Chapter One

Chapter One

“Yuuki you’re awesome!”

“Yuuki you can win!”

There were similar chants but I did not hear them for I was in the zone. It was the day of the school robot pilot competition. The point of the competition was to see who had the potential to become a pilot in the army.

My name is Yuuki Cross. The reason I am so good at piloting is this. I have been piloting all my life. The law of the country clearly states that no one is to begin pilot training unless they are fourteen years of age. I started when I could walk.

Here I am, four years later, participating in the contest to fulfill my dream and become a pilot to help stop the war. The judges of this contest are pilots from the military so they get to see us in action.

“BATTLE BEGIN IN 3, 2, 1 GO!” the announcer yelled.

I jumped into action and pushed the levers forward, kicking my robot into gear. These weren’t as fast or as strong as the ones I had used before but hey, the school has a cheap budget. At the academy when we trained we were not allowed to use weapons the military pilots used so we had some run down version for safety. The choice we had was either to fight unarmed or with special training swords. I fight with my robot unarmed because I have fought with REAL robot weapons and don’t want my talent to show right away.

My opponent came at me with the sword. I faked a right and came up on his left side and delivered a kick that shattered the robot frame. The cockpit was ejected and I won.

“YUUKI WINS!” the announcer said.

“Way to point out the obvious,” I mumbled.

“Miss Cross, please refrain from further damaging the equipment,” one of the teachers said.

“Oops,” was all I said.

My next fight began and this time I pulled most of the power out of my kick when I attacked. The cockpit was ejected again and once again I won. This went on for several fights until there were no more opponents.

“YUUKI WINS THE TOURNAMENT!” and once again the announcer pointed out the obvious.

One of the military pilots walked over to the teachers and talked to them. I narrowed my eyes thinking this was bad news. They all smiled and nodded. The man walked over to the announcer and whispered something in his ear.

“The pilot Zero wishes to challenge Yuuki to a duel. Yuki, do you accept?” the announcer asked.

“I accept.” Zero smiled and got into one of the school’s robots. I am sure they were pale in comparison to the robot he probably owned. He moved the robot around, no doubt studying it and how it moved.

We were both given the option of fighting with weapons, and this time I chose to accept one. Zero did the same. I was going to fight to win, no point in hiding my skills now; I didn’t care anymore what the academy’s rules were, and I had made it to the tournament and won. I proved I could fight with stupid rules. Now I fight without lame rules.

I felt something, like a presence, in my mind. Curious, I reached out to it and poked it cautiously. I smiled when it poked back. However, I lost the smile when I saw Zero smirking and then I figured he had something to do with the presence. I remembered books I had read about something like this, so I experimented. I thought of a wall, a wall to surround the presence, blocking it from my thoughts. I saw Zero smirk even larger.

‘I was right. He has something to with the thing in my mind,’ I thought as I frowned. ‘This might be a little hard to come up with a battle plan. I hope my concentration does not waver in this fight.’ While I “kept” the wall in place, I began thinking of strategies. After a few moments I gave up on strategies.

“BATTLE BEGIN IN 3, 2, 1 GO!!” the announcer yelled and the crowd went wild. Zero moved his robot around for a little bit, acting as if he still didn’t have the hang of the robot yet, but I knew he was just toying with me.

I was never one for patience, and though I normally do not attack first, this guy was going to be an exception. I rammed the levers forward, and the robot flew forward, towards Zero. I felt amusement, I hesitated. That was all the distraction he needed for he attacked with a kick that sent me flying backwards. I had my robot stand up and I moved into a stance. I was not going to get distracted this time. He came at me no doubt smug, and I faked left, right, and then kicked him. This time it was Zero who went down. He got up and we came at each other with our swords swinging. I did not bother to hide my skills anymore, for if I wanted to win, there was no holding back.

I was attacking with everything I had, and the robot began to beep. I spared it a glance then looked back and cursed. It was overheating. I pulled back a ways as though I was running and Zero did the same. I smiled and forced my robot to go as fast as it could. The beeping was going insanely fast, so I punched the speaker causing the sound to stop. I pulled my sword back just as Zero pulled his sword back too. When we came within range of each other, I swung with all my might. I assume he did too because both of us went flying and our robots shut down. After a few second the cockpits were launched out of the robots, just in time too, for both robots exploded into a mass of flames and falling parts.

The crowd had been noisy the whole fight but now they were dead silent. I was angry, and I punched the side of the cockpit in my anger. This caused me to be launched out of the cockpit. So on top of my robot blowing up I was now flying through the air. This did not help improve my mood. Someone caught me and I heard everyone gasp. Judging from their reactions, it had to be Zero. I looked up glaring and saw him smirking. When he saw my face he laughed, his silver eyes flashing, and that made me really angry.

“PUT ME DOWN,” I said through clenched teeth. Zero smirked as he set me down.

“Good fight, Zero,” I heard a pilot say. “That was also a great catch.” Zero and the pilot both laughed and I just knew steam was coming out of my ears.

“Thanks Kain.”

“THE PILOTS HAVE AN ANOUNCMENT TO MAKE!” the announcer yelled. This was unheard of, for the pilots never made announcements. Shrugging I turned and walked back to the dorms.

‘Probably some stupid announcement about the war and blah, blah, blah,’ I thought as I entered the dorm building and walked down the hallway that led to my room. As I neared my room, I heard cheering and yelling. ‘Hmmm wonder what all the yelling is about,’ I thought. ‘Ah. Maybe the pilots are demonstrating for them or are signing auto- graphs. Who cares?’ I got to my room, grabbed the key out of my pocket, unlocked the door and went in. I locked the deadbolt and put the security chain in place before I took another step into my dorm room.

I walked into my bedroom, to the closet and grabbed a towel and clean set of clothes, then entered the bathroom and turned the water in the shower to the temperature I like it and began to remove my sweaty clothes. I stepped into the shower and began to wash my hair. Just as I was rinsing out my hair, I heard my door slam open. Without turning off the water, I grabbed the robe I left on the back of the door. I quickly put it on and grabbed my gun out of the medicine cabinet.

‘Yay me for being paranoid’ I thought. I was wondered who this person was for I had the deadbolt and security chain in place, plus the alarm didn’t go off.

I switched off the safety on my gun, and slowly opened the bathroom door. I poked my head outside and looked around, which was hard for I turned the lights off. I heard something knocked over and I knew it came form the kitchen. I slowly came out of the bathroom and walked across my bedroom floor to the door.

Before I could look around the corner, someone grabbed me from behind. I automatically went into self-defense mode and flipped the person over my shoulder. I heard the person gasp from impact and I pointed my gun where they were. I turned on the light with the switch on the floor, and I saw my attacker was Zero. Before I could ask why he was in my room, Zero swept my legs out from underneath me. He gave me no time to recover before he had me pinned to the floor. He smiled down at me. Oh how I wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. I faked a roll to the left then rolled right and used Zero’s weight against him as I flipped him over. This time it was Zero who was pinned down with my gun in his face.

He smirked and said, “You pass.”

‘What the hell?’ I thought. ’He breaks into my apartment, attacks me then all he as to say for himself is “You pass.”’

End of Chapter One