BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Five-thirty. Janosik almost mechanically leaped out of her bed. It was still mostly dark, but she always woke up at five-thirty. For the first time in a long time, she felt almost confident. Not truly confident, of course. But the fried cheese did cheer her up, at least a little bit. If not confident, she at least felt refreshed. She could still taste the fried cheese in her mind.

But enough dabbling in the events of yesteryear. She was told the Tatra would dock in Kanazawa at about eight, and the match would start at nine-thirty.

Plenty of time. Perhaps we can even get a small practice session in before it starts.

Once again, Janosik just happened to be about as wrong as she could be. Because just as she walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth, it hit.

What hit?

Well, of course, the fried cheese that she ate last night was not letting her get away with it that easily. All throughout the night, it had been advancing slowly but surely, gaining ground, like a slow but immense hurricane, creeping towards the inevitable final, explosive climax. Its thunderous cloud had gone unnoticed by Janosik throughout the night, perhaps too tired to even care. But it did care. It cared very much. Its rage swept through her digestive system, destroying all in its path. By morning, its shadow had already reared its ugly face in the rear ends of Janosik's digestive system.

By the time Janosik started walking to the bathroom, its face has finished rearing its ugly self. When she felt it, she knew that begun, the war had.

Oh, you got to be kidding me. Not here, not now-

It was not kidding.

Janosik fought the beasts of the assorted fried pieces of dairy and breading. She needed to reach the safety of the throne. It was only about ten metres, but it felt like the longest ten metres that she'd ever seen.

Hold it, you idiot!

As if it were Stalingrad itself, she held the line. And ran as fast as her early-morning legs could take her. If the climax were to happen now, a disaster would be the likeliest outcome. Almost miraculously, she got to the throne before the first wave began. But she only beat it by a couple of seconds. By the time she got fully situated, the onslaught had begun.

But she was safe and sound in her throne. The worst effects of that particular trip would, at least, be contained to a small part of her small cabin.

It would not be the wisest to include a lengthy explanation of Janosik's trip, due to the sensibilities of many individuals that may be put off by such a description, but suffice it to say, it was ugly. It was very ugly.

By the time she was done, it was seven-thirty. But she had won, and that's all that mattered, right?

The concept of victory is a matter of perspective, of course. One can perfectly well say that an army won a particular battle because the enemy retreated at the end of the day, but it lost twice the amount of casualties of the enemy. So perhaps a better question to ask would be, she'd won, but at what cost?

The answer to that question laid in the smell. Simply put, her cabin, and indeed, the entire hallway, was putrid. The floor was littered with the smell remnicient of rotten eggs. Granted, only five people actually lived in that floor, but for them, it was an experience that they'd probably never experience again in their lives. One of the girls in that floor was in fact sick that day. One could only imagine how she felt when she knew she had to stay home with a odour like that.

But, with all that said and done, she'd won, no matter at what cost.

Finally. I could get onto business.

Of course, it was one of those things that were easier said than done. Because she'd arranged for the team to meet at six-thirty for an early practice session. Obviously, that didn't turn out quite as expected. Nevertheless, she changed, gathered her items, and headed out.

As usual, she had to endure the trek to the depot. To her surprise, however, about halfway through, she saw a strange pulm of smoke emerging from the treeline.

Did these idiots actually-

Indeed, the crew had taken the Hurban out before Janosik had arrived. She emerged from the tree line.

The first to spot her was, of course, Dominika.

"Hey, it's the commander!"

The crew enthusiastically greeted Janosik. Ivana, well, greeted Janosik.

There barely was a response. "What's the train doing out here?" Janosik furiously asked.

"We thought it'd be nice if we got some practice before the first game! So we agreed to drive it out here," Dominika said.

This hadn't been the best morning, but learning about this was the tipping point for Janosik.

"Hey, listen up here. Do you have any idea what could've happened? Do you have any idea the danger you put yourselves in? Hey, you, Dominika, do you know exactly the speed limit at section 2-1-4 of this railroad line?"

"Uhm…"

"It's 30 kilometres per hour. So, you took this out, without knowing what the hell this does, without its commander, to have some pot shots?"

"I'm sorry… I didn't know we weren't supposed to do that," Dominika apologised.

Janosik's attention turned to Svetlana and Miroslava. Or, rather, the lack of their presence.

"And where are Svetlana and Miroslava?"

"They were here at six-thirty, but they said they needed to go do some paperwork for the match," Cecilia said.

"Alright, this is completely unacceptable. From now on, you are not to even touch this train without my permission. You got it?"

"Yes, Commander," they said, nearly in unison.

So much for this lot "being ready".

"Good. Now let's keep on training,"

Training continued, for the next hour or so, largely dominated by a deafening silence, occasionally interrupted by sounds of guns discharging, or the sound of Janosik barking orders. After this particular meltdown, there was certainly an amount of hesitation with all the crew's actions. Marta drove the train slower. Dominika shovelled coal with a little less conviction. The gunners were just slightly more inaccurate. The loaders were a smidge slower. Not by much, but in a battle, every second would count, and Janosik knew it.

But alas, it was too late to do anything about it, because the practice was interrupted by a grand trumpet fanfare. Which only meant one thing. An official PA.

"May I have your attention, please," a familiar voice said, in a rather robotic voice. "This is your Student Council President. Our school ship will now be docking into Kanzawa Harbour for Tatra High School's first match of the Twenty-Third National Ressha-do Championship. Tickets to the match will be available near the school sports centre. Any students not spectating the match must remain inside the school ship. Thank you for your attention."

Indeed, as the crew scurried into the nearest observation platform, Kanzawa Harbour was already coming into view.

"They're about to take the train out and put it onto the tracks on the battlefield, so we're going to stop practice now," Janosik said. "Remember the strategy I planned. Stay calm, stay collected, stay in control. Got it?"

"Yes, commander," some girls muttered, while some simply nodded or said nothing at all. The outburst had clearly put a damper on their confidence.

Meanwhile, on Bonple's Carrier

The large auditorium-style room was packed with students. The room was chattering with sounds of laughter and chitchat. That is, until the six girls marched in. Four commanders of the individual railcars, the vice-commander, and the commander.

Luiza, the tall and blonde commander of Bonple High School, was leading the group. She had made a name for herself, being a decisive and tough commander that used some very innovative tactics, most prominently, involving the use of smaller, detached independent railcars that utilised their smaller size and mobility to ambush, outflank, and destroy enemies. She'd led her team in two victories, including a near-flawless victory against Jatkosota, and another thumping victory against the favoured Nikolaevsky High School last year to reach the semifinals of the Twenty-Second National Ressha-do Championship, where they were defeated by Kuromorimime. While they did not win the competition, this was the best run they've had since their Cinderella story seven years ago, when they beat Pravda to win the Sixteenth National Ressha-do Championship. She was very keen to keep that reputation, and would not be holding back. Of course, if she thought it was going to be easy, then she was about to be proven very, very wrong.

However, this time, she had a trick up her sleeve. Their wz.28 had another very important strength.

Stealth. Since it was powered by a petrol-electric engine instead of a steam engine, it did not emit the highly visible fumes that plagued Ressha-do teams from day one. Last year, she was able to use the stealth advantage masterfully, outmanoeuvring and isolating enemies while being almost invisible. She was counting on using that advantage again this year. Other teams had been able to quite convincingly cover up their fumes by using specially-designed smoke deflectors, but it never quite covered up their tracks as well as the wz.28.

"Attention!" Luiza barked.

The girls immediately stood at attention, and the room went silent in mere seconds.

"Alright, girls! As we all know by now, we'll be facing Tatra Girls' Academy in the first match," Luiza said. "With that said and done, just because this is Tatra does not mean we let our guard down, got it?"

"Yes, Commander Luiza!" they said in unison.

"Good. Remember our plan. We hit them, and we hit them hard. They won't know what's coming for them. Commanders, I'm counting on you today."

They silently nodded in agreement.

"Excellent. Let's go out there and bring victory to Bonple! Forward!"

"Naprzód!"

Back at the Tatra…

At last, the Tatra finally docked at Kanazawa Harbour. The port was scurrying with activity, with local reporters coming in to witness the return of Tatra's Ressha-do team, as well as parents, grandparents, siblings, and friends eager to see their children, grandchildren, or friends. The arena was visible just outside the port, where the girls could already see hundreds of people crowded around the stands.

Right beside it was Bonple's carrier, that had arrived early. It was almost twice as large as the SMS Tatra, and while still dated compared to the likes of Saunders or St. Gloriana, it looked positively futuristic compared to the Tatra.

Finally, Svetlana and Miroslava returned, this time with a bus.

"Hey, girls!" Miroslava said. "And hey Jan! What kept ya?"

"None of your business," Janosik snapped.

Miroslava was taken aback, "Oh, uh, alright then. So, girls, Svetlana here was kind enough to get us a bus to get off this boat, so we won't have to walk all the way from here to the arena."

"Oh, it's no problem," Svetlana said.

"Alright, girls, let's get off," Janosik said. "There's a lot to do today."

They all got on the bus, and it sped off. A few minutes later, the Kanzawa Ressha-do Arena had come into view.

Only Miroslava had been here, in her first year. It had definitely changed since the last time she got there. It had gotten a complete renovation in just a few years. Before, the rails were rusted out, the seats for the spectators were worn, and the condition of the battlefield was less than ideal, to say the least. There had already been several instances of matches being cancelled due to loosening bolts between parts of the railway. But this time, it had been improved significantly. The spectator area was modern and elegant, with an arch over the top, as white as the driven snow. Out in the battle area, the grass had been replanted, the rails had been completely replaced, and some structures rebuilt and repainted.

Well, this certainly looks a whole lot nicer than last time, Miroslava thought.

When they arrived at the battle area, they had already seen the Hurban, and a man, presumably a match official, as well as the Bonple team.

"Alright, we're there!" Miroslava said. "Svetlana and I are in the spectator area, cheering you on!"

"Good luck!" Svetlana said, and they both were gone.

"Team Tatra and Team Bonple, please send your commanders to the neutral zone," the match official said.

Janosik walked up, alone, face to face with Luiza and her vice-commander, Zivia.

"Both commanders, are you and your team aware of the rules of Ressha-do?"

"We are," Janosik said.

"We also are aware of the rules," Luiza said.

"Perfect. Please bow."

Janosik and Luiza bowed.

"Wishing you a good game," they both said, nearly in unison.

"The match between Tatra Girls' Academy and Bonple High School shall begin!"

A flare shot up in the sky. Janosik and Luiza returned to their respective trains.

The Hurban's locomotive was already started by Dominika, and the fumes from its exhaust were visible for miles.

Janosik began barking orders, "Alright! Remember our plan. That hill over there, we will take the high ground and use our superior terrain and armour to destroy the enemy. Remember our plan, stay calm, stay collected, and for God's sake, follow orders. Got it?"

"Yes, Commander." the crew replied.

"Panzerzug, vor."

Bonple's corner of the battlefield

Luiza and Zivia, their heads extended out of the commander's hatch of their wz.28, could very clearly see Hurban's locomotive exhaust. Because the thing about steam locomotive exhausts is that they tend to be visible. From very far away.

"Those idiots," Zivia chucked. "Seems like they didn't even add a smoke deflector."

Luiza, for all of her serious demeanour, also was feeling slightly mischievous. "Looks like they're heading towards the hill."

"Of course they are," Luiza almost rolled her eyes. "This will be very easy."

"Now now, don't get too ahead of yourself. Let's give them a little surprise."

"What are you thinking of?"

"You could call it a trap of sorts."

"I like your thinking, Commander."

"Zivia, move towards them. I'll communicate the rest of the plan on the way."

"Aye, Commander."

"The rest of you, on me."

"Yes, Commander!" the two other wz.28 commanders said.

Back on the Hurban…

"Commander Janosik, we'll be on top of that hill in about seven minutes," Marta informed.

"Good," was all Marta got for a response.

"There might be a small problem, Janosik," Dominika said. "With all these fumes going out from the exhaust, wouldn't the enemy spot us immediately?"

"No, we have a smoke def-"

Janosik froze.

"A what?"

Oh my god, Janosik, you miserable buffoon. How could you have forgotten to install the smoke deflector?

Janosik couldn't spend too much time in self-hatred, because it was interrupted by the sound of Ivana's yelling.

"ENEMY! SIX-O-CLOCK!"

Janosik turned around, and by then, the wz.28 had already fired off a round. It, fortunately, missed.

"Return fire! Full reverse!"

The gunners frantically fired off a few poorly-aimed shots, all of which missed. Marta almost mechanically applied the brakes and set the train to reverse. The wz.28 also changed direction.

"Any other enemies?" Janosik asked.

"Nothing I can see! Should we pursue?" Ivana replied.

"What else are we going to do, sit here? Pursue!"

So they pursued. It was a rather open area, so theoretically the gunners should've been hitting every shot. But, of course, everything is easier said than done. A combination of the moving train, the moving target, and nervousness led the gunners to fire off mostly very poor shots. The returning fire from the wz.28 was more accurate, but they too were bursting with adrenaline.

The wz.28 led them to a small hill, where, behind that, it was impossible to see what lay behind. Now, of course, any person with more intelligence than an expired frankfurter could very clearly see that this was leading to a trap. However, the Hurban and its crew were too caught up in the chase to care. Only Ivana raised some form of concern.

"Jan, I don't think it might be the best idea to-"

She was interrupted by Janosik's furious shouting, "Hit them, will you?"

Another shot rattled the Hurban. Now, the enemy train was already ascending the hill. The Hurban followed close behind. Janosik looked outside to see what was behind the hill.

It was at that exact moment, she knew she had screwed up.

Because what was waiting for her, was not one, not three, but two more wz.28s waiting patiently for the Hurban, guns trained at the Hurban.

They did not hesitate in firing.

The front tank car was hit at point-blank range with a 75mm shell, and was knocked out instantly. Shortly thereafter, another well-placed shot left a second tank car in smoke and with a white flag extending out of it.

"Get us out of here! And return fire!" Janosik yelled.

At point-blank range, the gunners were slightly better. Most of their shots still missed, due to the shock factor of the ambush, but one did hit its mark, knocking out a wz.28.

Marta did not hesitate in reversing the direction of the train. Before Bonple's loaders could reload, they had managed to escape. But the damage was done, and there was a lot of damage.

"Is everyone alright?" Janosik asked.

"Clearly not!" a rather exasperated Ivana exclaimed.

"Our car is knocked out…" Cecilia said.

"So is ours," Milada said.

That means, we only have the chase gun car, a tank car, and the locomotive left.

"So, where are we going now?" Marta asked.

For the first time, Janosik didn't know. She'd just made a fatal blunder as her first action as the commander of the Hurban. Now, she'd placed themselves at a fatal disadvantage, and quite possibly, had just lost the match right there, right now.

Falling for a trap like that, what was I even thinking?

Back at the spectator area, the mood was, as to be expected, divided. Bonple's fans had become jubilant upon seeing the near-flawless trap being sprung. On the other hand, the mood in the Tatra camp had been much less savoury. Seeing one railcar after another bursting up in flames, some Tatra spectators had already began to leave, anticipating another disappointing wipeout. The ones that remained mostly looked on with a mixture of sullenness, despair, or dejection.

Particularly Svetlana. Because she knew full well that this wasn't just about a sports game. A few days earlier, she'd already received reports of several emergency repairs being done, most of them improvised. More importantly, she'd received reports of unrest in the lower decks, where the delinquent students had been assigned. Apparently, they had become sick and tired of their working conditions. She'd already been advised to keep speeds down to below ten knots, however, she still had not done so, in the interest of not drawing attention to the problem. Clearly, time was running out.

Hope isn't going to end this early, is it?

She'd never participated in Ressha-do but had watched it, and she did know that losing half of one's firepower in a single short engagement is never good, in anything.

Miroslava, sitting right beside her, was equally stunned. Not at Bonple's plan, but she was stunned at Janosik.

"Do you think we can turn this around?" Svetlana asked.

She turned to Svetlana, " I don't know, really," she said. "This isn't the Jan I knew two years ago. The Jan I knew two years ago was a shrewd tactician, a competent leader. She was one of my closest associates. Falling for such an infantile trap like that… what's happened to her? I haven't exactly complained, but she's been a completely different person as of late."

"I don't know either, Miro," Svetlana answered. "Perhaps it may have something to do with the pressure on her right now. She doesn't seem to trust anyone. Even herself."

"Well, being a commander is about trust," Miroslava said. "That's why the teams win, win."

"You think you can talk some sense into her?"

"Well, it seems like I may have to. If we lose today, I'd hope it would become a learning experience for Janosik."

Once again, Svetlana winced.

Back on the Hurban, the team was still stunned by what happened. This was the first time that they'd ever had a real battle, and they might already have blown it, twenty minutes in. More surprisingly, they never expected Commander Masaryk, who had served under the positively legendary Commander Caputova, to lose so badly.

"Where are we going, again?" Marta asked, again. "We gotta find cover soon, or those blasted Bonple trains will be onto us."

Janosik still hadn't gotten out of her trance quite yet. "I… I don't know," she muttered.

Ivana, who until then was really just sitting there watching the entire trainwreck play out, finally had enough. She, like Svetlana, knew exactly how high the stakes were for this match. She picked up a map. There, she saw a potential temporary hiding spot that they could camp out on.

"Next interchange, make a right," she ordered. "About a kilometre from that, there can be a tunnel we can hide and regroup under."

"But Commander Masar-"

"Just do it, or we lose!"

Indeed, right as they said so, a shell struck about twenty metres from the front chase gun car. Inaccurate, but even one lucky hit on the locomotive would truly mean game over for Tatra. The barrage had begun.

"Right," Marta said. "Dominika, still waiting on that coal!"

Even for Dominika, shovelling this much coal left her exhausted. "Yeah… wait one moment," she said, panting.

"Now you know what it's like to jog those three kilometres!" said Cecilia.

Ivana sighed. "Now's not the time to joke, Cecilia."

"The interchange is right ahead!" yelled Marta. She signalled for the switchman, and right the train went.

Finally, Janosik had partially woken up.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" she asked angrily.

"Saving our arses," Ivana replied.

"Who gave you the authority to do that?"

"It was this or us losing. You, apparently, were too busy with your mind in Wonderland instead of commanding the train."

"But-"

"Let's get to safety first, and then we can talk."

They wouldn't have to wait very long. The tunnel finally came into view. Marta applied the brakes, and within a minute, they were safe inside the shelter of the tunnel.

Janosik had had enough of the day. Between the accident in the morning, missing practice, the horrible turn of events in the match, and everything that had happened in the last month, she had a burning urge to lash out at someone, anyone. She wanted to shout and scream and insult, and preferably, smash someone's head in with a sledgehammer. And the easiest target there was, was Ivana.

So she began, "Now listen here you little devil, you think you can just waltz in here, say "I'm the captain now" and ruin what I've worked so hard to rebuild? You think you can just destroy everything I've made? You think, after what happened, that any of us could possibly forgive you? You disgusting little wretch! You filthy little creature! You-"

And then she turned to her crew, who were looking at her in total horror. Because they'd seen Janosik mad, but never completely lose control and erupt. Some girls were close to tears after her display of pure human emotion. The rest stood in shocked silence.

"I- I'm sorry," Along with everyone else, Janosik was shocked at her own outburst. "I don't know what became of me."

She left the train, ran out of the tunnel, and left her crew standing there dumbfounded.

Ivana sighed, "I'll deal with this." And she left as well.

"Hey, Jan."

"Get away from me, Ivana," Janosik growled.

"Normally, I would. Any other time, I would've been perfectly content to leave you there, wallowing in your own shock and misery. I'm still mad at you about that little rant. But now's not the time for grudges, Jan. The stakes are too high. Quitting isn't an option."

"Why the hell not?"

"Jan, are you really gonna just throw your hands up at the very first sign of defeat? Are you really going to rant and rage every time there's a setback? Are you really that petty? Because that's why people lose. By not picking themselves up."

"Why should I listen to you? You let the entire school down."

Apparently, Janosik did not realise the irony of saying such a thing after being called petty.

"Precisely why. I let the entire school down. And look where I am now. I didn't get here by quitting, you know."

Janosik stayed silent. She knew Ivana was right, and she hated how right Ivana was.

"Look. We still have three functional railcars left. They have two. To me, it seems like we have the advantage. So are you going to be a whiny little bitch and sit here, or are you going to be our commander?"

As they were about to very soon see, Ivana was wrong about the "two cars" statement. To be exact, she was about 33.33% wrong. Not very wrong, but not a small amount of wrong. Perhaps it could be described as an averagely average amount of wrong. If Ivana's wrong counter was a colour, perhaps it would be beige. Or turquoise. If the wrong counter were a movie, it would probably be The Hobbit trilogy. Not terrible, not great. Just average. If her wrongness were a fanfiction, it may be Girls und Panzerzu-

Nevertheless, while Janosik still hated Ivana, the speech did do enough to get Janosik back on her feet.

Janosik sighed. "Fine."

A wide grin spread across Ivana's face. It was the first time she had smiled in months, possibly years.

Commander Luiza's wz.28

"Good work, everyone," came the voice of Luiza over the radio. "It seems we've destroyed two of their tank cars, at the cost of one of our own. Not great, but not terrible."

"Commander Luiza!" Zivia's voice answered, "We've stopped spotting their smoke plume!"

"Hmm. They must've stopped. Mark their exact location at the moment they stopped."

"Done," Zivia said. "They must be… around, or most likely in, the tunnel. Do we pursue?"

"Hold off on that," Luiza said. "Grunia, you there?"

Grunia, the commander of the wz.28 on the other side of the battlefield answered immediately. "We're here."

"You guys are still undetected, right?"

"That I am."

"Excellent," Luiza grinned. "Let's give them a nasty little surprise when they find out we have three left."

The Tunnel

Janosik finally returned. She had stayed for a little longer after Ivana left, but there she was.

"Hey, girls," she said. "I'm sorry about that outburst. It was… unprofessional, to say the least."

Most of them were still deathly afraid. A few of them looked away, while Dominika and Marta kept their heads down, apparently not wanting to be a part of the quarrel. The rest simply stayed silent.

Janosik sighed, "Right."

"Alright girls," Ivana said. "I know that we all have things we want to talk to Jan about, but that can wait until we've gotten ourselves out of this situation. You still want to win, right?"

"Why?" Cecilia asked. "We joined just to have fun… it wouldn't be so bad if we lost, would it?"

"Nope," Ivana flatly refused. "We're winning this. End of story."

"How could we?" Dominika asked. "They're obviously miles better than us."

"We're winning this," Ivana snapped.

"We can come up with a plan," Janosik said. She was finally regaining self-control.

"Yes, we can," Ivana agreed. "Who's in?"

Dominika groaned, "Fine."

The rest followed suit in begrudgingly agreeing.

"Great!" Ivana said. "Let's discuss strategy. What do you think is their weakness?"

Dominika started, but Janosik, of course, had her own opinions about this.

"You can't expect them to-" protested Janosik. Even after Ivana's pep talk, she was still sceptical about her crew.

"Remember, Jan," Ivana hushed. "You can't do this alone, whether you want to or not. Dominika, continue."

"Well," Dominika said. "Bonple seems to be spread out. If we can isolate and destroy them one by one."

"That's a good idea," Ivana said. "How could we isolate them?"

An idea floated into Marta's mind. "I suppose we could separate the train into pieces. We could detach one of our tank cars to serve as bait."

"Excellent! Do you think that'd work, Jan?" Ivana asked.

Janosik had to hand it to Marta. Leaving a railcar behind was a strategy that only a few other Ressha-do teams had tried. However, in the few times it had been tried, it worked. In particular, Janosik could remember an instance about three years ago, where she'd been watching an exhibition match between Nikolaevsky and St. Gloriana. Nikolaevsky had been at a severe disadvantage from the start, so they left one of their artillery cars behind as a last-ditch rearguard action. Nikolaevsky still ended up losing that match, but that car still destroyed an impressive four St. Gloriana railcars.

"I suppose it could work. The main body could swing behind them and attack them in both directions. The question is, who would volunteer to be left behind?" Janosik asked.

"We will," said Cecilia. Milada, the loader for the chase gun, nodded in agreement.

"Are you sure?"

"Absolutely."

"You guys don't have to do this if you don't want to. We can have another strategy," Ivana said.

"Ivana, I've been crystal clear. I'll do it." Cecilia was adamant.

"I appreciate it, Cecilia," Ivana thanked. And with good reason to. Without Cecilia and Milada agreeing to stay behind, the battle would have been lost.

"Marta, loosen the bolts on the front chase gun car," Janosik ordered.

In a few seconds, the front car was detached from the rest of the train. And a few seconds after that, the train was off and running.

Grunia finally spotted the Hurban's smoke plume. "Well, well, well, what do we have here? Finally, some action!"

Indeed, it had been a rather boring day for Grunia. At the beginning of the match, she'd been told to sit back and wait, as a final surprise to Tatra. Now, five hours later, she was still at the exact same place that she started. She did bring some of her grandmother's doughnuts, Pączki, and a book to pass the time, but as Stalin would say when he'd be presented with a list of people to be shot, it wasn't enough. So she sat there with her crew, in the commander's seat of her wz.28, the entire day, fruit jam from the doughnuts all over her uniform (she was not a very tidy eater), listening to all the radio chatter of the day. But, at last, she'd finally received the signal to begin the final phase of the plan. And with it, her signal to finally get to work.

The plan wasn't very complicated, in all honesty. It involved her and the Bonple's other trains to perform an encirclement of sorts, with the main body of two railcars advancing towards the Hurban, and her advancing from the other side. Especially with a weakened Hurban, this should be a very simple task.

Of course, her Wrong-O-Meter was shooting through the roof at this point. Meaning that, Tatra had other ideas.

Commander Luiza's voice rang through the radio, "We've spotted their smoke plume. That's your signal, Grunia."

"Yes, Commander. We'll be right there," Grunia replied. "Alright girls, let's get a move on!" she ordered her crew.

Back at the Hurban, the situation was still rather dicey. They had figured out a way to slow and weaken the pursuing wz.28s, but they still did not know how they were going to win. It would've been possible to position the train on the hill, in the pattern of Janosik's original plan. However, that would've probably led to Bonple realising that one railcar was missing immediately, as the train would've been fully visible on the hill, so that was a dead end.

Unfortunately, they did not have much time to think of a plan, since Bonple had already started blasting.

Three shells hit in the vicinity of the Hurban. They weren't near-misses, but it was clear that if this were to go on, Bonple's gunners would probably score a lucky hit in the next few salvoes. They were under a severe time crunch now.

"There were three shells. But, two enemy railcars. Wha-"

Unfortunately, Ivana's loud yell once again cut Janosik off.

"ENEMY! TEN-O-CLOCK! FOUR HUNDRED METRES!"

"How?! Shouldn't they all be behind us?" Dominika's startled voice rang out.

"DOES IT MATTER? RETURN FIRE!" Janosik barked.

Every shell fired promptly fell in excess of thirty metres from the wz.28.

"Stop the train!" Ivana ordered.

"Are you mad?" Janosik asked.

"Stop the train, dammit! I'm trying to save us here! Marta, just do it!"

Marta applied the brakes.

Nikola aimed and shot. Her tank carriage hollered in anger. Finally, the shell hit home.

When the smoke cleared, a white flag had emerged from Grunia's wz.28.

Surprise, surprise, Bonple's plan had gone horribly wrong.

Luiza's wz.28, 20 minutes earlier

"Looks like we're approaching the tunnel," Zivia said over the radio. "We should intercept them in about… eight minutes."

"Excellent. Commence fire," Luiza ordered.

The guns of the two Bonple railcars roared in fury.

To their surprise, they heard the sound of a 75mm round bouncing off their side armour.

CLANG!

"That's weird, surely they haven't returned fi-"

"COMMANDER! ENEMY, STRAIGHT AHEAD, EIGHT HUNDRED METRES!" Zivia yelled.

"What? But isn't the Hurban, way over there?"

And then, the realization hit Luiza like a brick.

"Dammit, return fire!"

However, they were still reloading from that initial salvo. In that time, Hurban's chase gun could get off another shot.

This time, the shell hit home. Zivia's railcar was knocked out of the match.

"We got them!" Milada squealed in excitement.

Alas, that was the end of the matter. A 75mm round quickly ended Cecilia's hopes of knocking out the other wz.28. But it didn't matter. She slowed them down, albeit just for a few minutes.

"Hopefully, it'll be enough," Cecilia said, as she watched Bonple's last railcar speeding off into the distance.

The mood in Luiza's wz.28 was much, much worse, to put it mildly. Unfortunately, it was about to get worse. Because Grunia had just informed Luiza that Grunia's wz.28 had been caught alone, and overpowered. This meant that it all came down to Luiza and the Hurban. A weakened Hurban, but she would still be outgunned.

"Commander Luiza," one of her crew members spoke up. "We aren't going to lose this, are we?"

"We'll win this, no matter the cost," Luiza replied coldly. Of course, she was less than completely confident in her response, because they'd managed to destroy three of her four railcars. But still, she was confident in victory.

As they say, Luiza paid for the entire Wrong-o-Meter, she's going to use the entire Wrong-o-Meter. Because she was very, very wrong.

"Open fire on that piece of junk," ordered Luiza. "We're finishing it off, by ourselves."

The wz.28 almost seemed to channel Luiza's anger and frustration into its gunfire. Because Luiza was looking for revenge now.

"So they had a fourth one," Ivana said.

"Apparently they did," Janosik said. "If they've encircled us in the tunnel, we would've been toast."

An explosion threw the Hurban out of balance. Ten metres off.

"Do you think Cecilia's carriage slowed them down enough?"

"Well, they aren't here now, so I think they did."

Another round rattled the Hurban. Five metres off.

"Well, they're almost here now," Janosik said.

Another round. This time, it hit home.

When the smoke cleared, another white flag had popped up.

Not all stories have happy endings. Unfortunately, no matter what one wishes for, prays for, even asks very nicely using the magic word for, the world is not perfect, and not every story can end in rainbows and unicorns prancing around in Childrensbookistan all the time. Life isn't fair, and until one realizes that, he will never be complete. Some stories just won't have happy endings.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on what one wants out of this story, this story is not one of them.

Because, the white flag had popped out of the Hurban's locomotive, not its last tank car. And while yes, it was dead on the water, Luiza's railcar had conveniently emerged into visual range right after the Hurban stopped.

It was at this exact moment when Luiza saw the barrel of the 37mm gun pointed straight towards her wz.28, that she knew, she fucked up.

Nikola trained the gun towards Luiza's railcar.

"Let's put some lead on these mother-"

"FIRE!"

A loud crack. Another loud crack.

And then silence.

More silence.

More silence.

Tad bit more silence.

The silence was broken by the sound of the familiar white flag emerging from Luiza's railcar.

The voice of the loudspeaker came. "All of Bonple High School's units, disabled! Tatra Girls' Academy, takes this match!"

The Hurban's crew erupted.

"We did it!" Dominika yelled.

Some hugged. Some danced. The ones who danced immediately found out that dancing wasn't exactly the easiest task to be done in the cramped interior of an armoured train. But nevertheless, they'd won, and they savoured the moment.

Janosik lay down in exhaustion. She'd been shouting and sweating the entire day, and it felt good just to lie down.

Ivana simply sighed. There's a long way to go.

Janosik heard the footsteps of… someone, approaching the train. To her surprise, it was Luiza, the commander of Bonple's Ressha-do team.

"So, you must be Janosik, right? Commander of Tatra's Ressha-do team?"

"Oh, hey," Janosik turned around. "And you are?"

"I'm Luiza. I'm Bonple's commander."

"Nice to meet you, Luiza."

"It was a good match. I'm impressed, if not a little frustrated. I thought this would've been an easy match. I was proven very wrong."

"Thanks, Luiza. You fought well, too."

"Oh, please, don't flatter me. You deserved to win that. Next year, we'll make sure to beat you. Anyways, I think I ought to go now. It's getting dark, and I'm sure my parents would like to see me before I get on the carrier."

"I'm looking forward to beating you next year. Thank you for the great game, Luiza."

And Luiza ran off.

Tatra's crew headed back to the spectator's area as well. There, they first saw Miroslava and Svetlana, both completely stunned by what had transpired.

"Oh my god," Miroslava squealed. "That was ah-may-zing!"

"Thanks, Miro," Janosik said.

"Whatever you guys did in that tunnel, it worked," Svetlana added.

"It did," Ivana said.

"Well, your parents are here," Miroslava told them. "You should pop by and say hello before we go back onto the ship. We'll have a full debrief later."

The group scattered, on their way to find their parents.

Except for Ivana.

"Ivana, why aren't you going to see your parents? Are they not here?"

Guess it's time to spill the tea, Ivana thought.

"Well, there's something you don't know about me."

"What?"

"I'm an orphan."

A/N: Hello there, once again! So, guess I lied when I said you could expect shorter chapters next time. I did want to get this done by mid-last week, but due to some obvious global events going on right now, the final stages of writing the chapter was pushed off by a few days. But, alas, Chapter 3 is here by the end of the day.

So, quick recap; we covered Janosik's little bathroom adventure, and the training session before the battle. It's pretty clear that she's turned into quite the asshole in the past month, and the power has gotten into her head a little bit. And that translates into a disaster during the first stages of the battle, where she charges headfirst and loses a good chunk of the Hurban to Bonple. Long story short, she retreats, she is comforted, and at the end of the day, surprise surprise, the good guys win. The chapter ends with the revelation that Ivana is an orphan, and that provides an explanation on why she's been experiencing so many financial issues since she got there. Needless to say, her backstory will continue to be explored in future chapters.

We also introduced a new school; Nikolaevsky High School. For the eagle-eyed out there, you may have noticed that Nikolaevsky is the former name of Leningradsky Railway Station in Moscow, between 1856 and 1924. And, if you have not deduced this already, this is a White Russia-themed school.

Anyways, that's about it. Chapter Four will come out when it comes out. Once again, thanks for stopping by, and I'd really appreciate a review.