chapter 21

In an instant Lance's claws and Zane's halberd clashed. The sound produced was so loud it startled everyone, a small cloud of dust was lifted in the air.
Blake got startled and looked towards the place Lance and Zane were. Kurama took the chance and slammed Blake in the floor, creating a small dent in it. Blake looked at Kurama with a startled look.
"Don't ever get distracted in a fight! It'll be your end!" - Kurama said as he was scowling down at Blake.
Blake grunted in pain and annoyance as his ONE deactivated. After that however, he and Kurama also looked at Lance and Zane along with Chuo, Shin and the others in te observation room.
Lance had grabbed Zane's halberd by the blade with his claws. He was pushed a few centimetres back by Zane but he successfully blacked the attack. Lance flicked the halberd up with his hand while giving a punch to Zane's stomach. Zane was surprized and was a bit slow to react, nevertheless he twisted his body a bit when the punch hit him. Zane was pushed back and rolled a bit on the ground, although he was punched and sent to the ground a lot of the punch's force was evaded, otherwise Zane would have been severely hurt. Zane quickly stood back on his feet, a bit crouched with the halberd in his left hand. Lance took a stance, his right leg a bit to the front, slightly bent knees, right hand pulled back and ready for a punch, left hand stretched forward with palm open to counter any incoming attack. Zane jumped, proppeling himself like a bullet towards Lance, and slashed at him. Lance used his palm to push the blade aside and punched Zane in the face. He flew and hit the wall, leaving his halberd behind. He crashed and got stuck in the wall, making a small crater. Jugo and everyone looked in awe.
=== Control room ===
"WOW!! How is this possible?! The output and strenght are all way above the charts for a 'Cat' type! He hasn't even activated the Overdrive." (Miki)
"I've told you, haven't I? Lance is one of a kind and can always surprize you. Machina, what do you think?" (Kumoto)
"M-me?!" Machina was surprised. She had entered a bit earlier and was currently setting some drinks for refreshment. "I don't know much about Lance, only from the data there is in the computers here, but to tell you he's a professional won't be a mistake. His reaction time is minimal, can predict his oponent's moves quite well. He's like a seasoned warrior."
Both Kumoto and Miki nodded their heads in understandment.
'I wonder, just where exactly had found this raw talent. Where did Lance came from?' (Miki)
=== Back to the arena ===
Zane looked at Lance. He was surprized and a bit shocked. His eyes were wide open and he blinked a few times.
"Are you OK?!" Jugo asked Zane "Is something broken?"
"Ah...no, I'm fine." Zane slowly slid out of the wall and straightened his back.
"Well, Zane, what is the feeling? Do you need more time to get used to your ONE? Want some more?" Lance asked entusiastically making everyone sweatdrop.
"Good,... better than old. Yes, I need." (Zane)
"OK! Come at me!" Lance got in battle ready stance.
"Wait! Stop right here~! That was good, real good! Buuuut, I think there were enough punches in the face for now, so we're stopping for now~." Jugo butted in with a bright smile.
"OK!" (Zane & Lance)
Lance relaxed and smiled at Zane. Zane was still a bit confused and watched his hand.
'Oooh...it seems he's got something.' (Lance thought)
"What is it? You look at your arm like it's some amazing thing or somethin' ." Lance joked a bit with Zane.
"Yes." Zane answered and looked at his halberd 5-6 metres away from him. He extended his right arm towards it and opened his palm. The halberd shook for a moment when it suddenly flew spinning towards Zane. He clasped the halberd's handle and put it down.
"Whoa!/ Wow!/ Impressive./ That was amazing and sooo cool!!" all sorts of reactions were heard from the arena. Lance even clapped and whistled.
'What....the...hell?! I didn't put a function like that!!! This is truly interesting. You never cease to impress me Zane.' (Miki)
After a while the others returned to their places. Blake and Kurama's fight continued, Shin and Chuo continued phisical and reaction training while Jugo showed Zane and Lance a few useful moves and tricks that can help in real life battles. They continued training for 2 more hours when a bell rang, it was time for rest and lunch.
"OK! That's enough for today kiddos! Go and eat something, then have a good rest. We'll continue tomorrow!" (Jugo)
Melinda had led Petia out of the simulator room a few seconds ago.
"But I still haven't finished my battle with Kurama!" (Blake)
"Hehehe..." Jugo's aura became dark "You either rest now or I'll make you unable to leave your room for the next 3 months~." Jugo said with a fake, scary smile "You can always continue tomorrow, CAN'T you?!"
"Yyes sir!! I'll continue tomorrow!" for the first time in year Blake was scared.
"It's good then! Buye-buye~ see ya tomorrow!" Jugo baemed and waved at them as he jogged out of the arena.
"You should be more careful. If Jugo gets realy mad, he becomes a demon. A lot of people are afraid of him because of that and stay away, especially after the incident..." as Kurama finished, he and Chuo shivvered.
They deactivated their ONEs and also left the arena. Blake, Petia, Zane, Lance and Shin walked towards the cafeteria. After 10 minutes they reached it and entered. The moment the doors opened, all eyes were on them, mostly Zane to be exact. The other students staed at them and started to murmur. They were talking mostly about Zane and how they were called by the Student Counchil's president, Alisa.
Petia was a bit flustered but quickly composed herself. Blake didn't care. Shin had ignored them. Lance had not even noticed them as he dragged Zane towards the counter. After they all have ordered food, they sat on an emty table, ate and talked to each other about diferent things. At some time, surprisingly someone came to their table. Yuuto from their class came.
"Hi there! Can I sit here?" (Yuuto)
"Yes, you can." (Shin)
"Thanks a lot! All other tables were stuffed with students. It wouldn't have been good to be squashed while eatind." (Yuuto)
After that they started talking with Yuuto, too. It turned out he was nice if you excluded some things like his womanizing personality.
=== At an unknown location ===
BOOOOOOM! BAAM! CRACK!
For a few hours now these sounds have been heard from the west mountainside. There were a lot of smoking craters, broken trees and crushed rocks. There, on a pile of rubble and broken training dummies stood a girl in armor. Her pink hair was a bit dirty and messy. She held a short dagger, glowing brightly in neon green. She was breathing heavily. Cala had been training like that for 3 weeks now. At the back, under a tree you could see a boy, he was Sam, Cala's partner. He wore beige jeans, baggy shirt, red cap and sneakers. He had black hair and broun eyes, also a mole under his right eye.
'Sheesh, a woman's anger realy is comparable with hell itself.' he thought and stood up.
"Cala, that's enough for today! Take a rest!" (Sam)
"N-no. I    still can't. I, I have to be the strongest!! To take revenge for Zane!!" she snarled after recovering a bit.
Sam shook his head and walked towards her. He jumped behind her with ease. He then quickly pressed her neck. She tried to struggle, but before she could think about moving, her legs and arms lost their strenght. She flopped on her knees as Sam caught her. She glared at him.
"Look, I don't know how you feel but you're my partner and you have to rest, otherwise your health will get bad." (Sam)
"Oooh...I didn't know you care for someone else but yourself." (Cala)
"Hey, if ya die, Shiroyama will give me hell about it. After all we're her 'Pressious' Varions." (Sam)
"Ha...ha." Cala weakly laughed as she fainted.
Sam carried her inside. As he was walking towards her room he thought about some things.
'If I remember, Zane was No 5's name before he turned beserk monster. What had happened while we were gone to make her so angry. Even if I ask she won't tell me. After all the closest person to her during the experiments was he. They would always stay hidden in one of the corners, talking about stuff.' Sam ten noticed the necklace dangling on Cala's neck.
=== Flashback!! (1st official) ===
Yet another experiment had ended today. The kids were half led, half dragged to their room. It was a giant room with no windows, no air vents or other possible ways to escape. There were numerous hidden cameras around the room. As you enter, you could see ten beds, a small carpet in the middle, a few plastic balls, a separate bathroom and a huge glass, taking almost taking up the whole left wall. (Like in those interogation rooms, there were people on the other side 24/7.) They were pushed/thrown inside rudely by the guards. Out of the 10 beds only 7 were now used. Sam grunted as he hated this treatment, this place as a whole. It was way worse than living on the streets.
'Why the HELL had I agreed to come!!?' (Sam)
The three missing kids died during the experiments. He still remembered their screams vividly. He stood up and winced a bit in pain. He slowly reached his bed and laid on his back. He was thinking about today. While they still were being taken out of their capsules by the medics and being dressed, he faintly heard a scientist talking with Shiroyama.
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"How's the experiment going?" (Shiroyama)
"Verry well. We've just finished all the preparation procedures. They'll be ready for the final step in 2 days." (scientist)
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This wasn't good.
'Something big will happen in 2 days.' (Sam)
He looked to his right and saw two kids sitting next to eachother in the corner. Those were Zane and Cala. They always did that after the experiments were over. This time, however, something different happened. Zane gave Cala something and she hugged him.
2 days passed quickly. Everyone was getting nervous as they have never had so muc break between experiments. Cala was squeezing the necklace's ornament in her hand with all her might. She looked like she was praying. Then the guards burst into the room.
"Move it! You know the procedure!" (guard1)
When they reached the lab there were some differences. The capsules each had big containers with strange liquids in them, also inside the capsules were put restrains from a special metal. Usualy the restrains were leather but these new ones were metal, this brought even more fear in their hearts.
'Definetely not good.' (Sam)
When they were inside, tightly secured, the capsule slowly filled with liquid. A needle then injected Sam with some sedative. He fell asleep while thinking. 'Strange...they had never used sedatives.'
He was suddenly awoken by hellish, burning pain all over his body, both out and inside. He screamed inside the oxygen mask, making bubbles in the liquid, he thrashed but the metal restrains had him stuck. For him it felt like eternity when the pain slowly stopped. He was so relieved he fell back to sleep.
When he woke up, he found there were only five of them left. The other kid, Mike had died and Zane had become crazy. He was glad he was alive, although there were many changes to his and everyone's body he still was glad. Cala was crying nonstop and there was no Zane to comfort her anymore. He slowly went to her and relucantly patted her. No one said a word for the day.
=== End of flashback ===
Sam had reached Cala's room. He entered, placed her on the bed and covered her with a blanket. He then went out.
'She had probably heard something bad happened to Zane. Probably overheard some of Shiroyama's talk. There's no need to rush. Sooner or later I'll learn about it.' (Sam)
=== Night at Romen ===
It was already past midnight. Everyone but the night shift personel was asleep. In Shin, Zane and Lance's room was quiet, a bit too quiet. Lance's mumbling could not be heard, he wasn't his bed. Shin was breathing a bit roughly as he subconciously turned to the side and squeezed his constantly twitching left hand. He was sweating, his covers were on the floor. If you looked carefully enough you could see his feet also lightly twitching as his body, almost unnoticaby, shook.
On the third bed Zane was not having a good night either. He was trashing around, spinning constantly in his bed, his arms and legs trashing around.
--- Zane's dream ---
There were many explosions and screams all around him. He was running and running. He briefly looked back and saw two pitch black human figures, one was holding the other when suddenly they shattered, dyeing the world bloody red. He fell backwards into a black and white abyss. He was falling for quite a while when he finally fell into some liquid. It quickly enveloped him and hardened. He was stuck, immobile. The world started flashing. There were the black figures of children, some smaller, some bigger, they were standing in a circle, HE was also part of it. Suddenly one figure screamed, it became twisted, disorted and then it disappeared into nothingness. The same repeated untill there were only six left, he included. Seeing the emty spaces in the once full circle hurt his heart for some reason, he wanted to fight but couldn't move a muscle. It then hit him, strong, hellish pain shot trough his whole body. multiple sharp hooks pierced his skin and started pulling him away. The figures stood motionless and watched him with hollow white eyes. Only one tried to help him, it had long hair and a dress. It struggled as it streched its hands toward him while running but it fell on the floor. He was starting to lose the sight of it. The figure stood on its knees and looked at him with big blue eyes, tears rolling down its cheeks like small rivers. On its neck hung a silver, star-shaped necklace that looked strangely familiar to him.
'Where.....have I...' (Zane)
The world turned bleak and cold. The pain was no more than a discomfort now, compared to the cold. He could finaly move a bit but the hooks embedded in him were keeping him there with no sign of releasing him any time sooner.
CRACK!!!
Cracks started to appear on the black sky above him. They rapidly spread and the darkness shattered. The hooks fell off, turning into dust. The brightness blinded him for a while but when he looked in front a bright, sky blue was revealed to him. A hand was stretched towards him, open waiting to be taken. He hesitates for a bit but then takes it. The hand pulls him towards the blue. He closed his eyes. Zane felt calm, secure and happy but suddenly a stron sence of dread, terror and emptiness was transmitted to him trough the hand.
=== End of dream ===
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" (Zane)
The sceam was so loud it woke almost everyone in the dorm. Shin bolted up from his bed, competely forgetting about his trembling and twitching while sleeping. Truth be told, it was the third time Shin was doing this while sleeping, he just forgot about it after waking up, no trace of anything ever happening as even the sweat disappeared.
"What's happening?!" Shin saw Zane shaking and scared "Zane! What happened? Are you fine? Do yuo need something?"
From the now lit kitchen came Lance, his hands were wet, dripping water. He got next to the bed and sat next to Zane.
"Don't worry. It'll be fine." Lance patted and calmed Zane down. "See? It's better." Lance smiled.
On the door one of the dorm's guards knocked.
"Is anyone there?!" (guard)
Shin went and opened the door.
"Yes, it is. My friend just had a realy bad nightmare." Shin opened the door wider and pointed at Zane.
"I see. There are no problems then. If something, however, happens call us and we'll come. Good night." the guard said and left.
'What could have he dreamed about to scream like that? He didn't even flinch then being embedded in the wall. What made him make such a loud noise?' (Shin)
After Zane calmed down they all went back to sleep.