chapter 16

The next day Shin and co. came together to the Student counchil's meeting room. While they waited Shin decided to talk with Mary for a bit.
"So, Mary, you said that only you from A class' top 5 participated. Why weren't they there?"
"Because the top 5 recieve special training from the start of the school year. We were out training on the land or in special training room on the ship. When I called you, we were in one of the bases in SSG (Southern states of Gordania). In Zingela, to be exact. When we returned, we were supposed to stay for a few days and then leave for another place but I decided to stay for the Midterm battle. Instead of me, Violet went with them." (Mary)
"Is that so? Wait! Violet? She gt permission to go to practical training earlier than us?" (Shin)
"Yes, because of the five person rule she had to train alone. As you might know, there may be much more than 5 people at a team but the training we've been trough was meant for five person team only. The teacher said 'When you have enough experience, you may increase the number of members on your team. For now, five is enough for you, brats!' and didn't allow her to join. In the end, it was good that the President allowed you to join, too. But let me warn you something, be prepared for anything." (Mary)
Shin, Petia and Lance nodded. Blake was as indifferent as before. Then the door opened and Melinda invited them in. Alisa was waiting for them next to the desk, holding a few papers.
""Good morning!""
"Good morning to you too. Come and take your assignment lists." - She handed the papers to them and each took one.
"Now, I'll explain what will be your training as a team. Together with me and a few other people, you'll go to the WPO training base in Carlota. There you'll train and observe the work of proffesionals. After you complete your training, you'll start fighting with real ARDs little by little. Got it?" (Alisa)
""Yes!""
"OK. Go and pack your stuff. The boat to Carlota leaves today at 15:30 from dock 5." (Alisa)
After that Shin, Lance, Mary, Blake and Petia exited the room.
"Are you sure this is alright president? Isn't it too sudden for first years?" (Melinda)
"It's fine! As you know, a person needs to fight to get experience. Also, the two boys that can use 'Overdrive' need to get even more experience. That's why I did it." (Alisa)
=== On the way back to the dorms ===
Blake, Shin and Lance were walking back to their dorm when Lance stopped.
"Ah! If we're going to be away for a long time, I need to buy some more stuff and inform the Professor! You can go without me, I'll return soon!" - after he said that, Lance ran off to somewhere.
"Just come back on time, OK?" (Shin)
"Got it!" (Lance)
Lance went to buy some snacks and sweets for the travel. Then he headed to inform Prof. Kumoto Hagashi. When he entered the lab, he saw Kumoto reading an old book, the one Cecilia brought.
"Good morning!" (Lance)
"Oh, Lance, what are you doing here?" - Kumoto looked at him, then Lance saw the dark circles under Kumoto's eyes.
"What happened? Heven't you been sleeping? You know that you need to rest and not overwork yourself!" (Lance)
"I know, but this is more important than sleep." he pointed at the book "I'm trying to figure some secrets from here. It's crucial to do so...yawn... because there might be some problems for humanity pretty soon.Yawn..." (Kumoto)
Lance put down the shopping bags he was holding and went next to Kumoto. He looked at the book's open pages. It was a different page than the one mentioning the Varions and the possibility for another 'Starfall' . It was a few pages after that. There was a mysterious drawing and a few numbers. The drawing looked like a circle with mysterious writings on its rim, inside were a few straight lines forming a star, in the middle was a big symbol. Below the drawing were the numbers 230,566,993,017and an ink spot from the moisture. It was unknown what was written after the numbers. At the sight of it Lance frowned a bit.
"You should stop for a bit and rest. As you might know, a person works better when he's rested and filled his stomach." - Lance said as he looked at Kumoto.
"I guess you're right. Yawn. I'll go to sleep now." (Kumoto)
He stood up from the chair, put a ruler to mark where the page was and put the book in a safe, integrated in the wall.
"What did you come here for?" - Kumoto asked Lance.
"I came to tell you that I'm going to Carlota for special training with my friends. I won't be here for quite some time."
"Oh, is that so? It was to be expected. After all you can use the 'Overdrive' . Let me warn you, you shouldn't get too proud and should help you friends and other people with everything you can, got it?" (Kumoto)
"Yes, I will help them!" (Lance)
After they parted ways, Lance got back to the dorm. It was 12 o'clock so he had a lot of time to pack and get ready.
=== At dock 5 ===
"Get on board ki~ds! Quickly, we're leaving soon!" (Chuo)
A man in military clothes was the one that was going to drive the boat. There were Melinda, Alisa, Kurama, Chuo, Mary, Petia and Blake waiting for Shin and Lance to get on board. The boat set off. The journey to the coast was long an uneventful. They reached there after three hours. After that they had to go on another ride with a car to reach Carlota, which was a few km from the coast. They reached without any problems and settled in. Alisa introduced them to the people working there and their new instructors. Shin and co were going to learn tactics from the strategic of the base - Selena, practical training and simple battle techniques from Chuo, finally they were going to observe Alisa and the other members of the Student counchil's battles on the battlefield. Soon night came and they went to their beds.
'I wonder what will happen tomorrow... I hope something interesting will happen.' - Shin thought.
=== Outside of Carlota ===
An armored truck came, it was all black. It was sent by Shiroyama. From within it three men came out. One of them was Clayton, he wore the same robe and mask as Irina and Xant, from under the robe one could see a faint electric green glow from his armor. He had equipped his ZON - the special weapon which only Varions can use. It requires the special wavelenght sequence they have for it to activate, that was the diference between it and WPO's ONE. The other two were the driver and the medic, responsible with keeping No.5 asleep untill the time comes.
"What shall we do now?" (medic)
"We'll wait untill morning comes. Prof. Shiroyama ordered to releasr him during the day, when all people are awake, to plant fear in their hearts." (Clayton)
"Got it. I'll go and check his condition again. If he wakes up, this truck won't be able to hold him." (medic)
Clayton sat on a rock nearby and looked at the city. Soon, the sun will rise and they'll release No.5 with a weapon. They even put a ZON armor on him. It wasn't a real ZON, only an experimental suit from the testing period. It couldn't 'grow' nor turn in a bracelet like their own, it was much more similar to an ordinary armor. Anyone could use it, as long as he had the same wavelenght sequence.
=== The morning ===
Shin, Lance and Mary were eating in the dining hall when Blake and Petia showed up. Today they were going to start their new training. As they were about to leave for the training room the alarm sounded.
[Attention! To all personel. ARDs have been detected! Repeat, ARDs have been detected!]
"What?! ARDs, why here all of a sudden?!" (Mary)
"I don't know, it just happened that way." (Petia)
Lance was looking at the city from the window near him. They were wondering what to do when Kurama came running.
"What are you spacing out for?! Come with me! We don't have time!"
They followed him to the base's control room. In there Alisa, Melinda and Chuo were recieveing the information about the ARDs from Selena.
"It's really bad this time! They're going to land just outside of the city. The worst is that they're landing in diferent places, also the ONE users from base Dogvana won't come in time to stop them from destroying the city. We will have you to fight those ARDs." - Selena told Alisa.
"There is no problem. We'll do our best. Hey, trainees, you're coming with us this time!" (Alisa)
"Wwe are?!" (Shin)
"Yes, we've sounded the alarm, your task is to protect the people untill they get in the shelters. Got it? You are not there to fight!" (Alisa)
""Yes!""
They activated their ONEs and boarded a car to drive them down to the city.
"Melinda, what do we have deal with this time?" (Kurama)
"I'll see." Melinda turned the scaner on and waited to see the results "It's nor good. There are five ARDs. Two level 8, one level 7, one level 5 and...one level 4. We'll have a really hard time dealing with them. There is also some mysterious signal but I can't pinpoint it."
"Be carefull! We might have company." (Alisa)
=== Outside of the city ===
"It's time! Unlock No. 5's capsule!" (Clayton)
The medic did what he was told. He inserted the key card and entered the code. As the capsule was opening some steam came out. No 5 was sleeping in there. No 5 was a boy around 15, he had good looking face, a shoulder-lenght spiky hair in a strange black and green stripes. They weren't from a hair dye, it was due to the experiments that were done on him, it was now his natural hair color. Although he looked weak and slender, he could blow a hole trough a brick wall with his bare hands easyly. He was wearing whole body armor with glowing green parts, his head and palmds weren't covered by it.
Clayton leaned a bit forward and lifted him. He brought the boy out of the truck's trailer and placed him face down on the ground, facing the city. He then took a halberd and placed it under the boy's hand.
"We're leaving!" (Clayton)
"Is it OK to leave him here sir? Won't he head towards another direction?" (driver)
"It's fine. He moves by instinct, so he'll head towards the place with the most people, the city." (Clayton)
The truck left quickly before the sedatives wore off. A few minutes after the five ARDs fell down.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM! x5
They landed on five diferent places around the city. The loud noise and slight tremmor of the ground woke No 5 up. His eyes shot open and you could see the cat-like, glowing green eyes. He grabbed the halbeard and quickly stood up. He looked around breathing heavyly, then his eyes, full with anger looked at the city in front of him.
"Grrrr..."
He then released an angry roar and ran towards the city with an amazing speed, compared to that of a car.
=== In the city ===
People were screaming, running as fast as they could towards the shelters. Those that were outside when the ARDs crashed shrieked in horror. They thought that they might die any moment now. Just then the roar of the ARDs was heard.
Bziiiiing...BOOOM!
One of the ARDs was a canon type. It shot the top of a building. The people near the building screamed. Pieces of concrete, glass and metal started falling. The people ran for their lives. A woman was running with her baby but she tripped and fell. She braced herself and closed her eyes, hugging her baby but the rubble never hit her. She opened her eyes and looked up. Petia was standing next to her. Petia had lifted her hands up, using her ONE's power, she had created a barrier to protect the woman.
"Lance!" (Petia)
Lance ran towards her and jumped up, slicing all the rubble with the claws. Petia released the barier and helped the woman get up.
"Are you fine?" (Petia)
"Y-yes!" (woman)
"Then, quickly go in the shelter. We'll take things from here." (Petia)
The woman nodded and ran towards the shelter's entrance a few tens of metres in front of her. When all the people near entered and the door of the shelter closed, Petia sighed ir relief. Although she was shy, not very good at sports and hated violence, when she was doing something, she did it seriously. When she and the others arrived, Alisa and the other members of the Student counchil went to defeat the ARDs and left them with the task to help the citizens evacuate. Petia quickly made a plan to split in two. There were six shelters in the city, so they split in two groups, each group would go to three shelters and help the people get in them. Blake, Shin and mary were in the first team. They would take the shelters at the farthest end of the city, where it will be more dangerous. Petia and Lance would take the other three. This was Lance and Petia's second shelter. They only had to check one more and would then meet with Shin and the others at the city's centre.
"Hurry up Petia! We have to go!" (Lance)
"C-coming!" - Petia was panting a bit.
They reached the last third shelter. They asked the guards at the entrance if someone's missing.
"Well...there is that little boy over there. He says his big sister hasn't come and that something might have happened to her."
"Uaaah! Sister!" the kid ran and hugged Petia's leg. He looked up at her with his teary eyes and said "P-please...sniff...help my sis. She... she promised me to meet here but she hasn't come. Something must have happened to her!"
"Don't worry, we'll go and look for her, you just stay here." (Petia)
"O...Ok." (boy)
"Come on, let's look  for your sister! Where was she when you last heard from her? How does she look like?" (Lance)
"She was heading here from her school. I have a picture of her."
The boy turned his phone on and showed then the picture. It was a girl in university with long, straight, brown hair and green eyes.
"In which direction is her school?" (Petia)
"There."
The boy pointed towards a street on the left side of the shelter.
"We're going! Wait for us, we'll find your sister!" (Lance)
He ran towards the direction with Petia following him. They looked around for her and finally found her. She was unconsciousness and one of her legs was caught under some rubble. Lance went there anc carefully lifted the rubble.
"Petia, pull her out!"
"OK."
Petia pulled her out and lance led the rubble again.
"We have to take her to the shelter quickly, before they lock the door!" (Lance)
He lifted her and was about to head to the shelter when sh stopped and turned around quickly. He was intencely looking towards a small dark alley in front of him.
"What's wrong Lance?" (Petia)
Lance shoved the girl in petia's hands. Petia was surprized and almost dropped her.
"Take her to the shelter! I'll buy you time. After you did it go to Blake and the others." (Lance)
"Wha--!" (Petia)
A quick slash ran towards them. Lance pulled Petia in order to not get hurt. The slash continued and cut directly trough te building behind them.
"Run quickly!" (Lance)
Petia opened her ONE's wings and flew towards the shelter. She knew that they wouldn't be able to save the boy's sister if they fought and that she didn't have a chance against the thing that attacked them, but neverthless she was worried about lance, so she looked back. She saw a strange and scary boy around lance's age in a strange armor with a halderd coming out from the alley. Shivvers san trough her spine when she noticed the boy's eyes. They looked very vicious and terryfying, like an angr beast's. Yes, that was No 5.
'After I get this girl to the shelter, I'll go and bring Shin and the others to help Lance as soon as possible! I hope that it isn't too late when we arrive.' - Petia thought.