TRACK 4 –

“You gotta be kidding me, there’s a trump load of the bastards.” Dwayne swore. Ari elbowed her big brother in the side and I just nodded in agreement. He was right, there were hundreds of enemy students swarming the school as we pulled away. The teachers had all went unconscious again, those stun batons were no joke, and had been placed below decks in the crew’s quarters. Now, all of us were on the deck and standing on the aft railing watching as the NRE forces overwhelmed our school, swarming over it like ants at a picnic.

Robyn was as good as his word and the ship was fully powered and running when we go there. All Tiffany had to do was put the engine in gear and we were off. We were already pulling away from the tower as we reached the top and jumped on board the RKP Ship. Anna had been the last one to get on the ship, she had paused and stared at the swiftly closing Dreadnaught.

“Anna come on! We gotta go!” Blake called out from the ship’s railing.

The beautiful Belmont girl nodded to herself once and then whispered something to low for me to hear before turning and flaring her AP. Even though we were over thirty feet from the dock and growing, Anna only needed to quick steps and she leapt out off the tower and into the air. She soared through the sky, halfway to the ship her Affinity wings grew from her back and she flew the rest of the distance, landing softly on the deck of the ship.

“All right everyone, here is the plan.” Anna called out, her voice brooking no nonsense, as she used her A-Ball Captain voice while she strode past us across the deck and towards the helm. “We’re going to head to my family’s lands. Once there we will do as my dad said train, prepare, and then we fight.”

Everyone cheered at that and I was about to join them when motion from my peripheral caught my eye. Tuki noticed it at the same time and called out to me as I was turning.

“Boss, you need to see this, we got incoming.” Tuki said.

He was right, from our rear over a dozen ABAB’s were headed our way, along with one of the fast assault gunships trailing behind. Something was wrong though I enhanced my vision and then my eyes widened in surprise. The ABAB’s were fighting amongst themselves, I began to recognize some of the riders, they were RKP and SNES students.

“Hey guys, we have company coming our way and some of our friends need help.” I yelled out, getting everyone’s attention.

Anna was at my side in an instant assessing the situation, among the many others trying to see what was going on. I refocused on the incoming riders and their continuing air battle. Affinity powered attacks flew back and forth, the outnumbered and beleaguered RKP and SNES fighters holding their own. I could tell it was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed, already the gunship was closing in on them. When their firepower was added to the mix the students would fall quickly. Anna seemed to come to the same conclusion as she rapidly began shouting out orders.

“Tiffany slow us to half speed. Blake take the…” Anna said.

“Rest of the team and grab the ABAB’s on board, ten-four.” Her brother called, with a small grin, and took off, his teammates in his wake.

“What about us?” I said to Anna.

“You and Justin go join Blake and the others. The rest of you get into firing positions and we are going to back up the ABAB Riders when we’re in range.” She replied.

I barely heard this as Tuki and I, along with Belmont and Commander, were already sprinting away after the Sophomores. Both of us glanced warily at the other, but on some unspoken agreement we didn’t push or argue. We had more important things to do right now. Our personal feud could wait, it had to, everything had changed. All this ran through my mind as we ran and in seconds we were below decks and on the launching bay with the others.

We arrived just as the triplets and Hadji were launching. Blake, Michael, and Serena were already on boards of their own and were about to follow their classmates. Blake saw us as we slid down the ladder and rushed into the hangar.

“The ABAB’s are over there. Hurry up and join us there is no time to waste.” Blake shouted and pointed. Then turned back forward launching his ABBA and flying out after the others.

“Over here.” Commander hissed.

“Boss!” Tuki called simultaneously.

Both Justin and I rushed over to where the two AR-Sprites were circling grabbed a board and sped to the launch area. I placed the board into the launcher and hopped on, accessing my AR-2 and interfacing with the ABAB as I did so, pulling up the menu and selecting the correct options. Being used to the boards since the MOB Hunt and Justin having grown up with them, we both were locked in and ready as soon as the boards were in place. A second later we were flying out of the launch bay and towards the battle. In the minute or so that had went by the Sophomores had already reached the embattled fighters and were quickly turning the tide. Our ship slowing to half speed, let the battle close about a third of the distance, which meant we didn’t have far to go to join the fight. The both of us were going at top speed and were just about to join in when I remembered the gunship. I quickly adjusted my direction to skirt the fight. Justin saw me and scowled, then saw where I was going and he immediately understood, and switched directions joining me.

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“Tuki, we gotta stop that gunship.” I called out to my friend.

“No obama sherlock. What’s the plan?” Tuki snapped back, snarkily. I sent a mental image of my plan to him and his eyebrows rose, then he looked at me speculatively.

“That just might work, I’ll go relay the plan to jerk face and the snake.” He replied, disappearing from my shoulder and reappearing next to Justin and Commander.

“Let’s rock!” Tuki said, reappearing back on my shoulder. “They’re good to go.”

I just nodded in response and focused myself on my current task, taking out that NRE Gunship. Already, we were almost around the aerial battle and closing in quickly on the target, which, judging by the activity going on the deck, was almost in range of the fight. If we were going to help our friends and get away, I couldn’t let that happen. My plan was basic and straightforward, first we’d split up and each attack separate sides of the ship, the bow and stern, as those were the least armed sides. “Good luck loser!” Justin called, flicking me the bird and peeling off from me to his target, the bow.

I ignored the jab, this was us getting along well, and sped off to the stern, now that I was within a hundred yards of the ship. Increasing my ABBA to full speed, I got low and laid down on the speeding board. My route took me on a wide arc around and above the ship, the plan was to come down with the sun behind me so the NRE crewman on deck couldn’t see me coming. Justin had the same idea, because I could see him as a speck in the distance his route mirroring my own.

“Tuki do your thing!” I called to me sprite, as I hit the pinnacle of my arc and began streaking down towards the gunship’s stern.

Tuki gave me a mock salute and then was gone. The second part of the plan was for Tuki and Commander to get in the ship and knock out their Affinity Engine and their Affinity Weapons. The range to the ship was decreasing rapidly, only a few seconds had gone by and I was only a hundred feet away. The sun did its job, and no one noticed me yet, good, mentally I hit the airbrakes and the board flattened out and immediately began slowing down. The change in angle from hitting the air brakes caused my ABAB to cast a much larger shadow and now the enemy noticed me. That’s ok, I was already moving, my AR-2 flashed and I glanced at the message.

NRE FAAG CREWMAN (LEVEL 1) –

My expression changed from intense concentration to a shark like grin. As soon as I hit the brakes and started slowing, I had leapt from the board, keeping the sun behind to my back. The ABAB was the perfect distraction and the NRE crew fired shot after shot of different Affinity Magic at it. I landed on the stern railing just as the board exploded in flashes of AP, fire, and smoke. The enemy cheered and then I flared my AP.

“Fire and Ice.” I said harshly, my body exploding in a yin yang of fire on my left side and ice on my right. Then my expression turning wolfish. “Nice job you guys, now its my turn.”

FIRE AND ICE (LEVEL 3) –

Before the cheers and expressions of accomplishment could leave any of their faces, I flashed forward, fire and ice exploding in a cloud of steam that trailed behind me like a jet exhaust. There was no time to waste so I immediately went full throttle, moving so fast my feet didn’t touch the deck. Ten enemies stood before me in a ragged mob less than ten paces away and spread out over a fifteen-foot area, perfect.

“Double Dragon!” I called, landing in the center of the crewman.

DOUBLE DRAGON (LEVEL 1) –

Not stopping when I hit the deck, I continued my momentum and turned my crouch into a furious spin. Steam bled off me in waves but using my spinning motion I created a vortex of superheated air that sucked the oxygen from the air and began a sucking effect. The enemy around me began grabbing at their throats then losing their balance as the miniature steam powered tornado pulled them towards me like a magnet to a lodestone. Spinning faster now, my fire and ice blended into a seamless bright colored purple. All this happened in seconds and the ten enemy were all in range, I shot up from my crouching spin.

“Shor-Yu-Ken!” I screamed, as I leaped up in a rising uppercut, my burning, oxygen deprived Affinity Magic tornado exploded and turned the world white.

SHOR-YU-KEN (Level 2) –

When the brightness, thunder, and cloud began to recede the fight was already over. My rising uppercut carried me twenty feet into the air, out and above my attack. I watched as all ten enemy were knocked flying in all directions, all of them ending outside the ships railing and falling into the bright blue sky, shouts of dismay trailing away as they fell.

My attacks cloud dissipated completely as I landed back where I started. I stood tall and clapped my hands together as if wiping them off.

The whole main deck had seen their fellows go flying and now thirty of the crew were staring murder at me, Affinity Powers charging and getting ready to fire my way.

“Oh hello, I just met some of your friends.” I paused and looked over each of my shoulders and then back at the enemy and pointed over my shoulder with my thumb. “They had to leave though, so rude of them not to say goodbye right?”

I held my hands up in a, what can you do gesture, growls and curses were my answer.

“Those were our comrades! Yeah, you’ll pay for that!” Voices rang out.

“Well, say hello to my little friend, comrades.” I said, pointing up into the air as the world darkened around us.