chapter 15

The final battle for the first years! It's Shin vs Mary.
"Mary! Congratulations, you reached the finals!" (Shin)
"Yeah, you too. But now... we'll have to fight each other." (Mary)
[3...2...1...Begin!]
"Haah...It would have been better if your friend, Lance, had to fight with me but...this is fine. And don't you dare give up! This fight is the final for the first years, let's make it grand!" (Mary)
"OK!" (Shin)
The fight began. They clashed continuously. The battle looked intence but Mary wasn't going seriously. If she went all out, the battle would have ended in a flash. After all she's A class' No. 2, she wouldn't loose easyly to anyone from the first years. It continued like that for a while but Shin decided to use his 'Energy Wing' attack to try and inflict some damage but Mary was faster and she dodged the first slash. Shin released a few more but his ONE's energy was running out so he stopped. Mary took the chance and attacked. Shin couldn't dodge her attack and was hit. This was the end.
[The winner is Mary from class A.]
The croud cheered. Mary deactivated her ONE and helped Shin get up from the ground. They wwalked to the benches and sat there, waiting for the second years.
"So, that's your friend fron class A, huh?" (Blake)
"Yes, this is Mary. Mary, those are my friends from the class, Blake and Petia. Lance disappeared somewhere, so he isn't here." (Shin)
"Nice to meet you. I'm Mary, Shin's childhood friend."
"It's nice to meet you." (Peatia)
"Hi." (Blake)
The two girls shook hands. Blake just left after the introduction to get something to eat.
"You were really amazing Mary. You finished it with one shot." (Petia)
"Don't you think Shin was also amazing during the battle?" (Mary)
"Cut it out! I know you held back during the whole time!" (Shin)
"How did you know?" (Mary)
"Your face changes when you're serious, that's how!" (Shin)
"Y-you really weren't serious?" (Petia)
"Haah...Yes, I wasn't." (Mary)
"I heard you were in A class. Which number are you?" (Petia)
"I'm number 2 in class."
"WHAT?! You're second ranked?!" (Petia)
"Why are you shouting? Is it that great of a thing?" (Shin)
"Of course it is! The smaller the number, the higher the talent of the person is. If she's No.2 then this means that she is the second best among the first years." (Petia)
"You really were that great?" - Shin's face became glooomy.
"C-cheer up Shin!" (Mary)
"Y-yeah, it's not like all kids from A class are monstrously strong, right?" (Petia)
"Shure they aren't! Hahaha!" (Mary)
"You're lying again, Mary! You only laugh like that when you lie!" (Shin)
Both Shin and Petia looked at Mary, waiting for the truth.
"The truth is that A class' only sent me as a representative of the top 5. The others didn't come. If they did come, no one from the other classes would have reached the semi-finals."
Her answer shocked them. Shin started to wonder what kind of strong people are the Top 5 and made his mind up to become even stronger. To be able to use the amazing power he used in the battle with Max freely. After that they chatted untill the end of the second day. On the way back to the dorms, Shin looked worried. Lance hadn't showed up since he disappeared.
'Something might have happened to him.' (Shin)
He was unlocking the door of his room thinking.
'Should I call the hospital, the school or the guards?'
He entered the dim lit room and heard a verry familliar mumbling and light snoring comming from the bedroom. Lance was sleeping in his bed.
'Thank God. He's fine. I have to be quiet in order not to wake him up.'
He walked into the kitchen and turned the lights on. There were a few plates drying next to the sink.
'He must have eaten something not too long ago.'
He was going to go to the fridge to take out something to eat when he hit his leg on one of the chairs, lost his balance and fell on the tiled floor. He protected his face with his hand as he fell.
"Ouch..." - Shin stood up slowly.
He was rubbing his leg when he noticed that his left hand was bleeding. It was nothing much, just his palm was scraped.
'Oh, I'll have to put some bandage on it. But it's strange, there shouldn't have been anything sharp to make it bleed.' (Shin)
After that the battles continued for two days. They were really intence and interesting. After the end of the Midterm battle, the students and all other people had the next day to enjoy themselves at the festival. There were many street stalls selling food and sweets, games and even a concert in the evening. Mary, Shin, Petia, Lance and Blake went out together to celebrate. On their way back a boy stopped them. The boy was tall and muscular, with a bit angry look in his eyes and brouwnish hair. It was Kurama from the Student counchil. He introduced himself briefly and told them to follow him.
"Why are you looking for us? Where are we going?" (Shin)
"We're going to the Student counchil's meeting room. Miss Alisa wants to see you." (Kurama)
The five of them gluped when thhey heard this. What would the scary President want from them? They entered the room, Kurama stayed outside. In there Alisa was sitting on a chair behind a big desk, reading a book. When they entered she closed it and looked at them. On her right side Melinda was sitting on a couch, waiting.
""Good evening!"" (Shin and co.)
"Good evening. As you know, I wanted to see you tonight, right?"
"Yes." (Mary)
"Let me get straight to the point. I want you to form a team and start the practical training course." (Alisa)
The five of them were surprised by her words.
'What's that Practical training course?' (Lance)
"As you might know this includes special training and going on the field and fight real ARDs. From your results at the Midterm battle, you five are ready to do such things. Most of the other students have to wait a bit more for it, untill the end of their first year at most. Each team requires to have at least 5 members and your abilities match well as a team, so I want your agreement and to sign this. Melinda!" (Alisa)
Melinda stood up and gave them a sheet each. There was all the needed information, only the student's signature was missing.
"Would you agree or not is up to you. It's either now or you'll wait like everyone else." (Alisa)
After a moment of hesitation, Shin signed it. Seeing that Lance also signed. After that were Mary, Petia and Blake at the end.
"Good. Come here tomorrow at 10:00. I'll be waiting." (Alisa)
""Yes!"" (Shin and co.)
They went out, leaving Alisa and Melinda alone.
"It went better than expected. I can finish the documentation earlier than expected." - Alisa chuccled.
=== Somewhere in the USA ===
"Prof. Shiroyama, we're back."
A boy and a girl in black robes enter a lab. They're the same two Alisa and the others encountered. They were the two Varions. This time they weren't wearing masks and the hoods of their robes were down. The boy had brownish-green, spyky hair and glowing cat-like green eyes with a quite a bit of tan. The girl had a medium lenght blonde hair, tied in a ponytail. Her skin was white and clean, her eyes were also like the boy's.
"Good job acomplishing the mission this time without any errors. Leave the containers here. You may leave." (Shiroyama)
The two were carying two big metal containers. They put them on the designated place,their eyes turned back normal (black for the boy, blue for the girl) and were about to leave when Shiroyama said something.
"Go to the meeting room at sector D. Clayton will tell you and the others the new information."
""Understood!""
They left the lab and headed to the meeting room. On the way there:
"Man, we just came after a mission to take five ARD cores and now we'll have to go and recieve instructions from Clayton. This sucks, can't they give us at least a day break?" (boy)
SLAP! He wa hit by the girl yet again.
"That hurt, Irina!" (boy)
"Shut up Xant! You are in no position to complain about the professor's orders!" (Irina)
"I was just commenting! I wasn't complaining or opposing them!" (Xant)
They soon reached the room and entered. There was a round table with a lot of chairs and a big desk. Prof. Shiroyama's chair stood behind the desk. In front of five chairs around the table were labels with numbers. The numbers were 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. On the chair behinf No.10 was sitting a young man in his early 20s with brown hair and a scar across his cheek. It was Clayton.
"I was waiting for you, sit down."
Xant sat at No.6 and Irina at No.8. Then the man started talking.
"As you might know, Prof. Shiroyama needs more cores recently, so we'll have to do a lot of work recently."
"Yes, we know. Where are Cala and Sam?" (Xant)
"They haven't returned from the mission, yet. Back to the toppic... there have been some really strange things happening lately. A few times, when I was on a mission I couldn't get the ARD cores." (Clayton)
"You couldn't get them? I thought there was no one as strong as you among the normal soldiers of WPO." (Irina)
"There isn't. The problem is,... the ARDs were destroyed before I got to them. To tell you the truth, it was pretty messy. There were parts of the ARDs scattered everywhere. The most shocking thing was that when I decided to look around, there were no signs of WPO's soldiers. In fact, they hadn't even come, yet. That means a third party has appeared behind the scene. Even I'm not sure if I can defeat the one who did it, so be extra carefull when you go on missions." (Clayton)
Xant and Irina shuddered. Clayton was the strongest of the Varions. It would be really bad if he can't do anything to that mysterious third party.
"That's all. Dismissed!" (Clayton)
They left the room. Xant was walking towards his room when the alarm started.
BEEEEEEP! BEEEEP! [Attention everyone! Riot in cell 3! Repeat, riot in cell 3!]
Many guards were running frantically with sleeping part guns and electric guns.
'Oh, seems like No.5 has gone mad again. It hadn't happened for a while.' (Xant)
No.5 was the fifth Varion Shiroyama had made. In tottal there were ten people she took as test subjects for the Varion project. They were orphaned kids she took after her betrayal. They were experimented on for a few years untill the five complete Varions were made. From the other five, four died and one turned into a burden. He became crazy and started attacking everyone. Because they could use him to get more data, he is kept alive, locked in a special reinforced cell. Because he is very violent and strong, they keep him sedated most of the time, but sometimes he would wake up and go berserk.
=== At Shiroyama's lab ===
"You were calling me." (Clayton)
"Yes. I have a mission for you. I have gathered enough data from No.5 and he isn't needed here anymore."
"Do you want me to kill him?" - Clayton was puzzled.
"No. He can be usefull for one last thing. After he is sedated, I want you to take him to the city of Carlota, in the southern states of Gordania. Give him a weapon and release him. He'll create enough chaos and give hard tive to those ONE users od the WPO." (Shiroyama)
"Yes, as you command!" (Clayton)
Then he left. Shiroyama laughed alone in her lab, turned around and looked at her computer. She pressed a button and the screen lit up, revealin a comlex chart full of calculations, data and a model of an ARD.
"Now....What will you do? My dear, dear friend Miki?"