Chains Of Pride

"What the hell is this?! That damn Shepherd is cancerous you hear me?! Nobody can tell me this isn't due to him!" Gero was enraged at the sudden development. In the few days since they left Shepherd Hide's mansion, they have been trying to come to terms with everything they learnt while keeping up with their own work.

Then all of a sudden, they received a notice on their academy transmitter in the form of a Class 1 Mandate. What was the Mandate? Proelius team member and Digium Setamaru Lanzo, along with Digiums Siyenasta Gero and Hokori Kia are to be teamed together relating to technological interest.

In all honesty, while Shepherds wielded considerable influence within Cendo Academy, forcing Digiums to work with others is not something that they can do on a whim. However, this isn't to say it's impossible they simply have to get the unanimous support of the mysterious upper brass of the academy.

"This isn't something that just anyone can do, we might have underestimated the power of that organisation he was mouthing off about. I thought it was weird how he'd tell us about things deemed secretive and just leave us to our own devices like that, we were way too naïve."

Kia sighed when he learned of the new arrangement, he wasn't as agitated over the whole thing like Gero was who preferred to be alone.

"Well we're here now so we might as well get used to it, what are you working on anyway? I already have little knowledge of Kia's area of expertise." Lanzo took this chance to familiarise himself with the person he knew the least about.

"Tch, you wouldn't understand even if I tried to explain so don't bother asking," Gero replied, obviously infuriated even now. He might not be able to refuse a Class 1 Mandate, but it didn't mean that he had to get all friendly with them or anything.

Lanzo's expression darkened and of course, he took exception to that "Oh, then, in that case, why don't you jump up your own a.s.s and die!"

"Why don't you come over here and say that to my face?!"

Seeing this, Kia stepped in between them not anticipating a good ending if this continued. "Alright let's stop here, for now, we're gonna be working together, so this doesn't help and let's move from the square, it's much too public here."

We might as well head to our new novre room, our equipment and research have already been moved, so no use arguing." Kia was always someone who tried to maintain a calm head even in situations deemed …undesirable.

Lanzo and Gero glared at each other for a moment longer before ignoring the other and was just about to head out when his Academy Transmitter alerted him once more. He took it out, and when he saw the content, his expression immediately changed, something that both Kia and Gero picked up right away.

"What is it?" Kia couldn't help but ask after seeing Lanzo's face. It was the first time he saw this, he was smiling, but somehow this smile seemed as if there was a craziness hidden beneath it…no that's wrong, it wasn't hidden in the least.

"Engage," a simple word and yet, when Lanzo said this, he acted as if this should explain everything about his current demeanour. "I'll meet up with you guys a bit later, I'm still a member of Proelius, and I can't shirk my responsibilities as part of the team."

"Well I guess that's it then, we'll see you later, c'mon Gero we should head over to our new novre room" Kia bid goodbye to Lanzo and headed over to their new novre room with his new…teammate?

Lanzo had already geared up a bike and made his way to Proelius HQ. When he arrived, with hurried footsteps, he headed up to their meeting room where he saw that everyone had already gathered.

When Captain Himiya saw him, he gestured for him to take a seat after which, he then started, "Since we're all here I'll get right to it, our next sequence is in the next two days, and it's against Perbia Academy."

He then stared hard at Lanzo and stated, "I shouldn't have to say much, as you're the ace of the team we're counting on you this time too."

His expression changed once more when he realised what the Captain said, "wait isn't this the second to last match before the championship? How are we facing Perbia now?"

His question was valid as Perbia was ever their fiercest rival whom they always met up within the championship sequence, this was an unprecedented situation. However, the Captain explained what had happened.

"The officials for organising botched it up and put them in our bracket. Then before anything could be fixed, a dark horse came out of nowhere and started to sweep through the competition. Who wins now, is who moves on and who faces them." Captain Himiya explained to him it was just about winning and moving on.

When Lanzo heard this, he simply nodded, the look from before already gone, no one knew what he was thinking. They stayed a bit longer to discuss some more details before they ended the meeting and went their separate ways.

...

"This is your Armis? Not bad, and what the hell? Is this a plasma blade?" Kia and Gero were at the novre room where Gero saw the Armis that was back at the old novre room. "So you made the mods on this, and those idiots took credit for it in front of the Shepherd? What's more, is that you didn't say anything about it? What are you, an idiot?"

"Why should I care about the actions of those two? They're beneath me if they think that doing something like this will allow them to become A-Class." Lanzo was berating Kia about his handling of the situation, while Kia was explaining why he didn't bother to pursue the issue as anybody else would have.

"Don't tell me that you're another one of those idiots who look down on others simply due to their class, if so, I won't work with you regardless of the Class 1 Mandate" Gero stared hard at when he said this.

"Wait, what?! Shouldn't I be the one saying that? I mean you're known as the one to disregard anyone and everyone. You don't place a single person in your eyes, and now you wanna preach to me about looking down on others? The hypocrisy is strong in this one, don't ya think?"

Kia didn't take too kindly to being called out like that, usually when people said something about him he could shrug it off, but with Gero, he didn't know why he felt the need to hit back.

As for Gero, it was the exact same, and he didn't like the feeling of it either,

"What, you believe the masses in regards to their rumours? I only never allow another person to come in contact with my research and that's it, I could care less about class in this Academy. These pompous inbred terminal tumours are only good for giving life to the basest and most disgusting of human natures, discrimination. What good would people like that regardless if they're in the A-Class rank have to offer to my research?" At this point, he sighed to show his exhaustion of the entire situation.

"I don't discriminate against others either, evident by my tolerance to work with my former two lab partners, (unless you call idiots a class, I guess). However, it doesn't mean I have to stay around others to prove my sincerity, I'm not about that life, I might not care about who or what you are in any case, but it doesn't mean I have to like you if I don't feel comfortable being around you, period." Kia told Gero exactly where he stood, and Gero nodded in understanding obviously of the same mind.

However, because Gero had both a cold and an apathetic demeanour it led to everyone thinking that he simply didn't even deem them worthy of being put in his eyes, of course, he didn't particularly care about their thoughts either.

"Oh yeah, I showed you the fruits of my research, what about yours? I heard you were working on some ground-breaking theory but that no one knows about it except the Academy itself so how about it?" Kia asked, showing a bit of interest.

When Gero heard what Kia had said he was shocked for a moment, but that feeling quickly passed, "Well, rumours do spread pretty fast now don't they? I mean how the hell would they even get to know something I haven't even let the Academy know about?"

In Cendo Academy, any progress of the research done by any digium or group of digiums has to be logged, reported and stored in the Academy's database through OMNI using the Academy transmitter.

"What, so it's a lie, then what are you working on? Kia asked a bit confused at this point.

Gero replied shortly after saying, "Oh, it's not a lie, it's true, I just wanted to know how they knew about it. For the most part, I didn't tell anyone about it, well, it's not like I have anyone to tell it to."

When Gero heard this, he hesitated a bit but shortly decided it wouldn't be that bad, especially after seeing the kind of person Kia was. "To be honest, that weapon of yours is pretty powerful, but I'm willing to bet anything that it takes a massive toll on the energy source of the suit, am I right, I mean, it can't be easy to generate and maintain, aren't I right? After all, it can't be easy dealing with Divinus Plasma."

When Kia stated the shortcomings of the one part of the mod he was most proud of, he felt his face becoming slightly red, but it quickly turned to shock, "How the hell did you know this is Divinus Plasma?! Nobody knows about this, not even the Academy!"