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By: Inuki **Ookami**
21
"Material possessions mean nothing."
said Kaleb flatly. He didn't like the way this was going, and wanted to leave.
"I must be leaving now, I bid you good day Sir." and with that he
stomped off. The nerve of that man! To actually have the gall to think he
could try and trick him into getting angry at his own roommate? How ridiculous!
What did the General take him for? A fool. Wait! He had probably said the
same thing to Mitsuhiro! Mitsuhiro was very different, he was pretty easily
deceived! No, Mitsuhiro wouldn't fall for a dumb trick like that! Kaleb thought
to himself as he walked out of the office, into the waiting room. A very pensive
Mitsuhiro sat there.
"You jerk!" said
Mitsuhiro. Kaleb looked quite shocked, and turned to Mitsuhiro with a startled
expression.
"You know what I'm talking about! It wasn't bad enough that you had to
take away my top mark in the Learning Institute, now you've got the highest
mark again! I'm a much better pilot than you, and I'll be damned if I'll let
you stand in my way! This time you're history! No more simulations, I'm going
to terminate you if I have to!" Kaleb gave a surprised look. The general's
wicked plan had worked!
"You don't know what
you're doing Mitsuhiro! You're making a mistake! He created all that stuff
to make us fight! I don't know why, but it's the truth! He told me you had
the highest mark, I bet he told you that I had the highest mark took, didn't
he? Can't you see that he lied?" Mitsuhiro wasn't listening to Kaleb
anymore. All he could feel was pure anger boiling through his blood. His own
roommate, who he had befriended, had betrayed him, for the last time too!
It was pay-back time! He felt like hitting something hard.
"Shut-up! I'm sick and tired of your constant whining! Just go to hell!"
screamed Mitsuhiro as he left the office, he walked up the hall.
"You're so stupid! I can't believe that you can't see what he's trying
to do!" screamed Kaleb back. It was no use. Mitsuhiro was saw arrogant
he wasn't listening any more.
That week during the training
sessions Mitsuhiro seemed incredibly aggressive towards Kaleb. Kaleb didn't
like it at all.
"Everything is working so perfectly, except for that lousy kid! He's
ruining all my plans! I under-estimated him! The other one is attacking him,
but he just refuses! All he seems to do is defend himself, but not actually
attack back! I've got to make that boy angry!" said the general to himself,
looking angrily at the screen of robots fighting each other. He placed the
two as captains of a team of twenty, and the other forty he sent off to battle
on the other side, which he paid little attention to. Kaleb had built up a
strong defense with his tactics, and had the other half of the group attacking
the other team from behind, while Mitsuhiro had all the robots in a circle,
facing out, fighting anything that came close to them. Kaleb's team formed
a circle around Mitsuhiro's circle, and closed in on them, the robots shifted
uneasily, until they could back up no more. Then there was a terrible grinding
sound as metal clashed against metal, and the robots struck one another in
a huge brawl. That week the two boys had been training in the mornings, alone.
Neither ate at the same table, or even talked to each other anymore. Mitsuhiro
missed the girls, he was afraid he would get in trouble if caught with them,
he also missed talking to Kaleb, and Kaleb missed listening to Mitsuhiro.
Both were very sad, and weary most of the time. Kaleb began reading happy
stories, about life, and peace, but nothing could cheer him up. Mitsuhiro
set-up the game system, but it was no fun to play alone. In the mornings both
sighed, thinking about how boring the last week had been. This was only the
tip of the iceberg. If they only knew what was going to happen to them.
The general grew bored of trying to make Kaleb get angry, and decided to show them how to operate a mini-robot. He brought the Homunculus in. The tiny dwarf robots that the two boys had seen in the storage room. The robots were obviously too small to climb into, like the battle robots were intended for. Each little robot had a tiny controller, like a joystick. Each boy was given one, to practice with, just to get the feel of them, the purpose of these robots were because it wasted time, and air, and was dangerous if something on a space-ship was broken and needed repairing, so instead of going out in a suit they sent these little robots to go out and fix the thing. They were much more efficient, and had better grip. Plus if one got lost in space they could easily pull another out of the storage room in the space-ships. They also made great servants, you could program them to clean certain things, or along a certain route, or get them to get you some food, that kind of thing. The boys fooled around with the dwarves for a while, then training was over until after lunch. When Kaleb entered the cafeteria he had another vision.
He was standing in a room, and a man stood next to him, another held him tightly in place. A third had something sharp in his hand- a needle! They were going to give him some kind of medicine. They injected it into him, but he screamed, and tried to move, tried to twist, tried to shake them loose. He felt his energy draining from himself, and he began to fall limp, finally he collapsed to the ground. When the memory stopped he blinked twice. A single white feather had blow in through the window, and landed below him, at his feet. He bent down to pick it up, but it vanished in a sparkling. Were his eyes playing tricks one him? What was going on. He saw Mitsuhiro sitting alone at a table, after grabbing some food he decided to confront him, and sat down across from his roommate.
