It was towering several feet high; sunlight was glinting off its white paint. Its rooms contained state-of-the-art learning equipment. At the entrance to the building, there was a sign which read:

MECHA LECKA HIGH

A man was walking into the building.

"Hi Artix!" A student called out.

"Good morning, Xena." He turned a corner and entered the teacher's lounge.

He sat down at a table as the principal came in.

"Hello everyone. Today's faculty meeting will be special because I get to present to you our new history teacher, Safiria!" He motioned to the woman besides him.

"Hey." She waved briefly and took her seat at Artix's table.

Artix's mouth nearly dropped open. He thought, "Oh, my goodness, that girl is HOT!! I should ask her out, but what if she rejects me? Well, based on my good looks, the chances of rejection are-" He grinned. "0 !"

Later on in the day, Artix approached Safiria. She was sitting down grading papers.

"Hi, I'm Artix."

She briefly looked up. "Hi," then she continued grading.

"So, how are your classes today?"

"Good."

"...That's...good. Anyways, have you heard about Rika's, one of our students, party?

Yes.

Yeah, it's weird how she wants it to be school-sponsored. But since it is, we teachers are required to go. I know that you're new here and that you don't know me very well, but uh,um,ahem,uh,well, actually you didn't even know who I am, or,uh, that I, um, even existed until-"

Safiria glanced at him sharply. "I'm trying to do my job right now, and you're really annoying me. So hurry up and spit it out."

"Will you go to Rika's party with me?" he smiled weakly.

"As a date?" she raised an eyebrow. Just then, Artix began to panic as all kinds of scenarios drifted through his mind. Will she call him unprofessional and rebuke him? Will she laugh at him? Will she report this as sexual harassment and get him fired? Will she-

"Yes." She replied, as she resumed her work.

"What?!"

"Y-E-S.Yes. Now, in case you haven't noticed, my patience is wearing thin."

"Oh, ok, great! I'll meet you at your house around a quarter to six, ok?" She nodded in an annoyed manner.

He began to walk away when he realized,"Oh, by the way, where's your house?" She looked at him angrily. "Uh, nevermind, I'll ask you later."

As teachers, Artix and Safiria were required to arrive early to the party as chaperones. At the door, they were greeted by Rika and each given a bag of Bath & Body lotions.

"Wow, I didn't know that these lotions were so popular with students." Artix remarked, as the students arrived and ranted on and on about how wonderful the lotions were.

"Yeah, me neither. I guess we're out of the loop." Safiria replied.

"It's probably because we're so old." Artix had meant this as a joke, but Safiria took it seriously.

"Excuse me?!" and with that she stormed out of the house. Of course, Artix went after her. However, when he caught up with her, nothing he could say or do would calm her down. In a desperate attempt, he asked if she would like to go into the arcade, which they happened to be standing in front of. Safiria seemed to grow more furious, but when she glanced at the poster on the arcade's window, all her anger was gone.

"Oh, Artix, you're so sweet! How did you know that I loved Deady and Voltaire? I've been wanting to play this game since it came out 3 months ago, but it's so expensive. You'll pay for me, right?"

"Yes." As she started playing, he noticed that she was still carrying her Bath & Body bag. "Don't you want to put that down?"

"Nope. I grew up in a bad neighborhood, so I tend to cling to free stuff."

After hours of playing, Safiria woke Artix up from his nap. "The arcade's closing."

"What? What time is it? Midnight?!"

"Yeah. Here's your wallet back."

"Oh. Thanks." Artix escorted her out of the arcade, and the owner of the arcade left. As they were walking down the street and as Safiria was chatting about the game, they heard a thunderous crash behind them. Artix tackled Safiria to the side as a giant foot stomped down on where she had been standing. The foot continued in its trying to stomp them, so all they could do was roll back and forth, barely dodging each attack. Eventually, a bottle rolled out of Safiria's Bath & Body bag. The foot stepped on it and the monster fell backwards. Safiria and Artix got up and began running.

"We've got to go to the school! They have some state of the art mechas there!" Artix yelled. Safiria looked behind them as the beast got to its feet. It was a Deady mecha, and its nails shot toward them. Luckily, Artix saw them and was able to steer him and Safiria out of the way. He grabbed a bottle from her bag, since he had already lost his, and threw some Cotton Blossom at Deady. Once again, it tripped over it. This bought him some time to access the school's mecha hangar. He climbed into his paladin-like mecha and faced Deady. Deady once again shot his nails at Artix. Artix tried to dodge, but the side of his mecha was pierced, pinning him against a wall. Before Deady could use his other hand, Artix targeted the pilot seat and shot a laser at it. The Deady mecha exploded, but not before an escape pod was shot into the air. Artix crawled out of his mecha and ran to Safiria.

"Are you all right?" She feebly nodded, clutching her bag. "She must be in shock, since she still hasn't put that bag down." he thought. He was about to suggest that they run before the pilot of the mecha shows up, when Safiria's expression changed. She was looking at the blown-up mecha. Through the fire which had resulted from the explosion, a shadow was outlined in it. Suddenly, the debris in front of the shadow was swept away by claws. The claws belonged to Deady.

"...Wow. What are the chances of a Deady mecha being piloted by Deady?" Artix said.

Deady spoke,"How dare you destroy my mecha?!RRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRH!" With that statement, he spread his arms, and a bright light engulfed them.