Mansion of Madness

Captain Joseph, UNMC, ignored the females trying to get his attention at the Ball as he listened to the radio reports and broke out into a smile before he quickly took a sip of his drink to cover it up.

"Sir," LT Silverstar, OC of Falcon Company, appeared at his side and spoke in a low voice. "It's done. What's next?"

"Enjoy the party, of course!" Joseph grinned. "They must be getting confused and nervous at this point."

"Should we evacuate the people here?" LT Silverstar gave a quick glance around their surroundings that was filled with party goers. "If they take action now, it will be... messy..."

"No worries," Joseph replied. "We have already catered that into our plans."

"Yes, Sir," LT Silverstar nodded. "When do you think they will act?"

"Oh, pretty soon, I guess," Joseph replied. "Watch those two, the rest I am not so worried about."

Silverstar followed Joseph's gaze to the two Knights lounging at one side. He nodded again, "I have my men surrounding them already. Should they act, they will be taken down immediately."

"Dead or alive," Joseph took a sip of his drink. "I don't really care about those two, but the young master and the Knight Captain needs to be alive."

"Yes, Sir!"

-----

Tidus made his way back to the round table where his sister and Judis sat, slightly drunk.

"What is going on?" He hissed impatiently. "Where are our men?"

"Quiet!" Judis gave a warning look at Tidus. "You want everyone to hear us?"

"Why do we need to sneak around like rats?" Tidus cursed but in a lowered voice. "Just call the men in and kill them all!"

"You want to massacre everyone here?" Titanna shook her head. "Use your brains please, you want to turn the whole city against us?"

"So?" Tidus sneered as he stood wobbly. "Everyone here is in bed with the enemy! Traitorous scum!"

"You-!" Titanna half rose in fury but Judis stopped her.

"Sit down, Lady Titanna," Judis smiled. "And enjoy the show!"

-----

Outskirts of the Governor's Estate

Knight Lieutenant Trello paced worriedly before his gathered men and kept glancing towards the Estate grounds. "Why is there no word yet?"

"Lord Trello!" A runner came up to him and bowed. "We couldn't find any traces of the advance scouts!"

"It's like... they disappeared!" The knight reported.

"Heaven's Gate!" Trello pounded his gauntleted fists together. "No time left, we attack now!"

"Squad leaders!" Trello spun around and roared out. "Attack now! Sir Bruous, attack the main gate! The rest go according to plan! GO!"

With that, the Knights of Silver saluted and broke off into action. Knight Bruous lead his charge of thirty Knights and begun his assault at the main gates as a distraction while the rest, leaped over the fences and made their way towards the Mansion with murder in their eyes.

-----

Governor's Estate, Main Gate

Lance Corporal Ladin stretched his back as he stood with six other fellow Marines of his section in dress uniforms, manning the Main Gate of the Estate. "What do you think is happening in there?"

His buddy, Private Terry, gave a shrug as he kept watch on the street. "Good drinks, good food, pretty girls, what else do you think is happening up there?"

"I mean, if the Blue boys started thei-," Ladin paused as he suddenly spotted shadowy figures appearing within the glare of the gate lights. "CONTACT!"

"HALT!" The section leader roared out while his hand flipped open the flap of his side holster. "HALT! HALT! OR WE WILL SHOOT!"

The figures seemed to be running impossibly fast. They closed the distance towards the barricades of the gate within seconds.

"FIRE!" The Marines quick drew their sidearms and fired upon hearing the order. "Cherry One, gate crash! Repeat, gate crash! GATE CRASH!"

Ladin cursed as he fired his Single Action service revolver at the armored figure before him. The Knight wore a custom plate mail with some decor carved onto the surface and a half helm that exposed his mouth. "FARK!"

The Knight's mouth curled in a sneer as he brought the kite shield up to his chest while swinging down with his sword directly at Ladin who emptied his revolver at the Knight.

The Knight's expression turned to disbelief and his mouth into an 'O' shape as five 6.5 mm rounds hammered into his shield. The surface of the shield burst into sparks as the magic protection enchantment overloaded and the remaining mass and kinetic energy dumped themselves against the Knight.

He flopped backward as some invisible force hammered him across his chest and the knight laid on the hard ground groaning with his shield arm broken.

Ladin back peddled and ejected the chamber of his empty cartridges and slipped in a fresh five rounds using a quick loader. He snapped the chamber back and aimed at the rest of the charging knights and cursed as he saw how outnumbered they were.

Suddenly an ear bursting roar of the machine gun hidden on the roof of the gate erupted out. Tracers darted out from over Ladin's head and he cheered with the rest of his section as the charging knights were knocked over by the heavy fire.

Ladin fired at another figure and suddenly he felt himself being lifted off his feet, followed by a loud crack and the smell of burnt meat. When he recovered his senses, he found himself lying against the wall of the gate and his whole body felt numbed.

He tried to raise his hands only to see them blackened and charred. He looked down to his chest to see his body burnt black and the smell of roast meat made him nausea before he fainted from shock.

-----

Governor's Estate, Ballroom

"-ATE CRASH!" The earpiece in Mills's ear crackled and he turned and stared at Drake. "Shit!"

Drake quickly pushed his date, Irisval towards the exit, "Go take cover upstairs in one of the rooms! And lock the door! GO!"

Mills turned his attention to the table where Titanna and the Imperial delegates sat and held his earpiece as instructions and orders came flooding in.

"All units, evacuate the civilians as quietly as possible."

Already the sounds of gunfire in the distance could be heard. Most ignored it as thunder rumbling but soon the telltale roar of machine guns was too unnatural to be thunder.

The guests started to sense something was happening and the festive mood started to change. Mills saw the Imperial delegates seemed to relax and even laughing among themselves as they sat there drinking.

He watched Titanna as he made his way through the crowd, seeing her nervously twisting the folds of her dress. "Raider One to King Falcon, orders?"

"King Falcon, keep your eye on the prize!" LT Silverstar's voice crackled from his earpiece. "Escort the prize to safety!"

"Roger!" Mills flipped his holster flap open and loosen his revolver as he approached the table. "Hey, Princess, care for a dance?"

Titanna jerked up in surprise as she suddenly heard Mills calling her. She turned and saw him standing a short distance away with his hand out towards her. "A.. a dance?"

"Yes!" Mills smiled. "Come here, let's dance!"

"I... I," Titanna cast a worried glance around the table where the eyes of every Imperial delegate stared back at her coldly. The constant thunder over the music and the worried voices of the crowd made her more nervous and she hesitated.

"Come on, take my hand," Mills winked. "Just one dance!"

"I..." Titanna bit her lips and stammered, uncertain what choice should she make.

"No," Suddenly, a hand clasped over Titanna's arm. Judis stood up and hovered protectively over Titanna. "She is my wife to be. I am afraid, no man shall have a dance with her except me, of course!"

"Oh, that is such a shame," Mills sighed as he took back his offered hand. "Well, since you said it, you do know she is still a prisoner of war belonging to the UN till you paid up her ransom?"

Judis continued to smile and gently shook his head. "Not for long, my friend."

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention please?" A voice sounded over the Ballroom. "If you will all proceed out of the ballroom and into the gardens, we have our second event of the night for you all to enjoy!"

Hearing that, the curious crowd started to exit the Ballroom while Mills and Judis continued to stare down at each other.

"King Falcon to Raider One, what's your sitrep?" Mills's ear piece crackled. "Is the prize secured? Over."

"Negative..." Mills hissed under his breath. "Getting cock blocked here!"

"Roger, standby for diversion!"

-----

Lt Silverstar turned to Joseph and shook his head. "Take out that two now," Joseph ordered.

"King Falcon to Claymore Two," Silverstar radioed immediately. "Action!"

-----

Sergeant Aztes, 101st ATI, Claymore Two, nodded to his men when the order came in. It was a boring deployment for them, as they were reduced to becoming nannies watching over the two girls and the Doctor and the Magister.

Finally, they have some excitement to prove their abilities since Claymore One appeared to have been assigned all the 'fun' stuff.

Tonight for the Ball, he accompanied Liz, acting as her date while another member of his team was with the other girl. He kept watch on the two Imperial Knights that kept to themselves at the side while Liz and Eveyln went and gorged themselves on food and drinks.

When the 'Action' order was given, Liz dressed in a pink silver gown, stomped hard on the floor where a hidden magic formation trigger was hidden. She activated an anti magic trap that was powered by four of the large high tier mana stones that they recovered from Titanna's ship.

Almost immediately, lines of glowing mana raced out from the trigger and an anti magic formation was drawn out within a split second, preventing everyone still remaining inside the Ballroom from casting or using magic.

As that was happening, the other members of Claymore Two, dressed as locals, whipped out tasers and fired directly at the two Knights that was just being to react to the sudden appearance of a magic circle.

The two Knights with unnatural superman reaction, managed to drew their peace bounded swords out and slashed away the taser darts but they temporarily froze as they tried to draw in magic to enhance their abilities only to find out that the magic in the area was blocked.

This gave an opening for the Claymore Two soldiers to fire again and the taser darts struck against their plate mail before discharging 50,000 volts. The metal of the plate mail barely stopped the current from flowing out and the electricity flowed through their bodies, overloading their nerve systems.

Both Knights flopped onto the floor like a fish out of the water as they jerked and spasmed. Yet they still managed to push themselves up and endure the electricity current in their system only to have another half dozen taser darts fired on them.

-----

The crowd nearest to the action screamed and the people tried to get away from the sudden fight, making a commotion which made Judis turned his attention towards it.

Mills suddenly darted forward and grabbed a surprised Titanna into his arms and he moved back while other Marines suddenly appeared and aimed their weapons at the delegates.

"Checkmate, motherfucker!"

-----

"FIRE!" The line of rifles erupted at the charging Knights coming out from the edge of the ground of the garden.

Powerful floodlights installed around the perimeter of the Mansion blinded the charging Knights and provided the Marines easily targets to shoot at.

The blinded Knights faltered at the charge despite being amped up with magic enhancements started dropped as rifle rounds hammered into their bodies, breaking protective spells, bones, and flesh.

The crowd of guests stood dumbstruck as they watched a line of twenty soldiers easily killing a force of elite Knights three their strength. It was the first time for most of the people here to witness the power and strength of the barbarian's might and they were shocked, some even questioning if it was just a show.

"This is madness!"