TRACK 6 –

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard today.” Justin Belmont growled, banging the table with his fist to emphasize his point. “Like I keep saying. We need to head to our family’s lands and Belmont Manor there we can...”

“No.” Lancelot cordially interrupted. “The Isles is where we should go, the Royal Knights are there and…”

“That would be folly. The land of the Rising Sun and Mt. Fuji is the answer. The Samurai and Shinobi warriors are…” Kagero interjected, in her soft but firm voice.

“OMG! We’ve saying the same thing over and over and over again.” Anna said, exasperated.

“Well, I have some new information that may help decide things.” Robyn said, from the Towers speakers.

We were all in Tower 12, sitting in various positions around the main room. After leaving the battel I suggested we go to Tower 12 and regroup. For the last half an hour we had been arguing about what to do and pretty much gotten nowhere. Robyn had activated the Holo-Vid as he talked, and the room went quiet as we all focused on the images in the center of the room. The picture resolved itself and in the center was a man who looked similar to Commodore Stalin, but bigger, meaner, and more intimidating.

“Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to you all, depending where you are in the world. Most of you know me but for those of you who don’t, my name is Emperor Zod, the ruler and commander of the Neo Rus Empire and all its military.” He paused, staring into the camera for a moment, before letting an evil grin creep across his face. “Now, I’m also the ruler and commander of all of you as well.”

The screen changed and now it was a multi-view of different scenes which all had one theme in common, the Neo Rus Empire. Gasps sounded throughout the room as each of the students saw what was on the Holo-Vid.

“That’s Belmont Manor.” Anna said softly.

“On no, that’s RKP.” Nimue cried.

“SNES!” I heard Tomoe say.

Every single student’s home cities, Noble Houses, and other bastions of the different countries were under siege by the NRE. The views on the Holo-Vid kept changing until it seemed as if the whole world was under attack. The images switched back to Emperor Zod and a split screen with Warrior Academy next him.

“As you can see, the first bastion of many has fallen, your Warrior Academy is under NRE control, it is only a matter of time before the other defenders fall.” The Emperor said, gesturing at the conquered school, with all the ships and now a giant NRE flag waving from the Main Tower.

The split screen changed, and the image of WA was replaced with Commodore Stalin.

“Emperor Zod, all of Warrior Academy is under our control, as is the town, all hail the Neo Rus Empire, all hail Emperor Zod!” Commodore Stalin cheered, saluting by banging his right hand on his chest.

The Image zoomed out and showed a third person view of the whole of WA. On every ship and across the campus hundreds upon hundreds of NRE soldiers and students, chanted and saluted the Emperor. The image changed a few moments later back to the Emperor.

“Well done Commodore, all enemies of the Neo Rus Empire shall kneel before Zod!” The Emperor cheered, pumping his fist in the air.

“That’s enough of that.” Robyn said, turning the Holo-Vid off.

Silence reigned throughout the room and the feeling of futility and of already having lost permeated the mood. The gloom was so dark and thick it was almost tangible, it felt as if you could cut it with a blade. No time like the present, I thought to myself.

“It seems that our choice has been made for us.” I said, into the quiet, slowly everyone’s eyes turned to me. When I was sure I had everyone’s attention I continued. “If we are to fulfill the Headmaster’s wishes, all of theirs, we need to train and get stronger. Then we take back our homes.”

Resolve began to take the place of despair as I looked around the room into the newly hardening faces, even Justin’s morose mug turned hard.

“Good, here’s the plan. We go to where I was raised and train…” I started.

“Why should we go to your training place, why not somewhere else?” Justin interrupted.

He wasn’t going to make it easy on me. Even running for our lives, he was a prick, I took a deep breath and blew it out gathering my center.

“If I may Hiro?” Robyn asked.

I just nodded and let the AI take over.

“Master Belmont, the Island where Hiro was trained is actually an advanced training facility. I have created training regimens for everyone that will start once we arrive. First, we will do group training and after that we will break into teams and then individual based on each person’s personal skill level.” Robyn explained.

“Hold on, how do you know our personal skill levels?” Blake asked.

“I took the liberty of assessing everyone’s abilities when I was given access for communications.” Robyn replied. “Try not to get bogged down in the semantics young Belmont. Now, does everyone agree that we should head to Isla de la Muerta?”

“Um… doesn’t that mean island of death?” Cayden chimed in.

“That is correct, I didn’t know you knew Spanish Master Cross, well done. Once again though, try not to get bogged down in the details. This is the only option if you want to get strong enough to fight back against the Neo Rus Empire, and have any chance of freeing your countries, friends, and families.” Robyn explained.

“I’ve heard enough.” Anna stated loudly, standing up and looking around the room. “I’m on board with this plan. I’m going to get my revenge against that M. Bison looking prick. Now, who’s coming with me?”

A chorus of, ‘hell yeah!’ and ‘I’m in!’ and other variations there of sounded out. Anna turned to me and nodded once, then looked around the room again.

“Ok, let’s load up the ships and get a move on. Time’s a wasting.” Anna said.

Orders were given and we all burst into action. Everything of use was taken from the tower and split between the two ships. The wonderful thing about WA, RKP, and SNES Affinity Technology was that it was all standard for the three nations. You could interchange parts from a WA ship with any of the other power’s ships, very convenient for war and such, at least, that was Robyn’s take on it.

Twenty minutes later we on our way and Tower 12 was a speck in the distance. We left just in time because I could see NRE ships and ABBA’s coming to our recently vacated rest stop. Anna had split us up into two groups, one per ship, keeping us in our teams of three. Due to the LDS being smaller than the NRE-FAAG more students were on the latter.

“So, tell me about your crappy island Qupie.” Justin said from my side.

I sighed and shook my head. Anna split up the groups, putting the RKP, SNES, Justin’s, and my teams on the LDS, and everyone else on the NRE ship, including the still incapacitated teachers. This was mostly due to the NRE ship being larger, but I also thought she was getting back at me for not telling her about Robyn earlier. Payback is a biznatch my Sensei always said. The first place we were going was to my friend Ricki’s home and it was a long trip, so I decided to get it over with.

“It’s where I was taught, my sensei always told me to come back if I needed to, the island would be there for me.” I explained quietly. “Before he passed.”

“My teacher died when I was young as well.” Justin replied.

Both of us just leaned on the railing and stared out as Tower 12 disappeared from view and we started entering the mountains.

“Anyway, I got over that a long time ago Qupie, your plan better work.” Justin growled, pushing away from the railing and walking off.

Commander hissed at Tuki and my sprite blew a raspberry at the floating snake. Lancelot walked up and gave me a raised eyebrow as he watched Justin leave. I shook my head in the negative.

“You two getting along as usual?” He joked.

“I think we just bonded.” I answered, grinning at the young student knight.

“Damn, I just lost a bet.” He laughed.

I joined in and we chuckled for a moment, then his face turned serious.

“What can you tell me about this Island of Death?” He asked.

“Yes, I would also like to know.” Kagero said, walking up to us.

She was followed by everyone else on the ship, except for Bron who was at the helm. Although, I could see that he had his head cocked toward the conversation.

“Actually, Hiro I may be best able to explain this to everyone, you included.” Robyn said.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, skeptically. “What do you know that I don’t?”

The AI was silent for a moment as if he was thinking about how to answer my question.

“I guess I should start at the beginning.” Robyn started. “You see, I was created by the famous Inventor Cid and not only am I an Affinity Intelligence, I am the Affinity Intelligence for Warrior Academy.”

“What does that even mean?” Ivanka scoffed.

“It means Mistress Freeze.” Robyn said, somehow infusing sarcasm and exasperation into his tone when he said her name. The smarmy girl had the grace to look chagrined, Robyn continued. “That I am basically a living history of the creation of Warrior Academy and all the has transpired since.”

“Wait a minute, you know about my Master and Sensei, more importantly…” I paused for a second taking a deep breath and then asked. “…you know about my parents?”

“Yes Hiro, and it’s time you did, it’s time you all learned about the past so we can protect the present and the future.” Robyn intoned.

“What about the students on the other ship?” I asked.

“They are seeing and hearing this conversation as we speak.”

Everyone’s AR-2’s pinged.

“I’ve just sent everyone a memory, similar to an AMC, that should start to explain everything. Please access the memory when you are ready.” Robyn instructed.

I did as he said, along with everyone else judging by the number of dings and lost myself in the AI’s memory.

Tuki and I were back in the movie theatre, but this time we weren’t alone, every single one of the students and their sprites from both ships were here as well. Maggie was seated next to me and we shared a grin and held hands as the show started. Fresh buttery popcorn and ice-cold fizzing soda appeared, and the sounds of munching and slurping sounded out around the room. The blank screen changed, and an image began to resolve itself as the memory slash movie, started.

The view started in the sky and I felt like I was watching the introduction to Flight of the Navigator. It zoomed through the clouds as if flying, and the screen was so large it felt as if we were as well. We flew down through the sky descending until a small dot began to resolve itself and an island appeared. As we closed in, I began to recognize it as the island we were heading to, Isla de la Muerta.