Another day in this room, Birch Gun thought as he looked at his iPad. He looked at the app that was open on it – TankLive Instant Messenger. He watched as another badly written message popped up onto the screen. It was from T57.

"so yeah, my plan is to come over to u and wait for the tank to appear. then ill pop out and defeat it"

Birch Gun read the message, and then typed back, "I'm not sure if that will work. The tank is rather evil; I think she'd be the one doing the defeating." He wondered if his reply was a good idea.

"how dare u! ill have u know that ive served in the us army n wrekt 70 lite tanks!" T57 replied. She wondered if her reply was a good idea.

Birch Gun tapped into his brain and remembered a very specific piece of information. "But you've said you've never battled before…," was his reply.

"well i lied! ha!" T57 triumphantly replied. Birch Gun was defeated; T57 was now pulling the strings. She was the commander of lyi—being truthful.

Birch Gun didn't believe her, deciding to interrogate her. "Okay then… which light tanks have you wrecked?"

"um…," T57 replied. She put down her Tanksung Universe T5 phone and quickly checked her surroundings for any light tanks. She then realised that she was in her room, so she couldn't find anything. "brb," was her next reply. She went on YouTank to look up some light tanks.

Birch Gun sighed, looking at his iPad, waiting for the next reply. After ten minutes of playing Clashing Clan Wars (his Turret Tower had just upgraded), a notification popped up on his screen. Birch Gun flashed up TankLive Instant Messenger, spotting T57's message.

"ive killed 20 t50s, 2 aufklasprung panzers, 6 t-54 lightweights, a lotta AMX 13 90s…," T57 began. She tapped on her screen excitedly as she looked over her list of light tanks. "i also killed a messyschmit me 262!" T57 felt proud for the things she hadn't done.

Birch Gun found a discrepancy with her story telling. He reviewed the message that T57 had sent. "Messyschmit" Me 262… that wasn't a tank, was it? Birch Gun had seen such a thing flying in the sky at the Warplanes of the World Air Show in Ruskie – which was a total failure and embarrassment. There weren't any British planes (which insulted Birch Gun) and half of the planes were fake. He heard that the latest air show had British planes; but everyone had given up hope on it by that time.

Birch Gun decided to look up this Messyschmit "tank" on his iPad's search engine. The iPad didn't like the word 'messyschmit', so it transformed it into Messerschmitt Me 262, which was a German jet fighter aircraft. Birch Gun instantly then knew she was lying, as planes in the world of tanks were rare.

Birch Gun went back on the messenger app, seeing more of T57's absurd messages. She now said that she had destroyed 1,000,000 tanks in total; most of them were light tanks. Birch Gun looked at the messages; only to see she had finally changed the subject. Birch Gun sighed in relief and actually started reading the messages without metaphorically dying.

"ive decided that im gonna visit u in hospytall," T57 typed. "where r u?"

Birch Gun was surprised that he was going to get a visitor. He assumed that nobody knew or cared that he disappeared because well… he's Birch Gun.

Birch Gun replied back, "I'm in the Tankville Hospital."

"ok!" T57's message appeared almost instantly after. "ill be there after school. t92 has let me have a day off"

Birch Gun lay his iPad down, looking at the ceiling and waiting for her to come. However… there was going to be an extra visitor.

Meanwhile in Tank Academy, Matilda and Matilda IV were sitting at a table in the cafeteria. Matilda IV was talking behind other tanks' backs while Matilda II was in a state of thinking; thinking about Birch Gun. Was she too horrible to him and other tanks? When she thought about it, her only friends were Panzer I C and Matilda IV; Matilda IV always laughed with her and talked to her all of the time; but Panzer I C seemed a bit aloof. It seemed that she was avoiding her for some reason; everyone was. Matilda originally thought it was because the rose on her turret was the wrong colour, so she got a red one, but still other tanks didn't like her. Then she had to go deeper.

Since she had no knowledge of emotions (as she was as thoughtless as it gets), she didn't know why everyone hated her. It was mainly because of her nefarious nature; she turned other tanks' emotions from happy to sad, angry or frustrated; of course, those weren't the only emotions. There was also enraged, berserk, vindictive or inflamed, just to name a few.

Matilda finally decided to listen to her Lend-Leased companion. She was bad mouthing other tanks who were driving around in the cafeteria. There was a little MS-1 driving along the floor; the poor thing looked lost. It looked like he had somehow gotten out of the nursery into the main school building. He drove along aimlessly while Matilda IV cackled at him, laughing at his misfortune. As the MS-1 exited the cafeteria, a disgruntled Spähpanzer Ru 251 chased after the young tank, crashing into a wall and knocking herself out.

The other tanks in the cafeteria looked at the knocked out teacher. Some of them stifled laughs, but Matilda IV couldn't. Her witchlike cackle descended into full laughter. She did it for about ten seconds straight before Matilda II covered her gun, and the laughing became muffled.

After that fiasco, Matilda IV looked for more tanks to insult. Her turret slowly trailed in the direction of a Covenanter who was minding his own business, casually drinking a can of Coca Tanka.

"Ha!" Matilda IV bellowed, preparing to mock the British cruiser. "Look at that идиот, Matilda!"

The Covenanter heard her; he assumed that she was talking about him. He decided to ignore her as he had things to do, but Matilda IV beckoned him over, speaking to him in Russian. Matilda II had heard this kind of speech before; it was the same words that Matilda IV used when she was angry at somebody. The Covenanter slowly drove towards her; right into Matilda IV's trap. He was curious about the Russian; a language he hadn't heard before.

"Whatta you want, lass?" the Covenanter asked, making Matilda II cringe. His Scottish accent was too much to bear. Matilda IV was beginning to fire up a returning statement; probably with some Russian swear word in it.

"Oh, are you Scottish?" Matilda IV asked in a fake innocent, warm tone. Matilda II had also heard this before.

"Yes I am, lassie," the Covenanter replied. He added, "Aye need to go now; me mum is picking me up fer the rifling dentist." With that, his two tracks spun and he began to make off to the reception where a certain Centurion was waiting for him. However, Matilda wouldn't let him go that easily.

Matilda IV checked if there were any teachers in the room; upon a quick inspection, Matilda found none in the room. There weren't many students left in the room either, which helped. Matilda IV caught Matilda's gaze; they were both thinking the exact same thing – but Matilda II wasn't thinking of doing it. Matilda IV saw the Covenanter going off; she got off her seat, sliding onto the marble floor and firing off a shell onto the Covenanter's tracks. The seventy-six millimetre shell pounded into the track links, tearing them apart and rendering them useless.

"Aye! Lass – what're ye doin'?!" the Covenanter yelled in a fit of confusion. His drive wheels spun, but to no effect. He was stuck – with a Matilda IV on his tail.

"You think you'll get away, пижон?" Matilda IV snarled. "You are a fool! Дурак!"

"What! What are ye sayin'?" Covenanter grittily replied. "Why don't ye just speak English?" With that, Covenanter tried to drive – but all he did was spin around to face Matilda IV.

"Xaxaxa! I don't need to speak English – when I can be speaking Russian, you illiterate шкура! Why don't you go and learn Russian – then you'll understand me!" Matilda IV was indirectly insulting Matilda II, who said multiple times that she'd learn Russian just for Matilda IV's sake. She'd rather spend her nights studying French, which was nicer sounding in Matilda's opinion; and that was the only thing that mattered…

Covenanter saw no point in trying to argue with a tank like that, so he reached for the box on the side of his hull, taking it and opening it. Inside was a repair kit for situations like this. He didn't seem happy that he had to spend three thousand credits for something like this. He preferred to use his consumables in battles…

Covenanter sighed and took out his repair kit, attempting to fix his broken track. He assumed that Matilda IV would get bored and drive away, but Matilda IV wasn't like that. Unfortunately for the Scottish cruiser, she had loaded a high explosive shell and was training her gun on the repair kit.

There was a sudden spike of confusion for Covenanter when his repair kit seemed to implode, but he looked back to Matilda IV and her smoking gun, connecting the dots. He growled angrily, choosing to deal with the situation. He had his own gun: the forty millimetre Bofors Mk. VI variant. He didn't expect the gun to do much to Matilda except scratch her paint; and it did merely that.

Matilda IV took his measly gun firing at her as an insult; now it was war. Matilda II watched as Matilda IV mercilessly punched through Covenanter's thin armour, making him yelp in pain. His tiny gun made small flashes as his shells spun out of the gun – and descended onto the floor as they bounced off of Matilda's thick armour.

Covenanter cried for help as Matilda IV loaded her gun again, firing at another box on the side of his hull. It went straight through it; making a sickly splattering sound and making something trickle out of the hole the shell made.

"Och! Me haggis!" Covenanter screamed; not because his armour was shot through, but because his halftrack engine haggis had just been destroyed. It didn't take long for the shell to completely penetrate through him, passing into the engine and causing his body to burst into flames. Amongst the flames was a fire extinguisher; Covenanter scrambled for it and prepared to use it, but Matilda IV ended his dreams by shooting that as well. The explosion of foam went all over Covenanter; spraying on everything but his blazing engine.

Matilda II looked at Matilda IV in disgust; she had done some pretty mean things, but not to this level… She then finally realised that this tank was once her, but without the killing. Matilda II snapped out of her state of dreaming and saw the knocked out Covenanter. It didn't look like he was dead; Matilda IV hadn't intended for him to die.

"He just needed a bit of a scare, that's all." Matilda IV laughed as if she had just made a funny joke instead of potentially hospitalising a tank. Matilda II wanted to get away as quick as possible so she would not be blamed for the incident.

"I had to do that. He was annoying me," Matilda IV added calmly, looking at the flaming corpse. "It's merely an indentation."

Matilda II looked back at Covenanter. "It doesn't look like that to me. He looks rather… well… dead."

"Do you really think I'd kill somebody in school, Matilda?" Matilda IV replied, making a big hearty laugh. After she stopped, she spoke again. "Maybe in a battle, but not here. I'm not a crazy person."

Matilda II had doubts about that.

Matilda II and Matilda IV were driving aimlessly out on the school field. Matilda IV was dreaming of becoming a Churchill III and Matilda II was dreaming of being liked by people. Matilda IV didn't seem to care whether other tanks liked her or not; they all just assumed she was a green version of Matilda II.

Matilda II planned to tell Matilda IV about her plan to become nice, but not yet. Matilda IV noticed that Matilda II was trailing behind her; clearly thinking about something deeply. Matilda IV stopped and reversed next to her, waiting for her to make a move. Her friend merely stood there, staring at the sky. Inside, she was still thinking about friendship and happiness; unknown things to Matilda IV.

"Oi! Anything in there?" Matilda IV asked rhetorically, tapping on the roof of Matilda II's turret with her gun. There was a faint clanging noise, but no reply. Suddenly after, Matilda II awoke and her turret turned to meet Matilda IV's.

"Sorry about that; I was just… thinking." Matilda II spoke soon after her awakening.

"Thinking about what?" Matilda asked. The two tanks drove again in unison.

"About how good it would feel to be nice to other tanks," Matilda replied, voice barely audible. She knew what was about to happen.

Matilda IV personally felt offended by her toxic comment. "How dare you, Matilda! We are horrible tanks, and that will never change!"

Matilda II ignored her, going on. "I think we should be nicer. Especially to Birch Gun; we're always so mean to him," Matilda II continued.

Matilda IV wanted to vomit her lunch, but she resisted the urge to. She stayed still for a few seconds, contemplating what to say. "Ha! Matilda wants the G, doesn't she?" Matilda IV giggled like a little girl.

"Wh-what? What are you talking about?" Matilda inquired, puzzled. She didn't get the joke.

"Matilda wants the G! Matilda wants the G!" Matilda IV repeated herself in a mocking tone. Matilda II didn't understand what she meant, but rage was building up inside her. If Matilda IV continued, she'd blow. She could feel the pressure in her engine building up.

"Matilda wants the G, doesn't she? The Г!" Matilda IV cackled mockingly. "Birch Gun's G!"

Matilda II then knew what she meant; she suddenly became very enraged. She shouted as her metal became hot to the touch; she was getting very angry. Her stressed engine released black smoke; out of pure anger. Matilda IV realised that she was getting very angry and laughed, saying, "There you go! The real Matilda! Angry, hated and cold."

There wasn't much time before Matilda IV screamed in pain as a red-hot APCNR shell from Matilda II tore through her armour at a sonic speed. Matilda IV was shaking from the pain provided by the shell; it wasn't like anything she had felt before. Matilda IV didn't have a shell loaded in her breech; she had to scramble one in there, which took a few seconds. By that time, Matilda had emptied another small shell into Matilda IV. The shells weren't big, but they were small and pointy; it felt like being pinched or stung by a bee.

Matilda IV returned with her own shell, but Matilda II quickly angled herself to the left, making the shell ricochet off her hull. Matilda snarled and shot back; the small shell spun out of the gun and Littlejohn adapter, drilling into Matilda IV's turret and destroying her cannon breech. She cried in pain, being unable to fire any more.

Matilda II spat out the remaining smoke, loading another shell. Matilda IV pleaded for help by screaming, but her voice wasn't working correctly as her cannon breech was destroyed. The only noise she managed was a weak croak.

"That's for ridiculing me a million times!" Matilda shouted. "Well, not exactly a million, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!" With that, she shot out Matilda IV's track, watching the grass-stained track fall onto the ground. "This is for insulting me in Russian!"

The other tanks on the field didn't really pay attention to their feud as something like this happened almost every day. It was normal. This was a particularly bad situation for Matilda IV; she was in the middle of a field without a repair kit. She didn't carry them because she was too awesome for them (in her mind, of course). As she stood there, she dwelled on the past; she remembered how many times she had insulted Matilda II, ridiculed her for being foolish repeatedly, and insulting her in Russian. She didn't do it at school; rather at home, where Matilda and Matilda IV lived in a house, parallel to each other in a rather small room. Matilda IV's parents were poor; Matilda II lived in their house for a reason that she didn't want to tell anyone about. Nobody liked her enough to know or ask why.

Matilda IV would only speak Russian to her parents; even though they were semi-fluent in English. Matilda spoke French, but no tanks in that house knew that language. Matilda got to know the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet; since Russian was spoken so much in that house, Matilda learnt it a bit, but not enough to understand Matilda IV's parents easily.

Matilda II remembered going on Tankgle Translate and attempting to translate the words spoken by the Russians, but it didn't work well. She didn't attempt to learn Russian because she was too engrossed with French; she had an ongoing relationship with a Somua S35 pen pal in some French school. She remembered him telling her it was called Académie Char.

Now that Matilda II had gone ape on Matilda IV, her parents would certainly not be happy. She wasn't particularly on a good standing with them anyway, which didn't help. She'd definitely be kicked out – and then where would she go? She didn't know whether to regret her decision or not; Matilda IV needed (violent) justice, but perhaps not to that scale.

Matilda decided that she would just drive away as if nothing happened; she would leave Matilda IV to the other tanks to sort out. The fact that she'd need to get a new paintjob because of the ricochet marks annoyed Matilda, but she sussed that it was worth getting revenge on her Russian clone.

Oh well…

Birch Gun was lying in the bed, waiting for his visitor. The annoying tanks that had been disrupting his act of doing nothing had been moved to a different ward, so those things weren't going to annoy him anymore – or Claudia. Claudia was currently enjoying a cup of tea – as was her superior Hopkins – a tank that seemed quite incompetent to Birch Gun. The SPG could probably do his own job better than him.

Suddenly, the bed perpendicular to Birch Gun started shaking. Birch Gun put down his iPad and lifted himself up to look at the shaking bed; he knew there was a Tetrarch residing in that bed; he must have been having some problems. It took a few seconds for Claudia to see the shaking tank; and upon seeing it, she dropped her cup of tea in fright. She was off that chair rather quickly, immediately attending to the Tetrarch.

"Hopkins! Over here!" she shouted, triggering Hopkins to do the exact same thing; except he put his tea on a table. Birch Gun watched as the silly doctor rose up and drove over to the tremoring Tetrarch. He instantly realised a threat; and started pushing Tetrarch's bed. Claudia looked confused.

"Hopkins – what are you doing?" Claudia asked in a worried tone.

"This chap needs some specialist work done on him. Tally ho!" Hopkins replied excitedly, and then he was off, leaving Claudia in the dust – as usual. Birch Gun watched Hopkins push the wheeled bed past the doors – after he drove backwards because he rammed it into the left one – and off somewhere.

The doors swung back, slamming into the white wall before them. Birch Gun decided to watch them in case T57 came. The doors were just about to stop moving, but they were rammed forward by a small brown vehicle. The tank revealed itself – it was T57, and she was holding a box with wrapping round it.

"Hi!" T57 spoke first. "I brought this for you!" T57 drove forward with the gift; and placed it onto Birch Gun's bed. T57 jumped onto a chair, watching Birch Gun unwrap the gift.

"Aww; you really shouldn't have," Birch Gun told T57 while he was unwrapping the gift. He ripped at it until a small brown box appeared. He shook the box, producing a soft noise. He tore the box open excitedly. Birch Gun took his present out of the box; he instantly loved it.

"Do you like it?" T57 asked. Birch Gun squeezed his new soft FV304 plush toy happily. T57 didn't even need to ask that question; she knew the answer already.

"Thank you!" Birch Gun replied. He set the toy on the cabinet next to his bed.

"How long do you think you'll be in here for?" T57 inquired. T57 texted Birch Gun every day; and she had been counting the days he had been in the hospital. Five days.

"Not that long now…," Birch Gun began. "Probably one or two more days. The doctor said I have to recover. I've had two hull operations and a turret replacement. They didn't have any of my upgraded tracks in stock, so now I've gone back to square one with that. I guess I'll just have to find the upgrading machine in my school and shell out some credits… good thing the THS is a thing in this country."

The two tanks stayed there in companionable silence until T57 realised she was being quiet. She forgot to tell Birch Gun about all of the things that happened at school! Birch Gun could see this coming off from a mile away; and he was bracing himself for the impact of words that was able to bombard him.

T57 took a gigantic breath, preparing herself to talk about the gossip; but her preparing was interrupted by a noise coming from the doors. They swung open, making an even louder slam; the metal handles dug into the wall forcefully, probably damaging something.

T57 turned her chair around to see the tank who had come in. It wasn't Hopkins or any other doctor; it was a British tank. T57 didn't recognise the model, but she could tell that it was British. Birch Gun saw a blurry white smudge, so he focused his optics onto the tank. The shock that went through him when he saw Matilda (with the rose on her turret and everything) was not comparable to many things.

Matilda saw Birch Gun at the same time; she made her way over to him, making Birch Gun suspect something. What is she doing here? he thought.

Matilda stopped near his bed, feeling the cold stare of T57 make her freeze. T57 didn't know who this tank was, but it seemed that she was about to say something obnoxious. Birch Gun felt the same way; he didn't know Matilda well, but he knew that she was prone to being extremely annoying and pompous.

Birch Gun could have said something, but he decided not to; letting Matilda speak first. He looked at her, waiting for her to speak.

"I am very, very sorry," Matilda began. "I shouldn't have been that mean to you. I was always an idiot, but today I have changed. Matilda IV didn't like my change of stance, so I beat her up."

Birch Gun didn't know what to say whilst T57 was whispering, asking who Matilda was.

"All I can say is I hope that we can be friends. I want to build bridges with all of my classmates. Everyone hates me… but hopefully not for long." With that, Matilda swerved around and drove out of the ward, smashing past the doors and almost making one fall off its hinges. Claudia noticed this, driving over to it and trying to make it right.

"These doors have been falling over ever since Hopkins fixed them…," Claudia muttered. She carefully drove past the door; but she merely brushed it and it completely fell off its hinges, falling straight onto Claudia and making her mutter angrily.

"What made her change like that?" Birch Gun thought out loud while T57 bombarded him with questions like, "who was that?" Birch Gun didn't hear her questions because he was in deep procrastination. "If she's serious… then she'd better act upon her speech…"

The next day…

Hetzer looked at his plans again; they were perfect. He had all of his dastardly plans mapped out on a few pieces of ragged paper. On one piece was Hetzer's organisation that he was going to create; on another piece of paper was a lure that was in the form of a fake organisation; and the final plan was on a piece of scrunched up, yellow paper. Along the top was the words "The Organisation of Spanish Speakers." Hetzer's cunning club was sure to work on that nefarious Spanish tank; who wouldn't fall for it?

Hetzer turned around, rolled up the piece of paper and forcefully stuffed it in his bag. He heard a rip as he was placing it in the bag; he looked inside and saw his single high explosive anti-tank shell in his bag; he accidentally put his paper through the point. Oh well…

That HEAT shell was going to be used for only two purposes; if he ever needed it. If the tanks he was "convincing" to join his army were rather troublesome, then Hetzer would have to stop their resistances with that shell. He had read a few guides on how to knock out a tank with a single HEAT shell on the internet, so he was ready. The other purpose would be if said tank did join his army and they were useless, then they would be disposed of.

Hetzer picked his bag up, placing it in his crew compartment and setting off for school. He planned to meet UE 57 and talk to her about his plan; one of his commanders needed to know. Hetzer promoted her because he was nice (and she was also the first recruit in his army).

Hetzer took the road, seeing UE 57 drive out of her home; wait… she wasn't programmed to do that. Hetzer had programmed her to go out of the house at 8:45 exactly… and it was 8:47. Two minutes off… Hetzer merely thought there were some bugs with her programming. Hetzer's wheels spun faster and so did his tracks; he followed UE 57, intending to speak to her about his sinister plans. He was getting closer…

UE 57 had somehow spotted him from behind her, and she pushed her engine to the max, trying not to fall into the claws of the evil Hetzer. Her little tracks squeaked as she went faster and faster; but Hetzer wasn't giving up. UE 57 was still acting like she was brainwashed; however, she wasn't doing a very good job at it. She wondered if Hetzer could tell that she was faking it.

Hetzer was getting rather irate with UE 57's determination to escape from him, so he simply yelled, "UE 57! HALT!" This made the little blue tank destroyer, after a second of contemplation, delay her moving and stop completely. She rocked forward as she stopped abruptly.

"Very good!" Hetzer praised her as if she was a dog. "We need to work on your speed though… there was a delay before you stopped…"

"Yes uh… sir…," UE 57 replied, trying to do a monotonous voice the best she can.

"Good. Now move on," Hetzer commanded, prompting UE 57 to drive forward like she originally was – but not at such a fast speed. Hetzer would be suspicious if she did that again, most likely.

They drove in unison; at the same speed; they were parallel to each other. UE 57 was unnerved; she knew what Hetzer was like; he could just randomly go ape and attack her. She still remembered what happened a few days ago; when the D.W. 2 and the T-28 were savagely slain by the German tank destroyer. Tank Academy was now coming into view; UE 57 focused her optics on the school gates, seeing a few tanks she recognised, including Cadence – that tank that Hetzer was talking about.

When UE 57 and Hetzer neared the gates, Cadence immediately assumed a defensive position; she drove backwards, angling her armour and training her gun on the gates of the school. She thought that Hetzer and UE 57 would come and try and attack her, so she prepared herself just in case.

As the gates came closer, Hetzer stopped and commanded UE 57 to stop as well. She grinded to a halt; her black tracks screeched along the concrete ground, making a loud noise.

"We need to talk – about my latest plan," Hetzer whispered; it was clear to UE 57 that he was eccentric. She reversed a bit, going right next to Hetzer; waiting for him to tell her his plan. He took a deep breath and continued, "My plan is to create a lure for the Spaniard – the Organisation of Spanish Speakers. I don't know Spanish – and neither do you; but you will to help me achieve my plan. Go! Now! Learn Spanish!"

Hetzer pushed UE 57 forward, making her tracks roll a bit. Smoke trailed out of her engine as she surged forward – not to learn Spanish, but to warn Cadence about this "organisation". As she rolled forward, she focused her optics on the gates again – Cadence was gone. Hetzer was watching UE 57 from behind; he would come in school later; he was "sick".

UE 57 reached the school gates, trying to look for Cadence, but she wasn't there. She sighed and drove into the school.

Hetzer turned around, going back to his own home. He knew that UE 57 wasn't hypnotised – he had done it on purpose. He wondered how far he could go with her until she used her brain to figure out she was being pushed past the line. Hetzer predicted that she would be involved with the death of Birch Gun before she sussed out what was happening. When she did; that HEAT shell would be put to use. It'd cripple her; she would be unable to move or fire – and then Hetzer would make the last few minutes of her life a wonderful time – for him of course. For the tank destroyer, it would be hell.