ACT FOUR

Chapter 10 - Recover & Retrieve

The sun was starting to set on the clear horizon as the planes from all 3 schools begin to fly homeward bound. The ride was quiet; nobody spoke on the planes, only for the sound of breathing or coughing, with occasional whispers here and there. Drake was staring out the window at the dying sun on the ocean line, when Black Forest's plane came alongside theirs. Looking up, Drake saw a girls face staring at him.

Nishizumi Maho found herself staring straight into Drake's eyes, resulting in her mind flashing back to the first day, when the mysterious black Luchs appeared out of nowhere and knocked her to the ground. She realized at the same moment that the boy on the opposite plane of hers was the same Commander that blindly ordered the shot to be fired at her tank. Both of their stares flashed away as they both stared down at the floor near their feet. Maho felt her cheek and forehead for the injuries she got on that morning; all that existed now were a few scratches and a small slash scab. Troubled by this, Maho felt a hint of overwhelment flash over her.

"What is the matter, Kommandant?" asked Erika.

She quickly reacted, "Its nothing."

She turned her head to look back at Death Valley High's plane, but it had drifted off into the distance, replacing it with Pravda's. Maho then took hold of her window cover and slowly pulled it down with a sigh. She closed her eyes and tried to cause herself to go to sleep, but in all her attempts to fall alsleep, she failed in doing so.

"You do look troubled, Kommandant." Erika said, "What's the matter?"

"It's about what happened today. What happened to that tank."

"Kommandant, that was an accident. It wasn't our fault." Erika clarified.

She extended a hand out to touch her Commanders shoulder, but Maho slid closer to her window.

"Please, I need some time by myself."

Erika took this as her cue to stop. She leaned back into her seat and stared up at the ceiling of the plane.

(A Few Hours Later)

Jonathan was sleeping when he felt a shake on his knee. He opened his eyes to see Davian come by to receive his gear from the top holder above.

"Here already?" Jonathan yawned while stretching his arms up into the air, only to feel a sore pain shoot down his arms.

When everyone emerged out of the plane, the night greeted them with the cold wind hitting their faces. On the ride, the well lit city confused the boys as to why their going back to the school. The front of the campus greeted the Tankery Team as they unpacked from the vehicles. Drake lifted his head to see the Japanese and American Flag waving in the breeze.

"I wonder how long this conflict will last." He whispered to himself.

"Why did they take us back to school?" Ian asked.

"I don't know, but lets worry about that tomorrow." said Drake.

Everyone went their separate ways and returned to their dorms. The campus of Death Valley Boys High School appeared to look much larger at night rather than during the daytime. The light posts and well lit walkways outside showed the returning crews to their location. When Drake and Ian had reached the door of their dorm, Drake pulled out a key from his wallet and unlocked the way. Once the two were settled in, Ian looked at the clock.

"It's 10:30 PM." Ian said to his Commander.

"Yeah, I realized that." Drake answered from his top bunk.

Ian climbed up the ladder of the bunk bed. When he reached the top, Ian was treated to a surprising sight. Drake was reaching for something out of his backpack and after a few seconds of searching, pulled out a white and blue security blanket. It appeared to be made of flannel, with soft blue crochets of fabric on the borderline of it. When he began to rub it on his face, Drake closed his eyes and began to suckle with his tongue, even though his mouth was closed. When he sensed Ian's presence, he opened his eyes again to see his Radio Operator staring at him blankly.

"Commander? Didn't you say you got rid of that a while back?" Ian asked.

Drake was speechless. When Ian came close to touching the security blanket, Drake backed away and tucked it underneath his pillow as if it was a top secret weapon that wasn't supposed to be touched.

"Lets talk about that flag pole outside, shall we?" Drake insisted, hoping to change the subject.

Meanwhile, Sentinel was sitting alone on his bed, looking out at the moon from the room that was appointed to him on Kuromorimine. The door opened behind him and he turned around to see who it was. Standing in the doorway was Shiho Nishizumi, a face that Sentinel was familiar with.

"I apologize that I didn't send you and the others back to your school today." Shiho said, "The busyness of the match had caught me off of my original tasks for today."

"I don't want to go back to that place." Sentinel murmured.

"Don't be ridiculous, you…"

"I don't feel that they think I'm good enough for them anymore."

"For who? I don't understand what your talking about, Alexander?" Shiho said crossly.

"Since I was captured by you, the guys at school must think I'm a traitor." Sentinel answered.

Shiho's voice grew deeper, "Listen here. We did not capture you at all and we had you detained here in order to hear out your case."

"What case? I have no idea what you are talking about, Miss?" Sentinel replied.

Shiho grew silent when she realized the method of communication that she was using wasn't working. She thought for a second before continuing her conversation.

"Why do you feel a sense of betrayal from your fellow students?" Shiho asked.

Sentinel turned to the woman, "Well...Remember a few days ago when there was that fight between our tank teams at the VM Tower? That's what I mean. I'm sure someone else from Death Valley High might have seen me leaving with you and got the feeling that I'm ditching their school to go to yours."

"Very well. Since that's the way you feel about Death Valley Boys High School, why don't you help our fellow Pravda Girls High School over there with a little project? Would you like that?" she asked while pointing out the window at Pravda's school ship far across the way.

"Help them with what?"

Shiho showed Sentinel a paper, "I hear their newspaper club needs a new member. They might give you a position on the team."

The boy's eyes widened, "Wait a second. I'm a boy, though."

"I am aware of that. However, I could tell the Headmistress of Pravda High to let you through so that you could help out. Haven't you heard we have made an alliance with your Tankery Team and their Tankery Team?"

"Really? Well, maybe I will check it out." Sentinel said rising up from his bedside.

"Not right now, my friend. Tomorrow, perhaps, would be better." Shiho said.

"Okay, I guess will." Sentinel said with a smile.

"Now get ready for bed Alex, its late already." Shiho said grabbing her coat she put on the door handle.

She then closed the door on the way out. Sentinel layed his head down on his pillow and started to wonder what to write in the coming day. Outside, Shiho was standing at the door in the hall with a grim expression on her face. She knew that she had lied about the part with the tankery teams alluding together, but in the end, Shiho kept her mouth shut on the subject. The next day, Erika was walking down the hall when she noticed Shiho finishing a conversation with Sentinel. Recognizing him from the day before, she came up as he was leaving.

"What are you doing here?" Erika asked with a frown.

"I have been informed that Pravda needs a new member for their Press Club." Sentinel answered.

"Ha! You, with a bunch of girls." she laughed.

"Yes, Miss Nishizumi said she can fix me up with a spot there, since I wouldn't be returning to my-"

"That's hard to believe." Erika interrupted.

"No, it's true. See, take a look at these documents." Sentinel said handing her a pink piece of paper.

She snatched it out of his hands and carefully skimmed it. When Erika got closer to the bottom, she began to read it at a more slower pace. In her mind, she began to think, "If this is really true, then I could use this to my advantage."

She handed Sentinel the paper and turned her back to him.

"I'm still working on an idea, though." Sentinel said folding the paper and placing it in his pocket.

Out of the blue, a dastardly plan popped into Erika's head. She smiled deviously before turning around again.

"Hey, you want to hear something interesting?"

"Sure I guess?" Sentinel shrugged, "What is it?"

"Walk with me and I'll tell you along the way." Erika said.

The school day was pretty normal on Death Valley High. With the exceptional girl in a class here and there, everything seemed pretty normal. Until, Tankery Practice came around. When the teams began to walk towards the garages where the armor is stored, they were stopped by two school girls and a middle aged woman with glasses on.

The woman cleared her throat, "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but I'm afraid that you boys are not allowed into the tank garages today."

"What? What a minute, how come?" Kyle asked.

The woman began to speak again, "The school has temporarily closed down your boys tank garage, until some things are sorted out."

The Death Valley Tankery Team looked at each other with confusion. Nobody told them about the garages being closed down. A second later, The Instructor for the boys Tankery Team came walking up to the huge double doors of the garage. With a friendly greeting and keys in hand, he prepared to unlock the doors. Suddenly, the woman stopped him.

"Sir, what do you think your doing?" she asked in a stern voice.

The Instructor stopped and took his keys out of the lock.

"Unlocking the door. I have to let my students-"

"I'm sorry Sir, but I was informed that no one is allowed into this garage." said the woman.

"Hold on, how come I wasn't informed about this?" he asked.

"I apologize, Sir. I cannot let anybody through these doors. There is some construction going on in there that must not be disturbed."

The Instructor told all of his students to go out to the field for class, leaving the woman and the two schoolgirls at her sides behind. When everyone got situated out in the Training Fields, everyone began throwing questions at their Instructor."

"I have no idea about what kind of construction that they're doing in there, but it appears that they don't want us to see what it is."

"Sir, can't you just ask for authorization to go through?" asked one of the boys.

"I can try later today, but I might not be able to get us into the garages for a while." The Instructor replied.

In the crowd, Drake turned to his team members.

"Doesn't all this sound strange to you?"

Davian scratched his head, "Too strange. It sounds like something weird is going on in those garages."

"How are we going to find out whats going on in there?" Jonathan asked.

"We can do a little observing from a distance and see if we could catch something." Ian suggested.

"Good idea." Kyle replied, "That way, we could find out for yourselves."

Later that day, the five climbed to the top floor of the nearest class building next to the Tankery Garages. When they looked through the windows, their eyes fell upon a shocking sight.

"They're tearing it down." Ian gasped.

"I don't believe that they are dismantling our garage!" Kyle exclaimed.

"Calm down, guys. Now this is not the time to freak out." said Drake, "We are going to get the rest of the team and we are going to sort this out.

"Someone should take a picture of this for evidence." Davian proposed.

"Allow me." Drake offered pulling out his phone.

Later that evening, Drake and his team called all members of the Tank Fighting Club to meet in the Cafeteria. They were making a plan to somehow get all their vehicles off of the campus and return back to the compound in the desert. Some though that the idea was absurd and that it might not work all together, but they agreed to go with it anyways. Later that night, each of the 25 teams began to sneak out of their dorms one at a time, until they were all out front of the tank garages.

"Listen up everybody and huddle around." Thomas whispered.

Drake joined in, "Here's the plan. You all have your crew and the keys to your tanks. We are going to grab our tanks, start them up and slip out of here before we are noticed."

"What if someone hears us?" Cody wondered.

"That's why we are leaving one at a time, in order to make it not look so obvious."

"Works for me." Cody returned.

The teams snuck around the sides of the giant hangar and slipped through a giant hole that was made during the construction hours. Once inside the garage, the team began to formate into their squads and slowly got into position. With a heavy hammer that the boys located near the huge metal doors, they smashed the lock that was holding the double doors closed. Everyone waited for the echoing of the smash to end before continuing.

"Let's hope that nobody heard too much of that." Davian whispered.

The first of the tanks began to leave one by one, each leaving ten minutes before the other one did. Soon, the garage was empty and the tanks belonged to the boys once more. On the way out of campus, Drake and his E-100 team quickly picked up Eagle Eye, who snuck out of bed to meet them for the escape.

"Looks like the exodus has arrived." Eagle Eye greeted with a smile.

"Nice to see you too." Drake saluted, "Now, get in here. We need to go now."

Like creatures of the night, the tanks stormed out of the city, through the suburbs, onto the desert road and back to the compound. To there surprise, the property had not yet been compromised or disturbed by other outside forces. Once settled in, they all unpacked and settled themselves in.

Morning came a few hours later and with morning, came the outcry. Many of the students and school faculty noticed that the tank garage was breached and that all the tanks had vanished. Shiho Nishizumi herself came down to the Death Valley High Vessel to see the situation herself. To no surprise, she knew that tank theft was enviable in the situation that the schools were in and that stealing could happen.

Aboard Pravda's Vessel, Katyusha was walking down a path outside school grounds when she saw her companion sitting alone on a bench. She greeted Nonna and sat down next to her.

"Did you sleep alright last night?" she asked.

"Yeah, and I had this strange dream and I don't know a lot about it." Katyusha said back cheerfully.

"Perhaps I could interpret it to you? Dreams are always strange in some way or another." Nonna said looking out towards the horizon.

Katyusha positioned herself comfortably on the bench and began to tell the tale.

"Last night, I dreamed about the countryside and a small farm. A farmer had many animals on his property and he was really happy about it. One day, there were a brunch of pigs and hogs that were hungry because they didn't get another to eat the night before. So, they called out to their wolf friends to tell all the sheep grazing in the fields to give them any leftovers that they had."

"Wolves, huh?" Nonna thought.

"The strange thing about them is that they had tan and dark green fur!" Katyusha exclaimed, "I tell you, it's so strange."

"It definitely sounds like it." Nonna replied.

Katyusha continued, "The wolves went out and brought back lots of food that the sheep had and gave it to the pigs and hogs for them to eat. However, they told them that there was a group of stubborn rams, who refused to give them anything. This made the pigs and hogs really upset. Then, day after day, the pigs would ask a black and white cat to go out and ask them for leftovers to give to the pigs, but they still refused."

Nonna was deep in thought when she turned back to Katyusha.

"After all this happened, the cat decided to write a story about what he experienced and showed it to the others to read. The pigs got so outraged by this, that their leaders, two pink and yellow boars with two smaller brown and grey boars, called up all the wolves in the nearby cave to help them take down the rams. They all crept into the fields at 3:22 in the afternoon, while all the sheep and rams were taking their nap. Upon sight of them, the wolves and boars charged at the rams. Just about as the first wolf and ram were about to hit each other, I woke up and it was time to go to school."

"Wow, that seems interesting, Comrade." Nonna added, "I don't know really what to say?"

"I know right, but maybe I'll solve its mystery." Katyusha said getting up from the bench, "Now Tankery Class is going to start anytime now and we need to be there."

About halfway up the road or so, Katyusha turned back to her accomplice.

"Nonna! Give me a ride!" Katyusha demanded.

Nonna accepted the order and they both went on their merry way. While walking with her leader on her shoulders, Nonna began to ponder about the dream and what it really meant.