You don't have to be a genius to realize that that man isn't connected to us. For starters, there's the obvious fact that he appears to be working alone. Plus, his actions, when compared to ours, are relatively minor. While we Black Knights pride ourselves as warriors of justice, we are also a revolutionary cell. To accomplish our goals, each and every one of our missions has to serve a greater purpose beyond just justice. We always have to keep our eyes forward, which is why we sometimes have to turn our gaze away from relatively-minor altercations like this. After all, if we deployed knightmares to save every possible victim of Britannian oppression, it would only be a matter of time before we'd drain our budget. However, that being said, even though it's obvious that we had nothing to do with that clown's assault. That doesn't mean that this can't become a problem for us in the future."

"What do you mean by that, Zero?" Diethard wondered out loud as their leader finally arrived on his desired channel. To be specific, it was a late night news channel that was covering a familiar topic. Namely, the knighting of Suzaku Kururugi.

"As I'm sure you all know, several Britannians are displeased at the prospect of Kururugi's knighting. Several groups, us included, have been rather inconvenienced by this turn of events. However, several amongst the Japanese population view this as a joyous occasion. The support for Kururugi is growing every day, and, for this most part, this has done wonders for your countrymen's moral." Lelouch couldn't deny that Suzaku had definitely had a positive impact on the Japanese population. However, in this scenario, that very same positive reinforcement could be used against him.

"Going by recent events," Lelouch continued, "It's very possible that whoever defeated those knightmares is a supporter of Kururugi's. Or, at least, that's what the Britannian media will say." It wasn't that far of a stretch, after all. The only group of people with the courage to stick their necks out for Japanese were other Japanese. And when you considered the fact that the Military Police's assault on that apartment building was in direct-response to Kururugi's knighting, it was simply logical to make the conclusion that the mysterious clown-masked assailant, who saved the building, shared Suzaku's mindset. "In that case, if the Britannian military caught wind of us investigating that man, there's a chance that they could use that to implicate Kururugi, and thereby, all other Honorary Britannians, with us."

"That is definitely a situation that we should strive to avoid..." Diethard said as he bit his thumb. Even though Kururugi had caused problems for them, they couldn't risk the Britannians using him as an excuse to mow-down more ghettos. Doing that would go against everything the Black Knights stood for.

"Keeping that in mind, Rakshata, I give you permission to investigate. But do so with a light hand." Lelouch ordered as he turned his attention to Diethard. "And you, Diethard, I want you to write up a statement. Make it clear where we stand on this issue. I don't want to give the Britannians the chance to label that clown as our comrade before we had the chance to say anything."

"Understood, I'll get right on it, Zero." Diethard said as he and Rakshata hurried out of the mobile headquarters. A few minutes later, after confirming the final details with the others, Kallen, Ohgi, and the rest of the Black Knights' most-prominent members, also headed off to complete their assignments. Lelouch had a bad feeling about how the Britannians would react to that clown's attack, and so he wanted to make sure that he was prepared. Eventually, everyone had left, leaving Lelouch alone in that empty parking garage. For a few seconds, he just stood there, not saying a word. Until, slowly, he collapsed into one of the cushioned seats, and hesitantly took his mask off.

In that dimly-lit room, it wasn't easy to see, but he was as pale as a sheet. He had strained his body to keep up his Zero persona. And now, with nobody there, he couldn't hold himself back any longer. Over the next couple of seconds, his body started to shake, and an old, unfamiliar, feeling washed over him. "I don't understand..." he thought as cradled his head in his arms. "That clown... why am I so afraid of him?"

Author's Note

Well, now another chapter is down for the count! First off, let me say first that I'm SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. I know that I say this a lot, but uni's currently been hammering me down, so I haven't had much time to write. HOWEVER! Since I finished my book, I now should have a lot more time to work on my stories. Anyways, the main reason for this note is because I wanted to let all of you know about another little vote that I'm having. Basically, I've found out that, with my book finished, I'll have enough time to start a new DGM crossover (since I'm planning on finishing my oldest story on here soon). And, after some consideration, I've decided that, since you guys are going to be the ones reading it, that I'll let you decide what crossover I make! So, yeah, without further adieu, here are the options:

-Black Lagoon

-Fairy Tail

-Boku No Hero Academia

I've already notified my followers on my other DGM crossover about this little vote, and I wanted to get you all in on this as well! If you have an opinion/preference on which one you'd want me to write, please just leave a vote either as a PM or via the review function! Anyways, that's all for me! So, thanks for reading, and I'll see you all on the next chapter of A New Dawn (which this time won't take multiple months, I promise!).

Like I said before, the reason for this long wait has mainly been my book, but now that that puppy's currently in the middle of being edited, I now have much more time to work on my -man crossovers, so look forward to those in the coming weeks!

Chapter 14: Messiah