Gun Princess Royale: Awakening the Princess, Book One

by Albert Ruckholdt

  Valjean was taller than I, so she looked down at me as she calmly folded her arms.

  “Tell me, Princess. Is it true?”

  I struggled to swallow, my mouth and throat both dry. Finding my voice was a monumental feat. “What do you want?”

  “I just want to know if it’s true. Are you the Silver Blue Princess?”

  My voice failed me so I remained silent.

  After studying me for a long, oppressive moment, Valjean nodded to herself before snorting softly. “I heard you looked so pretty you had boys chasing you across the school. The posters the Cosplay Club made of you were sold out in a day.” She snorted again. “They were right to choose you as their poster girl. They picked up quite a lot of members after that.”

  I thought my frenzied beating heart would burst. It was like a runner sprinting for the finishing line, moments away from victory or a fatal cardiac arrest. As I clutched my chest, my vision grew dark around the borders. However, I could see well enough to catch the look of confusion on Tobias’s face – confusion that quickly turned to realization and suddenly he was looking at me with a mixture of disbelief and disgust that made my stomach sink as it curled up into a fetal little ball.

  I had no idea if the Cosplay Club had ratted me out, or if this bitch had discovered that embarrassing episode of my life by other means, but it was clear that from this deck of cards she held the better hand.

  She laughed low and mockingly. “And you left such an impression on the boys. I wonder what they would think if they discovered the object of their desire was you. How disappointed do you think they would be? Or how angry. I bet you’d have to attend the Academy dressed as a girl, or they might beat you up. You might have to transfer to another school, but you know how rumors tend to travel. Those rumors may follow you wherever you go.”

  She stopped as though waiting for me to respond, and after a while I managed to whisper, “What do you want from me?”

  She smiled mercilessly. “Time to take center stage once more, Princess Silver Blue.”

  I lost my voice and my legs were turning rubbery again.

  Incredibly, Valjean’s smile became even crueler. “And it’s time to find a new friend, Cassidy. Stay away from Mat. As long as he’s with me, I don’t want a girly boy like you anywhere near him. Are we clear?”

  In the corner of my eye, I saw Tobias rise to his feet. “Monique, that’s enough.”

  His intervention gave me the opportunity to regain a little of my composure, but rather than hold my ground, I chose to flee. But when I turned to run away, I ran into Felicia. Bouncing back, I looked up to see her, Angela, and Shirohime watching me with disparate expressions. I had no doubt that Felicia and Angela had heard about the mysterious Silver Blue Princess, so it was understandable to see surprise and disbelief on their faces. However, Shirohime was a recent arrival so the puzzled look she wore was also fitting.

  Felicia cocked her head at me. “So you’re the Silver Blue Princess?”

  At a loss for words, I simply stared back at her.

  Felicia sounded ambivalent, but clearly took my silence for an affirmative. “I don’t know why but I guess I’m not surprised.”

  Behind her, Angela regarded me with a critical eye. “Silver Blue was under our noses all the time….”

  Standing behind them both, Shirohime frowned, and I heard her mutter softly, “Who the Hell is Silver Blue?”

  I swallowed hard, then whirled the other way.

  The waitress had retreated a little, looking even more puzzled than Shirohime, so I had room to flee past her, but Tobias was on his feet, hands clenched, and a conflict of emotions playing out on his face as his gaze met mine.

  At that moment, I felt something break inside of me.

  Back then I had no words for it, but I can describe it now as the impression of binding chains breaking and falling away. I had lived for a year in fear of being discovered as the Silver Blue Princess. Now that my identity had been revealed, the chains of fear shackling me had snapped, and an enormous weight fell away from my body. It was all metaphorical, but truthfully I did feel lighter. At the same time, I realized that my high school life had become that much harder and more complicated. Alternatively, perhaps I was simply overthinking the situation, and the worst case scenarios I had imagined over the past year were nothing more than unfounded figments of my imagination. True, I had been chased through the school by a horde of admirers, but would it be so bad if the student body learnt the truth that I had cross-played as the Silver Blue Princess?

  I swallowed again, and then decided not to run away just yet.

  Nodding faintly more to myself than anyone else, I faced Valjean, meeting her eyes with as steady a gaze as I could sustain.

  “Do you know why a cornered animal is so dangerous?” I asked her. Watching her smile waver, I was thus encouraged and pressed on. “Because it has nothing to lose. That means it can go all out without worrying about the consequences.”

  “Are you threatening me?”

  “Are you threatening me?” I asked in reply. “Because if you choose to bully me, I’ll just have to give my family a call, pull some strings, and see what I can do to sue you for harassment. They are Alphas after all, and quite well regarded. They wouldn’t appreciate you sullying their good name.” I cocked my head. “On the other hand, go ahead. Tell the whole school that I cosplayed or cross-played. At least I make a better Princess than a conniving slut like you ever would.”

  With that, I hefted the straps of my carry-bag higher on my shoulder, then pushed my way past Tobias and the waitress, taking the long way out of the shop as I traversed a circular path through the interior, being careful not to bump into anyone along the way. Once outside, I took deep breaths to calm myself, but my body began trembling out of my control as my adrenal cortex opened the floodgates, releasing a deluge of adrenaline that now coursed through my body in raging rivers.

  Shaking badly, I walked slowly deeper into the entertainment complex, soon realizing that my feet were carrying me to my preferred port of call – the Gaming Arcade.

  Yes, I would seek solace in the Arcade, my home away from home, and even the sound of running footsteps behind me or my name being called out failed to slow down my meagre pace. However, a hand on my shoulder jerked me to a stop. A combination of fear and anger fueled my response which was to swing my bag at whomever had grabbed me.

  Tobias ducked with surprising speed as my bag cut the air millimeters above his head.

  “Shit—Cass! Hold up!”

  I grabbed my bag as it completed its swing, and stumbled back a step or two as I was carried along by the momentum.

  Tobias slowly straightened and raised his hands in surrender. “Cass, calm down.”

  “What do you want?” I wanted to yell at him but my voice had other ideas, so the best I could muster was a harsh whisper.

  Tobias lowered his hands slowly. “Is it true?”

  “Is what true?”

  “Are you the Silver Blue Princess?”

  I swallowed, trying to regain some of the strength in my voice. “I’m not Silver Blue. I just dressed up as her—just once.”

  Again, a war of emotions broke out on his face. “Why? Why would you do that?”

  “I had my reasons.”

  He slowly shook his head, still deeply troubled. “What reasons? After everything you’ve said to me—after hearing you complain for so long—why would you dress up as a girl? You’ve told me so many times how much you hate the way you look, so why do it? I just don’t get it.”

  “I told you, I had my reasons.”

  “But you hate your appearance.”

  My hands clenched tightly on the carry-bag’s straps. “I didn’t hate myself as much as I do now.”

  “What does that mean?”

  My voice fell, barely stronger than a whisper. “I didn’t hate myself, or the way I looked, until after I cross-played….”

  Tobias’s eyes searched my face, then swept their
gaze over my body for a quick moment.

  I cleared my throat. “Go back, Mat. Go back to that bitch. You’re missing out on your date.”

  He turned away for a second. “It’s not a date. It’s not what you think.” He took what appeared to be a anxious breath. “I can’t explain it. Not yet. Maybe never. I’m sorry. But it’s not what you think.”

  I started backing away from him. “I don’t care. I really, really don’t care. Keep your explanations because I just don’t give a shit anymore.”

  “Cass, please don’t be this way—”

  “Don’t follow me. Go back. Don’t follow me. Right now, I don’t want to see you until Monday morning. Or maybe until next month.”

  We were drawing attention to ourselves on the plaza running down the middle of the entertainment arcade. Students from Telos Academy were slowing down to watch Tobias and I. As embarrassing as that was, I was humiliated further by the way I sounded – like a girl arguing with her boyfriend – because my voice had yet to break.

  Tobias glanced at the people and students watching us, some furtively, others with interest, then looked down at me. “Cass, come with me.”

  When he reached out for me, I darted back, surprised by how quickly I moved. “No. Go back to that slut. And don’t you dare follow me. Don’t even freaking think about it.”

  I turned away and this time my legs were sufficiently strong and steady to carry me at a run all the way to the Gaming Arcade only a few hundred feet away from the crêpe shop. I ran into the center, squeezing through as soon as the glass doors opened sufficiently wide, then sped through the crowd moving about the interior.

  When I felt I was far enough from the door, I slowed down to a walk, and wandered aimlessly through the ground floor of the establishment.

  I started to regret standing up for myself.

  I’d dared that evil teenage witch to do her worst, and in the vernacular I was stuffed because I knew that she would. I was aware of guys continuing to inquire throughout the Academy for the identity of the girl who cosplayed as the Princess, so I continued to live in fear of being discovered. However, come Monday morning, everybody at Telos Academy would know her identity, and my hopes of a normal high school life would be over. I considered transferring to another academy, however it was more than likely my sordid past would haunt me wherever I went courtesy of that scheming bitch. Even if Felicia, Angela, and Class Rep chose to keep it a secret, Valjean would rise to the challenge and spread the word to the four corners of the city.

  Yep, my life is about to turn a new page, so I might as well enjoy the old one while it lasts.

  My shoulders sagged as I pondered whether it was safer to attend class incognito as a female student. After all, real men don’t hit women, do they?

  Repressing a shiver of revulsion at what my future might harbor for me, I came to a stop and looked about me.

  In this day and age of such realistic simulation technology, it was surprising to many market observers that arcades like these still flourished. Maybe it was because some kids simply chose to play away from home in the company of friends, rather than firing up a home entertainment rig to enjoy gaming in solitude. Home game systems were on par with much of what was offered here at the Arcade, yet the place was replete with high school students crowded around holo booths and other contraptions.

  Because I was vertically challenged for a boy my age – or any age – I had trouble getting a bearing on my location so I meandered through the crowd, eventually arriving at an area that I rarely frequented.

  I faced a wall of people perhaps meters thick, all with their backs turned toward me. There were very few guys in the crowd, the vast majority being girls dressed in the uniforms of Telos Academy and the nearby prestigious Vardant Academy for Girls. They may have attended different schools, but they all shared one thing in common – they were enraptured with the battle playing out on two huge holovid screens that floated overhead. Standing behind the crowd, I listened to the sounds of gunfire emanating from an expensive surround sound system, and observed the game cinematics on the immense holovids.

  One screen immediately caught my eye and roped in my attention. It displayed a long-legged girl dressed in a fantastical white dress that exposed copious amounts of skin and bust, running full pelt along a rooftop with a large wicked rifle cannon in hand. She looked incongruous amidst a modern night setting, her outfit more at home in a medieval fairytale environment. However, that was part of her charm and I quickly recognized the game playing out on the screens. It wasn’t even necessary for me to look at the banners hanging from the ceiling exhibiting other girls wearing clothes that mixed the modern with the ancient, blending them into eye candy outfits that were entirely unsuitable for the battlefield.

  Long legged, busty, and very beautiful, these girls were idealized versions of women.

  Goddesses of battle dressed in revealing attire, wielding incredibly powerful ballistic weapons.

  These girls were the Princesses of the Gun Princess Royale.

  Chapter 2.

  - I -

  As I watched the battle on the projected screens, the surrounding air booming at times with the sounds of gunfire, interspersed with the patter of dirty rain that befell the game’s scenery, a wet skyline stroked with neon light and sweeping search beams, I quickly forgot all about Monique Valjean and her threats. I was lost in the visuals, enthralled by the intensity of the combat, my body trembling faintly and my heart thumping noticeably in my chest.

  The strengths of the game shone through with its stunningly realistic visuals. The fluid movements of the Gun Princess combined with her interaction with the surroundings, such as the way water splashed when she sprinted over puddles on the rooftops, made it easy to forget this was just a game. When I looked at the city she was running over, a less than pristine forest of megascrapers with tall spires and terraced walls bearing a resemblance to Aztec pyramids, it was impossible to believe the game wasn’t real. Everything about the environment was so meticulously crafted that I couldn’t imagine the processing power required to render it. The level of detail and realism went beyond what was possible with a home gaming system.

  That too was its charm. The fact that it could convince the viewer that it was real, even the way drops of blood splattered the air when the girl took a hit from gunfire coming from somewhere out of screen.

  “Damn it!” a girl immediately ahead of me cried out. “She took a hit!”

  “Is she going to make it?” another girl asked.

  “Gods, I really want to see if she can beat that top score.”

  The two holovid windows displayed the Gun Princess from different vantage points as she rolled with the blow and came up on her feet, sprinting to the edge of the rooftop. I watched in disbelief as she leapt off the building and fell over its side…only to land on a terrace balcony some twenty feet below. Rolling to shed the kinetic energy of a hard landing, she quickly slowed to a stop and took aim at her pursuers, a pair of Gunbirds with powerful searchlights and large chainguns fitted to the underside of their fuselage and wings.

  The flying crafts reminded me of the ancient Egyptian god, Horus. They were beaked like a bird, and their wings were a collection of overlapping metal feathers attached to a sleek fuselage with gold trimmings and highlights. When they flew by, the air reverberated with a shrill cry that travelled far as their streamlined intakes inhaled copious amounts of air that was mixed with explosive fuel to generate superheated thrust then vectored out of the Gunbirds’ stern engine ports.

  Skimming low over the city skyline, their chainguns spat bullets and tracer rounds that stitched the air and strafed the side of the building, ripping it apart like it was made of wood and paper rather than permacrete and steel. For a few seconds, the Gun Princess vanished from sight as the balcony erupted in a cloud of debris, and I feared she’d been turned into a riddled mess of flesh and bone, only to emerge moments later unscathed as she leapt out of the cloud and dropped to the next te
rraced balcony twenty feet below.

  Heartbeats after landing, she had the rifle cannon she wielded aimed at the flying machines. The Gunbirds ceased their strafing run and broke formation, banking away sharply to the left and right. With a flash of light from her rifle’s muzzle, part of a Gunbird’s wing exploded into feathery metal fragments. The damage sustained wasn’t sufficient to bring the craft down, and it continued banking away, blue vortices flaring brightly from its thruster ports as it sought to flee the Princess’s line of fire by circling around the building.

  The Gun Princess fired repeatedly, the rifle muzzle tracking slightly ahead of the Gunbird and soon the craft was trailing embers, smoke, and debris. Its bank and climb began to deteriorate and the machine fell into a spiraling descent into the artificial canyon formed by megascrapers. The Gun Princess switched targets to the second Gunbird, but the killing machine had safely veered away by then. Undeterred, she ran to the edge of the balcony, and fired repeatedly at the fleeing war machine until it flew out of sight between a couple of buildings.

  She wasted no time searching for the Gunbird or awaiting its return. Instead, she jumped down from balcony to balcony until she arrived at a broad bridgeway between buildings so wide it could accommodate multiple lanes of vehicular traffic. However, the bridgeway was intended for pedestrians, and possessed a permaglass canopy to ward away the gusting wind and prevent people from falling off the platform thereby bespattering the street hundreds of feet below with their bloody remains. Leaping onto the transparent canopy, the Gun Princess took aim at the roof and fired away several rounds that created a ragged hole large enough for her to jump through. Once inside the enclosed bridgeway, the girl then ran with phenomenal speed along its length, and used the rifle cannon to blow apart the doors blocking her way into the megascraper at the far end.

  I watched her disappear into the immense pyramidal building, eager to see what would happen next.

  - II -

  I believe it prudent for me to explain a little of the Gun Princess Royale.