My name is John Harolds. I was a junior at the Sacred Soul Academy, a prestigious academy that churned out hundreds of alumni who would one day become the pillars of society. Something happened that year. My classmates and I became involved with something big that could threaten the very social order of the world we lived in and we ended up being hunted by the police, the military and everyone we had ever trusted. This is the story of the greatest escape of our lives. What if you were told that the life you had led was all a big fat lie? This story tells of the night of our escape. We were lucky enough to catch our breath, but it was far from over. Escape! Chapter 2 By Shinieris

We sat around the campfire as we took out our provisions. Behind us were the Soharachi Type-89 Hoverbikes, monsters in their own right. It was as big as a small two seater car, bigger than the normal wheeled motorbikes, bigger even than a golf car. I didn't know much of them, but according to Carl, it was the greatest engineering achievement of our time, which I thought was total crap.

It sounded amazing alright. Tritanium alloy body, able to protect its rider fairly well even after being hit by a freight train at its maximum speed. Due to its extreme speed of 600 km/h, it had impact glass covering every spot not protected by the tritanium alloy. Together, the impact glass and tritanium body allowed the rider to achieve top speed while being protected from winds and pebbles inside its shell of tritanium and silicates. It was powered by six of something called RTG, Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator. It was an electrical generator that converted heat released by the decay of nuclear waste into electricity by the use of thermocouples, theoretically allowing it to operate for a very long time without refuelling. This particular model was designed as a high-speed, high-powered, short term vehicle that used Polonium-210 as its fuel, allowing it to operate for 4.5 months before needing a refuel.

Yuu Nakani, the classmate who had a glasses fetish broke the silence. "Why is the fire so small?"

"Because we don't want to attract attention," Carl said.

"If people want to look at us, they will see us, regardless of the size of the fire," Yuu complained.

"I just want to minimize the risk. Who knows, a single firewood can spell the difference between being seen or being ignored," Carl said as he tried to justify himself.

"Hey, let's stop fighting. Can we be sure that we're not being followed?" I asked while rocking the little girl on my lap.

"Quite sure," Yuu said confidently, "If we're being followed, my bike will inform us. I reprogrammed it to be extra sensitive."

I breathe a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear."

"Have any of you read the e-paper they gave? I kind of forgot about it in all the confusion earlier," Carl said as he took out his e-paper.

Each of us did the same and took out our own e-paper before we reactivated the device. Something appeared on the e-paper as soon as it reactivated. It was the Student Council President's final message.

To: Junior class
From: Andrew Clark, Student Council President

Good day to you all.

If you are reading this, then that means I and all of the Student Council are now dead. Except for Yannick and Miriam, if they managed to escape. Yannick and Miriam, if you are still alive, we wish you congratulations on your upcoming wedding. We are sorry that we had to break our promise to both of you, both for not attending your wedding and also for not escaping with you. Calvin was torn up about not being able to become your best man, but this must be done. We cannot leave. You must live in our stead. However, Calvin did ask that you name the baby with his name, if the baby turns out to be a boy.

Tears filled my eyes as I read the message. I've been wondering why there were 34 bikes when there was only 32 of us. It didn't connect in my mind that Yannick and Miriam were supposed to escape with us. So the wedding next month, it wasn't cancelled at all. All the Student Council body promised to attend, just so that Yannick and Miriam would escape and live in their stead. I wondered if Yannick and Miriam ever thought that it was all a fake promise.

As for the rest of you, I must stress again, that you must not trust anyone. Trust no one under any circumstances. You can never tell if those people you talked to are really 'people' or 'them'. There's even a chance that you will be talking to 'people' who are on 'their' side.

Now, I know I didn't tell you what you're supposed to do. I'm sorry, things happen and I tend to forget important things. Your objective is to go to Washington City, bomb the White House and kill everyone in it before 24th of August.

"Excuse me, what?" Yuu asked in disbelief.

"Am I reading this right?" Carl added.

"Is there some kind of code here?" I asked as I looked at the words from all corners.

"I thought the President told us to-" Nanako tried to say before she started choking and foaming at the mouth. Yuu looked panicked and tried to do a Heimlich Maneuver on her, but nothing came out. It was about a minute later that she recovered on her own.

"I guess that's what happen when we try to blab," Carl remarked.

Nanako looked pale as she said, "I thought I was going to die."

"Yea, me too. You have no idea what that did to my heart," Yuu said as he rubbed his chest.

"But this is different from what we were told do in class, right?" I asked.

"Way different," Yuu agreed, "It conflicted. Washington DC City is... I almost killed myself just now."

"That's the problem, are we supposed to split up and go to two places?" Carl asked.

"No, I don't think that's right," Nanako said, "The President clearly told us of tunnel-arrk-grrkkr." Nanako suffocated again, but this time, we left her on her own until she recovered and yelled, "I HATE THAT!"

"So what is this, then?" Carl asked pointing at the passage.

"I think this is similar to 'distraction', or maybe we better call it 'misinformation'. Remember what the President told us, that we should not trust anyone outside the classroom, not even him?" Yuu said.

"Yes, but this is his words, isn't it? Written even before he told us that? Could it be an earlier objective that was abandoned?" I asked.

"I don't think so," Yu stated.

"What made you think so?" Carl asked as he reread the passage.

"During a military campaign, there will be times when the commander will tell his officers conflicting or misleading orders. This is often done when the commander fears that the chain of command or communication line has been infiltrated or compromised. In this case, the officers must decide for themselves what their true orders are. These kind of orders are dangerous, if the officers are incapable of deciphering the true orders, the whole campaign could be lost. This, my dear former classmates," Yuu raised his e-paper, "Is a misleading order. Our true order is the one he gave us while we wore those helmets. Proof, it is protected so well, even now, that we aren't able to speak of it without dying."

"Almost dying," Nanako corrected.

"So do we just ignore the order written here?" I asked.

"Not entirely," Yuu said.

"Explain," Carl said.

"Washington DC and the White House, contradiction. Bombing, not a contradiction, because the President didn't tell us what to do once we arrive... there," Yuu clarified.

"Not quite," I argued, "The President did say that we can choose to either-" It was my turn to suffocate to near death.

When I recovered, Yuu said, "That's right. He did told us what to do. So bombing is a contradiction. Out of these, what doesn't contradict?"

"You had to go through this twice, Nanako? I feel for you," I commented.

"Thank you," Nanako said.

"THE DATE!" Carl said suddenly, making us jump.

"What date?" I asked.

"He means 24th August. That's true. The President didn't give us a dateline, but he also didn't say we have unlimited time either. So that makes this, a new information," Yuu stated.

"Why 24th August, though?" Carl asked.

"Maybe it's something that will become clear as we approach our destination?" I guessed.

"Let's read the rest," Carl said.

I regret to inform you that there's also been a last minute addition to your class. Anya's transfer into your class was approved just two days ago. I went ahead and gave her the briefing earlier than you guys so she should be up to speed. At least I think she's up to speed. I couldn't tell for sure if she was listening, she seemed really busy trying to break through my personal computer's firewall using just her tablet.

Anya is a hacker. Anyone who ends up with her, please take very good care of her. I added her at the very last minute because her skills are second to none. Without her you will have a very hard time on your final mission. I told her to wait for you in the storage room that Yannick and Miriam will be taking you through. If she's not there, then you'll just have to leave without her.

"Did we meet anyone in the storage room?" Nanako asked.

"I don't think so. Then again, we weren't the first to enter. If Yannick didn't push us in we would probably be dead when the corridor exploded," Yuu remarked.

"Actually we did find someone..." Carl said as he looked at me. Or rather, he was looking at my lap.

Crap, I thought as I looked at the girl in my lap.

"Hey, keep reading. Don't just stop there," the little girl said.

Her name is Anya Vivesca Alinescu. She may look like an 8 years old jailbait, but she's actually my old friend. She should be 14 by now. Click here to see her picture. You should also check her bellybutton. If she doesn't have a stud on her bellybutton, shoot her. She's an impostor.

We all tapped on the link and what came out was the photo of the same girl, except she was wearing makeup. She looked a little older in the picture, but that was probably because of that makeup. The little girl then got up from my lap and stood in the middle of our circle, right next to the fire. I couldn't help but fear her dress will catch fire.

"Anya Vivesca Alinescu. At your service," she said as she bowed with her right arm across her chest.

Yuu and Carl immediately took out their particle wands and aimed it at her. "Show us your belly now!" Carl said.

"My my, aren't we a little sex-starved?" Anya said, causing Carl to blush.

"Anya! Who taught you such words?" I scolded her, before realizing who she was and covered my mouth.

"I'm not a little girl, I was merely acting," Anya said in annoyance as she raised her dress, showing her panties and belly, "There, satisfied?"

Carl lowered his weapon but Yuu maintained his aim. "How can you prove to us that you're not an impostor?" Yuu asked.

"On the other hand, how can I prove that I am an impostor? Maybe I should just admit to being an impostor and shoot you for fun?" Anya taunted.

"You? Shoot with what? Piss?" Yuu laughed but still kept his wand pointed at her.

Anya then went to the other side of my hoverbike and came out pointing an inactive IL52S at Yuu. She laughed as she said, "With this, of course!"

"You! Where did you get that? Miriam searched your body!" Carl asked in shock as he raised his own wand again, pointing it at Anya.

Nanako did the same.

"Stop! Stop! All of you! It's not active!" I pleaded to their senses.

"Not active? What the hell are you doing? If you aimed a weapon at someone, be prepared to use it," Yuu said as he lowered his particle wand.

The others also lowered their wands but still looked at Anya cautiously.

"Cheh! Wasn't expecting that to end so soon. Anyway, to answer your question, Carl, I got this from Yannick's backpack."

"Yannick carried a backpack?" Carl asked.

"So you're the one who took the other one!" Yuu accused.

"What other one?" I asked which made Yuu's face redden with guilt.

"There were two backpacks in the garage. One belonging to Yannick and the other belonging to Miriam. I took this wand from Yannick's backpack. Go ahead, Yuu. Show them what you took from Miriam's backpack," she said.

"You saw?" Yuu asked as he rummaged around inside his backpack before taking out another IL52S and 10 envelopes filled with money. He put them all on the ground.

"Are those..." I asked without much certainty.

"100,000 US Dollars. I wasn't trying to hide it, I just didn't feel the need to advertise that I have US$ 100,000 more than anyone else," Yuu said looking much too guilty.

"You friggin' thief! What if Yannick and Miriam had survived? How will they escape with only what they have?" I scolded.

"Hey, don't call Yuu a thief!" Nanako rose to defend him, "How can you say that when you know nothing? This is a matter of life and death! The money can help us reach-" she was stopped from talking when she almost suffocated to death again.

We waited until she recovered. Then Yuu said, "I only took what was inside Miriam's bag. I thought we will need it. I didn't know when we'd need the extra money, so I just took it. I had no idea-wait a minute! You!" he pointed at Anya, "You were the one who put it there!"

"Took you long enough to realize that. Aren't you supposed to be The Bloody Shogun?" Anya said, referring to Yuu's nickname in the gaming circle. "I'll be taking back my 50k, please."

Yuu grunted as he threw the five envelopes that previously belonged to Yannick at Anya over the fire. He was mumbling, "You tricked me," under his breath as he threw an envelope to each of us.

"What's this?" Carl asked as he looked inside the envelope.

"I admit. I took it so I could split it with only Nanako, but since you guys already know. It's not right to keep it to myself," Yuu said as he looked to into the fire.

"Look, you took this. Eventhough you stole it, you worked for it. None of us realized what happened, we were too preoccupied with our own situation," Carl said as he handed the envelope back to Yuu.

"Just take it," Nanako said, "You will be hard pressed to find Yuu being generous any other time."

"Hey, Nana! Be quiet. You're saying as if I've never done a good thing in my life!" Yuu objected.

"Oh me, oh my. Is someone offended?" Nanako giggled.

I looked at the IL52S in Yuu's hand, before looking at the one he just put on the ground. "What are you going to do with two particle wands?"

Yuu looked at me before he tooked both particle wands and made sure that both were inactive. Then he wielded it to eye level and said, "I was going to dual wield it. You know, like twin swords?"

Carl chuckled. "You and your games."

"I have one question," Nanako interrupted, "If the President transferred you into our class before the briefing, how come Yannick and Miriam didn't recognize you?"

"That's because they didn't know and weren't supposed to know. The only people who knew were Andy and Anna. I was supposed to be a secret to the very end. That way, if all of you failed, 'they' won't know that there's another one, even if they interrogated the Student Council. You can say that I'm the backup plan," Anya said proudly as she sat back on my lap.

"But if they interrogated Andy or Anna, won't they know anyway?" Yuu asked.

Anya shook her head, causing her twin ponytails to flap around. "There is no possibility of that happening."

"What do you mean, Anya?" I asked.

Nanako stopped Anya from explaining. "You don't want to know, John. It's better if we don't imagine or question it."

"Fine then, let's just read the rest," I suggested.

That is one way to detect 'them'. 'They' can copy a person's body down to the DNA level. They can even copy a person's lifetime memories. We can't tell for sure if they really have the ability to transform their bodies that far or if those copies they sent to spy and infiltrate us are clones of the original person. One thing we do know is that 'they' can't copy ink, or any inorganic things.

Now that we have that settled, perhaps it's time to decide on your next move. I have included the map of the entire Eastern Mountains. Us in the Student Council had spent all our time preparing the most complete and informative map possible. Be sure to not waste our effort.

As I previously said, stay away from cities at all cost. They will without a doubt increase security at the cities after we committed open rebellion. Your best bet will be to hitchhike on open terrains, this will throw them off your trail and hopefully give you enough time to reach the Wyoming City Coal Mines. There you will meet the Underground Resistance and will be able to acquire the nuclear bombs necessary to destroy White House. After that, escape to the four corners of Earth. Please don't stay around. It may be one small step for you, but success in this mission will give a clear message to those bastards that the human race is not to be trifled with. We hoped that this will rouse the others into joining our fight and drive them all off our planet.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I suggest that you open your backpacks first and examine the contents. We packed the contents of your bags with things that we believe may be useful to you. If you think that it's useless, throw it away. Nothing is more important than your own lives. If anything is a burden to you, trash it. After that, consult the map and plan your moves.

Once you leave, you will encounter situations that will make you doubt yourself, or will change your outlook on things, but understand one thing, all that you do, it must be for our whole race. The human race on this planet needs to be saved!

We of the Student Council wishes all of you the best in your mission. We are sorry that we will not be there to celebrate your success. Our mission here is just as important.

Farewell and good luck.

Yours truly,
Andy Clark
Last Student Council President of Sacred Soul Academy

with Student Council members:
Annamarie Hudson
Harald Johansen
Anke Drescher
Sulaiman Majid
Catherine Marsel
Shimizu Haruka
Shimizu Hanako
Myra Alexopoulos
Henry Nelson
Jessica Hutchinson
Selene Coyne
Larry Hale
Mary Caldwell
Johnson Ortiz
Leslie Santiago
Ashley Morris
Fang Xiao Han
Tan Siow Peng.

It was a somber mood when everyone finished reading. I read the letter over and over again, wondering how they could all throw their lives away for something like this. How could these greatest and brightest students sacrifice their lives for us? And for what? To fulfill a mission where we're given the choice of staying or leaving them behind?

Anya pulled on my sleeve when she sat back in my lap, "Don't forget to read Anna's letter too."

"A letter from Anna? Annamarie Hudson, you mean?" I asked.

"Yes, she sent you a letter too," Anya said before she said to the others, "You all should read the other letter too, I think you should all be getting another email besides the President's email."

"Let's read it one at a time. John, please read aloud Annamarie's letter to you," Carl suggested.

"What? But isn't this supposed to be private?" I said.

Then Yuu said, "It is possible that Annamarie gave you hints, as in how to reach the objective, how to survive this and any other suggestions. She is closest to the President, supposedly the only reason they weren't married was because they were both too serious about their work."

"Oh fine, but don't regret it when I read some embarrassing stuff."

"Like what?" Yuu asked.

"Have any of you ever thought that this may be a love letter?" I said.

They laughed, Even Nanako and Anya laughed. I felt very insulted.

"It may be true, how would you know?" I said.

Carl patted me on the back before he said, "Everyone dreams of Annamarie Hudson. But surely, you must be able to separate facts from dreams. Why would the great and beautiful Annamarie Hudson be sending you love letters when she has Andrew Clark?"

"Just read it," Anya said.

From: Annamarie Hudson

Hi, John.

I was the one in charge of packing your bag. If you haven't checked the contents yet, please check them now.

I took out the entire content of my backpack and what I saw made me say, "What the hell?!!!"

I would like to apologize first, for packing those women's clothes and accessories into your backpack. Believe me, there was no mistake and I am well aware that you are a man. Regardless, you must act and become a woman until you reach your objective. Unfortunately, this must be done and we had no time to change anything.

The others were laughing so hard, even Anya.

Then Carl said, "Good for you! Annamarie has a kink for guys who wear skirts."

That renewed the bout of laughter.

I was annoyed, so I set my IL52S on 'mild shock' setting and zapped each one of them.

Anya looked at all of them and said to me, "Gee, someone's sensitive!"

I pointed the IL52S at Anya's face.

"Okay! Okay! I won't laugh anymore! Forgive me!" Anya pleaded.

"That's better," I said as I continued reading.

After over a decade's worth of research, the former Student Councils believed that for this mission to succeed, we must pair off boys and girls into a two-person team. The reason being that society expects that after a certain age, basically around 15, men and women will naturally seek each other for the purpose of procreation. We cannot tell for sure if this is instinct or if this 'need' was forced upon us when we were abducted and brainwashed. One of our seniors had lived in isolation for over five years and had regained part of his memory. He claimed that on our homeworld, many men and women don't get married even well after 20. This went against everything we ever believed in. For us, it felt natural to get married at 15, but all of our seniors who had isolated themselves agreed to the same details, eventhough their memories weren't as clear as this particular senior.

Maybe by now, you're asking, "If we should be paired off boy-girl, why would I be paired with another boy?" The answer is quite simple. Your skills are necessary. Remember two months ago, when we told you to lie down on the scanning bed? We found out that your score on reflex, sight, hand-eye coordination and split-second response was absolutely amazing. More so when you were given control of a fighter jet or any other kind of vehicle that didn't touch the ground. You are the ultimate pilot, John.

We weren't sure if your ability was inherent or if the aliens modified your body and brain to bring out that ability. The fact that you have it, is more than enough. The 32 of you aren't the only ones with such abilities, but only the 32 of you have useful abilities. We in the Student Council agreed that 'farming' or 'mining' would not be useful in your mission at all. In case you're wondering, they modified me too. They upgraded my brain to have greater processing speed and capacity. My role, for the past year, has been as a hacker for the Student Council. I regret that up til today, I have never found a computer than can match up with the processing speed of my brain. Every computer always feels very laggy to me.

I'm going to tell you a secret, I have already left tools in cyberspace for your class to use. All you need to do, is find a competent hacker that you can trust. Tell your hacker to use this key. It's the key to the QIMOF (quadrangle infinite multiplanar oscillary field) that protects the command script. Without this key, don't even hope of accessing my worms. The encryption is spread over the whole of the internet, not just inside each worm. Accessing one will not allow you to access all. You need to run the decryption method while you have clear access to the net, and the worms with fragments of the encryption also needs to be online to be accessed. So inform your hacker that this is not something that can be accomplished in 10 minutes, this will take a long time. Tell your hacker to start working on it right away.

Well, that's it, I suppose. To tell the truth, there are so many things I still want to talk to you about. If only we have more time. I only managed to remember this very important detail a couple of months back. We were abducted together, but 'they' kept you for two years, for whatever reason. They only kept me for a year. I wanted so much to tell you, but I cannot take away your focus. The mission is more important than both of us, not even Andy knows of this secret.

Goodbye and I wish you best of luck, little brother. Send my regards to mom when you see her. I hope she's still alive.

With love,
Annamarie Hudson aka Annamarie Larssen

p/s: I know you want to cry, you've always been such a softie. I am so sorry that you have to find out about it this way. I long to hug you again, but someone must go and bring help.

"Annamarie was my sister?" I asked as my tears flowed down to my chin and dripped onto Anya's head.

Anya got up then she helped me wipe the tears on my face. She looked sympathetic as she wiped my face with her handkerchief. She was looking guilty as well.

I slapped her hand aside. "You knew! You knew she was my sister and yet you said nothing!"

She went back to wiping the tears streaming down my face as she said, "I had my suspicions. She was always looking at you through the CCTV. Many times I saw that she wanted to hug you, but she refrained herself. I watched her too. No, that's not quite right. I watched the whole Student Council but her actions around you made me really suspicious. Only now I know that she's been keeping this secret inside all these while. Above regret, you should be proud of her."

It was this time when I hugged Anya tightly.

"Anna was the strongest woman I have ever known. You couldn't remember, so you did not feel anything towards her. You thought she was just another girl, beautiful and bright that you're attracted to. She knew this for a long time. She had to bear the burden of not holding you, of not telling you who you were. She hid her own true identity from her own brother, the only family she still had left. You feel angry now, but imagine the pain she was feeling all the time as she watched you, but couldn't tell you who you were," Anya said again.

"Annamarie made the right choice. Not telling you that she was your sister was a good idea," Yuu said.

That was before I zapped him with my particle wand.

"Hoi! What was that for?" he objected right before I fired more of those shock beams from my IL52S.

"How dare you say that!" I cried as I fired on Yuu again.

"Somebody please get that wand off his hand!" Yuu pleaded.

"Calm down, John," Carl said as he grabbed the wand from my hand.

When Yuu stopped twitching, he sat up weakly and said, "What I meant was, she made the right choice of not telling you that you're siblings."

"How can you say that? If she told me earlier I could've maybe held her for the last time..."

"You might, but if she had told you that you're siblings, do you think you would have left her behind, as she told you to?"

"I might," I sniffed.

"No, you won't. You would've stayed there, crying like a baby and begging her to come with you, even in that crucial moment when the academy was under attack, where every second was important," he said, but before I could argue, he continued with, "You remember Sophie Beauchamp, the one who kept calling 'Emilia'?"

"Yes..." I said, already guessing where this was going.

Yuu gave me a dark glare. "I saw her, on the sensor. As soon as we left the garage, she turned around and went back to the academy. Frances Vinot chased after her, probably to stop her. You know what happened next?"

Nobody answered his question.

"Both of them disappeared from the sensor when those airships fired bombs at the academy. They were without a doubt, killed in that explosion. Had Annamarie told you that she was your sister, you would have done the exact same stupid thing."

Nobody said anything for the next half an hour, while I wept to losing my one and only sister. I hugged Anya tightly, as if I didn't want to let her go too. Carl rubbed my back gently, as I sobbed my heart out to the memory of Annamarie Hudson, no, Annamarie Larssen. Does that make me John Larssen instead of John Harolds?

"I think I'll just read my mail now," Yuu Nakani said as he brought up the email on his e-paper.

From: Henry Nelson

Hey, Bloody Shogun. How's it hanging? By the time you read this, I am most probably already dead. But that's OK. After all, it's not like I want to live forever. Strange, I feel like I've heard that line before. Probably from an old movie, but I can't recall the title.

Anyway, I was the one who packed your bag. Andy told me to put in something that I thought you can use. Frankly I had no idea what to put. If it was up to me, I would've given you a main battle tank instead of this tiny backpack. I know you would love that, you've always been armour-heavy, when everyone else use light units like infantries and hoverbikes. You're the only one I know who can win against multiple precision airstrikes using only tanks.

You need to stop thinking 'game'. This is a real life struggle. Unlike in games, if you lose here, there will be no restart button. In real life, you won't be able to press 'surrender' and tell your opponents 'good game'. If you fail this mission, it's the ultimate game over. Consider it as playing a game with the nozzle of a rifle pressed against your head. Imagine all 31 of your classmates have a rifle pressed against their heads as well and the outcome of your game will determine whether they live or die. So you must not lose this game, your classmates needs you and your mind.

But enough of that. After much deliberation, I decided to pack two extra things into your backpack. The first one is a WAMS device, or otherwise known as Wide Area Motion Scanner. This baby is small, light, durable and best of all, it can detect anything that moves within a radius of 100 kilometres. That's way better than anything of the same size, the only problem is that the power source sucks. You need to charge it often. Even so, I hope it will still be of use. Remember, information is key, knowledge is power.

That being said, I know such abstract things won't satisfy your desire for world domination. So I prepared something else. Inside your backpack is a key. Key to what? Now this will excite you. It still excites me. I, along with certain elements of the Underground Resistance have managed to steal a total of three Mirialis Corvettes. I got one of it as part of the deal. They got the other two as well as a whole cache of advanced weapons and equipments. Personally, I think she's a beauty. I bet you'd love her too. That key opens her innermost parts and bares them to you. Oh man, that got me excited. You still have to get there first though, it's a long way to go.

Think of it as a floating tank. A floating tank without much armour plating, though. But it does have a decent plasma shield system.

Anyway, best of luck and make good use of what I gave you. I also included the map to the corvette in this email, have a look.

No pressure, good luck,
The Iron Tyrant

"I can't believe this. Henry Nelson was the Iron Tyrant?" Yuu said.

"Someone you knew?" Carl asked.

"He was the only person who could beat me 5 out of 10. His specialty was either fast airborne units with speed enhancing tech using hit-and-run tactics or 'heavy tank wall' with artillery and support troops following with hoverbike scouts using overwhelming firepower tactics," Yuu said as he reread the email silently.

"Well, at any rate, we got a Mirialis Corvette. They're covered in stealth armour and silent as the wind. Not much of a destructive power from what I've seen when they attacked the academy, but I wonder what Henry Nelson equip it with," Nanako said enthusiastically.

"We haven't got it yet, we need to go get it first," Yuu said.

"But it's a good possibility. It will help a lot. Open the map," Carl urged.

Yuu Nakani opened the map on his e-paper and showed it to all of us. The location of the corvette was shown in red while our current location was shown in blue. It almost straddled the Alpine Mountains.

"That's like almost half the continent. It will take us three days at least to reach it," Nanako remarked.

"Don't forget we need to sleep and shop for supplies too," Carl informed.

"That's right, it will take us a week at least before we can reach it," Yuu stated.

"Assuming nothing gets in our way," Carl added.

"Let's pray that nothing gets in our way," Yuu said.

"Alright, my turn," Carl said.

From: Johnson Ortiz

Hey Carl,

If you're reading this, then you know that I'm dead. Don't sweat it. We're supposed to die, we've been ready for it since the day Andy told us that it will happen this year. Andy told us that except for Yannick and Miriam, we were all going to sacrifice ourselves to give you guys time to escape.

Well it beats living as a test subject in a petri dish anyway.

Andy told us to give you guys something. Awesome idea. I dropped you a few pulse grenades, they're my personal collection, you see. I also packed you a first aid kit, with three microbot canisters, just in case your team got injured on the way there.

I've fitted as much as I can inside your bag. If you need it, just use it. I won't be able to replenish your supplies, but it's best if you're as healthy and as whole as possible during your travel.

Don't waste our sacrifice, Carl. Your class must reach the objective and bring back help. There will be no point in our deaths if you fail.

Good luck.

Jonathan Ortiz

p/s: If you fail, I will personally go there and kill you.

Carl rummaged inside his backpack and took out a small case containing two scalpels, several bandages, a pair of scissors, a bottle of ethanol, some medicines and three grey vials filled with small metallic balls about one milimeter in diameter. "Medical microbots," Carl stated after he passed it around.

Then he took out a cylindrical object a bit smaller than his palm and examined it. "I think this is the pulse grenade he mentioned in the mail," he said as he threw it in the air before catching it. "Good balance," he stated before throwing it in the air again and catching it.

"Please don't do that," Yuu Nakani said with a definite edge in his voice.

"What? This?" Carl said as he threw it in the air again and captured it again.

"Yes! What if you accidentally activated it or something?" Yuu said while edging away little by little.

"Oh relax, pulse grenades aren't like normal hand grenades. If not activated, they're completely safe. Here, catch!" Carl said as he threw the grenade over the fire.

Yuu Nakani barely caught it in his hand.

"See? Nothing to worry about," Carl said as he made a motion asking for Yuu to throw the grenade back over the fire.

Yuu threw it back while murmuring loudly, "I'm gonna die one day because of this hippy."

"Your turn, Nanako," Carl said.

Nanako then reactivated her e-paper then looked at the list of mails. "Oh, I got a letter from the Shimizu twins," she pressed something and suddenly she made a frown before she said, "What is this rubbish?"

"What?" Carl asked.

Nanako turned her e-paper around, as if expecting it to make sense when read upside down. Then she turned the e-paper horizontal at her eye level and looked at it from the bottom. Then she put the e-paper on the ground and looked at it from an angle, as if expecting the additional lighting would give better clues. Finally she said, "Am I supposed to understand this?"

"Let me see," Yuu said as Nanako handed him the e-paper. He looked at it intently for a minute before he decided, "Probably a secret code. Did they tell you anything? Like a decryption method or something?"

Nanako shrugged as she looked inside her backpack. "No, they've never said a single word to me before outside of the martial arts club. Even then, they didn't say anything much," she said as she took out a curved short sword, "Hey, I think this is one of those sonic knives."

"How is it different from a normal knife?" Yuu asked as he handed the e-paper to Carl.

"Let's see," Nanako grabbed one of the pebbles and pressed a button at the end of the handle, then she used the knife to cut cleanly through the pebble.

"It can cut through rocks?" I exclaimed in surprise.

"It vibrates at an extremely high frequency. At that speed, it can cut through anything, even metal. My mom has always wanted one of these, though of course, you need to have a license to own one. If you don't use it properly, you can cut the whole building in two instead of just a slab of tough meat," Nanako explained.

"That's amazing," Carl said then handed me the e-paper, saying, "I can't make any sense of this."

I took the e-paper and shared it with Anya, who was still sitting on my lap.

From: Shimizu Haruka

お元気ですか。

私たちは、清水遥と清水花子です。

私たちは、あなたの旅にいくつかの助けを与えることを求めていた。ご想像しているように、これは私たちの世界ではありません。都市がこのように置かれている理由は、おそらく疑問に思っている。おそらく、この世に違和感を感じています。何年もの間、我々はこの違和感に気づいていたが、大統領は生徒会に私たちをもたらした前に私たちは何もできませんでした。今、私たちはいいえ、私たちはあなたの力を必要とし、望んでいる。 、菜々子が私たちを救う。私達の人々を救う、我々のレースを保存します。あなたが方法を知っている。

私たちは、電波や放射線を吸収する材料で手織り、あなたにこのマントを与える。それを身に着けていることはあなたが、レーダーやその他のセンサーから見えないようになりますが、人々はまだあなたを見ることができます。私たちは、あなたがよく、これを使用することができると確信しています。

我々はまた、あなたのわきざしを与え、このブレードは、あなたにとって有用であるはずである。

お体を大切に。

I looked at it with mouth agape. "There are repeated drawings all over with several variations. Maybe it's the key to decrypting this... I don't know what this is."

"I can probably write a decryption program. But I can't do it with this flimsy thing," Anya offered while pointing at the e-paper.

"What do you need?" Carl asked.

"We need to go to a town somewhere so I can get a computer," Anya said.

"Why would you need a computer? It's dangerous going to town. The military is probably looking for us," Yuu argued.

Anya stood up in front of me with hands on her waist. Even standing, she was not much taller than my head, and I was sitting. "I shall ask you a question, Bloody Shogun, what is a hacker without a computer?" she asked.

"An average everyday person?" Yuu made a guess.

"Useless! That's what a hacker without a computer is. I am NOT useless!" she said passionately.

"Fine, we'll get your computer. Just don't start shooting us with your particle wand like your big brother over there," Yuu said, pointing at me.

"That reminds me, I want to see John in drag," Carl stated.

"Why would you want to see that, pervert?" I shot back.

"You're supposed to be my partner, right? What if you turned out ugly or something?" Carl joked.

"Yeah, go on. I want to see too," Yuu said with a slight smile at the edge of his lips.

"Yeah, go ahead," Nanako said without even looking at me. She was busy flipping through a piece of her own clothing.

"There," Anya said as she helpfully handed me a stack of clothes, "Anna was so nice to buy special panties that hide your offending piece down below."

"Fine!" I snatched the stack of clothes from Anya as I turned around and walked away from the fire.

"Where are you going?" Carl asked.

"Changing!" I answered, as if that's the most natural thing ever.

"But we shouldn't separate," Carl protested.

"As if I want to change into girls's clothes in front of you horny perverts!" I snapped right before I entered the bushes behind my hoverbike.

They laughed as I went inside the bushes and took my boy clothes off. I looked at the girl clothes displayed in front of me. There was a blouse, a camisole, a pair of shorts and of course, panties. There were a few things I didn't know what, though. I wore those as best as I could then came back to the clearing.

Carl whistled. "Nicely done. I guess being Annamarie's little sister, you can't possibly be ugly."

Both Carl and Yuu laughed at the same time as they high-fived each other. Calling me Annamarie's 'little sister' was apparently very funny to them. Anya nudged my IL52S into my hand discretely. I looked at the setting and shot a stream of shock particles at both of them.

"Carl! I thought you took his wand!" Yuu scolded when he recovered.

"I did!" Carl said as he eyed the particle wand in my hand.

I zapped them again just for good measure. Then I turned to Anya and asked, "Do you know what this is?" I showed her a mass of jellylike strands held together by a soft, jellylike sheet.

"Isn't that a Follicle Assimilating Jelly? People call it FAG, I believe," Nanako said, still inspecting the piece of clothing in her hand.

"Why does people call it FAG?" I asked.

"Because some people can't spell," Nanako answered.

"So what does it do?" I asked.

"Just put it on," Anya said as she placed the jelly onto my head and pressed some things on some kind of controller.

The jelly then melted and stuck itself to every part of my scalp and hair. My head felt heavy and slimy from the melted jelly. I touched the material and squealed in disgust at the slimy-ness.

"What colour do you want your hair?" Anya asked.

"Colour?"

"Yes, the jelly adds volume to your hair and can be used to change the colour of your hair," Anya explained.

"Platinum blonde!" Carl suggested as both he and Yuu laughed again.

"Would you like me to zap you again?" I said as I raised the particle wand to eye level, aiming it towards Carl.

"Wait, wait, please forgive me!" Carl said as he got on his knees with his head on the ground towards me as if he was begging for mercy.

"If you want platinum blonde, I can do it. But this thing is a one-off use. You won't be able to change your hair colour or your hairstyle unless you got another jelly," Anya said.

"Can you make it the same colour as Annamarie?" I asked.

"Same colour as your sister? Sure, but I must remind you that this is no compensation for losing your sister," Anya said as she asked me for confirmation.

"I know."

"And the length? Same as Annamarie?" Anya asked again.

I thought about it, recalling how my sister, Annamarie looked like. "No, just make it half the length. Her hair was too long, I've never worn my hair that long before."

"Right," Anya pressed some buttons, "Alright, do you want anything else? Like rainbow highlights or something?"

"No, it's fine," I said as she pressed a button and I felt a tingling and itchiness in my scalp. I was about to scratch it by reflex when suddenly a mass of shiny copper-light blonde hair dropped down from my head, obscuring my vision. I parted the hair in front of my face and slit it behind my ears to the gasp of the boys.

"Holy shit!" Carl said.

"You look just like Annamarie!" Yuu remarked.

"You're like a younger Annamarie clone, except her hair was waist-length," Nanako observed.

"Oh and Annamarie had tits, you're flat as a board," Carl said.

I zapped Carl with my particle wand.

"Easily fixed," Anya said as she moved to grab something from the pile of clothes my sister Annamarie packed into my backpack.

I zapped Anya with my particle wand. "Oh no, don't you dare. I don't need any tits."

"You sure? It can help with your disguise," Nanako asked which made me zap her too.

Except it didn't hit her. Surprisingly her own particle wand fired at the same time and met my particle stream halfway. Her particle stream met mine in a flash of sparks in the air until both streams disappeared. Apparently she found a way to cancel my zapping stream with her own particle wand.

"How'd you do that?" Yuu asked.

Nanako held up her wand. "All IL52 are equipped with a miniature central processing unit. It doesn't have the processing power of, say, a high end computer, but it has enough processing power to calculate the pathway of a comet while running a classic car at the same time. I simply programmed an additional mode which allowed it to use its short distance sensor to calculate particle stream path and intercept it. It uses the same theory as how a police's force shield block rocks and bullets."

"How did you know all this?" Yuu asked wide eyed. It seemed like his girlfriend had kept a secret from him.

"There's the internet," Nanako said as if it was common sense.

"Anyone has a mirror?" I asked.

Nanako snapped a picture with her e-paper and handed it to me.

I touched my chin, my cheeks and my nose before running my hand along my now chest-length copper-blonde hair. "Wow, I really look like her. I think I'm falling in love with myself."

"You're almost an exact copy. Well at least she gave you something useful. What am I going to do with this?" Nanako said as she threw me a bundle of clothing.

I opened the bundle and saw that it was a long cloak. It had metallic threads in diamond pattern running all over the inner layer. It felt a little stiffer than normal woolen or satin cloak, but no stiffer than a leather overcoat.

"A hooded cloak?" I asked.

Nanako nodded as she said, "As if I can't just buy one of these at a departmental store. I mean, what did they see me as? Little Red Riding Hood?"

"Little Grey Riding Hood perhaps? At least you won't be cold in the winter," Carl joked.

Nanako looked at me. "May I borrow your wand?"

"Please," I said as I handed her my IL52S.

"NO! Just no!" Carl protested as he hid himself behind the cloak.

"That's strange," Nanako said as she pressed the 'fire' button.

"What's strange?" Yuu snatched the cloak from Carl's hand.

Nanako then aimed at Yuu.

"Hey, no! What are you doing?" Yuu protested as he covered himself with the long cloak.

Nanako then aimed at Carl and zapped him. She zapped him repeatedly.

"Hmmm," she aimed the particle wand at me, then at Carl, then at Yuu. Then she aimed it at Carl again and me again. In the end she deactivated it and handed it back to me.

"What?" I asked, finding her actions weird.

"Nothing. Give it back." she said as she took back her cloak from Yuu.

"I think we should just go to sleep for now. It's been a long day and we need the rest if we want to go full speed tomorrow," Yuu suggested.

"Don't forget we need to stop by at a town that sells computers," Anya said.

"Let's decide tomorrow. I think everyone's tired," then Yuu looked at me and suggested that I slept in the girl clothes I was wearing, to get me accustomed to wearing girl clothes.

I didn't like it, but I agreed to do it because our collective survival depended in small part to me being a woman.

Then I looked at Carl and said, "Maybe someone should help Carl?"

I pointed at Carl. He was on his back, twitching like crazy. He looked like one of those guys in comedy programmes who suffered from electric shock.

"Oh me, oh my. Did I zap him one too many time?" Nanako said unrepentantly.

******

"Herb, have you read the news?" a man in tight t-shirt said frantically the moment he opened the door.

"I did. They died spectacularly," Herb, in his usual attire of unkempt shirt and jeans, exhaled a puff of smoke which remained in the air for a few seconds.

"You know what this means, then," the other man said.

"Of course. The plan is now in motion. There's no turning back now. What of our mole?" Herb said as he got up, pressing his cigarette onto a waiting ashtray on his desk.

"No contact so far," the other man said, "It is possible that..."

"The mole died in the explosion. Yes, it's a possibility. Well, let's not count our chickens yet. Alert the other cells. Win or lose, this may be our last and final stance. If we win, this shall be our salvation. If we lose, we lose in a blaze of honour!"

*Hey everyone. Here is the next chapter of Escape! Please give me your most honest feedback as possible, as I'm pining for this being my debut. I think this one will have better impact than 'Armageddon'.
**See, didn't I say I'm going to spam the stories list with 3-4 of my own stories? Next would be the next chapter of Crown or Tiara.
***As always, please leave your feedbacks and comments. Praises helps me to write faster. Constructive criticisms helps me write better. Thank you for your support.