M-Cube: First chapter story! Here's the introduction!

Summary - The only surviving students of Skyline Defenses Institute of 2526 graduated and went their ways. Two years later, SDI reopens after reparations but is faced with another attack. Students of the past and present must work together, but one of the graduates may actually be the mastermind behind this new catastrophe.

Pairings - (main) ShunxAlice (minor) DanxRuno, AcexMira, JuliexBilly, FabiaxRen...

Julie: There is no romance in this summary or title!

M-Cube: Don't worry. It will all come later. Enjoy!


[1] Release, Repair, Revive, Relive

The debris...

The flames...

The aftermath.

The graduates stood on the graduation stage and looked down at the school they used to attend, all in ruins. One could come by and think it was a former battle site of a recent war, but it wasn't. Laid everywhere were the remains of Skyline Defenses Institute, formerly located along the shores Bayview City, where it was close to the land, sky, and sea.

However, many smart and bright students lost their lives in this disaster and couldn't join the rest of the students on the graduation stage held both high above the school grounds in the sky.

It was a stunning symbol of victory for that one person who wished to and succeeded in destroying the school and people out of jealousy, envy, and revenge.

"I declare you all...graduates of Skyline Defenses Institute. We'll miss you."

Even the principal couldn't even give a proper graduation speech. Not even the three Valedictorians, various Salutatorians, or the class and sub-class presidents.

No one could.

Once the ceremony was over, SDI closed its gates and never opened again.

Until two years later...

MxMxM

"...and that is where all the classes are located. We apologize for anything confusing, but it has been two years since I've done this."

The principal sniffed and blew his nose. Thinking about the past two years made him cry, and all the other staff onstage patted him on the back. The students in the audience knew about what happened and grieved in silence for a minute before returning to their specified classes.

Two years came and went, but the entire school was rebuilt quickly. There were now four administrative buildings. The shorter building in the center was a general use building and where administrative officers were. A taller building to the left was the Weaponry Department, while the other taller building on the right was the Sorcery Department. The final tall building behind the general building taught general education classes.

All students needed to take at least one general school subject class there before advancing to the department classes, but most of the students this year were transfer students from other schools, so transferring student files and sending transcripts would waive the need to attend a subject class in SDI. All other buildings were dormitories for students to reside in.

Many regulations changed as well. Students could now take more than one class in any department, but they all had to declare one as main course of study. In addition, students may choose to graduate early if they completed all their class requirements before their designated graduating year. The only exception ever applied was two years ago when all the surviving students, whether ready to graduate or not, had to graduate.

Dan, Alice, and Julie sat in a circle discussing which class was going to be their main class. "I want to be in both departments," the brunette announced. "The firearms, incendiary devices, thermodynamics, and pyrotechnics classes are all on the same floor. Shouldn't be too tedious running across a bridge from one building to another."

"That's a lot of classes, Dan. I think I'll take telepathy as my main class with a mix of others," Alice replied. "Julie, what about you?"

"Botany! I'll get to be out in the sun!"

"Botany fits you very well," the redhead commented. "With that amount of energy in you, I think you should take another class as well."

"No, thanks. I'll stick with botany. Anyway, Alice, you shouldn't take telepathy. It doesn't suit you as well as botany suits me."

"Alice, what help is mind-control going to do for you?" Dan asked

"Well..." Alice hesitated, but Dan and Julie forced her to talk. "There was a person from our former school who didn't treat me so nicely. That person is also here, and I need some method of self-defense in case anything happens. "

Dan had no interest in this, but Julie squealed at the thought. "Tell me who this person is! I can handle any kind of person!"

"Okay, fine. I'm telling you and only you." Dan looked through the class brochure for subsidiaries of firearm classes, so Alice leaned closer to Julie and whispered, "Remember that steampunk girl-"

"Who liked the guy who liked you but whom you didn't like? She's still on to you?! That girl has some nerve! No worries, Alice. A friend's enemy is also my enemy. Speaking of liking people, I wonder if Billy-"

"He transferred here." Dan interrupted suddenly. "He sat next to me during the opening ceremony and-"

"Really? I am so jealous of you! Who do you like?" Julie totally changed the subject, and Dan felt himself turn red as a tomato. "Let me guess. She just transferred here with us, too."

"I like nobody."

"Then why are you so red?"

Dan pointed to some behind her. "Because having whom I think is Billy staring at you lying this close on top of me is very embarrassing. Now get off!"

"What?!" Julie immediately sat down and looked around. Dan fixed his clothes, and Alice giggled at Julie's response. "He wasn't looking at me. Good. Let's go to class. I don't want my future botany teacher to have a bad impression of me. See you all later!"

Reopening day went smoothly, and students attended their class on time as always. Many parents wanted their children to attend this elite school, even if an undisclosed person destroyed it a couple of years ago. Now that reparations were finished, Skyline Defenses Institute was overflowing with new incoming students and transfer students alike.

Therefore, not only was SDI teaching students many different skills and training students in the use of weapons and sorcery, but it was also preparing a defense army protect the school from the tragedy that happened two years ago.

MxMxM

A telescope was focused on a tall building about a kilometer away. "Target found, sir."

"What does it look like?"

"Good as new like your new ship, sir."

"Already new in two years? I don't know if that's slow or fast."

"Sir, the place is overflowing with people. What do we do?"

"Do what we did last time. I am determined to tear that place down." The man stood up and refilled his glass of water. "Nothing will ever extinguish my hatred..."

"But sir, won't they become suspicious? If they've seen it once, then they'll be prepared for it. That's probably why they rebuilt the campus so big. They want more students for their defense army."

"But hat also equates to many more casualties. Let's aim our first attack today."

"Yes, sir. I'll go-"

"Not yet. Wait until classes are dismissed. That's when the overflow of students occurs. We're all about casualties, remember? But first, I have another place for you to launch an attack on."

"Yes, sir. What is the other place?

"The coordinates are on the control panel. Self-explanatory." He curled a lock of his hair and looked down at the building. Reparations in two years? I'll make all that go to waste. You will pay for what did to me...

MxMxM

"Left."

"Miss."

"Right."

"Same thing."

"Left again."

"Runo, watch out!"

A blue-haired girl fell down a few meters from a tall tree, but a young blond boy below successfully pushed a trampoline to catch her. He helped her up and out while she held her back in pain. "Runo, are you all right? Based on your skill, you shouldn't be doing this kind of training," the blond asked.

"Hey, I'm just trying something new. Shun asked for a training partner for some new attack, and it works...only if everyone he trains with is as lousy as me."

A raven-haired boy jumped down the trees and landed by the trampoline. "Don't be too critical of yourself, Runo. Missing on the third trial proves that you have skill. I shouldn't be all since Grandpa asked me to stop by his dojo to do something." Shun retracted his feathery bow while a loud whoosh echoed in the sky as a large glowing ball penetrated the air and hit a row of residential buildings nearby. "What was that?"

"I don't know, but that place is on fire!" Runo drew a circle with her lighted finger and zoomed in. "Hey! Those are our residences! Our neighborhood is on fire!"

A rhythmic beeping sound echoed from Shun's watch. "Oh no..."

"What?"

"I never thought I'd have to hear this, but they're calling us back."

"Looks like our houses aren't the only ones under attack. I hope we don't have to relive what happened two years ago..." Marucho concluded.

"I have this covered." Runo drew a large yellow halo above them, and all three put their left hands together in the middle. "Hold tight while I teleport us there."

MxMxM

First day's lessons were over, but many students still hung around for fun or for follow-up after-school classes. Most students were eager to check out the dormitories while others explored the rest of the campus. With the supervision of the staff, the air and water shuttles were accessible to travel up to the sky to see the aerial training grounds, or out into the ocean to see the water training grounds. Land training grounds were closer to the school.

Alice and Julie met at the front doors, but Dan stayed behind to attend a teacher's office hours.

"We had the loveliest conversation about plants and the world of nature in botany today," Julie cheered. "but I couldn't find wherever the 'seismology' class was. It's probably named something else. How's telepathy, Alice?"

"I already know how to do basic mind control, but that's not what I'm happy about. Turns out that the girl I talked about this morning still needs to take a general subject class. I don't have to see her for the time being."

"Lucky girl! I wish Billy were in my classes. By the way, we learned our first basic spell today, which is speed-growing plants. What about you?"

"I can try to do a simple mind-reading, but I don't think I'm going to-" Suddenly, Alice stopped moving and fixed her eyes on something in front of her.

"Alice? Can you hear me?" Julie waved her hands in front of her, but Alice didn't respond at all.

"Fire...on campus..." Alice turned around and pointed at the clock tower. "Right now..."

A fireball shot through the clock faces on both sides and landed in the center gardens. Student ran for their lives for safety. Some of the school staff came outside from the shuttles to see the perpetrator.

"Is that who I think it is?" the principal gasped. "Not again with this catastrophe! Quick, send that special SOS with your PDA."

The woman next to him backed up and shook her head. "No way. This is only for serious emergencies, remember?"

"And it will be one if we keep waiting! I spent two years repairing this place, and nothing shall be wasted! Call them!"

"Yes, sir." She pressed a few buttons on her PDA and waited.

Meanwhile, Alice and Julie were the only students still in the central gardens. It was Alice's first time performing a mind-read without her teacher's guidance, and she fell weakly after that moment. "Alice, stand up! We won't make it out of here with this fire. Where's Dan when we need him the most?"

More fireballs flew from the sky as the rest of the school fled away in panic. Alice looked around and noticed a pair of doors leveled up in the floor. "Is that a cellar? Go there for safety. All other places are too dangerous to walk to."

"But Alice! I can't leave you behind! Oh, the first day of school is always this terrible."

"Just go. I-"

A spaceship descended closer to the school building, and a young man walked out from the deck. "Ah, the lovely blaze burning this place is better than any firework I've ever seen. What have we here? A fraction of the school staff and two whom I believe are fresh transfer students. Whose idea was it to have everyone graduate at once then? Aim that cannon at them."

Alice felt responsible for predicting this and confronted him. "What? Who are you? Why are you-"

"Enough. Launch it now."

The cannon focused energy in the cylinder and fired. The staff managed to run away, but Alice was still weak from what happened earlier. "No—!"

"EF-5 Cyclone!"

A raven-haired youth appeared from nowhere and deflected the attack with a swift arrow that carried enormous wind power. With the strong, gravity-defying cyclone of wind preventing the ship from descending and the cannon from firing, he carried Alice away with his left hand wrapped around her snugly to the fountain back to where the wind was a gentle breeze again.

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Thanks..."

Alice had no idea what was happening, but after this person saved her from an attack, everything after that became a blur to her.


Alice: That was close!

Runo: Aren't you happy? Where's Dan?

Shun: You know teleportation.

Runo: Oh yeah! See you later! *disappears*

Julie: "EF-5 Cyclone" is...?

M-Cube: Almost forgot! This is romance/sci-fi/action, so there will be attack names. I will use Bakugans' abilities on the Wikia site as well as originals and other sources.

Julie: Will there be any "Kazami Style..." abilities?

Shun: *sweat drops plus popped veins*

M-Cube: Ummm I won't talk about attacks at the moment. Please review!