M-Cube: Can you believe that 2019 is over? The next ten calendar years will have a new tens-digit now!

*cherry-tree-of-life: Having the robots is fun, but I don't plan to make them too fancy. Imagine how tough it must be for students to study and take exams while there's an attack on the other side of the school somewhere!

*CookieDecor22: I like to color-code whenever possible! Shun's not in trouble with anyone at school, but whether he can stop feeling guilty about himself is solely up to him. Nobody will know what he knows unless he tells.

*Sugar Spice Rush: I definitely want to get this story's semester over with because winter break will and should be more fun! Oh cheating...a bit like that, a bit not. Shun's not exactly staying silent...anymore, at least.

*Innocent-Diamond: I hope you're enjoying being a peer mentor! Maybe Chan will return in future chapters. Being paid to study with friends sounds fun but weird! Hmm...maybe I won't talk about Shun's other incident until final exams are over.

*Emily P: Thank you! I watched a few episodes of the reboot, and unfortunately...I don't like it as much as the original. Maybe that's why someone hasn't requested a "Worlds" bar to the archive filter?

Dan: My new year's resolution is to get better exam scores next year!

Shun: I thought final exams haven't started yet.

M-Cube: He could be referring to his midterms.

Runo: Dan, isn't your resolution supposed to be "not blowing up anymore classrooms"?

Everyone: That sounds more reasonable.

M-Cube: Since I'm done with school already...my resolutions include being a better employee and setting aside more time for self care. That includes writing! Anyway, here's the long-awaited chapter ^-^

[19] Can't Stop Thinking

The rogue graduate gathered his subordinates for a meeting in a conference room on his airship. "Thank you for joining me. Shadow, please brief us on your mission details."

Shadow stood up and announced, "I believe I've found where the aerial training grounds are, based on the fact that Shun Kazami was persistent on keeping me away. Also, he has a new weapon. It looks like a modified katana. The graduates also brought new technology with them. There was a green stingray robot that I managed to destroy."

"So that useless bow is finally gone..." Jesse and Lync whispered.

Their leader nodded his head. "I remember the drone that you're referring to, although they didn't have a name for it back then. Who else did you see?"

"The short blond, a silver-haired boy with yellow eyes, and a navy-haired girl with green eyes. The latter two people knew what they were doing, so I assumed they're graduates."

"Hmmm...so Marucho invited Ren and Fabia back...that explains where he stingray drone from. Looks like Mira and Ace won't be at the aerial training grounds to assist. Marucho may be the smartest, but he's pretty defenseless himself. Same goes for Ren and Fabia. Shadow, did Shun also get injured by the exploding drone?"

"He was definitely bleeding! I didn't even get a scratch!"

"Knowing him, he won't step back even if he needs to rest. I don't know Runo too well, but she's not someone to ignore either. Did I ever show you the jackpot that we hit when raiding Clay Fermin's laboratories?"

Everyone shook their heads.

With a smirk, the rogue graduate opened a green holographic preview using the projector on the conference table. "At least one of us will be getting upgrade very soon." The subordinates watched the preview of flying text and images while their leader played around with his his shock saber. You're using a modified katana now, Shun? I'd love to have a one-on-one with you someday.

MxMxM

"I have to be at three places at once!" Marucho screamed out of nowhere.

Ren was the only other person in the aerial training ground tower with the blond and was still eating breakfast. "I only have one question...why?"

"I can't blame the others for their personal emergencies, but ruins the order and priority of my daily to-do list!"

Getting off the elevator was Fabia with a new hover pad in her hands. "Sorry I'm late! I spent all day yesterday working on this at home and made some progress." She placed the hover pad on the ground and took out its corresponding bracelet. "For sure, the synchronization signal won't interfere with our smart-watches. I'm trying to make it understand the user's body movements and situations to improve safety during combat or regular use. My next step is to make the hover pad attempt to 'catch' the user in the unfortunate situation where the user is knocked off and falling."

"Sounds like something that Shun will need in the near future if keeps doing what happened the other day," Ren joked.

"I think he'll do his best to control his movements to avoid needing to use this upcoming emergency feature," Fabia refuted.

Marucho nodded. "Fabia has a point. The school used to use hover pads onto travel up short distances where accidental falls wouldn't cause that much damage to the user. What happened the other day with Shun was—"

"Perfectly normal." Shun suddenly arrived and scared the trio. "I'm all better now. The nurse said I could take my bandage off."

"Since Shun is here, Ren and Fabia and explain the next stuff that they have while I pay a visit to the land training grounds!" With that said, Marucho immediately left and descended the elevator.

"Did I miss something?" Shun asked.

"He said that other people had 'personal emergencies' or something," Ren replied. "Seems like you're not one of them. Anyway, Fabia was just explaining about how to improve sensitivity and specificity of the hover pads. I can show you the new robot upgrades despite Marucho not present."

"Were you able to fix Spitarm?"

"I was. Now it's just recharging in the other work room." Ren then grabbed nearby purple robot and its corresponding remove. "This is Foxbat. I used it to pick up the fallen debris from Spitarm the other day."

"Why does it literally look like a fox and a bat...?"

Fabia immediately started laughing. "Because he lost a bet to a classmate and had to design and name this robot that way."

The former robotics officer resumed speaking. "Anyway, Spitarm is more lightweight and flies faster than Foxbat, but Foxbat is sturdier and withstands more damage than Spitarm. This is what we technology student use to protect and attack."

"That's a really unique—" Suddenly, Shun's phone vibrated as he answered the call. "This is Shun. How can I help you?"

Then he excused himself to the elevator, which invoked confusion in the technology graduates. "It must be something important if the caller need to talk immediately," Fabia concluded.

Ren added, "Probably also something private or persona."

After hanging up, Shun quickly apologized to the other graduates before leaving. "I need to go. Personal emergency."

"I knew it," Ren whispered. He put Foxbat aside and continued working on his computers. "Recently, I've been showing Marucho and Shun all the interesting stuff that I brought from home. What about you?"

"I would've done a better job with upgrading the hover pad if only my sister let me use some of her company's technology..."

"Serena owns a company? Since when?"

"Shortly after I graduated, she had the idea to start her own energy company. I just happened to have a diploma and be unemployed, so she hired me. It's a small company but we're gaining more customers."

"How's the competition?"

"Not bad. We mainly service the low-income and disadvantaged populations to provide them eco-friendly yet affordable energy. What about you?"

"I was interning at medical company to help develop better prosthetics for amputees and similar patients, but I requested some time off because of what's happening to the school."

"Interesting...I'm more like and extern, since I still live with her and don't have an actual salary." While still in her swivel chair, Fabia scooted away from the computers and sighed. "Working as interns or externs for a couple years isn't bad since we're still somewhat 'recent' grads, but what about in the long term?"

Ren followed suit and rolled his chair closer to the former alternative energy officer. "I know how you feel. We may have diplomas, but as long as you're a graduate intern and not a regular employee...people won't take you seriously."

"I know this sounds immature, but I'd rather be here at school than working. I like what my sister and I do, but there's not as much creativity or variety there."

"Then think of this is helping your favorite place and people stay safe—"

"Question." Fabia's sudden interjection caused Ren to nearly fall out of his chair. "Does that mean we won't see each other again after the school is perfectly safe again?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. Although—" After seeing flashing red dots on his computer screen, Ren jumped out of his chair and looked outside. "There are a lot of airships outside."

Fabia rushed to her computer and activated the magnetic field. "That's our first line of defense."

"Hey you!" One of the red airships lowered its platform to reveal to tall blond man in a red jacket and blue jeans. His fingertips glowed red as he drew red translucent hexagons in the air to hop on one by one to approach the aerial training tower. "Where's Shun?!"

"Who's asking?!" screamed Ren.

"Tell him that Sid needs to talk to him after what he did to Shadow!"

"Did he just make his own hover pads out of thin air?!" Fabia screamed.

"Not exactly hover pads...but similar concept." Ren dialed Shun's frequency on his smart-watch but got no response. "I forgot. Shun said he had a personal emergency. Maybe Marucho can—"

"I just tried. Marucho isn't answering either."

"I'll deploy Spitarm and Foxbat then." Ren unplugged the stingray robot from the wall and operated both robots' remotes. "Sorry, Sid. Shun's not here, so it's best if—"

"Scarlet Plates!" Sid raised his right hand in the air to generate a giant glowing red sphere before aiming at the tower to shoot red rhombuses at the magnetic field. Plenty of then actually sliced into and got stuck in the magnetic field.

Fabia checked the control panel and gasped. "The magnetic field is already down to 77%, and we don't have any other tablets for support."

"To be fair, this tower has been untouched in a long time, and the airships are also firing bullets." Ren programmed Spitarm to spin clockwise while flying around the magnetic field before flying around Sid, although not actually aimed for him. "Told you not to mess with us."

"Can you even aim? Your flying stingray is just circling me instead of—what on earth?!" While spinning and flying, Spitarm gathered most of the incoming bullets and rhombuses in a whirlwind and sent them back at Sid, who was now desperately avoiding them by hopping from old hexagon to new hexagon.

Ren programmed Foxbat to fly into the crowd of airships and rip off their gun barrels one by one. The other airships began shooting at the robot but unintentionally aimed at each other. Seeing the difference in flight speed, Fabia cried, "Don't you think it's dangerous to sent Foxbat into the enemy like that? It doesn't fly as fast as Spitarm!"

"Doesn't matter! Foxbat can handle receiving a few more bullets than Spitarm. Just work on keeping the magnetic field up!" With the airships somewhat damaged, Ren called Foxbat back and now had each remote in one hand. "Where do you think you're going now, Sid? If you stay long enough, you might get a chance to see Shun."

Fabia sighed as she typed more commands into the computer. What does Ren think he's doing? While waiting for her screen to load, Fabia dialed the smart-watch frequencies of everyone else she knew that was here. And why does everyone have personal emergencies today?

Sid pointed his finger at Ren and smirked. "Look at who wants me to stay now. Someone hasn't been a very friendly host earlier. Time for—" Suddenly, Spitarm and Foxbat appeared at the blond's left and right sides respectively while their wings glowed. "What's this?!"

"The moment that we've all been waiting for..."

Electricity emitted from each robot's wing and linked to the other robots opposite wing, essentially trapping Sid in an improvised electric cage. "That—hurts—!"

Fabia then checked the battery level of each robot. "Ren, you're draining their batteries too quickly!"

"Anything to teach this guy a lesson!"

"Teach a lesson, huh?!" After a minute of struggling with the electric shock, Sid pressed his palms together as emitted a red glow again. "Crimson Labyrinth!" Suddenly, a red geometric sphere encased around Sid and expanded to knock Spitarm and Foxbat out of their synchrony.

"Sid doesn't look at bit hurt at all..." the navy-haired graduate commented. "Ren, are you okay with handling both—"

"I'm fine." After both robots regained their position in the air, Ren sent them after Sid to repeat the electricity cage. "You came here unannounced and are not leaving without a scratch!"

"I knew you'd try that again." Just when Ren pressed the appropriate buttons on both remotes together, Sid created another geometric sphere that trapped the robots inside. "Good luck trying to shock me now."

Why isn't anything working out correctly day? The silver-haired graduate kept pressing buttons, but not a single response was elicited. "What did you do?!"

"Maybe signal doesn't work when your precious drones are trapped inside."

Fabia checked the other rooms in the tower and asked Ren, "Is there nothing else we can use?"

"I have other robots at home and in the school elsewhere, but none of them can fly." Then he tossed both remotes on the floor. "I thought everything would be—"

"Ren, it's not your fault." Fabia grabbed his shoulder and forced him to face her. "This is our first time encountering Sid. We knew nothing to begin with. As students from the Technology Department, we've always learned to improvise and find other methods. I just sent urgent messages to everyone I knew that's here, and I hope—"

"Positron Convection!" From below, a yellow laser beam shot up straight through the red sphere and caught Sid by surprise. The sphere shattered into pieces, and the remote controls picked up Spitarm and Foxbat's signals again. Suddenly, a yellow halo appeared at the tower platform as Runo hopped through shortly. "Sorry that I took so long!"

"Runo, thank goodness!" the technology graduates exclaimed.

The pigtailed graduated stared at the robots and raised an eyebrow. "Those two things look really sad. What have they just been through?"

"I tried using them to send electric shocks to stop this guy named Sid, but he doesn't even have a scratch," Ren explained.

"Then give me a hover pad so I can deal with Sid while you two fix this place." After brief instructions from Ren, Runo made her way over to Sid and asked, "What brings you here? Aren't you tried yet?"

"Not until I send a message to Shun. Scarlet Plates!"

"Fiber Optics!"

"Runo, get back!" screamed Ren.

Despite the salutatorian's attempt to blind him, Sid faced the tower with open eyes and threw red rhombuses at the magnetic field again just before Spitarm and Foxbat paired up to trap and shock Sid again. "Ren, I thought you said you wouldn't use them!"

"At least let me do this while they still have some battery power left!"

"Caught me by surprise again..." Sid pressed his palms together as before "Crimson Labyrinth!"

"Electron Convection!"

This time, Sid generated two spheres at once—one that encircled him, and another one that encircled the vicinity of the aerial training tower. Although Runo's electric shock stopped the smaller sphere expanding, most of the energy bounced off onto the larger sphere's walls and eventually landed on the magnetic field. Fabia checked the computer and gasped again. "System is overloading! There are sparks flying out of my computer!"

"Are you serious?!" Shortly after Ren called his robots back, their remote controls also released some sparks. "Runo, what happened?!"

"I don't know!" The salutatorian backed away and watched Sid's sphere still flowing with electricity. "The timing was off. I didn't mean to—"

Sid's sphere eventually broke apart as he sat down on one of his translucent hexagons in agony as electricity and sparks bounced on the metallic pieces of his jacket, pants, and shoes. "This isn't over..." He summoned his airship to pick him up before leaving and deactivating the larger sphere.

All three graduates stared as the blond left before Runo returned to the tower office. "Something about Sid makes him different than the intruders that I've encountered. He's...very resilient...physically and mentally."

After reading a message on her smart-watch, Fabia told the others, "Marucho is on his way to check on why the system overloaded. Also, the signal here is very weak after the overload. Anyone know where Shun is?"

Runo and Ren checked their smart-watches and shook their heads.

"At least we tried. If only I chose to go to with the Weaponry or Sorcery department back in—"

"Fabia, don't say that!" the salutatorian interrupted. "And Ren, I know you feel really upset about what happened today, but nothing that's happening to us is our fault. You two picked the technology department and stayed because you liked what you did, right?"

The other two graduated exchanged glances before nodding.

"That's what I thought. Now you get to somewhat relieve your school days. Do your best to fix whatever you can while waiting for Marucho. I'll stick around and wait for what he wants me to do."

With Runo on the platform to patrol, Ren brought his robots over to repair before apologized to Fabia. "I'm sorry that I sounded harsh earlier. There were too many unexpected things today."

The navy-haired graduate smiled but kept her eyes on her computer screen. "I didn't even notice. Although...did you notice the sparks on Sid's clothing?"

"I did. Why?"

"Not sure...we don't know these people as well as the others do, but he definitely was...superhuman. But don't tell anyone about this. It probably means nothing."

Ren sighed. "I hope so too."

MxMxM

"You want me to reopen that old case?" asked Principal Athena while turning around to face her guest and laying a hand on her office desk.

Shun nodded confidently. "I mean absolutely no offense, but it's crucial that you do."

"This isn't like the retreat incident at all, Shun. This was a campus-wide investigation that involved multiple departments. Even the academic administrative board found no solid leads."

"But they still found something...just called it 'inconclusive'. So many events on campus got cancelled because of the people involved in the situation. Then SDI was attacked in less than a month after the board made its final statement." While the principal took a seat to think, Shun walked closer and suggested, "At least let me look into this if you don't want to."

"Shun...I'll let you do this only because you think that incident may be related to the attacks back then and in present day." Principal Athena grabbed a USB flash drive from her drawer and downloaded files from her computer to it before handing it off to Shun. "You're one of our best students. I know you want to find out the truth, but please stay within legal boundaries."

The valedictorian extended his hand to grab the flash drive, but both people held on to the item until the middle-aged women finally let go. "I saw something, so I said something," was all he said before leaving the principal's office.

In the hallways, he saw Alice talking on her smart-watch. "I'll bring that notebook over tomorrow." She hung up and saw Shun a few meters ahead. "You look distressed. What's wrong?"

"Do I?" The valedictorian touched his face and forehead with the back of his hand and shrugged. "If you're not busy...then can we talk for a moment?"

"Uh...sure." The redhead followed Shun all the way to the gardens outside. "What's this about?"

"Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Is this about another retreat incident?"

She still remembers...not surprised. It was the exact same question that I asked her last time. "Have a seat first. Ever since you met us, we brought you a lot of trouble."

"What?! Shun, why do you keep saying that? If this was trouble to us, then I wouldn't help out. I'm really grateful for meeting all of you...especially you."

The valedictorian glanced over and saw Alice's eyes start of water. Alice, you're doing it again...

"So please tell me what's wrong this time."

Shun took a deep breath and continued. "I still can't figure out why that armored rogue graduate is doing this. What's his motive? What would he benefit? Who are all these subordinates that he keeps sending over? Where did he find them from?"

"Are you thinking about something from the past again?"

"I am...I just can't connect the dots... Actually, what I'm thinking about might not even be related."

"What exactly are you thinking about? I asked if it was another retreat incident, but you didn't answer. Was it something that you felt responsible for? Did someone get hurt again?"

He shook his head. "Forget it. You should study."

"Then why did you ask if I was free to talk to you?" Alice let out a long sigh before turning away. "Now I can't stop about thinking this."

"Can't stop thinking about things that I haven't even told you? Or can't stop thinking about me trying to remember the past?"

"I think both...but I can't stop you from thinking about something that really bothers you. But Shun..." The redhead turned back and whispered, "Please don't hurt yourself."

"Wait...why...would I—"

"And please don't lose focus on what you care the most about."

She knows me better than I know myself. "I won't do any of that...because I really want to see you all succeed...especially you."

Alice blushed slightly and turned away again. I really can't read you at time, Shun.

"I won't tell you everything because I don't want you distracted from studying for final exams, but just remember this. When you see or hear something that shouldn't be happening, you need tell someone...just anyone. It wouldn't be fair that someone's trying to take advantage of something behind everyone else's backs."

"Wait...what did you witness back then?"

"I'll tell you that after finals. Just do the right thing, okay? You don't want someone else's greed to ruin your experience here, right?"

Shun...why are you telling hints about this but not telling me the whole thing? "I promise." Alice moved closer and gave the valedictorian a warm hug, much to his surprise. "See you tomorrow."

"Stay safe." Once the redhead was gone, Shun took out the flash drive and played with it in his hand. What am I getting myself into? No one else knows about what I plan to do...

#Attacks:

Scarlet Plates (Sid): [Rubanoid] generates red energy beams in the form of rhombuses (rhombi?) to attack the opponent

Crimson Labyrinth (Sid): [Rubanoid] creates a red geometric sphere to protect self and allies, or trap the opponents

#Technology:

Spitarm (C18): (Ventus part of Maxus Dragonoid) a stingray-shaped robot that can spin (counter)clockwise and pair with Foxbat to create an electricity trap

Foxbat: (Darkus part of Maxus Helios) a fox-bat mix-shaped robot capable of flying, using its flexible claws to grab stuff, and pair with Spitarm to create an electricity trap

XOXOXO

M-Cube: I'm pretty sure there are other incidences where two things pair together to create a similar trap, but my inspiration was from a tower-defense game that I have on my tablet ^-^"

Dan: Does it have to do with plants on offense?

M-Cube: Not quite! It's not a game made in the United States, so many of you wouldn't know.

Shun: Are you going to take another year to upload again?

M-Cube: No clue...mainly because I'm graduated and working now. Time sure flew by quickly! I miss all my readers T^T Leave a review!