[DREAMWORLD PARADOX CHAPTER 04: CLASS SHENANIGANS]
EnriksD8's A/N: What's changed:
01 – Added some missing line breaks such as in the French Narrator part.
02 – Corrected some formatting errors that have been lingering for too long such as missing periods/stops and misspelled words and/or names.
03 – Added extra details in certain sentences and paragraphs to better characterize the story.
04 – Reclassed the Armored Cores as Light Mechs rather than Medium Mechs. It will be more relevant when the MechaTitan Tournament Arc shows up.
"Ah, the library! Truly a wonderful place to be!" Double-D said as he was hanging out at the library with Chris, the two of them deciding to get some reading done. It had been a few days since the seven had enlisted at school and they were settling in quite nicely.
"You guys are certainly enjoying your time here," a girl named Sunset Shimmer said as she was picking out a book that said, 'Raising the Dead for Beginners'. Sunset was a girl with red and yellow hair that resembled bacon and yellow skin with teal green eyes.
"Oh yeah, big time," Chris chuckled as he went to check out a book that he was getting for Ben titled 'Yugioh for Dumbasses'. That left Sunset and Double-D together as they noticed Twilight focusing on a math problem.
"Hey Twilight, what're you doing?" Sunset asked.
"I'm trying to solve Math Problem NR-Seven on Page Sixty-Six. I can't figure it out!"
Sunset sat down along with Twilight as Double-D, also intrigued and willing to help with math, sat down with them.
"Oh, that one. Yeah, it's pretty infamous for being unsolvable. What have you got so far? Maybe we can help," Sunset said.
"I'm always happy to help anyone with academic struggles," Double-D added.
"Well, I've measured every angle and calculated their value. Then substituted this with X and this with Y," Twilight said as she went over the problem.
"I see. But that means we can't use Y for any negative numbers." Sunset noted as she moved closer. "So, X equals the degree of the first angle and Y is at least twice the value of X."
"That's actually normal for this formula from what I can see," Double-D said as he looked over the problem.
"Yes, and the total is One-Thousand Seventy-Six Point Sixty-Seven and Z is unknown," Twilight added.
French Narrator: Two Hours Later...
Sunset, Twilight, and Double-D were all haggard as they were coming extremely close to solving the problem.
"So, the logarithm didn't work. But now we know Z Equals X Minus Seven Plus Y Squared." Sunset said.
"But the corner is not part of the equation!" Twilight pointed out. "What was the lowest value we got so far again?"
"Twenty-Six!" Double-D said.
"Ugh! Too high for X!"
"Wait! But that means X is half the value of the sum of both corners!" Sunset pointed out.
"Y-You're right! And Y can't be negative, so it must be above O!" Twilight realized.
"Twenty-Six is too high for X but..." Double-D ran the calculations in his head. "Twenty-Six Plus Twenty-Three Equals Forty-Nine... so... Seven!"
"That's Seventeen Plus Thirty-Nine, Fifty-Six... and Y and Z... Thirteen... Sixty-Six... Forty-Nine..."
"So, Seven and Forty-Nine. Which means Forty-Nine Minus Z Equals Thirty-Four!"
"So then-!"
"Z Equals!"
"Fifteen!" All three finished at the same time before staring at each other, their faces flushed brightly.
"Oh my..." Double-D whispered as all three of them held hands in silent shock.
As this was going on, a girl with cyan skin and rainbow-colored hair who was a close friend of Sunset and Twilight named Rainbow Dash had been watching this along with Eddy, who had befriended her during PE a few days ago.
"Okay, I know I'm not an expert on Math or Romance, but seriously, can you please explain to me what just happened there?" Rainbow asked Eddy as he shrugged.
"I kinda lost track thirty minutes in."
"Yo, Enrico, can we talk?" Ben asked as he sat with his best friend in Math Class. "It's about that one guy, Crydius Cromwell."
Enrico noted who Ben was talking about; A boy with short black hair and wearing a black jacket with a red undershirt. Looking at him, you'd be forgiven for thinking he looked like the dark edgy rival in an anime.
"What about him?"
"He keeps looking at me like he knows me or something. I'm feeling rather uncomfortable about it, but I feel like I've seen him somewhere before. What do you guess?"
"Well, my guess is that you two are long-lost brothers or something," Enrico said half-jokingly, making both boys chuckle at the thought. "Don't let him get to you, buddy. He's probably jealous of your style."
"You think I have style?" Ben asked hopefully.
"Yes, you have some style, Ben. Look, how about I help you forget about that idiot?" Enrico offered.
"I've been making some real good progress in the Mech Lab. I wanted to show it to you first before I show it to everyone else," he continued, making Ben perk up and smile.
"Really? Gee thanks, buddy." Ben said.
Math went by without much incident after that until the end when the teacher, Cheerilee, got everyone to attention.
"Alright, everyone. Last week's math test has been corrected. Please come get your test once I call your name."
The Eds, Rolf, Ben, Enrico, and Chris all got their scores. Double-D unsurprisingly got one of the highest scores while Ed scored low. The rest all scored pretty averagely.
"Hey, Crona, how'd it go?" Crydius said as he made his way over to a nonbinary teen with short purple-pink hair looking at their score, which was a rather below-than-average 56.
"Not too well. I'm not very good at Math."
"Right," Crydius then realized something. "Wait, hold on. Didn't you join the Study Group or something?"
Crona nodded. "Yes, I did. I hoped it would improve my math."
"And?"
"Well... I did go. And... we did do Math, I guess, but... I... can't really say I learned anything."
Crydius was surprised. "You're kidding! The Study Group is led by Twilight and Sunset, right? And that new kid, Double-D, has already become the third head after only just arriving here. How did you not learn anything from them?"
"Well, you see..." Crona turned to see Twilight and Sunset acting lovey-dovey with each other. "It was really hard to focus. For everyone."
"Ah. I see." Crydius flatly said as he realized the full story.
"Crona, if you need any help, just come to me privately. I'd be happy to teach you." Double-D offered as he walked past with a smile.
"T-Thanks, Double-D..." Crona bashfully said.
The Literature Club, which had welcomed Ed into its ranks along with Crydius, Crona, Dipper Pines, Twilight, Sunset, and Marshall Lee, were having a meeting when Twilight came in.
"Hey everyone! I made cookies to celebrate us joining the club!"
"Oh man, not good..." Hatoko said worriedly. "Twilight isn't exactly known for her cooking..."
"Free cookies? Don't mind if I do." Marshall said as he took a cookie and ate it, only to lock up and go white as a sheet.
"Eh, Marshall? You okay, man?" Dipper asked worriedly but Marshall was unresponsive.
"Oh, come on. They can't be that bad," Crydius said as he took a cookie for himself, only to pale at the awful taste. "Huh... so this is what death tastes like."
Rainbow, who was walking by, noticed the cookies Twilight had brought and made her way inside to take one for herself.
"Oh sweet! Cookies!"
However, as soon as Rainbow bit into one, she collapsed to the floor as if poisoned violently, frothing at the mouth as Fluttershy ran over to her.
"RAINBOW!"
"Fluttershy... I-I've... always... l-loved... y-yrrgllbl..."
"Welp, she's dead..." Tomoyo said flatly. "Who wants to bury the body?"
"NOT IT!" Most of the club shouted.
"Cookies good for Ed!" Ed said as he took the tray and devoured the whole thing, licking his lips afterward. "That hit the spot!"
"Whoa... does Ed-Kun like, have an iron stomach or something?" Hatoko questioned.
"More like a stomach of TITANIUM, Kushikawa..." Crydius said.
"Glad I didn't taste one," Natsuki said. "I would have had to say some VERY unkind words to Twilight otherwise."
"You take baking very seriously, Natsuki," Chifuyu said while hugging her stuffed squirrel, Lissun.
Enrico had decided to give Ben a tour of the Mech Laboratory. He was not lying when he had said that he had made good progress with something in the Mech Lab. He had chosen one of the lighter Mechs in the Lab as a starting point for his work in the facility.
He had chosen an Armored Core as his starting Mech.
Currently, the Mech was equipped with the following parts:
HEAD: CHD-01-ATE
CORE: CCM-00-STO
ARM (Left): CAM-10-XB
ARM (Right): CAM-10-XB
LEGS: CLM-01-EDF
BOOST UNIT: CBT-00-UN1
FCS: VREX-ST-1
GENERATOR: CGP-ROV6
INSIDE: CW-BO-20
EXTENSION: MEBT-OX-EB
BACK UNIT (Left): CWM-S40-1
BACK UNIT (Right): CWM-S40-1
ARM UNIT WEAPON (Right): CWG-RF-200
ARM UNIT WEAPON (Left): CLB-LS-1551
The AC was colored to his liking. The primary color was ice blue with the trims being a deep blue. Currently, the AC was sitting in its hangar.
"Woah!" Ben exclaimed with wide eyes at the 9-meter-tall Mech. "This is yours?!"
"Yeah, it was assigned to me by the guys in charge of the Mech Lab," Enrico answered, remembering that moment.
Apparently, the original AC was merely a testbed for various systems, but ever since newer testbeds have arrived, the AC was decommissioned as a testbed model and had been slated to be scrapped. Of course, Enrico was able to convince the guys in charge of the Mech Lab to hand it over to him instead.
Luckily, though it was an old model, it was not obsolete by any means. If anything, it was still capable of matching the other Mechs, even those above its weight class.
"Make sure you take good care of her, kid," he remembers one of them, Dell Conagher, telling him that. "To others, she's just a pile of scrap. But to us? She's a classic beauty. Treat her right and she'll get you anywhere."
He had taken the Engineer's advice to heart, making sure that every nook and cranny of the Armored Core was kept in tip-top shape. And while he was not a programmer, he had asked around for help in maintaining the onboard Operating System of the AC.
"I call her Alice Blue," Enrico continued, patting the AC's left leg affectionately. "I might not have sortied with her yet, but when I do, we're gonna make a name for ourselves out there."
The way he spoke about the Mech nearly made Ben tear up. For as long as he knew him, Enrico had a fascination with machines. Every time he was not busy, he would often be found nose-deep in a book regarding the mechanisms of the world around them.
To see him become this passionate in this school, Ben felt like a proud parent watching their child grow up.
"I see that we have a newcomer. Welcome, friend!" A new voice chirped up from behind them, startling Ben and making the spectacled teen jump into the air.
Enrico, on the other hand, sighed. "Hey, Penny. Can you not sneak up on people next time?"
"I shall endeavor to do so, Friend Enrico!" Penny beamed at him, the tall man shaking his head at the Gynoid's antics.
Ben, having landed on an empty cart, managed to recover from the unintentional scare. He dusted himself off and attempted to look cool in the process.
"Alright, that was a neat little… trick?" Ben turned to face one of the most beautiful girls he had ever laid eyes on.
For years to come, Ben would say that he had played it off cool and successfully flirted with the Gynoid who would become his wife.
Reality… was often far more disappointing than fiction.
"Oh, hey there!" Ben tried to place a firm hand on something that was just level with his hips. His hand found no such thing and Ben fell to the ground.
"I'm okay!" he groaned out as he got up and shook off some dust off him. "I'm didn't notice you there. I Ben!"
Enrico could not decide whether to facepalm or to laugh at his friend's jumbled-up introduction. He could help a brother out.
Could being a keyword here.
Penny tilted her head cutely in confusion to this Ben individual's strange mannerisms before turning to Enrico.
"Is the Operating System ready to go?"
"It should hopefully hold out long enough for me," Enrico said. "Haven't really gotten into the seat yet to test it out."
"Then let us remedy that posthaste!" Penny excitedly exclaimed. Without waiting for a reply from either male, she grabbed them by their arms and began to drag them up the stairs to where the cockpit was open.
"Penny! We can walk by ourselves, ya know?!"
"This is faster, Friend Enrico!"
"PENNY!"
To outside observers, they would be treated to a rather comical sight of a ginger girl dragging two men larger than her up the stairs to the cockpit of the Alice Blue.
Within seconds, she had relocated them to the cockpit area.
Enrico was feeling dizzy at how fast they went.
Ben felt like he wanted to throw up every meal he had ever eaten in his life.
"Now then, shall we get started?" Penny asked innocently.
Ben somehow felt better now. "Yes! Let's test this out!" He excitedly began to push Enrico into the cockpit of Alice Blue.
"Oi! Oi! I can get in myself, dickhead!" In retaliation, Enrico's leg shot out and kicked Ben in the gut, sending the spectacled teen crashing into Penny.
The two became entangled in each other's limbs, faces close to one another. Penny was confused by the turn of events, an unknown feeling coursing through her wiring. Ben, on the other hand, was resembling an atomic tomato.
"Uh… Uh!" Ben was stammering at this point.
Enrico shook his head at this before heading inside the cockpit. Getting snug in the seat, he began to connect some wires to his own body, particularly his head and his chest.
Donning the helmet, Enrico then began the startup process of the Armored Core.
/: ESTABLISHING SYNCHRONIZATION RATE :/
Enrico felt the pain as though millions of needle-like blades stabbed into his mind. He gritted his teeth and did his best to fight off the pain.
/: SYNCHRONIZATION RATE COMPLETE :/
/: SYNCHRONIZATION RATING = 95.678123% :/
/: WELCOME, PILOT. :/
He smiled at this. "Hello, Alice Blue. Let's work well, alright?" He coughed out, the pain from the sync rate still echoing in his body. He began to input the coordinates to one of the larger training areas available in the Mech Lab.
/: WAYPOINT MARKED. :/
/: ESTIMATED ARRIVAL TIME = 2.32 MINUTES. :/
"Well, that's pretty fast. Alright!" Enrico grinned. "LET'S DO THIS!"
Without warning, the AC – Alice Blue shot out of its hangar and sped towards the designated training area.
"Woah!" Ben was surprised that something that big could move so fast.
"It seems that he has been tweaking the Armored Core Unit to his liking," Penny responded before getting herself out of the entanglement.
Ben internally moaned at the loss of sensation of a cute girl being pressed up against him but had gotten up as well.
"Should we go after him?" he asked her.
Penny grinned. Carrying Ben in a bridal style, metal wings burst forth from her back, complete with rocket boosters.
"Hold on tight, Friend Ben," she requested.
"No need to tell me twice, cutie!" Ben held on to her neck hard as the Gynoid carried them to where Enrico had gone.
They had arrived just in time to see the Alice Blue preparing itself for a training exercise.
With Enrico, he was going over the final checks before commencing the training exercise.
"Alright, the Rifle's loaded up with one-sixty rounds in the mag and I have five spare mags in storage. Laser Blade's good, currently at Ninety-Nine Point Ninety-Nine Percent energy. Missile Launchers are solid, with forty missiles in each unit plus a spare box of missiles for each one loaded in the spare backpack. Boosters are good, cooldown rate at over seven point three seconds. Energy gauge and power systems are green across the board. Structural integrity at one hundred percent…"
"What's taking him so long?" Ben asked, noticing that the Alice Blue had not left its spot.
"He's going through the final checks," a man's voice answered. Ben turned to see a man dressed in a red shirt, blue overhauls, and a yellow hardhat with some goggles covering his eyes.
"Greetings, Professor Conagher!" Penny chirped up.
"Ey, Little Robot. Good to see yah made some new friends," Dell Conagher warmly smiled.
"Anyways," he turned his attention back to Ben. "Every Mech Pilot worth their stars and stripes go through multiple checks to see if their machine is in tip-top shape, boy. Your buddy over there? He doesn't treat Alice Blue like a tool. Nah, he treats her like a living, breathing being of beauty."
Dell looked towards the training area, where Alice Blue finally started walking towards the beginning side of it.
The Alice Blue began to dash around the training area.
The AC Unit ran over a large metal fence, speed not slowing down as it bulldozed through the obstruction and rammed through a large metal door.
"HOLY SHIT!" Ben exclaimed at the sheer strength behind the Alice Blue.
"Heh, using the Mech's weight and speed to blow through the enemy. A classic move," Professor Conagher said as a bunch of screens popped up for them to continue monitoring Enrico's actions.
They just caught a glimpse of the Alice Blue ducking under a large group of pipes before jumping across a large gap.
"Yep, most Mechs can make use of jump jets and booster units."
Just then, the Alice Blue moved out into a large opening. Here they can see three routes for it to take.
"If he heads left, he'll be given a refresher on weaponry and armor. If he goes right, he'll learn about sensors and locking. And if he goes straight, well…" Professor Conagher chuckled.
"Oh! Mister Conagher, I thought I'd find you here," a soft and melodious woman's voice reached their ears.
Ben and the others turned to see a well-endowed blonde woman in a laboratory coat approaching them. Her hair was rather long, reaching down to her knees and kept in a long braid. She also had a nurse's cap on her and a pair of glasses to compliment her emerald-green eyes.
"Ah, Emily! Come join us! We're just watching one of the new guys testing out the old testbed."
"Oh," Emily tilted her head as she approached them. "Is it that man that convinced Victor to hand over the basic Armored Core Unit?"
"Yep! Course the boy calls it Alice Blue now," Dell said.
Alice Blue took the route to the left.
"Heh, just like you, Li'l Emi," Dell said, making Emily blush at the older man's praise. She giggled off the praise as she noticed Ben looking at her.
"Oh, hello! I am Emily Simmons, one of the heads of the Mech Laboratory. I'm pleased to make your acquaintance, Mister…"
"Shigura. Benjamin Shigura," Ben introduced himself to her like James Bond. She giggled at that.
"Oh my, a James Bond fan, perhaps?"
"Eh, not really. I just like the way he introduces himself," Ben admitted.
Enrico had taken the Alice Blue to the left, the Mech blowing through the doors and seeing two targets before them. One of them was lightly armored and moving quickly while the other was heavily armored and moving slowly.
Quickly, he fired the CWG-RF-200 assault rifle at the lighter target, leading his shots as best as he can. On the other hand, he also aimed his CWM-10-1 small missile launcher at the heavier target. Eventually, he had taken both targets down.
"Hmm, ten seconds. A bit sloppy on the aiming, but otherwise a good run time," Dell said.
Emily, on the other hand, watched as Alice Blue swiftly turned around to head to the right route option.
"Looks like he's testing his reflexes next," she said.
The Alice Blue entered a field where eight large turrets, almost as big as the Alice Blue itself, began to fire their payloads at him.
"In this room, pilots are going to have to trust their instincts and work alongside their sensors," Dell explained. "A Mech's tech is alright, but what separates a good pilot from a great pilot is how well they can use their instincts to change the tide of battle."
As he said this, the Alice Blue leaped high into the air, the turrets' missiles chasing after the unit. Just as they got close enough, Enrico forced a super boost, quickly making the AC Unit dodge the missiles and causing them to overshoot.
In retaliation, the CWM-10-1 missile launchers fired back, quickly destroying the turrets.
"Hmm, impressive. Using a super boost just as the missiles were about to land," Emily began to analyze. To Ben's amazement, Emily swiped her arm to the left and a digitized computer screen and keyboard appeared before her.
"Woah!"
"Miss Simmons is a technopath, Friend Ben," Penny explained. "She can see the internal mechanisms of any machine be it from the Modern Age or even from before the Industrial Age. No secrets shall be kept from her."
"Amazing!" Emily exclaimed. "The super-boost only took down two percent of Alice Blue's structural integrity!"
"Super boost?"
"It's a term Mech Pilots use when they use a more powerful boost than normal," Emily explained, not taking her eyes off her computer display.
"It allows them to have a sharp increase in speed, but this does come at the cost of damaging the structure of the Mech. The smaller the Mech, the bigger the damage. And considering that Armored Core Units are in the Light Class of Mechs, they normally receive at least ten percent structural damage whenever they do super boosts."
"Yeah, looks like Mister Azkalero has been working hard to minimize that problem," Dell said.
With the left and right routes complete, the was only the main route up ahead of the Alice Blue.
Without waiting for an invitation, Enrico moved into the main route. Here, he could see multiple mechs.
/: ENEMY UNITS DETECTED! :/
/: LISTING ALL DETECTED ENEMY COMBATANTS… :/
/: FROG LIGHT MECH = QUANTITY 5. :/
/: ANT LIGHT MECH = QUANTITY 20. :/
/: PRIEST MEDIUM MECH = QUANTITY 5. :/
/: DOG LIGHT MECH = QUANTITY 10. :/
"So, that's how it is, eh?" Enrico could not help but chuckle lightly at this. "They really should've sent a bigger challenge at us, Alice Blue. I really want to push us to the limit."
He patted the main terminal screen of the cockpit. Unbeknownst to him, a flicker had responded to his touch.
"Right then…" Enrico made to charge, keeping mind of cover as the hostile Mechs took notice of him and Alice Blue.
"Let's do this! ALICE BLUE!"
The AC Unit started firing at the Ants, seeing as they were the most numerous and the lightest armored Mechs of the OpFor. The rifle's 23mmX152B-mm coil accelerated rounds tore through the Ants like hot knives through butter, quickly taking a quarter of them out of the fight.
The Alice Blue twirled around and jumped, using the boosters to gain height just as the Frogs fired their cluster missiles at it. They were dumb fired, meaning that they had no such lock-on capabilities and had to be manually aimed by the pilot and/or OS.
Being cluster munitions, however, meant that each rocket would split up into ten other rockets to increase hit probability. Essentially, he was going up against shotgun rocket launchers.
He super boosted away from another volley of cluster missiles and fired his own missiles at the Frogs. Unlike stationary targets, the Frogs were nimble, fitting their role as skirmishers and for hit-and-run tactics.
Of course, these were only training imitations of the actual Frog Light Mechs, controlled by basic AI. Meaning that there was no skilled pilot nor any AI with potent combat data behind the wheel.
Even basic rookie pilots like Enrico could dodge basic homing missiles with proper positioning and timing of boosts.
But for basic AI, these homing missiles were their doom.
Within a minute, all Frog Light Mechs were taken down.
The Alice Blue landed on one of the dummy buildings just as the Dog Light Mechs and the Priest Medium Mechs began to pursue it.
"Heh, now we're talking!"
The Dogs began firing their 14.5mmX114mm KPV MGs at the Alice Blue while the Priests came at him with their Plasma Torches ignited and burning through the concrete.
He boosted towards the streets, getting hit in some areas by the 14.5mm MGs but luckily avoiding the flames of the Plasma Torches.
"Why isn't he firing back?" Ben asked, watching as one of his best friends simply resigned to dodging through the streets.
Emily was also perplexed until she realized the potential plan.
"He's planning to let them overheat."
Dell's eyes brightened behind his goggles. "That's right! The AI of these training Mechs doesn't have much restraint when firing their weapons."
Just as predicted, the Dogs and Priests had their respective weapons overheat, leaving them open to retaliation.
The Alice Blue was instantly upon one pack of Dogs, CLB-LS-1551 ignited. The AC Unit sliced through the Dog pack before setting its sights on the other Dog pack. Boosting toward them, it also sliced them in half.
Before Enrico could register the kills, the Priests were upon them.
"Shit! I forgot those things have either Small Saws or Small Impact Drivers!"
Three of the Priests had Impact Drivers on their left arm while the remaining two had Saws mounted on their left arm.
The Priests with the Saws drove their melee weapons into the sides of the Alice Blue. On his screen, Enrico can see that the AC Unit was down to 75.678% structural integrity.
Cursing under his breath, he super boosted out of their hold and activated the Laser Blade. The Priests were surprisingly smart for basic AI, moving to encircle him.
"Oh, shit…" Ben was worried now.
"Don't worry," Dell told him. "We got safeguards in place in the event the trainee gets too roughed up."
The Alice Blue charged at the two Saw-wielding Priests. The Medium Mechs swung down at the AC Unit as the Alice Blue swung out with its Laser Blade. The Priests landed hits on Alice Blue's torso, but the Laser Blade sliced through them before the weapons could do any further damage.
The Alice Blue used its momentum to swing around and face the last three Priests with the Impact Drivers. Unlike Saws which needed constant contact to rip apart its victims, Impact Drivers, even the smallest varieties, need only one good hit to punch through a Mech's armor. A good shot can kill a pilot instantly.
He had to be careful here.
The Alice Blue made a 'come hither' motion with its right hand, the rifle currently stored on its back.
The last three Priests took the bait, charging at him with their Impact Drivers. The Alice Blue ducked under the first one and drove its shoulder into the second one. It slammed the second Priest into the third one before turning around and swinging the Laser Blade, slicing the first Priest in half.
Without giving the last two a chance to get up, Enrico had the Alice Blue swing down its Laser Blade and slice them in half as well.
Training exercise complete.
/: SIMULATION TRAINING COMPLETED! :/
"That's new. It sounds like the OS was… excited that we completed the exercise," Enrico thought as he continued to read the message on the results screen.
/: KILL RATE = 50/50 (100%) :/
/: UNIT STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY = 67.89761% :/
/: ACCURACY RATING = 72.9182736405% :/
/: OVERALL COMBAT RATING = A+ :/
"Yeah, that's the good stuff!" Enrico exclaimed, a toothy smile on his face. With the training exercise over, he and Alice Blue headed back to the main area.
Within a minute, he had arrived. There, he saw Ben, Penny, Professor Conagher, and his assistant and daughter figure Emily Simmons.
He stopped in front of them and got out of the cockpit to greet them personally. He jumped down to where they were, landing a good few feet away from them.
"Hey, guys! How'd I do?" He asked as they approached, still out of breath and feeling the rush of combat flowing through his veins.
"Yah did well, kiddo," Professor Conagher said. "You took a few hits that coulda been avoided but overall yah did great!"
"Thanks, Professor! It's only thanks to Alice Blue I could even achieve that rating," Enrico said, patting the AC Unit's Core good-naturedly.
"Yes, you seem to have improved since you've started a week ago," Emily said. "Would you like some water?" She offered him a bottle.
"Thanks, Emily," he took it and downed its contents quickly. After finishing the bottle, he sent a soft smile at Emily.
"It was no problem," Emily giggled, hiding a blush behind her hand. Dell looked at the two and shook his head with a smile on his lips.
"Kids these days. They can pilot WMDs but let them socialize and they're dumber than a bunch of rocks!"
Still, it was a good day. Alice Blue got a chance to truly shine and judging by some of the looks from observing students both in the Mech Lab and simply passing by it was bound to get a lot of attention in the future.
Dell Conagher had a feeling in his gut that this semester was going to be one that will go down in Azeasany's history books.
Call it a hunch or the signs of senility of an old man, but he had a good feeling about this batch of students.
That these stars shall shine the brightest among them all.
After Math Class had ended, Chris decided to give a little look around the duelist section of the school, to see if he couldn't find any enticing duels to watch. Unfortunately, due to how INSANELY unlucky he can be sometimes, almost none of the duels he found were all that entertaining.
"Man, some of these Drytron players really need their balls cut off if they think Herald of Ultimateness is a fun card to use in that type of deck. Yeesh."
However, as he was walking, he soon heard the roar of a dinosaur and turned toward the source of the sound and saw a Danger! Bigfoot! staring down an Ultimate Conductor Tyranno.
"Finally, some people who aren't Meta Sheep! This ought to be good."
Once Chris got closer to the Duel Arena, he could see the person with the Tyranno was an 18-year-old African-American male with a black buzzcut and red eyes. He looked to be rather short, and he seemed rather lean and wiry, but Chris would have to wait until he got down to know for sure. Plus, he looked like he had a face similar to an adorable baby.
On the opposite side of the arena was a 19-year-old Mexican girl who looked to be slightly shorter than her opponent, Chris couldn't tell at the moment, but what he COULD tell about her was the fact that she had brown skin, a chubby complexion, dark curly hair, and dark brown eyes.
"Wow, well aren't these some interesting characters? Can't wait to meet them."
Chris could tell that the girl had the guy on the ropes, with her at 1900 LP, and him at 1400 LP. Things would then proceed to go further down the shitter for the guy as his opponent activated the effect of her Field Spell.
"I activate the effect of "Danger! Disturbance! Disorder!"! By banishing 3 "Danger!" Spells and/or Traps from my Graveyard, I can destroy every card on the field, so say goodbye to your Tyranno."
The Tyranno roared in agony as a giant tidal wave proceeded to sweep it away, lost to the ocean as the Bigfoot! managed to avoid the wave.
"And thanks to my "Danger! Feets of Strength!', my Bigfoot! is rendered safe from harm. Now say goodbye to the rest of your Life Points! Bigfoot!, Attack him directly!"
The Danger! Bigfoot! proceeded to charge towards the African American, who could only stare in wide-eyed terror at the cryptid's fist rapidly approaching him. Despite his frightened appearance though, he only had this to nonchalantly say.
"Well shit."
The fist made contact and sent him flying off and away from the Arena, as the monitor hanging over it declared the girl the winner. She then got off of the platform and rushed towards the man, a look of worry on her face. Chris could also see that she was about 5'2" (1.59 meters) in height, making her rather short in comparison to him and the guys.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?!"
The man nodded as he slowly got up to his feet, and Chris could see that his assumptions were right, he was 5'5" (1.67 meters) in height.
"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks for caring, Rina."
The girl, now revealed to be named Rina, sighed in relief.
"Thank goodness. How did I do?"
The man held a finger up to his chin in thought.
"Hmm, I'd say you did pretty well all things considered. You do still need to work on your activation timings, but other than that, you've got the makings of a true Duelist."
Rina smiled at his words, a light glimmer in her eyes as Chris walked up to them.
"Hey there. Saw the duel you guys just had and, wow, I could not be any more impressed if I tried. Name's Chris."
Chris held out his hands which Rina and the man each took as they introduced themselves, with the man introducing himself as Kojin.
"Hey, do you guys mind paying our dorm a visit later tonight? I've got this friend of mine that I'm teaching how to play Yugioh and I feel like you might make for a pretty good teacher, Kojin."
"Sure, would love to pay you guys a visit. See you around, come on, Rina."
"Bye! It was nice meeting you."
Chris waved at Rina and Kojin as they walked away.
"You know, I think that's enough watching out of me, think it's time for me to head back."
As Chris left towards the dorms, the same young man from before was watching him with interest.
That evening, during gym class, Jane Doe (at least that's what he calls himself, nobody knows what his actual name is) was explaining what game they were playing today; dodgeball.
"Alright, maggots! Listen up! If fighting is sure to result in victory, then you must fight!"
Jane marched in front of the crowd of students like a commander lecturing his soldiers.
"Sun Tzu said that, and I'd say he knows a little more about fighting than you do, pal, because he invented it, and then he perfected it so that no living man could best him in the ring of honor."
Jane stopped and turned towards the students, standing at attention as he held up a dodgeball.
"Today, you shall attempt to replicate that greatness by partaking in the most entertaining form of non-lethal warfare: dodgeball! You will be split into two teams, but in this game, much like on the battlefield, it's kill or be killed!"
Double-D looked like he was about to pass out due to how white his face was.
"I don't think I can do this, fellas. I mean look at me, I am not built for confrontation."
Chris gave the poor sock head a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"Hey, everything's gonna be alright. Just stick with us, and I promise you won't end up like Leon after he was caught peeping in on the girls showering."
Leon Kuwata, who was up in the bleachers and had his arm in a cast, yelled out in annoyance.
"It was ONE TIME, people! ONE! TIME! And pelting me with baseballs shot from a pitching machine that was most likely retrofitted from a machine gun?! Sheesh, talk about overkill."
Ignoring that, Double-D let out a small sigh of relief at Chris's words.
"Thank you, Chris."
"Hey, I'm always looking out for my friends if and whenever possible, it's just what I do."
Suddenly, Jane Doe blew his whistle to get everybody's attention.
"Shut it, maggots! Now, are there any questions? No? Then get ready for some non-bloody bloodshed!"
After that, Jane picked who went where… which, unsurprisingly given who was doing the choosing, meant that everybody else was put on one side, while Chris, Enrico, Ben, the Eds, and Rolf were on the other. For reference, there are about 50 other students up against their seven.
"Ok, now that just ain't fair."
Noticing the uneven odds, Rina raised her hand to get Jane's attention.
"Excuse me, Mister Doe, sir. Could I change sides, please?"
Kojin stepped up to the side of her as he also raised his hand.
"I'd also like to change sides, please."
Jane's helmet may have been obscuring his eyes, but it was pretty easy to tell that he was currently glaring at the two.
"I did not give you two permission to die. But, if you're both feeling suicidal, then you've come to the right place. Get over there, maggots."
After Rina and Kojin joined the gang, the former took a moment to look at who she'd be with.
"Huh, so are these your friends, Chris?"
"Yep, but let's save the introductions for after we finish this," Chris said.
Double-D, ever the worrywart, groaned in fear as he looked at the crowd.
"If we manage to survive, that is."
"Hey, cut the bullshit, alright? They're down two people, we got this," Chris said, confident that they could win, despite the odds stacked against them.
French Narrator: Later…
Chris's face was caved in almost immediately after Jane gave everyone the go-ahead to start throwing balls.
"We do NOT got this," Chris said, his voice muffled due to his face looking like it was getting sucked up by a black hole in his skull.
To say things were in chaos would be putting it lightly, as Rolf had two dodgeballs in his hands and was riding around on his pig, Wilfred, like a horse, shouting something in a foreign language before catching a dodgeball with his teeth, Double-D was panicking as dodgeballs just barely managed to miss him, Eddy was using Ed as a human shield, with the latter laughing his usual laugh even as he was getting pelted in the face with dodgeballs.
Ben and Enrico, meanwhile, were gathering dodgeballs to throw back at the opposition, and Kojin was trying to hold back Rina, who was shouting various profanities in Spanish at whoever managed to hit her square in the chest, with a couple of English words interspersed about how she was going to eradicate their bloodline.
"Yeesh, I don't know that much Spanish, but I'm fairly certain that whatever Rina is saying would put most sailors to absolute shame," Ben said as he chucked a dodgeball at Cinder Fall's face, knocking her out.
"True that, Ben. True that," Enrico said in agreement. Being born and raised in the Philippines, he knew a thing or two about Spanish given that his homeland had been a Spanish colony for over 300 years.
Chris fixed his face just in time to notice Dominator coating a dodgeball in magma before throwing it, and his face shifted into one of shock as he noticed it was heading straight for Enrico.
"Enriks, look out!"
Enrico turned to see the magma ball heading straight for him as his eyes widened, however, something weird happened. Enrico managed to dodge it despite the fact that it was inches away from burning his face into a crisp.
As he wondered aloud how he managed to dodge it, Chris came up beside him.
"Oh, that was me. I saw that you were gonna get hit so I gave you this," he said as he showed a stim shot with a green liquid inside of it.
"The heck is that?" Enrico asked.
"Not sure, found a bunch of them in a box in the locker rooms, with a note saying that it was mistakenly shipped to here and had to be shipped immediately to some guy named Octane, whoever that is. Aside from that, they give a tremendous boost in speed for six seconds, check this out."
Chris then proceeded to stab himself with the stim, then again, and again, until his entire head was covered in stim needles. Two of them were even jammed into his eyes. Chris, you okay, dude?
"SPEED IS KEY, BITCHES!"
Nope, he's lost it. Chris then proceeded to run around the gym, going so fast he was even running along the walls. The others watched as Chris slowly became a blur before he disappeared in a flash of light. The others were absolutely dumbfounded over what transpired in front of them, with Ben being the first to speak up.
"What the fuck just happened?"
"I have no idea."
Meanwhile, with Chris, he reappeared floating in a black void, laughing like a maniac as whatever drugs were within those needles got to his head. Hey jackass, pay attention! Damn, he's not listening. Well, nothing a good smack across the head won't fix. SMACK!
"Ow! Hey what the hell, man?!"
Look around you, dumbass! Chris finally noticed the empty blackness he was in and started scratching his head in confusion.
"Where the heck am I?"
Suddenly a deaf boom caught his attention, causing Chris to turn and see a rapidly approaching light.
"That ain't a good sign." Yeah, no shit, Sherlock… okay now that's just rude. After telling me to fuck off in a rather, interesting way, Chris put on his Duel Disk, summoned Prank-Kids Rocket Ride, and then hopped on.
"Punch it!" Chris yelled, prompting the rocket to dash forward away from the light. But the rocket wasn't fast enough, as the light was still gaining on Chris and the Prank-Kids. Thinking quickly, Chris opened up the rocket and started messing around with its inner machinations.
Satisfied with his work, Chris closed the rocket back up as its eyes widened and turned bloodshot. "Time to shift into MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE! Hi-ya!" Chris yelled before the rocket started blasting out blue flames from its exhaust port, the two Prank-Kids hanging on for dear life as the Rocket Ride started showing signs of going into lightspeed. After a few seconds, Chris and the Prank-Kids and their Rocket Ride disappeared in a flash of light.
Back in the gym, Enrico and the others were holding their own against the other students, when suddenly Chris showed up flying around on Rocket Ride, before inevitably crashing it and causing it to explode in the middle of the gym, knocking some of the opposing students back and sending Chris and the Prank-Kids with him flying into the wall behind the gang.
Once they fell off and onto the ground, Chris was positioned in the stock Family Guy death pose, the blue Prank-Kid was on his side like Yamcha, while the green Prank-Kid was flat on his face like a plank of wood.
"Note to self: Don't overdose on speed stims, otherwise you might end up traveling back to the Big Bang," Chris said in pain as he got up onto his feet. He then noticed the enemy team was getting rather tired as an idea came into his head. "I got it!"
Chris then removed the Rocket Ride and placed four on his Duel Disk, causing four groups of three Prank-Kids to appear, one red, one green, one blue, and one orange. Ben and the others (minus Kojin) could only look on in confusion at the tiny children before them.
"The heck are these supposed to be?"
"I'm glad you asked, Eddy. Gentlemen, and one lady, meet the Prank-Kids. These adorable little gremlins live to cause mayhem, and right now, these guys are gonna help us." Chris explained, before getting down on the floor to talk to the Prank-Kids, gesturing for the others to do the same.
French Narrator: Twenty minutes later…
With the assistance of the Prank-Kids, the gang managed to win the dodgeball fight, standing proudly on top of the unconscious bodies of their opponents.
"Wait, weren't Twilight and Sunset supposed to be here?" Chris asked, before getting his answer in the form of Rainbow Dash getting slammed in the face with a dodgeball. He turned and saw Sunset with a look of rage on her face as she held Twilight close to her.
"Yeesh, if looks could kill. Hey, can we get some medics for RD here?!"
The seven friends were all heading back to their dorm rooms at the end of the day. To their surprise, Rina and Kojin had joined up with them.
"Hey! Our dorm room's right next to yours!" Rina exclaimed with a sweet smile. "Guess we're neighbors now, huh?"
Everyone else nodded warmly at her words.
"Hey," Kojin called out to Chris. "Maybe you could teach a guy like me to properly Duel next time. Care to share some tips and tricks?
Chris nodded and patted Kojin on the back.
"Sure thing, bud!"
As the seven were chatting away with their two new friends, Crydius watched them from afar with a calculating gaze. Specifically, his gaze was directed straight at one Benjamin Shigura.
"In time, I shall find out what you are, Benjamin Shigura. For now, enjoy these fleeting moments."
With a mischievous chuckle, Crydius Cromwell disappeared into the dark corners of the dormitory.
Devil Dragon Stand Knight's A/N:
Just so you know, I do not own Crydius Cromwell, he belongs to Crydius on DeviantArt, who is the mad lad genius who creates the EQG Crossover comic that this story is based on. Give it a read, why don'tcha!
Also, we've introduced Rina Corzin (SIOC of Corzin443) and Kojin Shinigami (SIOC of TheDeathMachine). What new excitements will they bring to the table? You'll just have to wait and see!
Enriks-Da-Writer's A/N:
Righto, you guys will have to be patient with what's going to happen in the next chapter of Dragon Ball Z- No! Dreamworld Paradox!
Also, I did my best in my part of the share which was the Mech Lab training exercise. I based it heavily on the Training Mission from the Iron Assault Total Conversion Mod for Doom 2. You can check it out on the ZDoom forums if you're interested and have a legit copy of Doom 2 and its expansion packs!
It's one of the best TCs to exist for Doom, in my honest opinion!
Anyways, we'll see you guys next time. Later!
Caw-zrs6's A/N:
Ever since we started work on this, one of the things that I've had floating around in my head was that dodgeball scene, and I'm so happy that I managed to make it a reality. Anyways, aside from that, not much else to say on my end. Catch you guys next time.