T-34 was surrounded. Surrounded by his new mortal enemy; fire. He couldn't move without being attacked by the rampant flame. He couldn't help but tremble when the fire started getting closer, licking at his sides. Trying not to panic, T-34 tried to think of a way to get out of this predicament, this nightmare. He couldn't think of anything, other than melting in terror. Realizing that the fire was getting even closer, T-34 knew that there was nothing he could do now.

Finally, the fire engulfed him; it swallowed him up like fresh dinner. T-34 felt his consciousness slipping, but not in the usual way of slipping off into sleep, no, it was... Different. T-34 quickly regained his strained thought process when he found himself in a familiar place. He was on the road to Tank Academy!

Driving up the road, T-34 found the entrance to Tank Academy. It was a mess; the gate was shot up, hanging off its hinges. The wall holding what was left of the gate was covered in Halloween décor and was coated in shell-holes too. 'This is very strange...' T-34 thought to himself, quite perplexed by the scenery that surrounded him.

Having enough, T-34 turned around his turret. He could not believe what he saw. T-70 and M5A1 Stuart sat there, their armour taking similarities to the wall, which was also having shell-holes in their relatively untouched armour "H-hello?" T-34 started. "Guys? S-stop staring at me. It's... It's creeping me out." They didn't respond, so T-34 tried to drive past them. He felt their cold stares penetrate his armour, into his soul. "Please! Just stop with that... That damned staring!" His shouting was harsh, but he couldn't take it any more.

As soon as he shouted his plea, the two tanks faded away. T-34 turned his turret around, checking for anything else that wanted to turn him into stone or something. He found something that seemed to be already turned into a stone. Rolling over to it, T-34 found it was a tombstone. It was coated in what appeared to be simplified Chinese, T-34 didn't know how he knew that, but he did. There were three flowers, dead and rotting, on the foot of the gravestone. Armed with the insanely limited knowledge of Chinese, T-34 tried to read the gravestone. Before he could try and decipher the language, T-34 was hurled back into the real world...

"Hey! You! T-34 thing!" A French tank was in front of T-34; he could tell because of its extremely thick accent. For some reason, T-34 found its turret to resemble a duck of some sort. "Wake up! You are going home today!"

"What? What are you-" T-34 was completely dumbfounded, he couldn't think clearly after his... Nightmare? Definitely nightmare. Well, he was in a new nightmare now.

"Hopkins!" It screeched, blowing out T-34's capacity to hear things. "Get over here, crumpet boy!" The French tank scooted off, trying to find 'Hopkins' and, possibly, his idiot superior.

It wasn't long before more annoyance returned, in the form of 'Hopkins'. "Hello there, lad!" He said, grating at T-34's patience already. "You're returning home today, your parents have arrived to pick you up." So, T-34 drove groggily off of his hospital bed and made his way through the busy and cramped halls of the hospital. Eventually, after going through what seemed like endless corridors, T-34 and 'Hopkins' happened upon 'Hopkins' superior. "Ah! Morning Terrance!" 'Hopkins' said happily. 'Hopkins' superior is called 'Terrance'? Really? T-34 thought that the world was coming to an end. Idiots of this proportion had to signal some mass extinction event or something.

"Morning, fellow." 'Terrence' replied "Our schedule is rather tight today, so we must act sharpish!"

The group of tanks moved down the quite large A&E corridor before getting interrupted by a silly sounding yell. "Gawrsh!" T-34 couldn't react before getting slammed into by a tank that was driving a trolley covered in medical supplies. It was an American Lend-Lease tank, a rather dumb one to be sure. "Sowwy! I did a dumb!" It apologized, Hopkins turned his turret towards the dumb thing.

"M3 Grant! Look where you're goin' next time! Dear T-34 and I nearly died of shock!" He said, apparently scared by the silly little medium.

"Look, Hopkins, we need to get a move on!" Terrance said before driving off. 'Hopkins' and T-34 drove off, following him and leaving the M3 Grant to clean up the mess of tools and other items that had spilt onto the floor.

"I... I don't think we should have left that... Thing back there; it seemed it could hardly keep itself in check, let alone a trolley filled to the brim with things." T-34 said, worried of the M3 Lee's mental capability.

"No worries about that little lark." 'Terrance' began, "He's only going to be here for a day or two and he'll be back in the local academy!" He looked at T-34, who nodded to show that he understood.

Finally arriving at the reception, T-34 saw his parents for the first time in what felt like two years. He pretty much just launched himself at them, almost crashing into a bin that just happened to be next to T-54. "Hello, son!" T-54 said, she sounded a lot healthier that she did before.

"Hello mother! Hi father!" T-34 replied energetically, well, as energetically as he could anyway.

"We were wondering where you were!" Said ST-1, who also possessed his wife's tone of speech, which was one of happiness.

It wasn't long before T-34 was out of that horrid hospital and out in the bright environment that surrounded it, he loved the feeling of being in a huge sprawling landscape instead of lurking inside a small room painted with boring. Finally, T-34 went through the door of his house. He felt brand new, as if he'd just appeared into his own personal heaven with happiness and cupcakes. Except there wasn't a cupcake to be found. Only questions.

"Son, I have to ask you..." ST-1 started, "How did you end up in hospital anyway?" T-34 turned to his father, thought for a second, then spoke.

"I ended up with an engine fire," He recalled. "I... Um... Had a fire extinguisher handy though. The school nurse sent me to hospital just to check that I was... Okay." His voice sounded uncertain, T-54 picked up on that.

"T-34, are you sure that's the truth you're telling us?" She said, her days of constant interrogating came through and T-34 realized that.

"Err..." T-34 knew that he wouldn't be able to get away from the suspicion with more lies, so he admitted it. "Gah. No. It's not the truth"

"Well, tell us what actually happened. We wont be mad. What happened, happened, okay?" T-34 nodded with his gun.

"Okay, erm... I was racing my friend, M5A1 Stuart. I guess I pushed my engine too hard or something and I set on fire. I didn't know what happened after that, because I was unconscious. Apparently when the fire was put out, I was dragged all the way to hospital. They said that I would not be able to be saved, saying that I'd die on the way to the operation or in progress, but M5A1 Stuart pushed them to do what they could. I woke up after that and had some rest-up time within the hospital. Now we're here." T-34 spoke bluntly, cheating death may have been an incredible experience but it sure as hell wasn't fun.

T-54 and ST-1 were frozen, their son nearly died without them even knowing? Thinking about the whole idea made them lock up, worry and anxiety rushed up into them and nearly burst out of them, but they kept their cool. "Well, welcome back to the land of the living." ST-1 joked, T-34 and T-54 laughed a little. The tension that surrounded them cooled.

"We're glad to have you back, T-34." T-54 said, her feelings were pushed back into the back of her mind. "Say, why don't you tell us about your friends?"

T-70 rushed down another bland hallway, this was starting to get really silly now; T-70 now got what T-34 meant when he said that the blue tank was 'Damn elusive'. T-70 was wasting another of his break times trying to find a tank that might not even be there any more. He didn't care though, it gave him something to do with his time other that worrying about... Wait... What was he worrying about earlier? Oh yeah... T-34 was in hospital or something like that and T-70 was worrying himself to bits.

Turning left and going down another hallway, T-70 happened upon another blue tank! Remembering what happened last time, T-70 kept his cool and asked him; "Excuse me, have you seen or known a... Small blue-green tank destroyer?" The blue tank thought for a second, turning its turret away from T-70 a bit. Turning back, he spoke.

"No, I have not, mister. I usually know about all the tanks at Tank Academy but that one... She is very sneaky. All I know is that it's a she and that she usually hangs around that artillery... I think it was..." He paused for about a second, prompting T-70 to finish his sentence.

"Birch Gun, I think."

"Yes... That's it. Yeah, that's all I know. Sorry." He didn't seem apologetic. In fact, it seemed he was consumed by curiosity.

"Okay... I'll keep looking for her then." T-70 revved his engine and started to make his way past the blue tank, only to be stopped by him.

"Maybe I can help? A second view on the situation is always better than one." He asked diligently. T-70 weighed up his choices.

"Okay, I need to know your name though." T-70 said finally, he sounded much much surer than he actually was though.

"Hotchkiss Thirty-Five, or just H35 for short." H35 answered proudly, as if he'd just won some sort of prize.

"khorosho... Let's go." T-70 spoke before starting to drive off. H35 followed closely.

"What did that mean?" He asked quietly.

"What did what mean?" T-70 then realised what H35 meant. "Oh... The Russian I just spoke?"

"Yeah, What did it mean?"

"I think it translates into 'Well' or 'Okay' or something like that... I didn't really mean to say it in my mother tongue, but I can't help sometimes."

"Yeah... I do that too some-"

Suddenly, the two tanks bumped into a fairly large light tank. It made a noise similar to a squeak, before spinning around and driving off. It was so desperate to get away it tore away some of the carefully made flooring, making a perfect trail around a corner. Following it, T-70 and H35 found themselves in the presence of a flower pot. Which had a tank behind it. Who was quivering as if it was being slammed into by an earthquake. Realising that it had been spotted, it whimpered and started retreating into the nearest corner. "P-p-p-please d-don't hurt me..." he says quietly, voice quivering almost as much his hull was. H35 started driving towards the scared light tank, which was pretty much in tears now. H35 beamed with purpose

"Hey, look at me." H35 said, his voice a soft as silk. The frightened tank hesitated at first, before pointing his gun at H35. "My friend and I," He gestured towards T-70. "are not going to do anything irrational or hurt you or anything."

"R-really?" He stopped shaking a little, which was a start.

"Yep. I swear." H35 proceeded to move a little closer. "Can you tell me your name?"

"A-20... What is yours?"

"H35. My friend here is called T-70" Immediately after being mentioned, T-70 rolled forward.

"Okay..." The nervousness of the A-20's voice was nearly eradicated; he saw that his new acquaintances were never a threat to begin with. "Um... Can I follow you guys?"

"There's no reason to say no." T-70 piped up, having another member on his 'team' might help him in his search.

"Maybe we could go to the field?" Asked H35. "Maybe we can learn more about each other!"

"Why not?" T-70 had already scoured the field, but maybe his love interest would be there this time!

After manoeuvring through the winding halls, they made it. H35, A-20 and T-70 rolled outside into the free world of the outside. They were no longer contained by the mind-shredding maze that is Tank Academy, but they were in the welcoming warmth of sunlight. They drove themselves through a few groups of random tanks, finally making it to the field. The sight of tanks not trying to murder their peers was a very rare sight indeed, due to the fact that half the tanks at the academy ignore the 'no proper ammunition' rule rather often. Actually, they ignore it all the damn time.

"Well... We're here now..." T-70 started awkwardly, he was never one for initiating conversations. H35 looked at him and sighed, realizing that his new friends were about as good at starting conversations as drunken socially awkward mutes. He was about to speak before A-20 piped up.

"I've seen a new p-painting that was hung up in STA-1's classroom; it was really cool!" T-70 hadn't seen such a painting before. In fact, he had not even been close to the art classroom for the last week or so.

"What was it like?" T-70 asked.

"I-it was like... A-a big heavy tank mashing a bunch of other tanks and bouncing shots off of its armour like they were machine gun bullets!" A-20 almost giggled with delight as he answered with near glee.

"I saw it as well. I thought it was really good too." H35 added quietly, almost as if he was I shock due to A-20's outburst.

"Wow, I should probably get a look at this wonder painting..." T-70 commented.

Then T-70 thought of something he didn't like. He thought that he wouldn't be able to remain in contact with either group of friends without working himself to death. Maybe he'd have to abandon one group of friends to be with the other? How would this work out? He'd have to choose between M5A1 Stuart and T-34 or A-20 and H35 and that wouldn't be fun... Whatever. T-70 would just relax and enjoy the strange peace at Tank Academy.

M5A1 Stuart was going fast. Really fast. She was on a mission and she was nearly where she needed to be. She nearly drifted around a corner because of her intense speed, hurrying herself to her very limit. Going quickly down another hallway, M5A1 Stuart quickly formulated a map of the school in her mind. Oh no. She went down the wrong hallway! What an idiot! No matter, she'll just take a right when she gets to the end of the hallway.

Well, she WAS going to do that until she slammed into a cream-coloured tank. Okay, THAT'S IT. I've had enough! M5A1 Stuart had rammed into no-one else but that damned Birch Gun! She turned her turret, beaming with fury. The artillery's gun shield irritated her even more. At this rate, that Birch Gun is probably going to end up getting shot out of KV-2s gun into a lake. That would be filled with metal-eating piranhas.

"You're a bastard, you stupid tea drinking twit!" She was absolutely livid. Well, she was usually livid but now M5A1 Stuart was the embodiment of pure rage. She was about to fire off her gun, right into the hull of the artillery but then she realized that she had no ammo! No matter to M5A1 Stuart, though. She started to blow the artillery to smithereens with constant insults and expletives, with mean comment to even more mean comment to ridiculously mean comment.

With every spiteful word, M5A1 Stuart noticed the frail artillery recoil, easily being overpowered by her harsh language. The Birch Gun started to reverse backwards and M5A1 Stuart caught on. She reversed herself a little bit, then hurling herself at Birch Gun. She collided with the arty with a resounding SMASH! Reversing again, even more this time, M5A1 Stuart got ready to ram into Birch Gun again. She accelerated furiously, then all of a sudden, she was spinning out. M5A1 Stuart realized what had happened when she felt a pang of pain from her track.

Oh no... Sense flooded her system when she slid to a stop. What am I thinking? Why would I ever go against an artillery on my own without any ammo? M5A1 Stuart was then petrified when she whirled her turret around to see another tank. From the looks of it, it was a tank destroyer, a big one.

It was quite rusty as well. Horrified, M5A1 Stuart was certain she was going to die. Or at least get crippled and left for dead. Or shot into outer space.

M5A1 Stuart heard a deep and loud yell and immediately felt better and worse. She knew exactly who it was. A large figure lumbered behind the rust-mobile. "Break it up!" He bellows, M5A1 Stuart cooked up a plan. It wasn't likely that it'd work, but she'd try. "M5A1 Stuart, what are you doing?" M5A1 Stuart readied her 'Innocent' voice.

"Please, Mr. SU-152! The artillery and the big rusty gun thing attacked me!" She assumed that Mr. SU-152 was not watching the fight.

"No... Um..." Dammit, M5A1 Stuart failed at lying again. I'm so grateful that I was born with a complete incapability of lying... She thought angrily. "You rammed into Birch Gun and then you started to get angry at him, swearing at him. After, you began to ram him; unbeknownst to you, Churchill Gun Carrier came to Birch Gun's rescue. It was a nice thought, but you should have come to talk to a teacher."

M5A1 Stuart decided to quickly repair her track to make a quick escape. She started to hurry herself away before Mr. SU-152 sent a shell into her tracks, sending her spinning out again. I have it now... She thought to herself while also thinking of what to say next while Mr. SU-152 dragged himself over. He said something to rusty nails before driving over to M5A1 Stuart. He clamped M5A1 Stuart's working track before taking her away. She saw the two 'freaks' start talking to each-other before losing sight of them. Sooner rather than later M5A1 Stuart found herself in Mr. SU-152's office.

"M5A1 Stuart, I told you not to get into fights with other tanks!" He started angrily. It begins... M5A1 Stuart prepared herself for the onslaught of words about to be hurled at her. "What do you do? Get into fights! Constantly! This is just getting silly now, I thought you respected the rules of the school!" He waited for a response, M5A1 Stuart took her chance.

"But sir..." M5A1 Stuart tried again to weasel out of trouble, with something fairly compelling. "That artillery thing has been since he got here!" The 'Innocent' voice came back again, this time with the power of adorable overload. He hesitated for a bit, before regaining his composure

"Look, I know what you're like, especially with tanks that get reputation quickly throughout the school." He spoke softly this time, with a hard edge of calculating. "Just. Stay. Out. Of. Trouble. Okay? Are we clear? M5A1 Stuart responded with a sharp nod of her gun, she was quite surprised that Mr. SU-152 didn't go on for longer than he did. Maybe he was tired? Maybe he was just fed up with M5A1's behaviour? No matter to her though, she was let go rather quickly and she rolled off.

Author's note: Wow, I never thought I'd get this finished... It's been like two months since I last updated any of my stories, so I spent one of the months slowly writing the chapter, putting it off constantly and getting back to it to write a few sentences in an awful loop of time consumption. At least it's done.