Baylee looked around the small living room she and her friends sat in. It was obvious nobody was really sure how to start the conversation. Claire looked nervous as ever, Anna was fidgeting awkwardly, and Miranda was glancing at her crush while sipping the tea Lindsey had prepared for them.

She took a long look at the woman across from them. Lindsey was shorter than they'd all expected, and Baylee was pretty sure Miranda was the only person in the room shorter than the coach. With platinum blonde hair kept in a neat knot behind her head, she seemed the professional 'no bullshit' sort. However, the laugh lines on the edges of her emerald eyes suggested to Baylee that in other situations, this woman might be the life of the party.

"These cups are really nice." Baylee thought, "Guess tea is as good a topic as any to start a conversation." she opened her mouth to ask but amazingly Claire beat her to the punch, and began the conversation.

"Why are you a coach?"

"Excellent question, Claire, always the social butterfly," Baylee thought dryly, and looked to the coach to see if she took offence to Claire's out-of-the-blue question. She knew her friend didn't mean any disrespect, she was just bad at starting conversations, but thankfully Lindsey seemed more amused by the question than anything else, and responded a moment later.

"Well… Why wouldn't I be a coach?" She asked, sipping her tea.

Claire looked like she wasn't sure how to start, "You seem very young… and from what I was able to find online, it just seems strange you'd be a coach, and not on some professional team."

Lindsey seemed to approve of this response. A small grin formed on her lips and she relaxed into the couch as she answered. "Well sure. I could have gone down that route. But I think I'm pretty happy with my decision."

Claire seemed to struggle to find a good response, which was understandable. There really wasn't a straight answer in Lindsey's comment. Luckily, the indigo airhead was saved by Miranda.

"Was your goal always to become a coach?"

With that Lindsey smiled. "Not from the start. I did hope to go pro, actually. But in college, that goal shifted and now I'm here. Anyway, enough about me. I'd like to know more about the four teens who tracked me down not 48 hours after the coming team's announcement." She paused for a moment, looking each girl in the eyes, then she pointed to Baylee, "Let's start with you…"


The five spoke well into the day. After some time Lindsey stood and walked to a door across the room, "Now, as much as I'd like to, I can't actually allow you girls to get in a real tank today…" She was interrupted by a chorus of objection, Claire specifically looked like she'd been punched. With her hands flat in the air Lindsey continued "Hold on hold on, I said real tank. I have a work around that I think you'll all be pleased with." She opened the door and pulled out a box. "The school has heaps of these laying around, and they're perfect for us

Miranda looked at the device with a soft look in her eyes. A VR headset. "Hey, I have one of these. My family uses them to hang out, and my dad and I play some games."

Before anyone got a chance to reply Baylee asked Lindsey a question. "So we're going to practice in VR? I always thought it was just for games, what all can these things do? Are they that realistic?"

"Well on its own it's real enough. But with the help of AI it can feel pretty lifelike. Especially if it's a Smart AI." Replied Lindsey. "Anyway, a lot of fields utilize it. Many dangerous jobs are able to train new employees in VR. Doctors, construction, and so on. Education too! In university I took an astronomy class that was held entirely in VR.

That seemed to catch Anna's attention. "That's kinda cool, what was it like? Did you get to experience things like weightlessness?"

"A few times, yeah." Lindsey said with a chuckle. On the first day the professor played a prank on us. She cut the gravity in the middle of her introduction. Sure it's all fake but it felt so real! By the end of the class I was pretty good at getting around in a weightless environment."

Anna looked like she had stars in her eyes. But before she could bombard Lindsey with questions the coach returned to their original topic.

"Now with these, we can start hands-on training risk free. I've put together a program and with you four I think we could get this ready for the whole team. So how 'bout it? Want to help?"

They didn't even have to think about it. Four voices spoke in unison. "Yes!"


Hannah Cody sat in her living room watching her daughters set up their VR headsets. Her kids looked a lot like her. Same eyes, same hair color. Though they wore it much shorter than her. Similar faces but with a touch of their dads nose and ears. "You two are sure those are safe? I don't think I'd want to be put online in some program that's able to read my mind." She said this with a degree of mockery in her tone

Anna laughed, "Well the school trusts them… huh, not sure that makes me feel any better."

"Exactly," Hannah replied. "What do you think, Claire?

"Sorry mom, there's tanks, I'm going" said Claire, her voice full of mock confidence.

That made Anna giggle, "Well at least we know we could kidnap you… better keep that secret as best we can, huh Mom-Ow!" yelled the twin holding her forehead. "It was a joke! Why'd you flick me, mom!?"

"Because I don't think you're very funny Anna. Now, your dork of a father says he's fine with it, so have fun. But for now how about you stay in the living room so I can keep an eye on you both."

"Really?" said Anna. "you asked dad? Has he ever once said no to Claire? OW! Quit flicking my head!"

"Then stop saying rude things." replied Hannah, under her breath she added "no matter how true those things are."

Anna accepted this but noticed Claire wasn't paying attention anymore. "Off she goes into Claire Land." "Twin! Whatcha thinkin about?"

Claire flinched as she returned to reality, "OH! Uh.. well I'm just excited! I wonder what kind of tanks we'll get to mess with. Tankery rules state only tanks that had physical prototypes before the end of World War Two. So no Pattons sadly…But maybe a Tiger!

"Oh that would be awesome! Totally calling dibs if we ever get one!"

The sisters talked for a little longer as they continued putting the headsets together, connecting them to the house's internet, and calibrating them to have their height and appearance ready when they load in.

As they finished, their mother returned to the room, "You both set up yet? It's almost time to be there."

"Yeah, we're all set!" Anna replied as she walked out of the room "I'm gonna log on in a second. I just need to grab something first. Don't wait up Claire!"

"Wasn't really planning on it." said her twin with a laugh. "But hurry up! We promised we wouldn't be late!" yelled Claire, as she put on the headset and laid down on the couch. "Any idea how to start this thing mom? Maybe it's verbal...Power on! Activate! Link Start! Huh… nothing happening."

"Maybe it's the big connect button on the side of your face," said Hannah, amused by her daughter's antics.

"Oh… yeah that might do the trick." Claire tapped the button and relaxed. "That did it. Have a countdown going down in my ear. See ya later mom!"

Have fun sweetie. Also back to my concerns, if you come out speaking binary I swear not keeping you." chuckled Hannah. "See ya later."


When Claire opened her eyes again she was no longer in her home, but in a field that seemed to go on forever. To her left was a collection of hills and trees with a complex path stretching across, to her right a large garage with what appeared to be a Sherman tank parked just outside, and behind her sat a range she assumed was for shooting targets. As she finished inspecting her surroundings and walking around a little, three figures emerged next to her.

"Told you she'd be here early," said a smirking Anna, shimmering light danced around as her avatar loaded in.

"Can't show up on time for anything, but add a tank and she's here before any of us. Yup, that's our Claire," replied Miranda. "See anything good or did you just get here?"

"Everyone's a comedian," Claire thought, annoyed. "Really funny, you two. I'll have you know I just got here too. I'm not that early, and the only reason Anna wasn't here is because she left when we finished setting up." she responded with an angry look.

Anna was laughing fairly hard at that point. "That was the plan to be honest with you. And You're going to love the pictures mom and I took with you."

Claire was about to yell at Anna more, but she noticed the third to arrive and her look softened, "Baylee, you okay? You look sick."

Baylee took a second but straightened up, "I-I'm fine. These VR games mess with my head. Just give me a moment."

While the friends made sure her best friend was okay, two figures walked over from the large garage. The first they immediately recognized as Lindsey. The second was a large man with broad shoulders, slight stubble beard, and short brown hair. Dressed in the kind of attire Claire would expect Baylee to wear at a rodeo. She couldn't place him, but she knew she recognized the man.

Claire figured she'd learn who he was in time, so she waved and immediately jumped into a streak of questions, "Hey Coach! We aren't late, are we? Is that an M4A1 Sherman? Will we be using it or are there other tanks in the garage? I read somewhere tha-HMPH"

With a hand over Claire's mouth, Anna spoke. "Sorry Coach, she gets excited." She added a poke to her twin's side for emphasis. "Anyway, hi! Is this guy another coach? I don't recognise him."

The man appeared momentarily frozen by Claire's barrage of questions and didn't immediately respond. After a moment he glanced at Anna and grinned, "Well, howdy there Miss Anna Cody, Don't ya recognize me?"

"...You're kidding," was all Anna could say, visibly upset.

"Lloyd?! How are you here?" questioned Baylee.

In front of the four girls stood a life sized, solid Lloyd. With a smile, he tipped his hat. "Well, you see young Missy, the lovely Miss Bates here asked that I dedicate some of my processing to this-here simulation. To make it more real-like. And while I ain't one of them fancy Smart AIs, I reckon I'm more than enough for the task."

Lindsey, catching the confused looks on all but Miranda's face, decided to explain. "Okay, while VR is great it still struggles to feel as real as the outside. But with the help of an AI, that gap can be shrunk to an extent. This won't be perfect training, but it's completely safe for beginners like you. So for now this is how we're going to do it." She then looked to Claire and gave a nod. "To answer your questions, no, you are not late. Early in fact. That's good, I like early. As for the tank," Lindsey said as she turned toward the beast, "Apparently Cattle Kate still has two of these in storage. Now while it may look like any normal M4A1, it's actually a Canadian tank called the Grizzly 1 Cruiser. Lloyd and I still have some stuff to work out, so take this time to familiarize yourselves with the vehicle."

With that the girls began to walk toward the tank. Claire did her best not to rush, but failed halfway there and took off in front of the others. After around four four minutes Claire noticed what she thought made this tank different. To confirm her suspicion she looked to the AI still speaking to Lindsey. "Um… excuse me, Lloyd... could you place a normal M4A1 for me here?"

Lloyd, who enjoyed any opportunity to show off, happily obliged. With a snap of his finger a new tank materialized next to the Grizzly.

"That's what I thought," said Claire with her eyes fixed on the tracks of the new tank. "Come check this out, guys."

From around the Grizzly, the others came to her.

"Look there,'' Claire said, her finger pointed at the tracks. "They're wider than a normal Sherman, no rubber, and the drive wheel has more teeth."

"You got it," said Lindsey having finished her chat with the AI, "While these tanks left production with the normal parts, they were later modified. Now, let's get you in that tank. You'll all be trained for each position so it doesn't matter where you start."

With a nod Anna, Baylee, and Miranda all hopped onto the vehicle. Each wordlessly steered clear of the driver's hatch and one at a time, dropped into the turret.

Confused by none of them even looking at the drivers position, Lindsey asked, "um...you guys aren't scared to drive are you?"

Anna, last to get in, looked up and uttered one word, "Nope," and descended into the tank.

"Huh, wonder what their issue… ohhh" next to Lindsey stood Claire, eyes glued to the driver's hatch.

Claire dared not look away. In her heart she feared if she so much as blinked this would all disappear. With an unsure step she reached out and placed a hand on the tank. "Virtual or not. This will be my first time driving a tank. Part of me always hoped the M60 in town would be my first." Claire laughed, "But I guess the spot goes to you.. huh?" She jumped as a hand fell onto her shoulder. Standing beside her was Lindsey. Shocked, she began to stutter out, "S-sorry coach! I d-didn't..."

"It's okay," said Lindsey, a kindness in her eyes Claire hadn't seen before, "Clearly you've waited a long time. Hell, I remember my first moments in a tank like it was yesterday. Don't rush yourself." She then pulled herself up and into the secondary driver position.

After taking some time, with a deep breath and a grin, Claire jumped onto the tank, and into the drivers hatch.

With less than a second in the seat Claire began acquainting herself with the Grizzly. In front of her were the two grips for the left and right track controls, she noted they were in the park position. Her left foot rested on the clutch and her right foot on the accelerator. To her right rested the shifting lever and to her left was a flat panel with all sorts of gauges and switches for using the tank. Claire looked behind her and saw her friends, and next to her was Coach.

"Alright, I'm ready!"

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Thank you for reading! I'm SO SORRY for the long wait.

Big thanks to AAHW and Rihnoswirl for all the help making this chapter the best it could be! They are the coolest and everyone who reads this should totally check their fics out!

HUGE thanks to Rihnoswirl, for creating the one-shot "The Tigress and the Outlaws" as a birthday present to me. Anyone who likes CKO PLEASE read this! Its super cute! Totally made me cry the happy tears. lol

If you enjoyed the story or have any advice PLEASE leave a review I still have so much to learn but I'm having a lot of fun! Thanks again!