ALREADY ON CHAPTER THREE! Work has been really slow and I hoped I could quick pump out a third chapter. Aren't you all so lucky?

James: yeah, real lucky…

Oh, James, how was the fangirl pit?

James: ILL SHUT UP PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME GO BACK THERE

Good! Now then, someone managed to guess the name of the mysterious message sender but that doesn't mean I'm going to quick pump out their identity. I have a great plan for that, but the time isn't now, this is a build up to it. Though it means trouble for james…

James: I SAID ID BE GOOD!

I know, but I had originally planned this all along. Now, LETS GET TO CHAPTER THREE! (Quick note, the part about gym is only relevant to the world that they are living in. I have no idea what Japan's, or any other countries for that matter, gym classes are like. Just so were clear.)

Chapter 3

TIME TO TRAIN!

"Why are we up this early?" Ichika asked as we started our run. "The sun isn't even up yet!"

"Would you rather do this while the sun is out and it's much hotter?" I asked. "Because I have no problems with that!"

"Fine, I won't question it." Ichika sighed in defeat. "But why are we running? This isn't what I had in mind when you told me we were going to be training for our battles over being the class rep."

"Its stamina training you twit." I said as we rounded the first corner. "The longer your body can run, the longer you can last in a fight before getting tired. Robert and I have that in spades, and so does your sister."

"Aye, that she does." Robert said, running alongside us.

"Shut up." Chifuyu said, hitting Robert with a book out of nowhere. "I'm only here to finish our little challenge from yesterday."

"You mean the one you lost when you almost died laughing?" Robert teased, making a snorting sound that was remarkably similar to how Chifuyu had sounded.

"I-I didn't lose! We never finished!" She said in defense, hitting Robert again and making him stumble and fall. "Ha! Now it seems you are the one who los-"

"NOPE!" Robert said, quickly rolling and popping back up without missing a beat. "You're going to have to try a lot better than that!"

"ANYWAY!" I said, getting Ichika's attention again. "Just run as long as you can. When you think you're done, tell me."

"Alright." He said, quieting down as he focused on running and not wasting his breath.

"You too Houki! When you think you're done, tell me!" I said to the girl. She was, big surprise, running alongside Ichika. We were all in our pilots outfits with the exception of Robert and Chifuyu, who were in their own training outfits. Though I noticed he kept stumbling when he looked over at Chifuyu and would occasionally fall behind her. I made a mental note to either get the two of them together, or to get out of the way when she decided to finally kill him.

I increased my pace so that I would be in the lead then slowed back down. This was going to be a long ass run and I wanted to set a good example. Thankfully that was another thing that Uncle Fisher had taught me: a good leader leads by example, not by giving fancy speeches inside the base. I had taken Ichika under my wing, so I was going to be right alongside him the whole way.

The sun started to rise on our 5th lap. Ichika and Houki were panting, but refused to stop. Robert kept stumbling and Chifuyu finally decided to start hitting him every time he looked at her. Eventually he got the message, though he still snuck a few peeks at her. Now that it was brighter, I noticed that she had a bit of a red hue to her cheeks.

"I'm done!" Houki said, slowing down, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she panted.

"One more lap! You can do it!" I encouraged her, and she picked back up the pace. At the end of the next lap she started to slow down again. "One more lap!" I called out again, and again she caught back up. The next lap, the same thing happened, but Ichika also said he was done.

"Let's keep running!" I cheered to them. Ichika started running but Houki only slowed back down, seemingly done. I turned around and ran back to her. "Come on Houki, let's get another lap in."

"No, I can't run anymore." She panted.

"You can do one more lap." I said

"No, I really can't." Her breathing was quite rapid.

"Trust me, you can. Unless your legs actually give out on you, you're capable of running still. Now come on." I said, running off. Houki begrudgingly got back up, but had a much slower pace. I matched her pace and ran beside her. "What got you back up?"

"You." She growled, anger clearly all over her face.

"Nope. I just told you what to do. You didn't have to do anything." I said, getting a confused look from her. "You got yourself back up and running, so what got you back up?"

"You apparently have high expectations of me." She growled again.

"Again, no. Let me change questions. Why do you think I want you to keep running?" I asked

"To see me pass out on the floor." She muttered.

"While it would be funny, no. It's because the only thing limiting you is your mind."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm saying that your mind is the only thing stopping you. Your body will keep going until it can't and it will drop, but you mind is stopping you long before you get there." I said. "My uncle taught me that, but I never got a chance to really try it until I had to run 50 miles without a break. Same pace we have been going too."

"How did you manage that?" she asked, her breathing calming down some.

"I just kept running, despite how much I wanted to stop. I refused to stop unless my body actually gave out. Just after I finished, I ended up collapsing. My CO simply gave me a nod and let me rest for the day. Same with Robert, though I had to give him the same speech I'm giving you, and will probably give to Ichika when he gets to this point."

"But that's the military!" she complained.

"So? It was day one. I didn't know any fancy breathing techniques, didn't get any rests, and didn't have any training other than the knowledge that I could run till my body gave out." I said. "And ya know what, I only got better from there. I reached my body's true limit, and pushed past it, making me able to go just that much farther. So what are you going to do? Keep running until you drop? Or will you stop before that?"

"I'm not sure." She answered, stepping up her pace. "But I'm going to try."

"Good." Was all I said. Three laps later I ended up getting Ichika going, but only had to keep saying one more lap. Eventually he got the idea in his head and kept running. Robert and Chifuyu had kept the same pace, occasionally trading insults or blows, but Chifuyu seemed to be opening up more. Maybe it was because she finally had people who were challenging her and holding their own. After the 20th lap, both Houki and Ichika collapsed on the ground. I stopped running, telling Robert and Chifuyu to keep running and that I would be back after I brought both of them to their rooms.

Activating only Rouge's arms, I picked up the two of them carefully and walked back to the dorms. Setting down Ichika, I opened the door and laid Houki down on her bed (It being the only one that had been slept in) and then got Ichika and laid him on the other bed. After quickly flying back to where we were running, I dropped down and matched Robert and Chifuyu's paces perfectly.

"They going to be alright?" Robert asked.

"You should know that better than anyone dude. We both dropped after our run and were out for the rest of the day, and they only got 10 miles in." I said.

"You two really ran 50 miles?" Chifuyu asked.

"You don't believe us, do you?" I asked.

"Im starting to, Robert and I are on mile 25." She said.

"Damn, I took that long?" I muttered. "All well, I'll just keep going after you two stop. Also, please excuse those two from class today. They need the rest."

"Already planned on it." She said, throwing a punch at Robert who had been staring at her again. "WILL YOU KNOCK THAT OFF? IM A TEACHER!"

"Sorry, just can't help myself." Robert said, dodging a second punch, but stumbling and falling. "Damn it you got me, I'm down. You win this time." He said, getting up and dusting himself off.

"Well then there's no point in continuing." She said, calmly walking off. "You two have enough time to shower before class starts. I suggest you do so."

"Did she just say we smell?" I asked Robert, causing us both to laugh. We walked back to the changing rooms and showered, we even had time to quick run through the food line and grab a snack so we wouldn't starve. When we got to class, we were both surprised to see Chifuyu still in her training outfit.

"Hey, didn't have time to change?" Robert said as we walked in, just before the bell rang to be marked as late.

"No, I'm surprised, you two did. We're going to be exercising during class today. Or did you two forget." Ms. Orimura said.

"Yeah, I forgot." I admitted with my eyes closed. I quickly dodged a book that few too close for comfort to my face. "Hey! At least I'm honest!"

"Today class," She was ignoring me! RUDE! "We are going to be heading down to the training rooms and exercising. Having a well-toned physical body is extremely beneficial to an IS pilot so let's head to the changing rooms"

The rest of the day was a mixture of more running, weight lifting, and Gatorade drinking for Robert, Ms. Orimura, and I. There were several girls who needed help, as it was clear that they had never expected to work out as a part of school or had simply never done so before. And people criticize America for having mandatory gym classes, at least we knew what to do in a gym class! Ever since the IS was invented and women gained a lot of power, too much has changed. My thoughs on the subject, however, were interrupted by a loud yell.

"WHY MUST I PARTICIPATE IN THIS FOOLISH EXCERSIZE?" Cecilia yelled

"MS. ALCOTT, If you wish to remove yourself from this class I won't stop you. However, as one of the supposed ELETE, you should know the value of matching your physical body's ability's to that of your IS's as much as possible, making the IS an extension of your body." Ms. Orimura said, getting a frustrated, yet embarrassed glare from Cecilia.

"If that's the case, then why aren't Houki and Ichika here with us?" she demanded.

"Because this morning the two of them and I participated in a contest and they gave it their all, but burnt out. I gave them the rest of the day off to recover, excusing them from harming their body's by continuing to push themselves." Ms. Orimura explained. "And should anyone else truly reach their limits, they are also excused from class and any homework that would be assigned."

"That seems fair." Some girls said.

"Why wasn't I invited to go with Ichika?" some others said. Cecilia was thoroughly embarrassed and stomped to one of the corners of the gym, seemingly wanting to be alone. After a few glances my way from her and some other girls, I sighed and walked over to her.

"Hey." I said, sitting down on one of the leg machines that tones the inner thigh muscles. "You ok?"

"Why should a commoner like you care?" She said, looking away in disgust. I simply sighed again.

"Why do you act this way? We could be friends and train together, but you have to act superior." I asked.

"Because I am! A commoner like you wouldn't understand." She said. I let the weights drop with a loud crash, startling her and several others who just looked away.

"Let me guess, your parents were gone a lot, for most of your life in fact. One of them was your closest friend and the other was only a form of provider. One day, something happened and you were left alone with a massive inheritance, but what you wanted was a friend. Despite your efforts, everyone only saw you as a the 'Elite' girl who inherited her family's wealth." I said. "Am I on the right track?" Cecilia just looked at the ground, trying to hold back a sad expression, but I saw through it. Thank you military files on students attending the school, otherwise I wouldn't know any of this!

"Yeah…" she muttered, then let out a yelp as she was surprised when I got up and hugged her.

"I'm offering to be your friend. You don't need to act like a member of the elite anymore. You can be yourself here." I said, trying to cheer her up. What I didn't notice was that one; Cecilia was giving a small smile, and two; EVERY OTHER GIRL WAS GETTING ANGRY AT ME!

"Thank you." Cecilia said, gently pushing me away to signify that she was feeling better. "I mean that. It's been so long since I've had a friend. It's always been orders from people or others simply trying to get close to me to steal my family's fortune. The reason I became the Representative contender for the United Kingdom was because they said they would keep my family's wealth safe. But now I'm glad I came for a new reason."

"So were friends now?" I asked, a smile spreading across my face and extending my hand.

"Friends." She said, also smiling as she shook my hand.

"Good. Now, as my friend…" I said, gaining an evil grin, "tomorrow morning we start training." Cecilia gulped and all the girls that were angry at me suddenly backed off. Robert and Ms. Orimura noticed this and had a small laugh, knowing exactly how Cecilia really felt about me now.

THE NEXT DAY

We were all out on the track like we were yesterday. There were a couple glances at Cecilia, who no one but me was expecting, and I set everyone strait with it. Houki and Ichika were complaining about still being sore, but a quick explanation later they stopped complaining.

"Resting too long will only make your muscles cramp up more, that why your sore. If you're up and moving, then the soreness will go away. Plus the more you get up and do this, the less likely you will end up getting sore. Now, since we know that Ichika and Houki can do around 10 miles, I want you two to do just under that." I said, earning confused looks from the two of them. "Well save runs that push you two for the weekends so you don't miss classes like yesterday. Now, Cecilia, today you are going to run till you drop." I said with an evil grin on my face, causing Cecilia to gulp with nervousness. Even Ichika and Houki were scared by the look on my face. The sad thing was that I was just mimicking my uncle when he had started training me, though he never pushed me too far.

"Let's go!" Chifuyu said as she and the rest of us started to run, though I quickly realized that I thought of her a Chifuyu instead of Ms. Orimura when we were training and outside of class. Eh, shouldn't matter too much, especially since Robert just kept calling her Chifuyu regardless of where we were at the time. The two of them had no clue that they liked each other, despite it being obvious to EVERYONE ELSE. I'm pretty sure that Ichika didn't appreciate Roberts's advances towards his sister, though I think if she was happy in the end he wouldn't care. I really should ask him some time.

But first I had to whip these kids into shape. Hehehe.

LATER

After bringing Cecilia back to her room, I went to mine and showered before class. Ms. Orimura had given me and Robert a pass to be late since we didn't want to show up smelling badly. Robert was waiting on the spare bed for his turn. As I showered I thought about how Cecilia, Ichika, and Houki had performed today.

Houki had performed better than she had the day before, though I think that had to do with the speech I had given her and a desire to impress Ichika and show off to Cecilia. She had insisted on running the full time instead of stopping like I had told them to when we started. Thankfully, her body didn't give out like it had the previous day, a sign that my training was working already.

Cecilia had surprised everyone when she managed to go 12 miles instead of the 10 that Ichika and Houki had done their first day. Though once she reached her limit, she dropped like a sack of potatoes. Thankfully, she fell into the grass instead of onto the track. However, we let her lay down to let Ichika finish.

He had been the best performer out of the three (Robert, Chifuyu, and I not being added due to our higher skill), and has surprised the shit out of me. He managed to run for 15 miles today before stopping. If he could keep that up, then I would be having to train him on IS piloting sooner that I thought. Tonight would be combat training then, I decided. Maybe Houki could come train too. We would see.

I finished my shower and let Robert take his while I got dressed, silently tanking the military for getting rid of the awkwardness of seeing fellow mechanics and servicemen and women naked. I knew it would be different here, it being all girls, but the military life had probably taken the worst of it away. Though apparently Robert had heard some rumors of girls shipping me and Ichika… yeah that wasn't happening. Ever.

Robert finished and we went to class. It was another typical day: Ms. Orimura throwing books at me for no reason, her throwing books at Robert for calling her Chifuyu in class and hitting on her, me dodging said books and Robert getting hit. How did she even have all these books anyway? Were they all stored in her quantum storage area? Man that's a lot of books.

The plus side to living at a school of all girls was defiantly the food though. Robert and I treated ourselves every time we ate, though it was actually to make sure our bodies were getting enough calories and nutrients despite our extreme workouts. Despite only being here for around a week (since we got here a couple days early) we already had a reputation for being some of the biggest eaters.

After classes, I grabbed Ichika and Robert and headed to the training field. Ichika had no clue what he was in for when I told him we were training, but Robert knew all too well what was going to be happening. He had been on the receiving end of this training countless times. We got to the field and Ichika was fed up of being left out of the loop.

"What is going on." He said, clearly irritated and not going to go along with anything until he knew why he was being dragged out her.

"Training." I said, adopting a tone that he hadn't before: a drill instructor. I wouldn't go full drill instructor on him, but enough so that he knew I was going to be serious about this.

"What type of training." He said, still with a tone of attitude. A quick kick to the back of his legs and a hand to his throat as he landed on the ground quickly shut him up and made him lose his attitude. "Ohhh, what was that for?" he groaned.

"Training." I said again. "I'm going to teach you how to fight, since I have military training, as does Robert. The way I see it, any experience is better than none. If you don't want to do this, then we can all go to bed sooner."

"No, let's do this." Ichika said, standing up and dusting himself off. "So who do I fight first?"

"Yourself." Robert said, taking over. I simply nodded. "Right now your biggest weakness is that you don't really have anything to fight for, and that you will be judging yourself the whole time as you screw up. So tonight it won't matter who you face, because you're just going to be fighting yourself."

"So take your pick. If you and Robert fight, we train for the whole night, but if you land a hit on me at any point, you will be done for the night. That offer will be here every night until it happens." I said.

"It sounds like you think you won't be hit for a while." Ichika said, getting some of his attitude back.

"Because I won't be. I'm not being cocky, its fact. I have military training plus some years in a fight club. You won't land a hit on me. Simple as that." I said. "And I won't be holding back besides kill blows."

"If you're going to be like that, then I'll be the one fighting him. You would end up killing him, even if you were holding back." Robert said, stepping forward.

"No." Ichika said. "I'll fight James."

"You sure? I'll leave you with bruises defiantly, and you probably won't land a hit on me either, but James is an animal. I have no idea why the hell he wanted to be a mechanic of all things." Robert explained.

"Then why would I try to learn from anyone other than the best person present?" Ichika retorted, making a surprisingly large amount of sense. Robert could have been offended, but wasn't. It was a sound decision.

"Then know that your life may end here." I said, my voice unwavering. "If you don't train like your life depends on it, then how will you react when the life of another depends on you?"

I dashed forward, going for a quick strike. Ichika put up his arms to defend himself, but only covered his face and my fist landed square in his gut, knocking the breath out of him. To his credit, he didn't go down immediately, but instead took a swing at me. His punch, however, was exceptionally slow due to the pain in his gut, so I grabbed his arm and threw him over my shoulder, using his own momentum as help. Ichika landed on the ground, gasping for air.

"Up." I said, my voice still the same as before. "Were only getting started. You still have two more hours of this."

"Your kidding." Ichika gasped, though more for air than out of shock.

"I don't kid around when it comes to training." I deadpanned.

"He really doesn't. He takes that from his uncle unfortunately." Robert sighed, wondering why the hell he was here anymore.

Ichika got back on his feet and charged, throwing a punch much faster than he had before, but it was still too slow and was easily deflected. However, it seemed that was just a feint, as Ichika's foot came flying up, intending to kick me in the gut or head. I quickly dropped to the ground and swept the feet out from underneath him, but this time instead of leaving him there I climbed on top of him and threw a punch at his face. He saw it coming at full force and braced, only to be surprised when it didn't connect. He opened his eyes to see it stopped, inches away from his eye.

Taking an opportunity, Ichika shoved me off and rolled away. Standing up, he was about to go on the offence again when I landed a punch strait to his face. Again, Ichika surprised me and tried to use the momentum of his spin from my punch to quickly spin around and land a heavy hit on me. I saw it coming though and punched his arm as he finished half a turn, causing his muscles to have spasms and stop his attack.

The fight continued for quite some time before I finally called the session over. Ichika was sweaty and bruised, completely out of breath. I was perfectly fine, as I hadn't taken a single hit. Though that wasn't for a lack of trying on Ichika's end. He had actually come close several times, only being deflected my mere inches and caused me to actually try at times. As a result, my breathing was only slightly faster than it normally was.

"Just what kind of hell did you crawl out of to be able to do all of that?" Ichika asked, slowly catching his breath. I grabbed one of the bottles of water we had brought and handed it to him.

"United States Rangers and Navy Seals training camps, though as a mechanic I've never seen combat and ended up on special assignment fixing military IS units since graduation from basic. Still, any boot camp is pure hell, but it weeds out those who wouldn't be able to stand next to those who will need someone at their side." I said, cracking a smile.

"The seals? Fuck, if you had told me that I would have fought Robert." Ichika said.

"I went through the same thing, though James here got top honors." Robert said, smiling. "Why don't you tell him about the selection process for the Seals alone?"

"There's four stages. Selection, Physical Test, Hell Week, and General Training. During selection, the only prerequisite is that you must be male, age 17 to 28, with a high school diploma. Then you get put into groups of a thousand people, due to the high interest in becoming a Seal team member since they became infamous at taking down Osama Bin Laden, and start the physical tests. 50 push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups all in under 2 minutes for each, followed by a 1.5 mile run in 18.5 minutes and a 500 yard swim in 12.5 minutes. That drops the thousand recruits down to around 200 on average."

"Then there's hell weak, or this week for you, since I got permission from your sister to drill the living shit out of you. During each day will be 20 hours of hell and 4 hours of sleep. Its designed to put you to your absolute limits, a total of 132 hours of continuous physical labor and mental fatigue. Of that, only 50 of the original 1000 remain. After that is 8 weeks of underwater tactics, 9 weeks of land warfare tactics, and 3 weeks of parachute jump school. All during which you can be ejected from the course for even the smallest error."

"So, knowing that me and Robert managed to get through all that, only to be called off on special assignment before we finished, do you still want us to train you. This will be your last chance to back out." I said. Robert was sitting there, smiling and nodding his head as I spoke. Ichika's eyes had grown as I talked, but his face held a look of determination.

"I'm sure, though I'll probably regret it later." Ichika said with a determined smile. "And one day ill beat you."

"I'll look forward to that." I said, giving Ichika a fist bump. And with that we went our separate ways to bed, Ichika and I going the same way to a point while Robert just walked off. Needless to say, I was sure that Ichika was going to be sleeping quite soundly tonight, if he lives through Houki attacking him for not telling her he was training with me.

As I flopped down on my bed, I realized just how big of a challenge I had gotten myself into with training others. Even if it was just physical training and sparing with Ichika, it was going to take a toll on my grades if I didn't pay attention to them. Then throw Chifuyu in the mix and its changed from training to keeping her away from Robert.

Not wanting to keep thinking along that line of thought, I grabbed my phone and sent a text to myself. A minute later I ended up with a reply from that mysterious "friend." I still had no clue who the hell they were, but there was always a chance it was just some joker messing around with me, or more likely considering where I was before coming here, some unknown alien who was keeping tabs on me. That thought made me visibly shudder in fear. Regardless of who the individual was, they were amazing at not letting any hints slip at who the hell they were, and it was really starting to annoy me. After saying goodnight, since there's no reason to not be polite, I turned the light out and fell asleep.

The next week was more or less the same thing: early morning running for Ichika, Cecilia, and Houki, then Robert would hit on Chifuyu and she would fight back (though she was fighting it less and less now). After a shower, we would go to class and get lectured, I would zone out unless it was something I didn't know, and the nights were spent sparing with Ichika. He was getting a lot better, though I would have liked to actually fight with our IS's once. It's too bad his wasn't going to be here until the day of the fight.

Which was tomorrow. Today, being a Sunday, I had decided to let the training end at a smaller run and gave everyone the day off, though it's not like we had classes today anyway. I was wandering the halls, marking potential escape routes when I accidentally stumbled into a girl as we turned the corner at the same time.

"Sorry about that." I said, not falling down but causing her to fall despite my attempts to catch her. I offered my hand to help her up. "That was my bad, I should have been paying more attention."

"Your damn right you should have." She said. "Why the hell are you even here? The IS should only be operable to females. You're just ruining the purity of the name of IS pilots everywhere."

"Listen, I didn't ask to be a pilot." Figures, I knew there were going to be girls like this at the school. The world was, unfortunately, mostly like this girl here. Demanding that females take their place over males in all aspects due to the sheer firepower they wielded with the IS. They had already been making pushes in several governments for female leaders, and women killing men because of a simple wronging was becoming more and more frequent.

"Like ill believe that! You men are all the same, and it's high time someone put you in your place!" the girl yelled, throwing a punch much faster than I expected, but easily dodged regardless. I let out a sigh.

"I'm telling the truth. Sort of. While yes I was messing around with an IS, I never expected it to actually work and I didn't ask to be sent here as a pilot!" I tried to explain, dodging another punch. She was getting better and I was actually concentrating a lot on dodging her attacks.

She, however, wouldn't believe a thing I said and kept swinging, eventually landing a grazing blow on my shoulder after I had deflected her hit to my face. Thinking that the security cameras had enough footage to show that I hadn't attacked or provoked her intentionally and had only been defending myself, I decided to end this. I ducked under another of her jabs and shot forward, tackling her to the ground. I quickly rolled off her and stood, ready to actually start fighting.

She quickly jumped up and swung a left hook at me, which I grabbed and pulled to bring her close and land a solid punch to the gut, leaving her breathless for a minute. Instead of walking away, I stayed to make sure she would be alright. I immediately regretted that when she stood and IS arms materialized around her. Deeply regretting not setting up anything for the Rouge to quick summon from I did the next best thing when facing an opponent with greater firepower.

I ran.

And thank goodness I did too, because she started destroying anything in her path to get to me. Chairs, desks, and more than one person were injured in her lust to destroy me. I needed to get her away from people at the very least and fight her in the open. As I rounded a corner, I ducked and avoided a metal fist to my head as she soared past me due to the momentum of her punch. And in front of me was a delivery man… yeah I'm not even going to question that. He looked at me and seemed to be satisfied that he had found who he was looking for.

"Package for James Reverend. Sign here." He said. Not wasting ANY time, I signed for the package and ripped it open. Inside there was just a single black and blue, fingerless glove and a note. Grabbing both and leaving the rest of the package with the delivery man, I started running as the girl came back and busted a hole in the wall trying to hit me. I kept running, keeping everyone I came across out of the way of the rampaging girl behind me. After a couple minutes, I got a small rest as I lost her, but I knew she would find me soon enough. I decided to read the note and find out why the hell a delivery man had given me just a single glove.

"Dear James," why am I not surprised it's from THAT person "I've discovered you haven't given your IS a form when in standby mode for you to summon it. It is very important that you have access to it at any moment, as there are bound to be others who resent you as an IS pilot." YOU DON'T SAY! "The glove in the package has already been configured by myself to summon your IS. I hope that you like it! Sincerely, a friend."

"Thank you, ya daffy bastard whoever you are." I muttered as I quickly put on the glove… and realized I had NO CLUE ON HOW TO SUMMON ROUGE! I looked at the paper again and saw writing on the back, which explained I just needed to think about summoning the whole thing or just various parts, AFTER A FIVE MINUTE CALABRATION! Its ok, I just have to hold out for five more minutes, and I'll be fin- DUCK!

"THOUGHT YOU LOST ME DIDN'T YOU!" the crazy girl yelled as she smashed through the wall and charged at me. Where the hell are all the teachers? Shouldn't SOMEONE not be hearing this and reporting it to the staff? She had injured three girls already! I narrowly dodged another punch and started running, eagerly wanting to get away from the crazy girl and save my life. There was no way in hell I could go up against THAT on my own, without any sort of weaponry.

I kept up the running and managed to get outside, allowing her to materialize the rest of her IS, a bright pink and orange color scheme that wasn't there when it had just been the arms. There were two, triangle-like shapes around her shoulders and he had large, almost feather like wings.

'THIS IS BAD, THIS IS VERY VERY BAD!' I kept thinking to myself as I started sprinting, narrowly avoiding the punches she was still throwing. Deciding that wasn't working, she brought out a Morningstar and tried to crush me beneath its spiked ball. Finally, after what had felt like a year of just dodging, the glove on my hand tightened itself as if to signify that it was ready.

"ENOUGH!" I shouted, causing the girl to stop, mid-swing. "If you continue this, I will assume self-defense and start fighting back."

"GOOD LUCK!" she said, continuing her swing. The spiked ball about to hit me when I reached up and materialized Rouge's arms and grabbed the ball. The girl let out a shocked gasp as I easily broke the ball and materialized the rest of Rouge and a very sharp broadsword. The girl's face, instead of having a look of fear like I had expected, took on an insane persons look and laughed. She flew back and took out a laser rifle and started to snipe me from a distance. I blocked most of the shots, but my shields took a few hits. Curse this schools desire to limit how many shield points I get! I should have a near limitless amount, but can only use 700! And from just a couple of hits, I'm down to around 550! Just how powerful is that damn laser!

Diving to avoid an overcharged shot, I threw my broadsword like a spear and landed a hit, but my sword fell to the ground after and I couldn't run to grab it. Instead I summoned a large shield and a rifle of my own and took aim. The shield would allow me to block a lot more shots, but I would lose 5 shield points for every hit regardless. I started to fire back, keeping her moving so she couldn't get a proper hit on me.

Still smiling her insane smile, she kept firing regardless and was constantly dropping my shields with each hit. I needed to end this quickly before someone else ended up getting hurt, when all of a sudden two large beams struck my shield and send me flying back. Not knowing what the hell that was, I quickly sprinted behind a building and checked my shield points. They were at a rather low 200. If I took another hit like that, I would be done. Thankfully there was the Active shield system to keep me from taking any damage after that, since it was a failsafe designed to protect the pilot at all cost.

Just as I was about to turn the corner and start shooting, I end up face to face with the crazy girl, who happen to be charging up her shoulder cannons. Well, at least I know what the hell hit me. Now… DODGE DOGDE DODGE! I dove towards her, losing another 50 shield points from the blast hitting my feet as I dodged, and took a swing at her with the shield pierce dagger that I had. She seemed to be expecting that, however and kicked me square in the face, sending me flying. She immediately started to charge her cannons again, and I tried to summon my shield to negate most of the attack, but just as it was being summoned, her blast hit me. There was a loud pop as my shields disappeared and the Active Shield appeared, surrounding only my body. The Rouge's armor started to take hits and the girl was quite surprised. Then again, the armor was a combination of Titanium, Trinium, and Naquadah so it was meant to take some strong hits. She looked furious, then simply smiled and walked forward and picked me up.

"How does it feel to know your life is in my hands?" she asked, her voice dripping with venom.

"Eat shit and die bitch." Was all I said before firing the cannons that were mounted in my shoulders. At point blank, the blast was near deafening and sent the two of us flying. We each slammed into two buildings. My whole body hurt like hell, and I was so tired. I slowly felt my eyes close, and let darkness consume me.

LATER

I awoke with a jolt, sitting strait up and immediately regretting doing that. My whole body hurt like hell and any movement just made it hurt worse. I looked around and saw that I was in the medical room of the school. Just as I was about to lay back down, the door slammed open and Ms. Orimura stood in the doorway. As she walked in, she was followed by Ichika, Houki, Robert, and Cecilia, as well as a fifth girl I didn't recognize.

"You're awake. Good." Was all Ms. Orimura had to say, though she did look somewhat relieved. Houki and Cecilia hugged me, though they quickly let go when they realized I was in pain from it.

"We went sure if you were going to wake up!" Houki said, showing a surprising amount of concern, though I guessed she would show a lot more, plus anger, should Ichika get hurt.

"I certainly wasn't looking forward to one of my friends potentially not waking up!" Cecilia said, and despite her tone I knew she meant well.

"Damn man, you scared the shit out of us." Robert said, and slapped my back, knowing damn well that it hurt.

"Yeah, don't think you're getting out of being the only male IS pilot here." Ichika said, giving me a fist bump. My eyes turned to the last girl in the room. She was a young teenage girl with light brown hair tied in twintails with a yellow ribbon at both sides. Compared to Houki and Cecilia, she was quite petite, and her uniform appeared to be modified, seeing as her sleeves were detached from her uniform. Despite not knowing me, she had a large smile on her face which let me notice that she had a fang as one of her teeth.

"I know we just met, but I'm glad your ok! Any friend of Ichika's is a friend of mine! I'm Lingyin Hange, but you can call me Ling or Rin. I'm fine with either." She said.

"Nice to meet you." I replied,

"Well, since your awake and introductions are out of the way, I suppose we should get down to business." Ms. Orimura said. We all quieted down, and I paid as much attention as I could despite the pain in my body. "Let's first start off with your injuries. You sustained a major concussion as well as cracked ribs, but that was the worst of it. You're going to be immensely sore for the next week or so, but you should make a full recovery."

"As for your opponent, we have discovered that she was never a member of this school, and that her IS had been stolen from France. She's from a group who largely opposes you and Ichika becoming IS pilots. Ill spare you the majority of the details, but she was out for blood. Yours and Ichika's as well."

"Do we know what the name of the group is?" I asked, eager to go and fight anyone who happened to try and take me out.

"Sadly, she refused to tell us, and we can't ask her now. I'd rather not say how, but she managed to kill herself. Now, as for you're IS…" Ms. Orimura said, looking at Robert.

"The frame itself has taken much more damage than it should have. Whatever those cannons were, they packed a hell of a punch and you're lucky to get away with what little injuries you have. We would have to spend a whole month back in the US to get the unit back up and running, but there's another problem…" Robert explained. "The IS's core, the thing that lets the whole unit run and stores personal data as well as combat info… was destroyed. When the Active Shield was used, it only protected you, instead of you and the core. If the core breaks while Active Shield is in use, well it just stops working and you become encased in a immobile metal suit. When you fired your shoulder cannons and got sent flying, the first thing that impacted was the core which shattered."

"Basically, it means you won't be piloting that IS anymore." Ms. Orimura deadpanned. "Even if you got the unit up and running, it would never run the same way again."

"I have a question…" I said. "If I don't have an IS, what am I going to do about the Class Rep battle?" Everyone was quiet for a while after I asked that. Finally, Ichika spoke up.

"James… you've been unconscious for over a week. The battle is well and done." He said.

"A WEEK!?" I yelled. "IVE BEEN OUT COLD FOR A WEEK?"

"Quiet down," Ms. Orimura said. "There was nothing you or we could do about it and yes, Ichika is right. It's been a little over a week since you were knocked out. Be grateful you even woke up at all. Now lay down and get some rest. You're not going to be leaving here for a few days to make sure that nothing serious happens now that you're awake. Everyone else, let's go."

Everyone slowly left the room, saying goodbye and that they would be back when I was feeling better. I simply waved and smiled, and gave a small nod when Robert handed me my phone so I could at least do SOMETHING during my recovery. So far this hadn't been what I was expecting for a IS school. Especially the assassin.

I still couldn't believe I had been out for a whole week. I probably was out for most of the pain, so that was some relief, but I had never been down for so long from a single fight. That cannon had to have packed quite the punch. Trying to get away from those thoughts and distract myself, I unlocked my phone and immediately received a message from my "friend." It read a simple, four word message.

It's time to meet.

AND HERE WE HAVE IT FOLKS! THE END OF CHAPTER THREE! I know I promised to reveal a character this chapter, but I figured that it would be better to leave you with a cliff hanger instead!

James: but what about Rin?

Well, that was because you were out cold for a week and she transferred in. Needless to say, she's going to be team Ichika. Cecilia will be between Ichika and James, just so were clear.

James: and what about the class rep battle?

Well, since you were knocked out, the battle went just as it did in the anime. Ichika ended up winning both the match as well as Cecilia's affection. If you really want, you can go and watch the anime for the battle or find some other story! This is my story, and that's staying the same so I saw no reason to end up writing it again.

James: Lazy…

Two words James. FANGIRL

James: that's technically two words…

PIT!

James: OH FUCK NO!

Hehe. Next time James. I'm feeling merciful today. Anyway, as always, please leave a review! I appreciate all feedback, positive or negative! Also, with school starting up soon im not sure how often either of my stories are going to be updated, so disregard anything ive said or posted before this. Ill be writing as much as i can. See you all next time!