Chapter 17

"You are the most inconsiderate person I have ever met in my entire life! You're unbelievable, you know that? We could have been killed back there!" muttered Kaleb in an angry tone. Mitsuhiro gave an innocent look and replied in a matter-of-fact tone of voice.
"I don't expect you'd believe me if I said that I have a hand-gun in my pocket, and we could have run away?" Kaleb just sighed.
"That guy is dangerous! I could tell- I saw that look in his eyes. You know, when you look into someone's pupils, and you can't see your reflection anymore? All you can see is a kind of sick, twisted hatred, a black flame? That's what I saw." Kaleb whispered.
"So am I the only one that thinks that you two look alike? I mean, really, you two look like brothers or something, except that he's a lot older." Kaleb shrugged. Mitsuhiro sat and stared at Kaleb for a second. Neither spoke. Finally Kaleb turned his head and said
"Appearance means nothing." Mitsuhiro nodded slightly.

It was three days later on monday that they began their training for the company. There were about eighty of the new pilots. They were split into four groups of twenty, and each group were to split into half and fight on land, this was the real thing! No more simulators! They weren't supposed to kill the opponent, just make their robot unable to move any longer. One of the groups had Kaleb in it. His team won against the other ten. Naturally Mitsuhiro's team also won. Soon the eight groups were down to four. Once again Kaleb and Mitsuhiro's teams won. Finally their two teams fought. Mitsuhiro was left with one other pilot, Kaleb was alone. The two robots came flying at Kaleb, he swung around and fires a massive energy blast with his robot at the other pilot, the thing's legs exploded, and it slammed into the ground. He then turned to face Mitsuhiro. Neither had any energy blasts left. The robot that Mitsuhiro sat inside of was already a bit cut up. He raised the robot's arm, and swung the thing at Kaleb's robot. The American's robot flew backwards, and smashed into the ground.

"No!" screamed Kaleb at the top of his lungs, he wrenched the controls within the huge machine, gears whirred, and the thing raised itself up. He pushed a different lever, and the thing jumped off the ground, he pushed a few buttons, and the American's robot went flying into the other machine. The two robots locked hands, both pushing against each other, neither willing to give up. Suddenly Mitsuhiro made his robot flip upside-down, right over Kaleb's robot. Metal cracked and bent, and then there was a sound of screeching, and both robot's arms fell from their fixed places. Wildly Kaleb grabbed a lever, and pulled it back and forth, the robot's arms swung, but it had no arms, only a bunch of wires, those broken wires made contact with Mitsuhiro's robot, behind him. Electricity ran through Mitsuhiro's robot, and then through Kaleb's. There was a massive explosion, just as the fronts opened, and the two leaped out of their robots, landing on the ground. Kaleb jumped to his feet.

"Mitsuhiro! Get up you goof!" the other boy lay weakly on the ground, he had landed badly on his arm, and couldn't get up.
"Save yourself." cried Mitsuhiro, but the American grabbed the other boy's arm, pulled him up, and dragged him away, the explosions and eruptions grew worse and closer. They stumbled away, the explosions advancing on them. The robots were engulfed in green and yellow flames by now, and the two boys stumbled along, moving slowly. They came to the edge of the hill they were on, and dived, tumbling down the hill into mud. The explosions blew over their heads, narrowly missing them. The two boys sighed with relief.
"Good fight." said Mitsuhiro, grinning weakly. The two boys shook hands.

"They're alive? Amazing." said the General. He had been watching the two on his screen. The battles had all been good, but nothing like this had ever happened, not in a training session! They had never lost pilots to death on Earth when there wasn't a war going on, and they weren't about to now, but never had he seen such skillful, aggressive fighting. And then one of them actually saved the other? They were complete enemies, how could they be friends? If they fought like that between friends, how would they fight their enemies? There was only one way to find out. The General decided he would go out of his way to make the two enemies.