Earl woke by merely opening his eyes. Looking around for a few seconds, he decided he must be awake, and so blinked away his sleep, took a deep breath, and let it out in a silent groan as he scooched his way out from underneath his blanket. He didn't need to, but it felt better to slip out from underneath it and merely settle the bed sheets instead of fully having to make his bed, and it was a bit of an exercise to further chase away thoughts of sleeping in.
Not that he needed much excuse, as today was quite an exciting day: He and his two friends were to get their Gotcha Boxes today.
Speaking of his friend, however, he checked the time, and found it was... six in the morning? It was hard to use these people's clocks, as he was used to the 1st hour being when the sun peeked out from over the horizon, rather than an hour after midnight. And there are 24 hours in a day, why must these galactic goofs insist on having two different 12-hour periods?
Bah. He fixed his bed, brushed his teeth, settled his glasses, got dressed - without jacket - and started making a simple peanut butter and jelly sandwich. While jelly was understandably universal, peanut butter was a surprise to find as a common crop among others as well. After he finished making the first, he made a second, cleaned up, and then went on to wake up Caz, his first friend and roommate.
With his sock on, he started kicking at Caz, snoring away on his bunk, splayed out and blanket half on the floor. Earl tried putting it back on him a few times, but realized that - first, idiots don't get colds, and second, he would have kicked the blanket off a minute later as it was too hot for him to begin with.
A fool, but a kind one, and one Earl made a bond with.
He also found out after merely a week that Caz did not remember a thing until he sat up in bed, sometimes even taking a few minutes after eating to remember anything at all. Thus, the sandwich.
"Come on, Caz. If you don't get ready now, we won't have enough time to pick up your girl friend."
As always, the boy didn't even budge an inch from the provocation. Earl knew that a girlfriend was different from a girl who is a friend, but it was vengeance for his bad sleeping habits. Not because of the snoring - Earl had been trained in the ways of dreamscapes by Talean Elders personally - but because he'd been late a few times due to his obligation to go to class with his friends, suffering punishment for being tardy twice.
Friends were more important than classes, but classes were still quite important, after all. Seriously, though. Twice! In two months!
Not that months had the same scale either. Talea had ten months, and Rial didn't have months at all, as it had no seasonal changes. The Galactic Federation followed something on Earth, using twelve months, but it was really only four months - what they called seasons. Perhaps Talea was more like ten seasons per year. Or maybe Earth just simplified their seasons to four. Earth's weather was as foreign to Earl as darkspace, so he did not pay it much mind.
Bee would know, probably.
Which reminded him; he had to wake up Caz so they could go pick her up before classes.
"Caz! It's six-... thirty!" he shouted, once more kicking at the boy. He only estimated the time, as he didn't quite understand that weird clock device that was found everywhere. Also, why was an hour split into sixty minutes? Why a minute into sixty seconds? And yet, why a thousand milliseconds to a second??
Galactic culture was confusing.
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Caz dreamt he was a borg, fighting to the death with some shadow version of himself. It was a grand fight, dodging around, over, through bullets, tanking blows across his abdomen, but returning just as many blows back to the face, doing sweeping leg kicks into a piercing drill attack into the ground, only to find they blocked it, then retreated, only to dash forward once more.
The fight was exhilarating, even as he could feel himself losing more and more cohesion, as the force which kept gotcha borgs together was falling apart inside of him from the hostile energies.
Caz could hear people cheering his name, urging him to win this fight!
Dodge, dip, push through the pain, and deliver a strike!
Over and over, he fought this shade that looked less and less like himself and more and more like some other... thing. Twisting and turning, the figure became more and more defined until-
A large red eye replaced its face, staring with no emotion. This was no enemy. This was...
This was-
"Caz!"
Caz woke up with a start, still kind of sleepy. He didn't really remember his dream, but he did feel like it was pretty fun. Looking around groggily with bleary, sleep-inhibited eyes, he smelled the familiar scent of peanut butter and hummed pleasantly. He held out his hands, made a grumble that he immediately realized didn't really say anything. Thankfully, though, his request was heard, understood, and granted, as the peanut butter sandwich was placed in its rightful places.
Namely, his hands, which led to his mouth, and then down the hatch to settle delightfully in his stomach.
With a pleased groan, he belatedly realized that it was more than just peanut butter, but also jelly, as the sweet tang of the fruit jelly rested in his mouth quite nicely.
"Mm. Good morning, Earl," he said, still waking up a little. Earl knew him so well. If Earl was a girl, he'd be a perfect wife.
Well, no. Earl would be smart, but he wasn't... fun. He was friendly, and always helped, but he didn't really... do much. More like a secretary. And those could be male or female.
Earl was saying something, but Caz couldn't quite parse it. Something about friends and classes. Shaking his head, Caz tried to wake up a bit more and asked, "What was that?"
"What was what?" Earl asked in return.
"I meant- uh... what did you say?"
"I said, 'If you don't get up now, we won't have enough time to go pick up your girlfriend.' Now get up, we get our gotcha boxes today."
That woke him up immediately, as he threw what blanket was left on the bed off in his dash to the bathroom to start getting prepared. Toothpaste on toothbrush, toothbrush in mouth, start stripping from pajamas, get clean clothes from hangers, start getting dressed, pause brushing teeth to get shirt over his head, continue brushing, pants, socks, shoes, jacket, keys- keys? No keys, not here. Uh- wallet, phone, not-keys, satchel... anything else?
"Am I missing anything?" he asked Earl, getting a second opinion.
"Did you remember to get an extra pencil, as you lent yours to Bee yesterday?"
"Oop! Thanks, bud!" Caz cheered, yoinking a pencil from his desk cup and heading to the front door.
"Mhm."
Checking the time, he was relatively early compared to... most days. Earl was the best! As Earl jogged behind him, trying to keep up, Caz asked, "Wow! We finally get Gotcha Boxes today, huh? What kind of borg you wanna get?"
"Of the three choices available, the choice is obvious, right?" he replied sarcastically.
"Knight!" Caz agreed.
"Gun borg," Earl corrected. "Knights are too slow, too clunky."
"But they have a huge shield and sword!" Caz argued. "Besides, they'd totally beat your gun borg easily!"
"I agree, but only in a 1v1 scenario where the knight knows where my gun borg is. In a 2v2 or greater, a gun borg has far more reach, more tactics available. Your knight would be a sitting duck, huddling in a corner, or being ripped apart by sharpshooters."
"Baloney to that! My knight would push through and take out gunner by gunner!"
Earl rolled his eyes, instead opting to change the subject - whether because he knew he couldn't win, or because he didn't want to put the effort into it, either way, Caz considered it his win - saying, "I imagine Bee would take the Ninja."
"Oh yeah, definitely. I don't think she even wants to fight."
"I can see the wisdom in it," Earl said defensively. "To be a warrior tending to a farm, rather than a farmer in the midst of a war."
"That implies there'll be a war. I just wanna fight!"
"Then you would do well in a war, I suppose. Or maybe just get yourself killed."
"Hah! You'd die first, I bet!"
"I would take you up on that bet, had I anything either of worth to bet or not too special to risk losing."
"How about today's lunch?"
"Gasp!" Earl said. Actually said, not just gasped. "You would rob me of my lunch? Is this what they warned me of when telling me of bullying?"
"Hey, I was the one who warned you of bullying!"
"Like a hawk screeching before it swoops, you warn me of your danger. But alas, I am swift prey; I shall take you up on that bet."
"...Wait, are you saying that if I die before you do in a war, I have to regurgitate today's lunch?"
"Good point. This was silly. Here we are," Earl deftly changed the subject once more, as they came up on the girl's dorms. Caz gave a wave and a smile at the early-bird girls that were heading out, while Earl gave a disinterested wave, trying to keep his breathing under control from that small jog.
What a frail guy, that Earl. One of Caz's best friends.
The two headed inside and upstairs.
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Bee had gotten her sleep as soon as she got back from classes, opting to do her homework when she woke up in the dead of night, and then spending the rest of the night snacking on her roommate's leftovers and some canned foods, reading up on wiki articles about things related to the books she was reading until she read more on the wiki than there was in the book. Sometimes she played online games, but the lag between Rial and the rest of the galaxy was abysmal, and nearly no one was awake at that time of night, so since it was a school night, she just read articles and made notes.
When morning came, it was pretty much noon for her so she was alert, but she often became distracted by said articles and lost track of time. When the boys were knocking at her door, she checked the time, and started getting ready as she shouted, "Be there soon! Just gonna wake Jezebel!"
"Okay!" came Carlos's reply.
Her lie bought a few minutes of time, and while Jez did need to be woken up - alarms meant nothing to the frat girl sometimes - it was mostly to get herself prepared. Gathering her things, dressing up, and getting ready to go, Bee gently woke up Jez, saying, "Hey, I'm about to head to class. It's about seven. Enough time for a shower."
A small zombie-like groan as her roommate got up was enough of an answer for Bee, and she quickly got out the front door.
"Heya, Bee!" Carlos said. Bee looked him up and down - a feat that was difficult considering the differences in size between her and the large boy - making sure he was properly dressed this time.
Carlos Alderman and Early Rule of the Praiseworthy, who went by Caz and Earl respectively, both wore the academy's white button-up under a navy blue cashmere jacket, similarly colored cashmere pants, and a light blue and yellow tie to show the academy colors.
But while they both wore the standard uniform, Caz had a red and white satchel with the GF Command emblem emblazoned on it, complimenting his red hair and blue eyes, while Earl had a blue-to-green satchel that shimmered gold in the light due to the fibers of his homeland's special silk cloth material, not quite matching his light-gray hair, but certainly adding to his wizardly theme.
Earl also had glasses with a circular frame while Caz wore a red-silver chain on his pants, of course, both being keepsakes from their families. Earl's glasses were his mother's, who was apparently some sort of town witch, while Caz's chain was his father's. While the glasses had more or less gone pretty much unnoticed, the chain had a few problems until Ms. Umihara got the whole story and allowed him to add it to his uniform as part of religious practices.
Speaking of uniforms, though, Caz had one too many buttons unbuttoned on his shirt, and his pants pockets were folded in on themselves, creating a crease that looked like there was something in his pockets. Bee knew he never put anything in his pockets, though.
Hefting her own satchel - a simple navy-blue, standard school satchel - over her shoulder, she asked, "Need a brush? Also, you should button up your shirt once more. Good morning, Earl!"
"Good morning, Bee."
"No good morning for me?" Caz 'complained', buttoning up his shirt as ordered. Immediately changing the subject to show he wasn't actually hurt by the disregard, he said, "So today we get our Gotcha Boxes! What color you want yours to be?"
"Wait, we can choose the color?" Earl asked, starting the walk to classes that the other two followed.
"No, but if we get our own personal boxes afterward, I think there's leeway for customization," Bee provided. "I think I'd like to make mine all black. Or better yet, make it change colors somehow. Otherwise, a subtle black would be optimal."
"Mm. If I had to choose, green for me," Earl answered as well.
"Red," Caz said, answering his own question.
"Obviously," all three said in tandem.
"I wonder how they're doing anyway. I hear he got married?" Earl asked in a tone that Bee sort of heard as mischievous.
"What? No!" Caz objected, horrified at the idea.
"I... do think there was something about that," Bee said, playing along.
"But-... he's a mecha borg! What would he even be married to? The job?" Caz added as an afterthought, wiggling his brows and smirking at his joke, but then returning to his concerned look. Had it not been for the return to what Caz could muster as seriousness, Bee might have giggled a little.
"Maybe he married Commander Shishido," she answered instead, getting a look of confusion, then contemplation instead. Then more confusion. Bee couldn't help but laugh at that.
----------------------------------------
"Alright, class," Ms. Umihara said, gathering attention after taking attendance, and directing it towards the Gotcha Boxes placed on her desk in the front of the classroom. Suitcase sized things, they supposedly were able to shrink and grow, but unlike the upgraded versions, these weren't capable of holding more than one borg at a time. "Today we'll be assigning Gotcha Boxes and an Academy Borg to everyone, so please line up in alphabetical order. Theresa Abbel?"
Earl watched as a few went up before Caz went up, then a dozen more, then Bee, then two more, then Earl was finally called up. Getting the boxes wasn't enough, though he did have the box shrink to the size of a closed book, rather than a suitcase, as soon as he could. It was always so eerie that it could be so light despite being so large, thanks to the energies within gotcha technology, but not quite unusual. Just... surreal.
The main event was when everyone got their boxes, and Ms. Umihara once more called attention to the front of the room. "Now I'll be distributing one of three different borg types. We have the Normal Ninja, the Normal Knight, and the Normal Gunman. Those who wish to have the Ninja, please step over here. Knights, here. Gunmen, here."
As predicted, his friends chose the others as Earl himself went to the Gunmen area. One by one, Ms. Umihara touched her blue Gotcha Box to the students, transferring an academy borg to each person. Earl was one of the first to get his borg, and he was eager to see how it worked.
GF Commanders were stuff of legends, being able to grow a borg to the size of planets with their fighting spirit, but even being able to increase the size of a gotcha borg to the size of a human being was notable for some. The connection shared between a GF Commander and their borgs had been said to be as if they were one and the same, linking minds together with the smaller creatures.
Before now, he'd only interacted with gotcha borgs as if they were students from another class, or groundskeepers and police officers. They had plenty of other uses, being able to carry heavy objects in the constructions at the edge of the colony, maybe bulldoze an area to clear it out for more buildings, or scout out unexplored planets and do fast calculations and organize things behind the scenes. Each of the borgs were their own person, though some had more personality than others.
It was practically a legend that someone who got a special borg in school was destined for greatness. Maybe even becoming one of those GF Commanders!
For now, though, they would be referred to as a GF Squad Leader, if even that. A Trainee, more likely.
But eager, he still was.
"Now, I'm sure you all wish to try out your new borgs, so let's head out to the playgrounds and let them loose, shall we? I hope you all remember the rules, and if you have any difficulty, I'll be here to help," Ms. Umihara assured them all.
Ms. Umihara, after all, was once one of those GF Commanders, though she played a backseat role to everyone else back when humans first came in contact with the Gotcha Force and Death Force.
The wisdom behind her eyes spoke volumes, and even though she was still young for a human, Earl considered her one of the Elders.
Caz, being the spaz he was, released his borg immediately. His box shone with a blue light, and as the beam curved and hit his desk, a blue and white-armored knight appeared, looking like porcelain, but with the designs of the Academy. A bunch of the students oohed and ahhed while Ms. Umihara gave the distracted Caz a disappointed look.
“Well, Mr. Alderman, you can work on trying to move your borg to follow us as we all make our way down. Congratulations on releasing a borg so quickly, and I compliment you on its size, but please reign in your enthusiasm. I’d rather not wreck the classroom,” she said. Caz’s sheepish look was enough, and the class didn’t have much else to say, eager to follow in his footsteps of commanding a borg.
From what Earl could see, Caz had little to no trouble getting the knight borg to hop on his shoulder, from where Earl could see that it was nearly as tall as Caz’s head. Knowing how tall they usually are, Earl started to look if Caz’s knight had any unusual coloring or patterns. Maybe Caz would become a GF Commander!
As they made their way to the ‘playgrounds’, as Ms Umihara affectionately called the area, Earl was all but ready to release his gun borg. Jealousy or envy, he didn’t know, but he was drawn to the idea of outclassing Caz’s larger borg. Size wasn’t everything!
It was as soon as Ms. Umihara said, “Alright, class, you can release your borgs now, if you can. Don’t worry if it takes a whi-” Earl urged his box to release his gun borg.
The box obeyed, and out came a similar beam of light, showing a similarly sized gun borg. Were the books wrong, or was Earl just as talented as Caz in commanding Gotcha Borgs?
If the former, kudos to the books and other examples of gotcha borgs that weren’t knights or gunmen to give him the impression. It would certainly boost the ego of anyone seeing that they were bigger than expected, though he questioned the psychology of people who realized they weren’t really as special. Looking around, though, only one other person managed to get their borg out in one try.
It only surprised him a little that it was Bee.
The three wordlessly agreed to meet up, leaving Ms. Umihara to help all the students who were having difficulty summoning their borgs. Earl considered helping as well, but decided against it. Those weren’t his friends, after all. These were. And one of these friends looked ready for a fight.
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Caz felt his borg move as if his own, but not truly his. This knight, while left unspeaking, had that same thirst for battle. But unlike Caz’s desire to merely fight, this knight felt the need to prove himself in battle.
Caz was eager to see what he could do, as well.
First things first, he needed an opponent, and the first to get their borg was Earl. Better yet, it was a type disadvantage, which meant that it would be easy to win against.
As he was about to walk over, someone else got their borg, causing him to look over, distracted. It was Bee.
And she had a ninja, the counter to a knight borg - or at least so the guides said. Knowing Bee, she likely didn’t even want to fight that much, staying away and tossing bombs. A bad encounter for a knight… but also all the more the challenge.
Torn between the two, he found himself gravitating to Earl anyway, but waving Bee to come join. They’d brainstorm a better way to fight. Maybe even three 1v1s, just to see how things worked.
Bee was on her way anyway, it seemed, as she similarly gravitated to Earl, but looking at Caz to make sure he was also on the way.
Always a step ahead, Caz thought to himself.
“So the trio has gotten their borgs first,” Earl commented, once both were close enough to hear over the crowd.
“Well, technically, the ninja borgs were given out first,” Bee corrected. “We were just the first to summon them.”
“Maybe even the only ones, considering no one else has so far…” Caz said, unintentionally causing some frowns in the others that could overhear their conversation.
“That was a bit rude,” Earl commented. “But while we have the advantage, we should press it, yes?”
“Right! So, who’s first! I’ll take you both on!”
“I volunteer Earl!” Bee shouted, shooting her hand up and making a serious face, before it relaxed into a smirk.
“I also volunteer, but I think it would be best to all fight at the same time. A 3-fighter free for all.”
“Ooooh, that sounds like fun. But… how do we attribute the energy so that it’s hostile to two others?” Caz asked.
“Hostile energy?” Earl asked.
Bee rolled her eyes and went into lecture mode, her tone not-so-subtly implying Earl’s idiocy, “The class has taught us that gotcha borgs often need to be used against other rogue or wild gotcha borgs, and that it can use the replenishable gotcha force energy to cause damage to the borg energies that keep a borg corporeal. In order to do so, the Gotcha box has to recognize what is and isn’t an enemy.”
“And how do we do that?” Earl asked, bringing out his… smaller box. Huh, Caz ought to do something like that as well. Make it a trinket to hang on to his satchel. Or maybe make it his satchel.
“First, I’d like to sign you up as friends,” Bee interrupted Caz’s thoughts. “That way, we can use the spar function rather than a fighting function. Supposedly, it’ll already register the other students as friends and always set to spar, but I’ve done my research, and these can be upgraded, and I don’t want to comb through each box name in our ‘friends list’ to find out which ones are yours. You can set your Gotcha Box ID, or just send me a message.”
Caz was confused at all this, but assumed it worked a bit like a school computer. Which… was kind of what a Gotcha Box was. He opened up his box, seeing the one borg data crystal inside, and seeing a whole bunch of other UI options. Pressing on them, it felt a bit unsatisfying how it was all holographic, and didn’t really have any textile response when pressing buttons to try and find his friends list. Seeing the list go from RGFA-C32-1 to RGFA-C32-27, with Umihara at the end of the list, he saw one of them suddenly switch from RGFA-C32-24 to Earl Praith. Looking around a bit more, he managed to change his ID from RGFA-C32-11 to Caz.
By the time he figured it out, a few other names changed from their respective pre-assigned code name to their real names or nicknames, as again, their conversation could be overheard.
“Bee Bird? Where’d the bird come from?” Caz asked, seeing Bee’s nickname.
“Ninjas are known for being pseudo-aerial borgs, despite not having wings. Their ability to roll through the sky is reminiscent of gliding, and eventually I want some wing borgs to fly with.”
“Huh. Birds. So! Fight?” he asked, getting into a battle stance.
“Fight?” Earl asked Bee, in case she had other things to address with the gotcha box.
“Fight,” she answered, sending her ninja borg out. Hers was a bit smaller than the Knight or Gun borg, with the classic white and blue colors of the school gotcha borg uniform. After showing off with a bow and a pose, the ninja jumped up and away, towards one of the sparring areas.
Caz sent his out as well, and he could see the armor gleaming in the sunlight as it charged forward towards the same sparring area.
You ready, primary? Let’s show these chumps who’s the best ‘round these parts!
Earl opted to throw his gotcha borg instead, landing the borg on the highest parts of the sparring ground to get a better look around at things, but that also made him a target for both Bee and Caz.
Once they were all there, Bee shouted, “Begin!” and immediately sent shurikens out towards Earl’s gunman.
The gunman, holding only a single, large revolver, moved slightly to the side, only to have the shurikens follow up, homing in slightly as was the effect of the mysterious energy shurikens that ninjas had. To counter that, Earl had to dodge, dashing to the side as the shurikens came by. By the time that happened, Bee was sending her next barrage of shuriken at him.
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Caz wasn’t doing nothing, of course, deciding to take out the Ninja first, as it would be a difficult enemy if left to 1v1. Slashing into the air, sending a single edge of energy, the strike hit true, surprising the ninja from below.
“Two on one? Unfair!” Bee ‘complained’. “No matter, I’ll take you both on!”
“That’s what she said,” Earl commented, his borg aiming down his sights. “Let’s see if you can handle my shot,” he continued, flustering her more while making his intentions clear.
A quick bullet-shot raced along the field, far faster than shuriken or flying sword slashes, hitting Bee as she turned to face Caz.
Earl earned a bit of damage, choosing to deal damage instead of dodging the second flurry of shurikens.
Caz kept his shield up, anticipating shurikens, but instead was hit by a grenade, bypassing his shield’s ability to block attacks.
As his shield was up, he was unable to see what Bee did, so he instinctively sidestepped, turning into a tuck and roll, then immediately facing his shield towards Earl.
While no attack came, he was able to get his bearings on Bee, who was rolling through the skies at Earl, who was shooting at Bee, attempting to hit the small flying target.
Caz took advantage of this to charge at the mound Earl was on, looking for opportunities to fire off an energy blade at Bee.
As soon as he found one, he fired, earning him an attack from Earl that did some damage.
Giving him a smirk that he returned, Caz kept his guard up, now looking for opportunities to attack without getting attacked. It wasn’t until they pretty much converged on Earl - who was starting to retreat to other cover.
Neither Bee nor Caz would let him, chasing him down, hellbent on making this a melee fight, where gunmen were supposedly weak.
But as Bee was trying to take out the threat to her, Caz went to take out the threat to him, slashing out a few more blades as Earl was too preoccupied running away to fire at him.
Ninjas were notoriously low on health, relying on dodging to stay in the fight, and Bee took plenty of damage already. With just two landed slashes, a flash of white energy with a pink border enveloped Bee’s ninja borg, and returned them to her Gotcha Box.
It was just Earl and Caz left, and Caz knew he’d already won by then.
“Aw man,” Bee said, slightly disappointed, but in the way that you lost a puzzle game, rather than a fight. Er… spar.
“Nowhere left to run, cowboy!” Caz challenged, his eyes like a predator’s, looking at cornered prey.
Which was, to say, ready for any tricks Earl might have.
“Then I surrender!” Earl said, his borg still running away.
“You can’t surrender!” Caz complained. Then stopped as he looked towards Bee and asked, “Can you?”
“I… think you can, yeah. Not sure why it hasn’t happened alrea-”
The knight took a shot to the foot as they were not properly raising their shield as Caz was considering the rules. “Oh, you jerk!” Caz shouted in good fun, though he could feel indignance from the knight borg at the dishonorable methods.
Chasing Earl down was a pain, as the gunman was surprisingly mobile, and could use its gun’s recoil in creative ways to remain mobile, but it never did any damage after even the knight borg was wary of any tricks. It would only be a matter of time until Caz managed to take down the annoying little mosquito!
Before he could, though, the battle-turned-dishonorable-duel was interrupted by the alarm system.
“Warning! Death Force Attack!” a woman’s voice said.
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“Please make your way to the designated shelters in an orderly manner and await further instruction!” the voice said. Earl immediately actually surrendered, his borg disappearing in a flash of white light outlined by blue, similar to academy colors. Then, he brought his borg back out, recognizing Caz and Bee as allies, rather than sparring opponents.
Looking around, even if minutes had passed, the only other borgs out were Caz’s, Bee’s (who had similarly brought hers out after the announcement) and Ms. Umihara’s Nurse Borg, Nao.
“This way, students!” Ms. Umihara shouted. “Remain calm!” she’d continue to encourage, leading the people in an orderly fashion.
Caz merely nodded to Earl, then to Bee, then jogged to the front of the line with Ms. Umihara, while Bee looked at Earl with a serious look on her face. “Get to the center, I’ll cover the rear of the class. Help out where you can,” she said, moving into place.
“First make sure everyone is accounted for!” Earl ordered back, his uncharacteristic shout stopping her in her tracks. “Someone might have gone to the bathroom, I’m not sure. I think I overheard it earlier,” he said, a lot calmer - even with a bit of a smirk - now that he had her attention.
“r-Right! On it!” she said, panic in her eyes.
Earl rolled his eyes and said, “Don’t panic now of all times. I don’t have my camera with me!” It did much to soothe her nerves as she gave a small chuckle. As she ran off, he took her place in the back of the class as Bee headed from the grounds towards the bathrooms.
Earl threw his borg up into the air and linked his vision with his gunman - a feature he didn’t know could happen, but stumbled upon when he tried to aim down the sights to get a better aim at Caz’s knight, looking for any weak spots - hoping to get an aerial view while they were still outside.
It was a bit disorienting to feel like one was falling when one’s feet were on the ground, but he hadn’t seen anything yet.
Earl kept the back of the line for a few stressful minutes, but then Bee came back with two people, and he nodded as he moved up in the line, leaving Bee behind. As he was walking up, the students stopped moving forward, and the front of the line looked like it was just entering the academy building.
With a bad feeling in his gut, Earl pushed past the students and made his way inside, where he could pick up sounds of GF Energy being used to fight. He’d heard similar sounds just a few minutes ago, when sparring, but these sounded… more serious. Heavier.
More real?
An interesting observation, but it could wait.
Earl came across the scene of Caz fending off a few black borgs that looked simplified, save for the large, almost painted-on-looking red eye that replaced where their face would usually be.
Without thinking, he tossed his gunman into the fight to support, but Caz was really already cleaning up.
“Ms. Umihara is in the next room, clearing them out!” Caz explained her absence at the front of the line.
“I don’t think you need help here, do you?” Earl asked with a smirk.
“Not at all!” Caz smiled back. “These are small fry!”
Earl recalled his borg and moved onward, calling back, “Keep them safe!”
“You know who you’re talkin’ to?!” Caz shouted back.
Earl burst through the doors to see Ms. Umihara was directing adult-sized wing borgs against other giant-sized gotcha borgs that looked like giant machines with large cat ears bent like shards of satellite dishes.
Where the eye was obvious already with the smaller borgs, this one was obvious that this eye was their entire being. And this one had an eye larger than Earl himself. It was a shallow eye, even now, and yet… it spoke of great rage and destruction. It sought the death of life, and nothing else.
“Enough!” a voice echoed through the hallways. “You can’t hope to defeat me, Mana! You’ve always been the weak one!”
Earl offhandedly defended under his breath with, “So am I, but I’m still heads and shoulders above others.” Picking up his voice, he called out, “Ms. Umihara, do you need help?!”
“No, go back with the others!” she shouted, panic in her voice.
“Not very reassuring, that tone of voice, but I was wondering if I should be leading them to the shelters or help you out. If you don’t require my help, I’ll be on my merry way.”
Both Ms. Umihara and the borg she was fighting paused at how lightly Earl seemed to be taking things, so Earl reminded them, “Aren’t you two in a fight? I’ll just be on my merry way if you have the time to look away during a fight…”
As one might have expected, they went back to fighting immediately, though his entrance - and planned exit - was suddenly blocked off by some steel plate bars that appeared out of seemingly nowhere, crunching into the doorframe with a metallic thud.
“Insolent fool! You think this is a game!?” the voice echoed. “I control hundreds of borgs! You have no chance against me!”
“Why are you even doing this?!” Ms. Umihara shouted. A message from her to Earl’s Gotcha Box said to lead the students to the safety shelters, and that she’d be along shortly.
He messaged back that the exit was blocked off, only to be interrupted halfway through as the door crashed open - Ms. Umihara’s wing borg knocked the hulking death borg through the doors, removing the steel fortifications. And the doors.
Earl did as told, dashing out and seeing Caz ready to hop into battle. “Ignore it, Ms. Umihara’s got that one. We need to move the students to the shelters! Let’s go!”
“Right!”
As the two borgs grappled, they vacated the hallways, destroying the door to the room they continued to fight in, letting the students run past.
“I’ll go check on Bee, who should be at the back. You got the front?”
“Oh, yeah, definitely” Caz responded, as if it were surprising that it was so easy. “These borgs are all beefy gun borgs, so they take more damage, but they’re a lot slower. Easier to catch up to and hit, and none of them have shields or bombs. Knight borgs are easy counters to these things!”
“Good to know… quantity has a quality all its own, as your people say, so try to keep to choke points if you can,” Earl said, heading to the back.
As he made his way through the students, he reassured them, saying, “Man, Ms. Umihara’s wing borg is something else. It was bigger than I was! It’s like she’s secretly a GF Commander or something.”
He didn’t expect a response, but got one. From Bee, who was presumably heading up the line to see what the hold up was. “She was. Mana Umihara, the Nurse Borg Commander. Using support type borgs, retired to be a doctor, but after nurse borgs more or less made anything but the chronic problems trivial, while the rest were merely trained in the use of borgs by her, she found a passion in teaching people how to use borgs. From medical uses to practical, and from practical to student teaching, she eventually settled in places where information was difficult to reach. Rial’s not entirely finished, as our construction workers have to gather enough energy to terraform the planet, so Ms. Umihara came here out of sheer coincidence.”
“And where did you learn all that?”
“I asked her,” she shrugged.
“Teacher’s pet,” he spat.
“Guilty as charged!” she smirked back.
“Anyway, Caz’s in front, and we’re close to the shelters. The back?”
“A few borgs, but Nina’s got them covered easily.”
“...You named the ninja already?”
“Why not?”
“You know that Gotcha Borgs choose names for themselves, and that they don’t just get names for the sake of being special, right?”
“And I allowed her to choose which nickname I’d call her by.”
Earl felt a bit disgusted at that. Borgs’ culture was complicated, and shouldn’t be taken so lightly. He couldn’t help but snort in amusement, though, as she had the same irreverence towards others’ culture as he had to theirs.
“Alright. Just don’t expect her to look any different just because she has a nickname. A true Named Borg is far more difficult to achieve.”
“Party pooper.”
“If I’m the party pooper, I guess these black borgs are the party crashers. The fun and games stopped a while ago.”
“Death Borgs, actually. They were what the GF Commanders fought against when the Gotcha Borgs first came to Earth, all that time ago.”
“Huh. You know, I did think of them as Death Borgs, but to know that their official name is spot on is… oddly comforting, despite seeing them firsthand. The larger ones are… unnerving.”
“Larger ones?”
“Ah, yes, Ms. Umihara was fighting against one of their elites, I suppose. Its one eye is wider than I am tall.”
“That’s… interesting. It requires a-” she stopped in her words, glancing at the other students. Earl caught her intentions and messaged her instead.
As he messaged her to explain via Gotcha Boxes, he said, “Well, it’s nothing to speak of at this moment. Head to the back, I’ll continue patrolling up and down the line.”
“Right,” she said, turning to the back. As she walked off, she looked back at Earl with a thoughtful look, and Earl could smell her creeping fear. His reassuring smile did nothing to relieve it.
----------------------------------------
Bee was a simple human. Not exactly a simple girl, as other girls seemed to be obsessed with appearance or social standing, whether they realized it or not. No, what Bee liked more was learning. Or, rather, knowing. Learning was fun, of course, but being that know-it-all meant a lot to her. Once she found friends that appreciated her love of knowing, rather than just calling her a know-it-all, she stuck to them.
When she didn’t know something, they’d always help her find out, rather than shrugging it off. They shared her enthusiasm, even if they didn’t share her passion.
But one did not simply cure the distrust by being nice. There are times when someone didn’t want to know something in particular, and by telling them, they could never un-know it.
She hesitated to send the message.
It was all typed out.
But… did she want to open that bag of worms?
She didn’t know how Caz or Earl would react to her guess, and it was really only a guess!
She didn’t know. But she knew they’d want to help her find out.
And once they knew for sure?
Would they be able to handle that knowledge responsibly?
Caz was hot-headed at the best of times, but he wasn’t unreasonable, just… excitable. But… excitable people often react in the wrong way. That’s just how people were.
Earl was wise, but… he was often aloof and detached from things. He’d give an objective opinion, but likely would advise that things play out naturally. Not doing anything unnecessary.
Bee considered what she would do herself if her thoughts were correct.
She’d… she’d tell the others and ask them to help her. She needed help gathering information, because she sure wasn’t going into that horde of death borgs on her own.
Ninja borg or not, she couldn’t take on a horde of any borgs, let alone death borgs.
She decided to send the message.
[Larger borgs only exist when commanded by a GF Leader. Commanders can make them the size of planets, but at the cost of a lot of GF Energy. Being students, we could probably at most make them the size of our hands, and it would cost us even more energy to maintain that. That Earl saw a large borg other than the one Ms. Umihara had means that there’s an enemy commander somewhere. There’s only one Death Force Commander known other than the Galactic Emperor itself: Orochi, the Demon Borg Commander. Both of these cases died thirty years ago… but if someone’s commanding these death borgs, then we need to find them and take them out.]
Earl responded first.
[Cool. We’ll get these students safe first, then head out.]
[Shouldn’t we ask Ms. Umihara to do it?] Caz replied.
[She’ll be busy defending the students, yes?]
[Right. You… thought this out pretty quickly, Earl.]
[Oh, I figured out there was someone commanding them a while ago. Evil voice echoing, taunting Ms. Umihara.]
Bee paused.
[...And you didn’t tell me?]
[You looked like you already knew.]
[Idiot.]
[Wait, so… we have to go face that whole hoard on our own?]
[Yes and no. I have a map of the colony, so I’ll know some safe spaces to hunker down at, and push comes to shove, I can always use the Ninja Art of Retreat to get us back to the shelters. We can’t tackle the whole army, but we will have to fight through them.]
[Oh, cool. Seems doable, let’s go!]
[Students first, Caz.]
[Right, sorry.]
Bee dismissed the messaging part of the box and looked at Nina, who was creeping along the walls’ indentation, keeping an eye out from above. Nina gave a nod in return, continuing her duty.
Bee’s way of fighting was flighty, and defending someone else was a difficulty, let alone a line of defenseless people. Merely kicking away the death force borgs would only hurt their feet and buy maybe a few seconds, but without the properties of gotcha borgs, it would never be able to destroy their forms.
To make up for this, Bee first tried to set up traps, placing bombs on the floor and having them go off like minefields, but the bombs were more like impact grenades, and wouldn’t go off without firing a shuriken at it. Even then, the damage wasn’t much against the bulky-looking death borgs. Machine borg replicas, as far as she could tell.
The next idea was dropping the bombs from above onto a pattern of bombs placed on the ground, but it would take forever to set up everything. After that, it was a line of explosions every so often, then throwing bombs into a horde to get rid of at least most of them. Again, the damage wasn’t much, as they had moments where their form was destabilized, but still full of energy, allowing them to ignore any subsequent damage. More bombs wasn’t the answer, but the idea of dropping bombs onto others worked well enough.
The final plan ended up being knocking the borgs into specific areas with thrown bombs, then setting the bombs to drop onto them once their form stabilized moments later. Efficient use of bombs, though it wouldn’t be good against large hordes of them, only against maybe four or six.
So far, she’d only had four encounters, and each had about a dozen death borgs to go through. She imagined Caz had to go through even more, being at the frontlines, but his Knight borg would be more ideal, being able to push forward through the beams that the death borgs had. Even the melee attacks would likely ping off that shield, made of a special material.
Ninja borgs were far more useful out of combat, of course, but in this moment, combat was more important than preparation, as she’d only gotten the borg not fifteen minutes ago.
This resentment for the situation gave her an uncharacteristic frown. If only she’d chosen a gun borg, like Earl. That would be so much easier… but it’s because Earl had the gun borg that he was best placed in a place where he could help either side of the line, respond faster to any threat from the sides.
And Earl knew that right away, too. Maybe not all the reasons why it was a good decision, but it was the right decision nonetheless. Gun borgs also had some use outside of combat, though not as much as ninjas did. It was the perfect middle ground - at least of the options presented.
It was an almost perfect trifecta. A frontline, a backline, and a support. Though, that was probably the intention of allowing people to choose their borgs, but only of these three types, and only of the base level.
Had she the choice, Bee would have chosen a Vehicle Borg specialized towards flight, or a Wing borg with the ability to fire several, slow-moving, homing projectiles.
She imagined Caz would have taken a Mecha borg, maybe a Bruiser borg. Earl had “Wizard” written all over his face, though he might go for a healer borg. Bee would have been the damage of the team, then, rather than the support.
But here she was, trying to work with what she had, using strategies she’d vaguely recalled being used in tournaments or haunted houses.
It felt bad that she wasn’t doing as much as she could. That she couldn’t do anything but set up traps that would likely barely help in a battle. She felt useless, despite being as useful - if not more useful - than any of her classmates who didn’t even get to activate their box.
Hm.
Maybe she could do something about that.
----------------------------------------
Caz’s knight fended off the next group easily enough, to the point where he got bored and started experimenting with how the Death Borgs fought. The range at which they would automatically dodge an attack, fail to recognize it as an attack, or how far Caz’s knight had to be before they gave up on ranged attacks and entered melee battle.
It was… also boring, but less boring compared to just pushing forward mindlessly in battle, and the whole situation - what, with the Death Force invading and all that - made it interesting enough that he could satisfy himself with small experiments like these.
Thankfully, he didn’t need to be interested for much longer. The shelters were only a few more hallways, and Caz was eager to dump his classmates - especially Regina, who was screaming, like, all the time. In his ear. Each time the Death Force appeared. Each. Time. - in the shelters and get moving on actually resolving all of this.
One hallway went without a battle, while the second had a small skirmish, but just as they were about to reach the shelter’s doors, just as Caz peeked around the corner to get them in sight, he saw a hundred borgs or more crowding it, trying to get in. On one hand, that meant that they couldn’t get in without defeating the borgs, and then trying to convince those inside the shelter to open the doors to accept them. On the other hand, it meant there were already people that were safe inside, and that they might be able to help once they see people fighting outside, potentially lending help - especially the other teachers who had their boxes unlocked fully.
Caz knew he should call the others to help, though, as facing this many was going to be too difficult, even for how boring the normal skirmishes were.
Hah. Normal.
He had the frontmost student, a shy guy by the name of Arnold Armsworth, whisper back to ask for Earl and Bee to meet him in front. Passing it down the line, it took only a minute before the two met up with him.
“What’s this about an affront to mankind?” Bee asked.
“What?” Caz and Earl both asked.
“What?” Bee asked in return.
“Ah,” Earl said with an amused smile on his face. “The Whispers Game. I believe someone must have messed up the wording down the line. So what did you want from us, Caz?”
“Right. Take a look ahead.”
As they did so, Earl looked back, “Why did you have them whisper to us? You have a messaging system.”
Caz blinked, then palmed his forehead, causing a smack.
Earl and Bee both looked at the death force army by the shelter doors.
“Get ready!” Earl shouted, sending out his gunman, who immediately started firing down.
“Sorry!” Caz said, as his knight moved into place in front of the doorway.
Bee didn’t say anything, but she had an amused smile as she started backing the other students up, sending her ninja borg to start raining down bombs behind Caz’s knight to prevent them from flying in and bypassing the chokepoint.
A hundred borgs was a lot, but he was only facing a dozen lasers at a time, and the knight could block any amount of damage as long as it didn’t get past his shield. On the other hand, he couldn’t afford to have the knight lower his shield to attack back, relying on Earl and Bee to do the damage.
It wasn’t enough, though, as the small knight could only block so much, and some kept getting through. Thankfully, as he’d predicted, the teachers in the shelters - as well as some of the older students, apparently - came out and started attacking from the death borgs’ flank.
“Alright, you death borgs! Come at me!” Caz taunted, trying to keep the attention on them instead of the superior force from the flank.
More and more, Caz’s knight took damage as it attempted to keep the attention, and Caz could see that its form was hanging by a thread. In one last hope to keep attention, Caz had the knight dive in and make a spinning slash, knocking back all around him, and even destroying a few. However, that was all he could do before being taken out by a few dozen unblocked lasers, and Caz’s knight disappeared into energy, returning to his box to recover. It wouldn’t be available for a while, so Bee and Earl were left without a tank, but it was the best he could have done.
“All you, guys!” he cheered on from behind them.
While he was interested in how his friends fought, he also noticed the teachers’ exotic borgs, or how all the older students had smaller borgs of the three choices that he and his friends picked from. A Nurse borg, a Wing Borg with a scoped crossbow, a tank borg that shot out hundreds of pellets, the teachers were varying levels of helpful, but it was more than enough to turn the tide against this small horde.
Within minutes, the death force were wiped out, and once more, the area’s dark mists cleared up to show it really was clear.
“Alright! We did it!” Caz shouted.
“‘We’?” Bee asked. “You got taken out pretty early,” she ribbed, gesturing for the students to start moving into the shelter. “Mr. Fawls,” she called to the approaching teacher, preventing Caz from responding with his own ribbing, “Is the shelter okay?”
“Yes, now quickly, get inside!”
“You got taken out pretty early, too,” Caz said under his breath. “I’ll take you out.”
He paused at his own wording, glad that no one heard him.
Earl bumped him with his elbow and whispered, “girlfrieeeeend~”
“Dude, shut up!”
----------------------------------------
As Earl entered the shelters, he took a look around. He’d never been in this place before, and it seemed very… well, he couldn’t quite describe it. The grid-metal walls and flooring, the straight LED lighting, the lack of furniture, and the several structural beams lining the area all gave him a feeling of strong defense, but also a lifelessness. A dreary, dull gray to show that things were dire, but also a firm statement that even in dark times, humanity will thrive.
It could use a bit more color, honestly. Well, other than the black and yellow caution stripes and painted lines on the floor and walls to show the way to the emergency supplies or medical center.
Not that they needed either in this case. The biology teacher, Ms. Aswini, had a Nurse Borg that healed not just borgs, but also humans, and food wasn’t a concern for a day. Emergency rations were for emergencies, and everyone had breakfast before classes. Well, hopefully. It would be an unfortunate day to miss breakfast, though this day was unfortunate to begin with.
Earl opened his box to start messaging the others, checking to see how long until Caz’s knight could fight again, when they could move out to help Ms. Umihara, and how to deal with the enemy Death Force Commander.
Caz’s answer was that he didn’t know, just that he couldn’t summon the knight. Bee’s answer was to ask Ms. Aswini for help, as she might be able to heal the knight somehow. Earl’s answer was to ask if the teachers could unlock their boxes completely, rather than using only academy borgs.
Caz was gonna try to give it a shot, wherever he was. The three got separated as they entered, it seemed, and Earl blended in with the students as Caz got his injuries checked, and Bee disappeared somewhere to be interrogated.
Earl didn’t quite like the idea of being interrogated, so opted to hide among some clique of nerdy boys of the class, all of whom picked gun borgs but still couldn’t activate their boxes for whatever reason.
“Just let me hide here for the time being. I don’t like the idea of being interrogated by the teachers,” he said.
“Um… So how did you activate your borg?” one of them asked.
Earl gave him a deadpan look. “With words like that, I imagine my hiding place will be easily discovered, should someone overhear. Instead, in the theoretical event that I had ‘activated my borg’, I would say it’s because I know it’s not my borg, and that it’s its own person; we just had aligned interests.”
“What interests were those?” he asked anyway, not getting what Earl was implying at all about discretion.
“That we wanted to fight,” he answered.
The silence wasn’t enough to quiet what he imagined their reactions were. These were cowards, not wishing to fight. For all they worshiped the idea of a gun, none of them would wish to pull the trigger on another.
He sighed and clarified, “I feel that my gun borg does not wish to kill, only to fight. The thrill of battle, stakes notwithstanding, is what created that initial bond. From there, necessity allowed me to understand him better; he wishes to be in the right place, at the right time, with the right bullet in hand, to make all the difference in the world. A sharpshooter. A sniper. What do you think you want in a borg?”
“Um… a cool partner?” one of the others hazarded a guess, relaxing at Earl’s explanation.
“For what purpose?” he asked, smirking. “To look pretty? I’m afraid these borgs were not given to us out of such luxurious intentions.”
“No, to look awesome!” he objected.
Giving him a look of doubt, Earl shot back, “Is there much of a difference? Still seems like a meaningless purpose.”
“All of the famous borgs are cool-looking, though!” the same one objected.
“Those borgs are not these borgs,” Earl continued to entertain the debate. “Are you famous, good-looking, and suave? Should these borgs hold you to the same standard as those cool-looking borgs?”
Silence met him, and he let them stew on it for a while. Looking up, he noticed Bee looking through the crowds for someone - likely himself - so he stood up and bid them adieu, saying, “Looks like I can’t hide any longer. I wish you luck in unlocking your boxes; more fighters would help immensely.”
He left the clique and caught Bee’s attention with a wave, walking over. Bee looked relieved to see him, giving him a quick smile, but continued to look around. He walked up to explain, “Caz is with the nurse, over in that room… or is there something else you’re looking for?”
Bee replied, as he suspected, with a positive. “Yeah, do you know if Ms. Umihara arrived within the last few minutes? She messaged me about something, and I was wondering if she messaged you, too.”
Checking his messages, he confirmed, reading it aloud. “‘Meet up at the shelter’s back room.’ Does this even have a back room? Or does she mean the room furthest from the front doors?”
“Probably the latter, which also probably functions as the former, would be my guess.”
“Hm. No, I haven’t seen Ms. Umihara. Did Caz get this messa- wait, I can just ask him.” Messaging Caz, he waited a minute before deciding to just go over to him and ask directly, because he probably forgot entirely about the messaging function. “He’s not responding, let’s just go meet up with him.”
Bee snorted and agreed, walking alongside him. “I wonder, though. If Ms. Umihara’s not here, why is she asking us to meet up in the back room?”
In a random stroke of understanding, Earl replied, “Probably for privacy reasons.”
Bee raised an eyebrow in his direction, and he simply smiled and shrugged. He was tempted to put a finger to his lips, but that wasn’t the kind of privacy he was thinking about. A more accurate gesture would be to point to his gotcha box, but that would ruin the point of the privacy.
He settled for barging into Caz’s nurse space and shouting a one-liner.
“Caz!” Earl barged in, startling both himself and Ms. Aswini, “Your girlfriend and boyfriend are here to see you!”
“Eaaaarl! That’s not what that-”
“-means, I know. But life is short, and we have private feelings and emotions to talk about, and you don’t respond to our messages. Now be healed and follow!”
Caz, confused about all this, checked his messages. After a few seconds, realization dawned on him, and he looked up and around. “Is Ms. Umihara here?”
“Is she your girlfriend?” Earl shot back, in mock offense. “But no, she is not,” he interrupted Caz as he was about to go off on him about that. “No one has seen her yet, but when a girl calls for you, you must answer. That is the chivalrous code of a knight, is it not?”
“Actually,” Bee interrupted, “Chivalry was more about combat engagement rules, and had little to nothing to do with courting women. The code you’re thinking of is the Bro Code, in which it is implied that hoes take priority when bros aren’t of importance at the moment.”
“...What is this ‘bro code’?” Earl asked.
“...Essentially a code of conduct prioritizing ‘the bros’, which include those of a social circle, originally meant to be a shortening of ‘brothers’, which meant men who had recognized each other with a bond as strong as family, but eventually included both genders despite the obviously masculine origin.”
Caz blinked. “Do you think we should teach Earl the bro code, or do you think he already has it down?”
Bee opened her mouth, closed it in thought, licked her lips as she frowned, and didn’t answer.
Ms. Aswini coughed politely, reminded them that she still existed, and said, “Well, Caz’s knight borg is in working order, though I can’t do anything about activating your boxes. That falls underneath either the principal’s or Ms. Umihara’s authority.”
“Oh right,” Caz said. “Meeting! We should go. Thanks, Ms. Aswini!”
“Of course, Mr. Alderman. May the gods favor you.”
“May they favor us all,” Earl responded, being the last to follow Caz out.
Caz easily led them to the backmost room, where it appeared to be a last stand area, in case something like the Death Force broke through and tried to swarm the place.
“This… definitely feels like a back room, but not a backroom,” Earl commented.
“What?” Caz asked.
“It’s-... it’s nothing, just us overthinking Ms. Umihara’s text,” Bee answered.
From the center of the floor of the room, a circular disk popped out of the ground and started projecting a hologram of Ms. Umihara.
“Hello, kids!” she spoke. “Sorry about all this, but it looks like I’ll need to fend off a lot of the Death Force from getting into the Academy. The rest of the town is a bit full, but I’ve seen how you three fight, so I’m going to do something that might get me fired and activate your Gotcha Boxes and grant you a bit of my GF Energy. You probably would have earned this in your skirmishes if your boxes were unlocked, so don’t try to give it back after all this is over or anything… but promise me that you guys won’t do anything risky, okay? If you think you’re in a tough spot, use your ninja’s recall ability.”
“We promise,” Caz said for all of them.
“Hey, don’t promise for me,” Earl insisted. “But yes, I promise not to take any unnecessary risks.”
“You can speak for me, Caz. Just don’t expect me to back you up on it,” Bee said, sticking a tongue out.
“Do you promise?” Ms. Umihara asked, bringing the joviality of Earl’s comment back to the serious subject.
“We promise,” Bee said, dropping the levity.
Earl gave her a look of disappointment and offense.
Bee gave him an exasperated look as she gestured at Ms. Umihara’s hologram.
Caz snickered.
Ms. Umihara smiled, at least, but interrupted the moment once more to say, “Then I’ve activated your gotcha boxes. From now on, you can collect GF Energy, which can be used to customize your box, but more importantly, allow you to collect and use more borgs in your squad. If you can collect the borgs from the other students in the shelter, you’ll be able to have more than just your starting borgs under your command. However, you can only hold up to ten each, so far, as I don’t have the tools or resources to get your boxes upgraded here on Rial. I’m sorry I can’t do much else to help, but in a few minutes, I’ll have the Academy’s defenses up, so you’ll be able to leave the shelters without worry of the Death Force. I wish you all luck, and that the gods be with you.”
The hologram cut out before any of the three could reply.
“So. Time to go collect borgs, I guess?” Earl asked.