Arthur The Brave One
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Right now, at this very moment, a single thought echoed through his head over and over again:
Why, why did I have to pick a university while blindfolded?!
That day it had seemed like a perfectly sound idea for Charlie to just blindly pick out a university's advertisement from the towering pile of flyers. Reading every last one of the flyers seemed like a rather dreadful job to him, and besides, he was fairly lazy as it was. And out of the hundreds of paper sheets, the one he drew read 'GEARS University'.
It sounded pretty interesting, and in the little bit of attention he had payed last year, he recalled to have heard something about it being pretty good. So he packed his belongings, said farewell to his friends, who all gave really odd looks when he told them where he was going, although didn't comment in any other way. His father didn't even bother reading the flyer, but was pessimistic anyway, and his mom burst into tears at the thought of 'her little boy finally leaving the next', and failed to do anything but continuously ruffling his dark hair for days on end. Despite all that, Charlie's determination had risen high by then, so away he went. Away from his old life, on to a new place to call home.
Well, by now he knew that had definitely been the wrong choice.
Of course, even his slow-paced little home planet Amradia had heard of the gigantic robots called 'Mecha'. Although Charlie himself had never seen one before up to the moment when his space train arrived at the central station of Soluna City.
He felt like a kid who had his first trip to a candy store: there were giant killer robots battling everywhere, using some of the most awesome weapons he'd ever seen. By then, he thought it would most likely take him years to save up enough money to buy himself one, if ever. He went inside a place called "Tek's Mechs," and met the friendly pink/purple-haired owner of the shop: Tech. She told him they sold Mechas and mecha equipment here, and then she asked him whether he was a GEARS student. Surprised, he had replied with a yes, and she had smilingly told him that his very own mecha was probably waiting for him at the university parking lot.
At first, of course, he thought she was joking, but when she made clear she was serious, he realized that he had one of those awesome giant killer robots all for himself! He thanked Tech, and ran of towards someone who could tell him where the university was. He had gotten quite excited over the idea of having his own Mecha!
When he came out of the shop, he noticed something odd: a woman with a giant exclamation mark floating above her head!
He walked up to her, asking about it. She answered him that it just meant that she was the instructor for all new GEARS students, and that the exclamation mark was there to make her easy to find.
When he asked about the university, she pointed to a pathway to his right, and told him that there were several shuttles there that flew between here and the university.
He thanked the woman, and ran off towards the shuttles.
Why didn't I turn around back then, why?!
Once he had arrived at the university, he saw a message board, saying:
"Welcome new GEARS students! Gather in the great central room for the opening ceremony at 13:00 today for the opening ceremony. Don't be late!"
Looking at his watch, he noticed it was already five to one. He had to hurry!
He dashed through the great arch that functioned as the university's entryway, and looked at the signs on the wall on his right.
"Elevator, bathroom, battle arena, parking lot, central room...!"
He made his way around the corner as quickly as possible, only to find.... a janitors closet.
Some *@#$er must have put it there before so people like I'd go the wrong way.... and I only have 2 minutes left!
He made his way back, and noticed another sign, this one hopefully the real one, saying "Grand Central Room", and dashed over in the opposite direction.
"What's that over there! No running in the hallways!" shouted a woman dressed in red to him.
Being a little angry over getting pranked already, he returned the favor by sending her a death glare, and continued to sprint down the hallway as fast as he could.
Only one minute left... I'm not gonna make it!
And, ironically enough, he of course didn't make it. Even so, it didn't seem that they had started yet, so he just found himself place to sit as fast as he could, seeing as he was one of the last ones, and of course didn't bother to look at the neatly positioned signs next to the rows of seats. He also failed to notice the odd looks from all the red-clad guys and girls who were sitting around him.
Then, at long last, the schools dean arrived. Immediately, all the lights in the room went out, and two spots turned on and centered on him as he calmly walked towards the stage in front. His long white beard and hair almost radiated, and Charlie couldn't help but wonder about his eyes, which both were a bright light blue, almost white, even though he didn't appear to be blind. His red and golden cloak didn't even get ruffled the slightest bit while the old man walked towards the stage.
He reached the microphone, at long last, and spoke two simple words:
"Welcome students..."
After which the crowd went wild. Everyone stood up, clapped, shouted, and whistled between their fingers. Of course, Charlie just participated in the ruckus, as he didn't want to be an outsider, and because the mood had a rather contagious effect on him. However, the dean made one gesture of silence, and the whole room obeyed almost immediately.
"To another year at GEARS university. I would like to say 'welcome' to our new students," a few shouts arose from the crowd, "and 'welcome back' to our... 'veterans'." Now, on the other hand, almost everyone in the whole room started shouting and whistling again.
He raised his hand again, and the room was silent once more.
"I, dean Warlic, wish you all a great new year at GEARS, and I hope you may come to rise to your own expectations. Our second-years and over are from here on allowed to enter their dorms once again, and the newcomers can come forward in just a minute to pick up the keys to their dorms. Make sure not to lose them! Afterwards, there will be 'open houses', and you can go and visit all of the houses to see which one you will join.... even though one of our new students appears to already have found himself a spot among the Wolfblade!"
Suddenly, Charlie realized a third spot had suddenly been aimed at him! He broke into cold sweat, but then he noticed the dean gave him... a wink? He felt more confident instantly, grinned widely, and replied with a simple "thank you, sir!". The second-year Wolfblade around him seemed more amused than annoyed by his presence, which give his confidence another boost. On an impulse, made an excessive bow, and provoked a laugh among all of the assembled Wolfblade, and the dean himself. He even got a few friendly punches afterwards from the guys who had been standing next to him, and he felt it had been an excellent start of the year.
After picking up his keys, he went back to the grand hall. He saw the Wolfblade instructor again, and expected a scolding for his behavior earlier, but got a broad smile and a personal invitation from her for a tour through the house of Wolfblade. He met the leader of Wolfblade and a few of its high-ranked members, and was genuinely impressed. Simple-mindedly, he just didn't even consider going to the other houses, and signed in for Wolfblade immediately.
How he regretted that now!
Sitting in his Advanced Nova Wolfblade, he frantically pushed a few buttons, and heard an icy voice over the intercom: "Front arm activated. Damage output 100%."
Using his special sniper helmet, he targeted the weak neck-structure of the ShadowScythe Mecha, and hit the red button in front of him. Again, there was the intercom:
"Front arm fired.... Target hit. Critical damage. Enemy defeated."
He couldn't help but grin. It just always felt good to lay siege on one of these bastards.
Now for the actual hard part...
He pushed a green button to his left, and felt his chair falling through the bottom of his bulbous metal cabin quite rapidly. He exited this mecha through a little door in the Mecha's left foot, and continued his quest by foot.
Coming as close as possible to the incredible heat of the burning mecha, he searched for that tiny shimmer of light he so desperately hoped to acquire.
Then, he saw what he had been looking for: a faint glow, underneath the sand covering the huge Dragonoid. He reached out for it, but suddenly, a mis-fired rocket from a fellow Wolfblade hit one of the giant, red crystals, and blew off the top part. It flew through the air, spinning and decided to land exactly on top of the burning remains of the enemy Mecha. The crimson crystal reacted, thanks to the great heat, with the Mecha's fuels and made the entire Mecha go 'boom' in a giant explosion.
Charlie didn't manage to escape the full power of the blast, despite his efforts to quickly crawl behind a rock. He got blown away by the massive force, and landed with his back on top of crystal spike. It went all the way through.
Breathing heavily, coughing up blood, he noticed a two last things:
His faithful Mecha that had served him for about half a year now, had been blown to smithereens. To him, the four-story-tall machine had become more than just a tool for battle: it had gained a soul of its own... even though he had never liked the voice of the intercom.
Second was the tiny piece of gleaming hot metal in front of him. It seemed so insignificant now, but it had cost him his everything to get.
And that while I finally had a hundred... How ironic.
The badge glowed golden in the light of the fading sun, which made the V carved into even more obvious to the eye.
Heh... my life for a piece of trash... what would I actually use it for? Bragging rights?
He felt his power leaking out of him, like he was a Mecha with a fuel leak. Bittersweet irony all over again. For weren't it that goddamned machine that had led him to his inevitable end?
The moment he closed his eyes for the final time, he heard a voice through his walkie-talkie: it was Sarah's.
"Charlie! Charlie, are you alright! We saw a huge explosion and.... Answer me Charlie!"
"Heh... sorry sweetheart. I'm afraid it's the end.... of the line for me...." he replied weakly, as he didn't have much strength left in him.
"What? Charlie, what... why... Don't you dare die on me, you BASTARD!"
He could hear she was crying.
"Farewell... I love you." he softly said.
His hand grasped the metal Wolfblade emblem pinned on his uniform, and he managed to tear it off with the last few bit of his strength.
He felt the cold, metallic structure of the now worthless piece of junk, and threw it away as far as he could.
"Charlie! Charlie, answer me goddammit! Charlie..."
And then his walkie gave the ghost too.
Heh... guess that was the perfect moment for you to be out of battery, eh, pal?
He coughed up some more blood, and saw flashes of his life appear before his eyes. And then his world ended. Just like that.
It was hours before the rescue squad found him at last. Once they brought him in, his girlfriend was there, crying in silence, her long blond hair falling in front of her face.
In his fist, she noticed, he had clenched the golden badge with a V carved into it.
She smiled.
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< Message edited by Arthur The Brave One -- 1/30/2009 2:31:54 >
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