A/N: Well everyone, here we are. A little over the half point, and still going strong! Now the thing is, the chapters as I said until the collapse of the tower will do little to advance the plot (well at least in terms of action; the progression will be with his sekireis) but trust me in when I say that we are nearing the end of the first act. I won't drag things on so here's Matt's date with Benitsubasa. Also, I do not own any works or references to any of the Mobile Suit series.

Chapter XVIII: The Red Fist's day out; a plan revealed!

"Wow, looks like you two had a great time." Uzume remarks upon seeing Matt and Akitsu return. "Yes, we did. And I loved every minute of it skating with Akitsu. She really is my little Snow Angel." he says looking at her causing her to blush. "Anyway, gather around everyone. I have something to tell you but first, Kochou." She blinks a little surprised but asks "Yes?" "Are you able to prevent MBI from listening to us in here?" "Well yes, but I have a much greater control over it if I can use my Norito." "I see, then let me help with that." Then he walks over to Kochou and gives her a kiss causing her wings to appear "By the power of my mind, my ashikabi's troubles will disappear!" After her incantation, she mentally says "Psycho Lock" and a wave of her energy seems to cover the building of MBI.

Within the tech room...

"What the... our satellites are down?!" Says one MBI technician looking at a static screen. Minaka overhears this and asks in anger "Pardon me but just WHAT did you just say?" The man looks nervous and responds "Um... a few seconds ago we lost contact with our satellite network. All communications are down within the city." Now Minaka didn't like this because at this moment if a sekirei was to escape the city they would have no way of knowing short of being caught by the stationed troops except in... "Hmm, do you think this may be #02's doing?" one other woman asks. "That would be too bold, even for her." Minaka casually waves it off. "Wait. Isn't Kochou a mental type sekirei also?" This causes Minaka to ponder "Hmm... Matt hasn't done anything yet to betray us and after what I found out coupled with his no doubt veiled plan for avenging his fater he most likely is trying to keep this under wraps." then he smiles to himself "Too bad that no matter how pure in heart you are revenge can make anyone predictable." "Sir, we'll try to regain controls but it could take some time." Then he looks at them and laughs "No need. Like before, as long as he actually doesn't act on his little scheme then we have no need to pursue him. After all, he could make the Sekirei Plan very interesting with his little story he plans to close the book on, as it were."

Back with Matt's harem...

"Ok, now there's no doubt he can't hear us but I'm sure that Minaka has noticed by now being as sharp as he is so I'll be frank. I plan to derail the sekirei plan but to do it first I need a good distraction. As for what that is, well something I took notice of recently is that there has been a group of underground street racers prowling around the western area of Teito. I don't plan on breaking this up, rather I'm going to enter. I figure since Minaka controls the police then entering the races will not be a problem and since I know he watches us all maybe this will provide a good enough show to block his vision from my REAL plan." Karasuba looks interested in this and asks "Really now? And just what IS your plan?" "Simple. I know for a fact that whatever he controls the sekireis and ashikabis with is on the ship that resides on Kamikura island. Now as far as getting in the ship, I believe he is no idiot; he has it locked with a code that he'll only reveal to the penultimate winner so we're going to bust in that ship and find whatever it is holding them at his whim so to speak. Going further, I even believe he has a failsafe for that in the event someone goes past the code. I think he has the ship wired to blow and that's where Kochou will come in along with a friend of mine I can call to help us. Simply put, we disable the explosives and rewire them then take them and place them on the military bases around the city, we claim whatever is in there, and force Minaka into a choice where we defeat him and free everyone once and for all." Kochou thinks about this for a second then replies "This sounds like a good idea so far but there is one problem." He looks at he then asks "What's that?" Karasuba answers with a serious look on her face "The Winged Triad." "Um, who and what is the Winged Triad?" "A badass bunch, that's what." Haihane responds in an unusually serious look. "Haihane, what do YOU know about them?" Karasuba asks with a look of disbelief. "Well, you see... before I was going to be a member of the discipline squad I heard some talk from some scientists one day. Apparently Minaka knew about your desire for revenge after the way you stormed out the building but he wanted you as the leader because of your power. From what I understand, he wanted to create a separate squad in case you decided to rebel as a failsafe." "I see. But what else do you know about them?" "I'll answer that one Matt-kun." Karasuba steps in. "When we were hand picked to become the discipline squad after that day Minaka wanted us to fight against the three sekireis he picked to be the Winged Triad. And they had some of the most unique powers I ever saw, #78 known as "Kasumi" was a close combat fighter in the style of Yume because she could throw energy projections from her core but on a less powerful level because she more or less used her energy to fly." "Fly. You mean like levitating in the sky?" Matt asks her with a piqued interest. "Indeed, but with what looks like a projection of wings no less." she adds before continuing on, "#77 known as "Yuki" who uses what the scientists called actual Psychokinesis. The only thing was, she had little to no close combat capability but she didn't need it. She was always surrounded by a psychic shield and could use her powers at will as a nearly perfect ranged fighter." "Wait. 'Nearly perfect'?" Matt asks. "Don't forget; she has no close combat capability and that shield of her I figure takes incredible mental focus. In fact, it's almost like when she fights alongside #76 and #78 she can predict the future..." "And who is the last one?" he asks getting more curious. "The last one is interesting. #76 known as "Saruna" has the most unique power of the three. She can manipulate actual Space and use it as a weapon." "What do you mean by that?" "She can cut the fabric of space and go through it or attack with it." He thinks for a second before realizing "A Space manipulator... kinda sounds like something out of Pokemon... in fact, she sounds like the sekirei equivalent of Palkia!" "Matt, time's running out." Kochou informs him, her control starting to weaken. "Ok, I'll worry about this later. Later tonight, I'll will start what I call the 'Fastest in Teito' plan!" And at that exact moment Kochou finally releases the block. "But for now, Benitsubasa; you ready for our date?" She smiles at this "Where are we going?" He grins and replies back "Olive Garden. I heard they finally set the franchise up in Japan." "Ooh, sounds like a fancy place." she says with him walking her out. "Yeah, it's nice but they have some really good food and personally... I like the pizza and alfredo." he whispers the last part as they leave.

Back with his sekireis...

"Hmm, I probably should have told him about WHAT they were specifically picked for..." Karasuba muses as Kochou and Uzume play some Dynasty Warriors Gundam. "Akitsu, do you want to train with me?" she turns to Akitsu reading a manga called "Frozen Teardrop". "Is this about the Winged Triad?" she asks. Karasuba looks down and says "Yeah. I may be the most powerful weapons type sekirei but when I fought against Kasumi she completely overwhelmed me. As for Benitsubasa, she didn't even stand a chance against Yuki. And Haihane just got defeated soundly by Saruna." "I see. So you want to get stronger, but from what I understand about what the scientists told me about the bond between a sekirei and ashikabi before they experimented on me was that yes you could train but if you really want to get stronger you have to have a strong bond of love with your ashikabi." "She's right you know Karasuba." Yume says walking into the room. "You know as well as I do that even though we're single numbers we are still sekireis and as such we exist for love." she says with a smile. "Even so, I at least want to train a little in case we have to fight the Winged Triad." Karasuba says sheathing her sword after polishing it. "Well, me and Akitsu would be glad to help you out right?" Yume says. Akitsu nods in understanding and leaves for the training room. "Let's go Karasuba, shall we?" Yume asks with Karasuba nodding and following her. "So who did you two pick?" Haihane asks turning back to the game after listening. "Burning Gundam, because I'm the Queen of Hearts!" says Uzume imitating Domon's pose. Haihane snickers at this and snarks "Uzume, you DO know that there's no female pilots in G Gundam right?" Kochou looks at her and replies "Yes there is. Wasn't she named Allenby Beardsley?" Haihane looks away and mutters "Tch, nerd..." "I heard that, and you're one to talk Haihane." Kochou replies while focusing on comboing numerous Zaku, Gelgoog, and Dom units with Epyon. "Hey, I can't help it that I'm an otaku." Haihane replies while watching them play.

Later that evening...

"Ahh, that food was great!" Benitsubasa says after her and Matt's time out. "I told you didn't I?" he says walking her to his car. "So what now?" "Hmm, how about a walk through the park?" "That'd be nice, but don't you still have your plan to enact Matt?" she asks. "True, but we are on a date right now and I'd hate to cheapen that with my plan." She looks at him and grins "Got that right, I'm yours tonight and you're mine..." And with that, him and Benitsubasa walk off to Hibiya park.

Back inside MBI tower...

"I see, so that's their plan." A young girl speaks out. "Should we tell Saruna, Yuki?" asks another girl hitting a punching bag with the smaller one shaking her head. "No. Because even if he does decide to rebel... we still hold the advantage over him. After all, I can take any close combat he has... you can fight Karasuba off and she can handle the rest of his sekireis." she then gives a faint smile. "My only regret in that matter is that knowing him, he would try to fight us and I feel like had we met earlier we could have been comrades." "Well when we do fight him... maybe we can express ourselves through our fighting!" the girl says stopping to rest. "You really think so Kasumi?" she nods and clenches a fist with the sekirei crest glowing on it. "I do, after all I'm not the 'Burning Sekirei' for nothing."

Next time on Cold Veils... "The two Otakus love; Matt versus Sasuke"

A/N: Another chapter, another piece revealed for the much larger plot. Oh yeah, plus I threw in some gundam references so yeah. This might seem like its all over the place but this IS a filler arc. Plus, the Winged Triad is revealed and here's a quick primer on them.

#76 Saruna (Yuna)

Ability: Space Manipulation

She can use dimensional space to either move around or to attack her opponents in conjunction with her blade, Shien. In addition, she can even create dimensional holes to conceal any type of presence from detection. When not using Space to attack she uses her masamune blade "Shien" in combat, her stance being the namesake from the Star Wars universe from Starkiller and much like Miya she can even throw out supersonic beams to attack making her effectively a dual type sekirei.

#77 Yuki

Ability: Psychokinesis

She has the ability to manipulate object at will using her powers no matter what type of object it is. However, because of this she has very little to zero close combat capability making her an easy target for either weapon users or dual type sekireis. But she can manage to minimize the danger to her using a specialized Psycho Shield that can repel almost any type of attack but it takes great mental focus to maintain it. Also being a sekirei with psychic powers more or less she also has something of an ability to predict the opponents movements almost in the manner of seeing the future.

#78 Kasumi

Ability: Ki usage and Flight

Another close combat type, she fights using her own energy much like Yume but it's only limited to enhancing her strikes and she even has the ability to fly using her own energy. Oddly enough, when the adjusters tuned her powers they even gave her a special crest that amplifies her energy and enables her to use a form called "Burning God" form which greatly enhances her abilities but also drains her energy quicker.