by Lee, TD
“What perfect timing!” Hisako exclaims as she smiles and greets the two people in front of us all. “Everyone, here are some pilots who just got done at the training center. The big buff guy here is Maxi who pilots the Mobile Knight Bors and our lovely lady is Justine who pilots Mobile Knight Bedivere.” She hugs both of them and kind of just clings to Maxi who doesn’t look bothered by it at all. I mean who would, Hisako is quite the looker herself.
Justine smiles and waves to us all, “Hello, you’re all here for the unveiling of Arthur right?” I swear she can be an idol just by her smile and charisma.
Meanwhile Maxi shyly smiles at us, and says, “Hey, hope you guys are in for a show.”
“Don’t be fooled by these two, even though they look veteran, they’re both only sixteen,” Hisako laughs as she hugs both of the pilots tightly. And sixteen!? You’re telling me big, shy giant over there with the huge guns is younger than me? What bullshit is this? I feel out of shape and shamed now. “So can you guys explain what you just did and also what you just do as pilots?” Hisako asks the pilots.
“Of course,” Justine begins, she quickly wipes off some sweat off of her forehead, “so Maxi and I just got done doing some exercises as to be a pilot you have to be in pretty good shape since it’s not just mentally tiring, but physically also. Before the exercises, we did have to do our physical and mental exams where they chart and take note of how we are. We do these exams every day before we pilot our Knights. It’s dangerous to have a pilot who’s not doing well on any day to pilot. So we just finished everything, we’re going to wash up and then get ready for the unveiling too.”
Everyone claps after Justine’s explanation as if she just had a grand speech. “Awesome! How cool! Wow these guys are so cool!” I hear from the crowd.
“Do any of you have questions for our pilots?” Hisako asks.
A girl raises her hand and proceeds to ask, “If you guys are sixteen, do you go to school at all since you’re these hero pilots?”
Justine nods, replying, “We do go to school, Maxi and I are actually from the same school. We often go to school, but we also get excused absences if we have to come here for any particular reason whether it be for an emergency or mandatory practice. But most of the time we get tutored after we’re done here so we don’t fall behind.”
“Oh, that makes sense.,” the girl mumbles to herself.
“I have a question!” a loud boy exclaims, “There’s a lot of heroes out there that keep their identities secret, why don’t you guys keep yours secret?”
“Well, I just don’t care, how about you Maxi?” Justine replies, redirecting the question over to the quiet giant.
“But what if someone chooses to target your family or friends?” the same boy quickly adds.
Maxi shakes his head, saying, “I don’t care either. I lost my family when I was young, so really I just care about my teammates and Justine. Being targeted isn’t much of an issue.”
“Fantastic!” Hisako says, applauding, “If you have any more questions, you can ask them after the unveiling. Let’s let these two get ready. Thank you guys!”
“No problems, you all have a great tour,” Justine says as she leaves with Maxi who simply waves to us all.
“Now, let’s continue!” Hisako says, leading us again.
We pass by several rooms that have weights, treadmills, and even a spa and pool. This must be the training area for the pilots or even some workers if they feel like getting a good workout. Not too far from the training area is a complete relaxation space fitted with large, comfy looking couches and pillows with gaming systems and televisions. However, no one is in the relaxation space and it doesn’t seem like it has been used in quite some time. It makes sense to me considering this facility seems to always be on the move and no one can really just relax if they need to.
Eventually, after a shit ton of walking, we get lead to the command center which we had to take a large glass elevator to get to. Giant monitors, maps, computers, scientists, engineers, important looking people, all the works are here. Giant windows let everyone see the launch site outside which is mostly just nothing except for several large holes in the ground that make up a circle.
“This place ladies and gentleman is the command center where all of the nitty and gritty happens. This is the place to be if you want to see fast-paced action that’s not inside the mechs themselves. There’s tons of things that happen here and there’s absolutely no room for error in here,” Hisako explains as she gestures her hand to show off the room. The elevator opens from behind me and a middle-aged man wearing small, tinted glasses steps off of the elevator with several scientists and security guards. He walks passed the group and Hisako greets him, “Hello, Mr. Gerald.” He doesn’t reply back, but rather just glares and proceeds forward. He seems like an asshole. Even though I went on this fieldtrip last year, I never saw him. “That man is Mr. Gerald Doane, the founder and CEO of Mobile Knights of the Round Table,” Hisako explains, “he must be very nervous for the unveiling of the newest mech so let’s give him some space. In fact, it’s almost time so why don’t we all head down to the viewing gallery?”
We all enter the elevator again and go down several floors. The elevator arrives on a floor with the walls being completely made of glass so we can see outside as well as several plants for decoration and couches so people can sit. There’s a couple of televisions that give direct camera feed of several shots of the launch site. After walking a bit, the room goes in a complete circle and we’re in the middle of the facility
“I’m so excited!” Hiro exclaims, “If Arthur does end up being an amazing combat mech, they might bring the Avalon fibers to all of the other mechs which would mean more production can go into upgrading the mechs instead of spending time and days to repair mechs after an intensive battle.”
“Is it really all that important? Don’t they have a mech that does reparations even out in battle?” I question. Hiro has been talking about these mechs for a long while now so I do pick up on some of his self-conversations every so often. Almost everything I know about heroes or whatever is mostly just from me picking it up from him.
“Yeah, it’s important!” he exclaims loudly, to the point that a few heads turn in our direction as I try to blend into the wall, “Outside of being able to create more awesome mechs and upgrading the current ones, it’s also a technological advancement! Self-repairing robotics can be helpful for any hero with cybernetic parts or are actually robotic. Most of the time they’ll have to repair themselves outside of battle, but being able to heal during battle is really beneficial. I mean, look at all of those superheroes that have self-regeneration, they’re practically invincible!”
“Alright, alright, I get it can you tone it down man?” I say, still trying to blend into the wall.
Through several speakers in the room, a dominating voice speaks, “We’re gathered here to unveil our newest model. Mobile Knight Arthur.” I look outside and find a bunch of people who weren’t there, standing in pretty uniform lines. You got the scientists in one section, engineers in another, and the pilots in their color coordinated glory We even have media coverage people there as well as helicopters circling the facility with their high tech cameras. Speaking to everyone is the CEO guy from before who looked like he hated the world, “We’re all gathered here to unveil our finest creation. We’ve been hard at work, but we have achieved the finest of technology. Truly, Arthur is our greatest asset.”
Well damn, way to make the other pilots and mechs seem obsolete. I wonder what the pilots standing there are thinking considering the guy basically just said that their mechs are shit by comparison to Arthur. Upon closer inspection though, I recognize a classmate standing with the pilots. It’s the girl who normally sits next to me in class, Sadie is her name I think. She’s wearing a white and silver jumpsuit that definitely highlights her body.
The CEO guy is saying some more shit about the mechs, but I kinda just tuned him out and stopped payin
g attention. Hiro is fully invested with what the guy has to say though, of course. I keep looking around and even wander a bit. The every so often I peek out the window, the guy is still talking.
I rest on a chair that’s facing the window. Next to me is a small little magazine stand that features the latest superhero gossip, topics, and just superhero stuff. Superheroes and supervillains are pretty much celebrities, so of course the paparazzi and media is gonna stalk them to no end just to get some insight on their lives. Hell, I remember when a superhero unmasked himself and it was a shock across the world for some reason. I get that some superheroes want to keep their identity a secret, but what’s really going to happen to them anyway? I pick up a magazine and I briefly glance through it. Most of the articles from what I gathered are just talking about the latest battle of a superhero named
“Bored?” a soothing, feminine voice speaks out to me.
I look up to find an attractive girl with long brunette hair with a streak of purple, pretty slim figure, and piercing blue eyes that immediately wowed me. Outside of her eyes being a striking feature of her appearance, she’s also pretty short. It takes a while for the words to come out, but I manage to stammer, “Uh, y-yeah. Pretty bored, you?”
She sits down on the chair next to me, but with her size it looks like the chair might eat her, replying with a nice smile, “Yeah, when you come on this fieldtrip every year, you just get tired of it.”
“Right?” I agree with her. I was about to talk about how bored I am of superheroes, but that’s usually something people don’t like to hear about.
“I’m not much of a mech person anyway,” she begins, “yeah, the giant robots are really cool and all, but I’m more interested in the mutated heroes, the Deviants. You know, the heroes that have their powers since birth, but they don’t become active until later in life? They’re really cool in my opinion. Sucks that society hates them so much for some reason.”
There we go, there’s her talking about her enjoyment of superheroes. Not that it’s a bad thing for me, considering I’m best friends with Hiro, but it’s so hard to find someone to talk to who isn’t completely into superheroes. Whatever, I’ll just enjoy a pretty girl’s presence since I doubt I’ll see her ever again after this fieldtrip.
“Just, who are you?” she asks me. There’s a strange look in her eyes, like she’s keenly observing me.
“Ridley, you?”
“Mariana, but you can just call me Mari for short,” she says. She puts her hand forward for a handshake. Her hands are extremely soft, but I did take notice of the dark violet nail polish on her fingernails. There are even small skull designs on some of her fingers.
“So when’s this CEO guy gonna shut up? It feels like forever since he’s been talking,” I say, with a slight chuckle.
She laughs quietly, agreeing with me, “Last I listened he was still talking about how the new mech is the latest innovation of technology. He also added in something about the mech being a revolutionary tool to humanity’s survival. As if we need to rely on the mech for that.”
“Yeah, especially since humanity has had how many world ending threats or realities?” I say. We both laugh at the strange truth of the world ending multiple times that we’ve both had to live through.
“Which world ending event was your favorite one though? Mine had to be the zombie one. Finally, everyone’s zombie escape plans finally had to be put into use. Some failed, some didn’t. But in the end we’re all alive again. I luckily, got to survive the whole thing and saw how they were able to cure the zombie apocalypse and revive everyone by basically rewinding time. It was awesome,” she says with a triumphant smile on her face. She does appear to be someone who likes horror things. My memory when it comes to the zombie apocalypse is really hazy. I can’t remember much about it, maybe I was a zombie.
Part of me is really inclined to say the Hell on Earth because of reasons, but instead I say, “Robots ruling the world was pretty cool. Especially that one rogue robot that decided to help everyone.”
While I was having a nice chat, a loud alarm suddenly rings loudly in the air. Red lights flash within the room I’m in. I look outside the window and there’s a bunch of flashing red lights also. Over the intercom is a dominating voice, “Red alert, red alert! Sefirots have been detected. I repeat, Sefirot’s have been detected. All pilots please aboard your Mobile Knight and prepare for combat.”
After the announcement I look at the hastily graying sky as the clouds swirl ominously. Piercing through the blanket of clouds are several large creatures with no eyes, but angelic features such as wings and glowing flesh. These smaller creatures are called Beta Sefirots, or Betarots as Hiro has called them. The Alphas is the giant monster that slowly descends from the sky. It doesn’t just have one set of wings, but like ten. It even has a halo hovering above its head and glowing circles around each of its six limbs. If I had to compare it to something, it looks like a weird angel squid. As soon as the weird angel squid screeches, I get blown off of my chair and the glass of the room shatters.
Chapter 2
Son of a bitch that really hurt! I hit my head pretty hard on the wall and some of the glass cut me up. Wait, how did the chair end up being on top of me? It takes quite a bit of strength for me to push the chair off of me. A couple of other people I can see are up and just as injured as I am. I lean on the wall for support as I take a moment to realize what’s happening.
The Sefirot is still in the sky fighting the many Mobile Knights that are far smaller in size by comparison. Around me is a bunch of shattered glass on the floor and any furniture has been turned over. Tons of students are on the ground while some are trying to compose themselves. Oh, Mari! I look around and find Mari slowly getting up from the ground.
I move over to Mari and help her up to her feet. She says with a pained voice, “Thanks. What a day to be here. Last year it was an accidental self-destruction. Today, it’s an actual Sefirot invasion.” We both peek outside to see the colorful amounts of Mobile Knights fighting the many Sefirots that look like a flock of birds in the sky.
Nicely displayed for us are streaks of colorful lights that correspond with the respective Mobile Knight. It kinda just looks like a bunch of rainbows fighting some birds now that I think about it. A scary white mech called Lancelot slashes at a bunch of the Sefirots with its giant sword. The pilot is really agile since he’s moving around and doing aerial acrobatics in a giant robot. Clean cuts with his sword kills several of the Sefirots, but the Alpha lets out a shrieking cry like before that forces me to immediately cover my ears so they don’t bleed out. Unintentionally, my body just crumples to the ground while I can hear the shrieking. I can’t explain why, it’s just a response my body has.
Suddenly, I get tackled and fall to the ground. I try to see who or what tackled me, but all I see is darkness and feel a heavy body keeping me on the ground. Loud explosions erupt in place of the shrieking and what also sounds like loud crashing. The heavy weight shifts off of me and I see that it’s Hiro.
“Dude, what the hell?” I say, slowly getting back up onto my feet. When I look around I notice that the room is more destroyed than it previously was. Guess those superhero instincts really kicked in for Hiro.
With most of the walls being completely destroyed, a powerful breeze wafts around me. Some of the Mobile Knights are flying pretty close to the building, but that’s only because they’re trying to protect all of us in here. There’s a Mobile Knight color coded in light gold armor with a giant shield that extend even further as a barrier that’s defending us from these weird light blasts from the Sefirots. Tons of Sefirots are firing a beam of light towards the building, but because of the golden Mobile Knight’s shield and barrier, they don’t make it through. A lot of the other Mobile Knights are fending off the Sefirots, but only a few of them die easily.
The furthest Mobile Knight is Lancelot who is surrounded by a flock of Sefirots. Seemingly without too much effort, Lancelot destroys the Sefirots wit
h its long black sword. With each swing of the sword, a black energy wave would vibrate in the air before disappearing. As I’m watching, Lancelot gets tackled by a Sefirot causing the pilot inside to lose their momentum. The Alpha wraps its tentacles around each of Lancelot’s limbs and, what I guess I can call it, waist. With how hard Lancelot is fighting back, the Alpha must have a really good grasp on the Mobile Knight. Another flock of Sefirots begin to get into formation around Lancelot. None of the other Mobile Knights are near Lancelot, but there are a couple that use their lesser firearms to shoot at the Alpha. However, one particular violet Mobile Knight using the gatling guns and rocket launchers on each of its shoulders that helps defeat the flocking Sefirots.
“You can do it Lancelot!” Hiro cheers from the top of his lungs in excitement. I look at him and his eyes are filled with awe as he watches the fight in front of him. Not surprising, considering the guy loves this kind of stuff.
Even though Lancelot is pretty far away, I can see bright purple spikes form on the armor. The spikes start rotating around the armor like a chain saw which shreds the tentacles off of the Mobile Knight. Despite losing its tentacles, the Alpha doesn’t back off and regenerates its missing tentacles almost instantaneously. The Alpha opens, what I can assume is, its mouth at the converging point of all of the tentacles. Light begins to gather at the Alpha’s mouth and the halo rings around the Alpha’s tentacles begin to glow brightly.
“Oh no, it’s about to fire its laser!” Hiro exclaims, eyes wide open.
Launching from the ground is a new Mobile Knight I haven’t seen yet. It’s blue and silver armor shine brightly even under these cloudy skies. Trailing behind the Mobile Knight is a blur of silver that follows the long blade in its hand. It slashes away at the Alpha, causing the monster to target the new Mobile Knight with its laser. A long white laser slices through one of the Mobile Knight’s arm, Lancelot’s body, and even hits the foundation of the building I’m in.