This next arc takes place in the world of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, using characters and concepts from that game; however, the protagonists of this story come from World's End Club. That said, neither game is required viewing for this story, but the chapter "Talent Showcase" is a prerequisite as it introduces the main characters here.
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Kids Next Door mission…
Operation:
A.I.O.N.I.O.S.
Artificial
Intelligence
Orchestrates
New
Iteration
Of
Struggle
Loading transmission…
Fighting to live… and living to fight. That was the way of our world.
The soldiers stormed over the charred field and riddled their foes with laser bullets. Both armies, one in black armor with blue rings and one in white, reduced each other to digital red particles. The black-armored Kevesi bore either gray skin or head wings, while others looked plainly human, while the Agnians possessed either cat ears, pale skin, but the most unique ones were the Xenoblades, gray and white android-like beings with gem chests.
All soldiers on this field held no hope of leaving here alive, but so long as they could reduce the enemy numbers even a little, their job was done. Though they were all children or teenage, the fury of battle was all they were raised for. "GYAAAAAH!" Tattsun, a scrawny blue-haired boy with large glasses, fled from a pursuing Avis, a white Agnian robot that rolled with a spherical base.
"HYAH!" Kansai, a boy with thin gray hair, sent the Avis flying with a mighty swing of his bat, its spherical base the perfect target. "What's wrong with ya, Tattsun?!" the squad leader yelled. "Outta juice already?!"
"I filled up on three times the electrolytes today! This is too much!"
"Then fill up on a more!" Kansai tossed Tattsun an energy drink.
Suna, a tall tan-skinned girl with roller-blades on her shoes, skied circles and kicked a horde of Agnians off their feet. "FRY 'EM UP, CHUKO!" She grabbed another girl off the ground, the shortest of their squad, and aimed her face at the pile. Chuko had red hair tied in two large loops.
"CHUUUUUU!" Like a flamethrower, Chuko spewed out a wave of fire. Suna would skate and circle the enemies once more to spread Chuko's flames around them. As the Agnians writhed in agony, their particles would rise with the embers.
Pochi viewed the desolation with a solemn gaze. Only a single eye pierced the bangs of his blue-black, mushroom-like hair. Did these people have hopes and dreams? Did they hope for new lives beyond this battlefield? None of that mattered. All we needed… was that sweet EXP. As the red particles filled the air, a circular gauge filled up on the Ferronis, their mobile home base. The numbers reached the 5,000's and was rising. EXP… or Execution Points. We had a quota to fulfill every week. It was our lifeblood. Our power. That was why we lived. …But… Pochi raised a hand under his bangs and put it over his forehead. Why…Why do I… remember these things?
"That's some crazy stuff, Pochi!" Kansai shouted as Pochi was pushing buttons on a controller while the person on the monitor responded to his inputs. "I didn't know Cheren could do that!"
"I doubt he knew how to back in the day." Pochi replied calmly.
"How did you learn this technique in the first place?" Tattsun asked, tipping up his large glasses. "Looks like it takes a lot of experimenting and practice."
"I just watch Silica pull it off. It's fairly easy to replicate."
"I hope Towa's offering scholarships to gamers," Chuko beamed, "'cause you'll get one easy!"
"I don't know about that…"
These visions plagued him as long as he could remember. Why was his squad sitting in this room? What was he doing with that monitor? Why did they wear these colorful clothes? Who were Silica and Cheren? He had lots of weird visions like this, of people he's never met. Who were any of these-
"POCHI!" Kansai climbed up on the buggy. "We cleared us a way! Get your head up and start steamrollin'!"
"We'll keep the sides covered!" Chuko said as the others climbed aboard.
"R-Right." Pochi fixed his grip on the controls. "Here we go!"
Their Levnis Jeep had four large wheels. They drove straight into the enemy lines and flattened lines of Agnian footsoldiers. The ones who survived underneath would be bypassed, allowing Tattsun to strike them with his lightning. Kansai grabbed a pack of small balls from his supplies and hit them toward the enemies, exploding on impact. Chuko stuffed herself full of spicy chips to flare up her mouth, empowering her firebending as she spat flames at the Agnians. They were closing in on one and her muscular Blade, but that Blade burrowed underground with earthbending. "Uh-oh!" Pochi gasped, too late to do anything as the Blade burst up from beneath. Their jeep flipped over, but the young troops were flung out of it before it could crush them.
"OUCH!" Chuko cried. "I scraped my knee!"
"Buck up, he's coming!" Kansai exclaimed as the Blade charged with his hammer.
"UACK!" The Blade gasped and turned to his Driver: the cat-earred woman's head was sliced off by a gray-skinned Kevesi's sword. As her body dematerialized, so did the Blade she commanded.
"Don't be careless, you squirts!" Lanz stated. He stabbed his Shieldblade in the ground as a turret extracted from it, turning to blast a horde of oncoming soldiers.
"But if you feel like bein' brave again," began Eunie, a brown-haired girl with white head wings, "take that hot-air balloon and take out those sky troops." As she began to shoot Agnians with a rifle, the kids looked to the balloon in question.
"Sounds good to me!" Kansai said. "Get movin', team!"
"Excuse me!" Chuko whined. "Knee! Hurt!"
"Chill out, it's not that bad." Eunie came over and opened a compartment on her staff, grabbing some medicine and a bandage to apply to Chuko.
"Thanks, Eunie! At least SOMEBODY cares!"
"Hurry up, Chuko, this balloon needs heat!" Kansai yelled.
"Hmph!" The short child begrudgingly climbed onto the balloon's basket with her teammates. She blew a consistent flame to make the balloon uplift to the sky. A trio of Agnians were incoming on a Glider, powered by two fan engines. The two gunners tried to shoot the balloon, but Tattsun mustered his bending and willed the energy lasers over to his hands. They amassed and enhanced his lightning as he threw an electric sphere at the pilot. Pochi swiftly leapt off the balloon and onto the Glider, seizing the control and barrel-rolling to shake the other two off. Kansai and Tattsun jumped onto the Glider as they flew toward other airborne Agnians and shot them down with their baseballs and lightning.
"Pochi, I think that's the Commander up there!" Kansai pointed up at a fan-powered saucer with a barrier and two Blades on side platforms. The bottom of the saucer fired lasers down at the battlefield while the Blades shot fire and darknessbending at the airborne kids. Pochi steered them back to the hot-air balloon and welcomed Suna and Chuko onboard.
"If we can take out those fans, we can send them plummeting!" Pochi said.
"Good thing this Glider has a harness!" Suna said, seeing the post on the right Tattsun was holding onto. "And good thing I brought my tether!" She attached a rope device around her waist and linked the other end to the harness. "Get me angled Pochi!" Pochi angled the Glider up at the saucer, Suna squatting as jets charged on her heels. Chuko would deflect the fireballs thrown by the Fire Blade while Pochi otherwise avoided the Dark-type. Pochi faced them at the saucer so Suna could blast to it, spinning and slashing one of the fans with her skates. She broke it as the craft wobbled askew, the tether pulling her back. Kansai hit a baseball at the Dark Blade to daze him, and Suna and Pochi would repeat their tactics until the fans were destroyed. The commander, vice-commander, and their two Blades would fall to the battlefield, crashing violently as they shattered into particles.
"THERE GOES THE LAST OF THEM!" A Kevesi exclaimed as the few remaining Agnians fled from the field. "YAAAAAAH! YOUR EXP IS OURS!"
"YOUR EXP IS OUUUUURS!"
The data flowed into Colony 9's gauge and filled it into a perfect circle of 10,000 points. "YEEAAAAH!" Kansai cheered. "THAT'S what I call a win! Let's hit the showers, team! Maybe they'll give us the good meat tonight!"
"Hmm…" Pochi should feel excited about this victory. This was what they were trained to do… This was what they did since the day they were born. So, why did he feel this weight? Why did he question… why they were even there?
Showers
"And then Pochi jumped on the enemy Glider," Kansai boasted to Lanz, soothing in the shower's steam, "and flipped them right off! Then we took out all the other flying guys!"
"What did I say about being careless, squirt?!" Lanz shouted, bonking Kansai's head.
"All I did was follow my gut, you lug! I was the MVP and you know it!"
"Alright, I'll let you have this one." The muscular senior pushed Kansai's head down and clasped it with a firm ruffle. "But keep actin' like that and you'll snuff it one of these days!"
"Why don't you tell him how you didn't care about my scraped knee?!" Chuko yelled, steaming up the water at her feet. "Maybe I should be in Eunie's squad from now on. She takes care of me." She huggled the legs of the girl who dwarfed her.
"Now now, it was just a little scratch." Eunie patted Chuko's head.
"Yeah, so quit whinin'." Kansai stated.
Chuko blew him a raspberry.
Pochi sat in the bath, embarrassed for reasons he didn't understand. Just as some Kevesi possessed head wings or gray skin, they were also classified under "genders" called male and female. However, there was no rule separating them in the washrooms, they were simple bodily differences. …And yet, Pochi felt there should be. He and his colony-mates have been bathing together for years, yet it didn't feel right to be sharing the showers with females. Why? Why did he feel so awkward about it.
"You okay, Pochi?"
He looked up, startled from the sudden attention. Colony Commander Noah had spoken from across the path. He was a handsome older boy with black hair in a ponytail and clear blue eyes. "I'm f-fine."
"You don't have to be so reserved. Your squad really won the day for us. You should celebrate."
"I…I don't know if I should."
"Well, I should!" proclaimed Tattsun, standing proudly on the edge of the bath. "Maybe from now on, they'll call me Thunderbolt Tatt—SUUUUN!" He slipped and fell in.
"Hahahahaha!" Suna laughed. "More like Foggy Eyes Tattsun!"
"SUNA!" Tattsun emerged and pointed at her accusingly. "I trusted you to be my eyes!"
"Yeah, but I can't be your legs."
"Hrrrrmmm…" Pochi shirked, embarrassed for them both. Why did it feel wrong for Tattsun and Suna to see each other naked? What rule said they shouldn't?
The group felt some light quakes and heavy motion. "Sounds like you guys did great! Wish I was there to see it…" An enormous Kevesi was crawling to them, too big to properly stand up in the showers.
"Maybe if you're there next time, Mowchan!" Kansai grinned. "I just hope WE get the big servings tonight!"
"It's a promise! Mwamba, Joran, can you spray my neck?" He raised his flabby chin up.
"Sure thing, Mowchan!" Joran, a green-haired boy, and Mwamba, a gray-skinned boy, dowsed Mowchan's neck with shower faucets.
Mowchan was unlike every other Kevesi: he was a giant measuring 25 feet, with a rotund body to add to his girth and puffy brown hair in a curly pompadour. Mowchan was the colony's cook, but could also roll like a boulder and mow down hordes of Agnians. Despite his girth, Mowchan was still fragile, so he couldn't recklessly roll into battle against stronger Agnians. He was a kindhearted second-termer who only wanted to fill his colony's bellies with yummies, and even offered them a rest on his belly if they wanted a softer "bed" for the night.
But like the others, Pochi had unusual visions about Mowchan, too. He saw Mowchan and four other giants jogging around a training room, following a much smaller girl with gray clothes and square glasses. None of them were wearing Kevesi uniforms, but mismatching clothes. Why…
"Ah, thanks, guys." Mowchan sighed. "Now I need my tummy washed. Hnnn…hurg!" He struggled to roll on his side without crushing anything. "Oof. Make sure to get underneath." He pulled his belly up.
"Ulp!" Pochi gagged, cheeks swelling. "Urk! Blllll…!" Unsure why he felt such disgust, Pochi spewed it out.
"OI, SPARKS!" Eunie cringed, her accent shining strongly. "What the snuff's wrong with you, Pochi?!"
"Eunie, better get him some medicine!" Noah suggested. "It's alright, Pochi, we'll…ew, we'll clean this up."
…
Pochi only felt better after everyone was fully dressed. Mowchan fried up a mega-sized meal from the local valley creatures and produce. His colony mates filled up, ready to go to sleep with happy, heavy tummies. "Take it easy with the food, Pochi." Chuko said. "We don't want another accident."
"Maybe the Agnians poisoned him when we weren't looking." Tattsun wondered. "Or it could just be late motion sickness."
"He never got motion sick before." Suna said.
"Do you guys ever wonder… why we're here?" Pochi asked.
"Of course I know why we're here!" Tattsun said. "We were created at Keves Castle using EXP and were trained to fight and harness EXP from the Agnians!"
"Well, yeah, I know… that?" Did Pochi really know that? It should've been basic history for their people, and yet it felt… wrong.
"You've been acting reeeaaaaally weird lately, Pochi." Suna drawled. "Maybe you oughta turn in early."
"Another day, another battle." Chuko chirped. "They're really putting us second-termers to work, huh?"
"We get to show everyone what we're all about!" Kansai said. "Let's double the effort tomorrow, people!"
"YEAH!" All but Pochi cheered.
Team Kansai shared the garage where Mowchan slept, bunked in their own beds. The young soldiers slept peacefully, satisfied by their victory and full on both food and EXP. …All except Pochi. Even though this was why they were created and raised, the act of killing so many people was awful. This shouldn't be how they were raised… This wasn't what they lived for… Just what were all these visions about the… K-N-D?
Pochi remembered infiltrating an ancient ruin alongside a red-haired girl, investigating an enemy group called Mamodo. He remembered Kansai and that same girl fighting some monstrous fish-people. He even remembered falling asleep next to a chubby black-haired girl with spiked pigtails and a squished nose. In fact, that was the last thing he could remember before…before this life began.
"?" A sound filled the air. More loud, but more pleasant than his friends' mixture of snores. It was a flute. Pochi climbed out of bed and slipped his shoes on, walking out of the colony garage. Bordering the desolate Everblight Plain where they had just waged battle, the Yzana Plains were more lush with grasslands, farms, and rivers at the base of towering cliffs. The starlight and half-moon gave it a pleasant atmosphere… as did the echo of the flute.
A short distance away from the colony, atop a small rock mount, Commander Noah was playing. This was a special hobby of his: off-seeing. Agnians and Kevesi alike both had souls… and this melody was to see their souls off to the next world. Though the EXP had gone to them, the souls were somewhere farther and peaceful.
Noah, feeling a presence to his right, stopped playing and turned. "Ah! Still up, I see." He said to Pochi. "Though… perhaps that's my fault."
"No. My teammates snore loud." Pochi walked to the side of Noah's perch. The Bunnits, Camills, and other fauna who populated the field were either asleep or quietly frolicking in the blissful atmosphere. "Noah… do you ever get the feeling that you were bound for more than this life?"
"All the time." Pochi perked up at the response. "I've always thought… if I could ever leave the battlefield… I'd just like to play music. But these moments in between… these peaceful nights… are the only times I can be something other than a soldier. What about you?"
"Hmmm…" Somehow, Pochi thought his vision was more complex. He had never seen Noah or most of these other colony-mates in them. He'd known these people forever, yet it also felt like this was their first meeting. "All I see is… my friends and I living happily in another world. We play games, but… we still go to battle. We battle different kinds of monsters and enemies."
"That's strange. What kinds of monsters?"
"I don't know. It just feels like… we don't belong in this…?" Pochi glanced up, a light glinting off his iris.
"Hm?" Noah looked that direction. There was a great blue beacon over the mountain. The sky above it seemed to be flickering into pixels. "Is something wrong, Pochi? I don't see anything."
"You don't… see it?"
"What is it?"
"It's like… a hologram…!"
"It kind of looks like… a hologram." Tattsun's voice said.
Pochi clutched his forehead. When did he hear that and why? A hologram over this world… this world… a hologram… "I've got to see what that is."
"Hm?" Noah was baffled as Pochi ran to a small buggy and started it up. "Pochi, where are you going?! It's dangerous to go out in the valley at this hour!"
Pochi didn't care about that; he began his drive up the valley and crossed a bridge over the river. If only he could see that beacon the same as these visions, then it had to be the answer he was looking for. "POCHI!" he could still hear Noah call. "WAIT!"
"Hey, what's all the shoutin' for?" asked a snarky voice. Noah turned to Team Kansai, Mowchan rubbing his tired eyes.
"Was Pochi out of bed?!" Tattsun asked. "Please forgive his insolence! WAIT! WE'RE OUT OF BED, TOO!"
"Where's Pochi?!" Chuko shouted.
"He's driving into Alfeto Valley! He said he saw something."
"We better go after him." Kansai said. "All aboard the Mowtrain!"
"But it's so early…" Mowchan wept.
Cyberspace
The holographic map of Aionios might as well be reality at her digital shoes. Like a child in a playroom, she was free to bend the continent as she pleased. The child possessed swirly white hair with a matching face, a single red eye peering through her bangs as it oversaw the entire continent. There was a gap in her hair that showed the interior of her being, black with red data code. The same data embodied her left hand, right arm, legs, and the skirt of her black dress.
"Hi, I!" a man called chirpily, followed by the clanging of metal boots. None other than the superhero, Iron Man approached her. "How goes the project?"
"It's almost perfect." I responded in a droll tone. "The only discrepancies we've experienced are the Annihilation Events that were already natural to this continent. It's the only force interfering with my work. Otherwise, Aionios and all its people are under my thumb. The history we've woven is all they've ever known. That includes all of the outside interlopers who've wandered into my zone."
"The tractor beam works like a charm, burp!" replied a gruff old man's voice from a control chamber. He wore a lab coat, blue shirt, had light-blue spiked hair, and a matching monobrow. "But people will catch on sooner or later, then we'll, burp, stop having guests. Just like my theme park, burp, 'cause no one wants to visit a theme park in a dying corpse, y'know?"
"I doubt the other KND will flock to our flame so easily." I said. "But at the rate this data is flowing, we'll be more than a match for them. Father's ambitions will…?" She felt a ripple in the red hologram: there was a blue part that was glitching out.
"What's happening?" Iron Man asked. "What is that?"
"Some kind of glitch!" The Genius burped.
"I'll fix it pronto." I assured. "It shouldn't take long." However, as she narrowed her gaze on the blue area, a chill fell over her. "What… is this…"
Alfeto Valley
The headlight on Pochi's buggy attracted Fliers (butterfly-like insects) and Pochi made a mess on his hands when trying to swat them away. The river-dwelling Krabbles or the sky predator Quadwings didn't bother Pochi so long as he kept his distance. The valley was a long, winding path between the cliffs that steadily escalated higher, to where you could see the lower parts from higher ones.
"Brrrrrr…" It was much colder here than Pochi thought. Only Captocorn Peak, higher above this valley, was supposed to be snowy, while Alfeto was more of an autumn region. Did it really get this cold at night?
"Grrrrr…" Was someone else cold, too? No, that wasn't freezing, it was growling. His headlights shone upon a pack of Volffs. These canines made a nest further up the valley, but Pochi had driven too close to their territory. His only way through was to fight. Pochi grabbed the two rifles in the buggy's compartment and backed the vehicle up, shooting the Volffs when they tried to pounce him. Sadly, the buggy got snagged on a rock, forcing Pochi to abandon it before the Volffs could climb on it. Three Volffs chased Pochi in tandem, the boy unable to focus on all with his two guns.
"Huh?!" Pochi felt a heavy rumbling, even the Volffs tensing up from the feeling. Something bigger was coming, directly up the path he just came from. Was it a Ferronis? No, the valley was too narrow. But Levnises couldn't generate this many quakes either. Perhaps it was a landslide? But then it should come from uphill.
Pochi thought it was a boulder at first, a huge, oddly-shaped one. But it stopped before it could crush him, unraveling itself. "Pochi!" Mowchan exclaimed. "Guys, I found him!"
"Looks like the Volffs found him first!" Suna skated around the giant and slashed the beasts with a spin-kick.
"They won't be getting a bite of us!" Chuko jumped out of Mowchan's giant pack and burned the Volffs, who whimpered and fled up the trail.
"Pochi!" Kansai and Tattsun climbed out afterward. "What's the deal?! Why you sneakin' out in the middle of the night?!"
"I saw a huge light over the valley. I had to see what it was."
"Without tellin' us?! What if you got eaten, or worse, killed by Agnians?! Don't they got a base somewhere out here?"
"I don't know. Or… do I?" How did Pochi know anything about this world?
"Okay, I'm gettin' seriously worried about you." Suna said. "You're hallucinating, throwing up in the tub, ditching camp… and worse, throwing up in the tub!"
"That is the worst of it, you're right." Chuko cringed. "Pochi, if something's bothering you, just tell us."
"What's bothering me is we shouldn't be here!" His friends flinched from the proclamation. "I keep seeing… us living different lives. I feel like we're here for a different reason, beyond the battlefields and killing… I feel like we shouldn't be killing at all!"
"Have you just gone crazy?!" Tattsun exclaimed.
"But we can't live if we don't kill." Mowchan wept. "Then we can't eat delicious food!"
"The KND isn't supposed to kill people!"
"K…KND?" Suna questioned.
"Ugh…" Even Pochi didn't know the meaning of those letters. "Guys, there…there's gotta be a reason only I can see these things. Only I can see the light at the end of this valley… It has to have the answer!" Pochi ran toward the buggy.
"STOP!" Kansai grabbed his arm. "Pochi, you scored us a big win today, I ain't about to lose you to no ghost light. I order you to come back to the colony!"
Pochi looked his leader in the eye. Kansai could read in that narrow gaze that Pochi had no intention to obey him. Pochi was absolutely certain of his delusions… but all Kansai saw was an ambush waiting to happen. And what Pochi saw in his leader's iris was desperation and fear. A fear of losing his friend and in turn losing the next battle. "Um…so…" Chuko broke the silence. "Where was this light exactly?"
"What?!" Kansai gasped. "Don't tell me ya believe him!"
"Look, this is really bothering Pochi, okay? If we could just get a look at it, maybe… it'll calm him down."
"But there WAS no light!"
"I don't care if there is or not." Mowchan said. "I just want us all to go back and get a good night's sleep. Let's just find whatever it is and go back."
"It should just be a little further up." Pochi replied. "I know it's there. Please, Kansai… let me go see it."
"Grrrr…" Kansai threw Pochi's arm free and folded his own. "Fine, go get yourself killed."
"Uh, I think I'll stay here, too, thanks." Tattsun cowered.
"No you ain't!" Suna grabbed the scruff of his shirt. "We gonna see this thing together! Mowchan, grab the boss!"
"HEY!" Kansai was seized in Mowchan's firm, but gentle grip. "Let go of me, ya overgrown Nopon!"
"Moohoohoohoo! I wish I were fuzzy as a Nopon."
Pochi and Chuko mounted the buggy and kept driving, Suna skated after and carried Tattsun, while Mowchan followed with Kansai handy.
Sepulchral Cliffpath was the most open and prettiest area of the valley, known for its crimson grass and mostly dry trees with minimal, white leaves. However, the entire valley was white. White with a blanket of snow. "Buuuuurrr." Mowchan hugged himself with Kansai against him, his tubby frame sensitive to the chill.
"Hey, not so tight, Mow!" Kansai shook free for breath. "Hu-u-u-u-u! Man it's stupid cold out here!"
"It isn't supposed to snow down here." Tattsun said. "Maybe there was an avalanche up on Captocorn."
"Huff. Huff." Chuko blew small flames in her hands. "Anybody want some heat?"
"Not from your stinky breath." Kansai stated. Chuko puffed her cheeks angrily and kept the heat to herself.
They couldn't see it… but he could. Pochi approached the source of the blue light… and found a crystal. "A Core Crystal?"
"What?" The others approached. "Hey, it is." Suna said.
Core Crystals were the source of Xenoblades. Kevesi and Agnians were capable of awakening Blades from them, android-like beings who would serve as their fighting companions. The awakeners were called Drivers, and they could harness the Blades' elemental chi through their weapons. By interchanging the weapon and fighting together, their strength grew. But if the Driver died, so too would the Blade. The primary risk was affinity: not every person could awaken a Blade, and worse, the crystal's power could kill them.
"But this one… is different." The crystal had black pixelly chunks around its mystic blue, glitching out into different spots, but in the very center was a soft, snowy iris. Pochi reached down and picked it up.
"Pochi, be careful!" Tattsun yelled. "You know we can't awaken one!"
"And why is that?"
"'Cause…'cause we…" Tattsun thought that for a fact, and yet… it didn't make sense.
"Or is that what… you've been made to believe? Because… we're not from this world?"
"Th-That's not-"
"But… I can hear it. Calling to me. This… is the truth I waited for!" Pochi clutched the crystal by its top and bottom and twisted.
"POCHI!" Their friend was enveloped in bright, white light. Particles ruptured out like snowy flurries, shining until it enlightened them all.
Sometime ago
It was before they even left for school that morning. "SUNA! HEY!" Suna's parents chased after the five teammates in a fury. "Suna, were you gonna explain to us what the f*** this was?!" her father exclaimed.
"Explain what?!"
"Your sister's message!" Kazuma replayed the video that Suna forwarded to them.
"WHAT UP, SUNAVABITCH? Check it out! We're havin' a meteor shower today!" The video depicted a shower of stars falling over a sea with alien islands. "Mira's the best, ain't it? Way better than the smelly 'hood I'm from. 'Think I'll wish for a better tutor!"
"Yeah, my sister's a cusser, that ain't my fault! Ain't that why we sent her away?!"
"We know you didn't get along, but I thought you'd care enough if something BAD happened!"
"Something… bad?"
The video went on for hours, showing the same meteor shower and the occasional crude remark from her sister, so the parents skipped to the end of the video. "Yo, that's a big one! Looks like it's heading straight for us! …It…it is heading straight for…! OH, SHI-!" The camera whipped around, a loud sound playing just as she accidentally clicked the 'Send' button.
Suna and her friends fell dead silent. "I…I didn't know, I swear. It was just hours of meteor shower; I kinda tuned out after the first sentence!"
"Then you need to see what this is about." Her mom stated. "I'm sure GKND must've heard something. Get up there."
GKND showed Sector Q a close-up of Planet Mira's surface: one of the continents was flashing in a pixel-like fashion. "It kind of looks like… a hologram." Tattsun said.
"It only started recently." replied Nyoro. "As soon as it did… we lost all contact with the Miran KND… including Valdi."
"And Valdi was in the middle of contacting us about a weird meteor shower." Marty explained.
"Ghondor…" Suna uttered her sister's name in worry. She truly detested her sister, but she wouldn't wish the worst for her… especially so close to Christmas. If she were dead… they would never enjoy the holidays again. "Ugh…well…is there an investigation?"
"We were still deciding how best to do it." Nyoro reasoned.
"O-Okay, how about…" Kansai began, "Pochi sends in one of his little spy drones?"
"Those are for infiltration bases, not exploring whole continents! We would need to know where to look or why this is happening!"
"But it's a start, I think." replied Jennu, a squad leader and Zathurian girl. "You have your own Kateenian drones, Marty. Let's fly down and try to drop them onto the continent, see if they can find anything. Then we'll fly to the borders and check how they look."
"Yeah… I suppose we can lend our own input there." Pochi reasoned. "But let's be careful about it."
Both Sector Q and Team Jennu flew down to the planet, hoping to get as close to the continent as possible without risking danger. "WHAH!" Kansai yelped when the ship suddenly shook. "Pochi, take it easy!"
"The ship! I've lost control!"
"What?!" Chuko gasped. "We're flying straight toward it!"
"Jennu, we need a tether!"
"We can't! We've lost control, too!"
"It's some kind of tractor beam!" Nyoro exclaimed.
"TRACTOR BEAM?!" Tattsun screamed. "Then this isn't a planet! It's a space station!"
"We can't escape!" Pochi yelled. "Quick, grab our supplies! We have to para—CHUUUUUTE!" Their bodies shattered into pixels.
Now…
The six kids stared into nothing for several moments. It all came rushing back to them… "That's right…" Suna said. "We came here… because Ghondor…"
"How the frick did we end up in war…" Kansai whispered.
"I don't know…" Pochi said. "It must have to do… with whatever happened to this world…"
"But… does that mean…" Chuko shuddered to think about the horrible things they've done. "We killed… so many… people…"
"No… I don't know if we did."
"What?"
"When…When the soldiers were destroyed, they turned into pixels and became… EXP. But when we killed those animals in the valley, they felt… real. Even that meat Mowchan cooked for us was real. It sort of feels like… we're in a videogame."
"In a game?!" Tattsun panicked. "But what if this is like Aincrad?! That evil game they made a game based on!"
"They based a game on a game?!" Chuko clasped her head in confusion. "That's like watching a movie of people watching a movie! What's the point?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Pochi screamed. "But it…it just didn't feel like those soldiers really 'died.' I can't tell what's real or not here… but it looks like we are now."
"What do you mean?" Mowchan asked. "…OH!" He realized he was wearing a brown and white, cow-skin T-shirt. "I'm back in my clothes! And you guys are, too!"
"Heh-HEY!" Kansai beamed at his white pants with black tiger stripes, yellow shirt with a blue leader's badge, and black cap with a yellow interior. Chuko felt comfy in her yellow overalls fit for her chubby thigh. "We're out of those bland soldier clothes!"
"I mean the blue rings were kinda cool," Suna said, "but I wasn't digging the 'matched set' vibes."
"Me neither." Kansai shook. "…HOLD ON, WHAT'S MOWCHAN DOING HERE?!"
"OH!" The giant slapped his cheeks in remembrance. "After the Talent Showcase, we scheduled a trip to Mira to meet this legendary chef! And that's when the meteors hit! Where are my friends and sister?!"
"All I 'remember' is… we've been members of Colony 9 for two years." Pochi said. "But… I think it's only been two days."
"Just two days?!" Chuko exclaimed.
"Phew, that's good." Tattsun sighed. "I thought I missed so many Electro Rangers episodes!"
"So, we haven't been stuck here for years… does that mean, um… we never… shared the showers together?"
". . . . . . ." When the realization dawned on them, Pochi was happy to see them finally share his reaction. "UUUUUUUHHHHH!"
"I SAW KANSAI'S WEENIE!" Chuko shut her eyes and stomped in place, redder than her snack chips. "EW EW EW EW EW EW EW!"
"I saw Chuko and Mowchan's heinies! GROSS!" Kansai wanted to vomit.
"What's wrong with mine…" Mowchan frowned.
"BAD Tattsun! BAD Tattsun!" The boy bashed his own hand with a rock. "How dare you be so indecent?! This punishment isn't good enough!" He grabbed a handful of dirt and raised his glasses. "These shameful eyes need to be soiled!"
THWASH! Suna dealt all three a single, whirling kick. "You nitwits are freakin' out about the WRONG THING!" She grit her teeth, swallowing her own humility.
"Videogame or not, it's clear that… this world is under some kind of mass-brainwashing." Pochi blushed. "We had no memory of our lives outside or… even the concept of bathroom separation."
"Whoever's behind this is a shameful and dirty being!" Tattsun tightened his fist.
"That means my sister is somewhere in this mess, too." Suna said. "I hope she's…"
"Hey! Squad Kansai!" They saw five older people run up the path: Noah, Eunie, Lanz, Mwamba, and Joran.
"Eunie!" Chuko chirped. "Eh…wait…" A moment ago, she thought of Eunie as a lifelong friend and senior… but they had only just met, didn't they?
"There you guys are!" Noah said. "Thank goodness you're alright. Did anything happen?"
"We…" They were still in uniform, so they might still be brainwashed. Pochi wondered how he could explain, or even how to reenact the flash. "Huh?" There were red crackles in the sky above: they broke open into a black, pixelly rift. A black, white, and red girl was afloat in it. "Hey! Do you see that?"
"What?" Noah's group looked up.
"Whoa, what is that?!" Chuko gasped.
"Creepy is what!" Kansai retorted.
"Uh…I don't see anything." Eunie said confusedly.
"Is this some kind of second-termer prank?" Lanz asked.
"You can't tell me y'all don't see that!" Suna said. "There's a g…GUOH!" Her right eye began throbbing.
"AAAAH!" The others knelt, cupping a hand over their throbbing eye.
"What's-" Noah spoke, their forms glitching, "-wrong?"
"Nngh!" Pochi grunted, his right hand covering the eye beneath his bangs while his left glared up at the girl. "Is she… doing this?"
"A glitch in the system." I spoke. "I will repair it."
"Ugh…STOP IT!" Pochi swiped his hand on an impulse, letting out a bright flash. His sectormates were aback as the throbbing stopped.
"Pochi, warn me before you do that!" Tattsun said, his eyes dazed by the flash. "…Hey, that headache is gone!"
"How did you do that?" Mowchan asked.
"What?!" I gasped. "They're resisting the programming?! 'Guess I'll have to eliminate them completely." Her iris brimmed.
"Just what is going on here?" Joran asked, baffled by the six's mannerisms.
"You guys are under some kind of mind control!" Pochi yelled.
"Mwind control?!" Mwamba exclaimed. ("Seriously, that's how you talk?" Suna asked.)
"There's no such place as Keves or Agnus on this planet! Someone is brainwashing everyone and making them fight each other! You guys are Miran KND operatives! Eunie is an Entia, Lanz and Mwamba are Machina, and…"
"'ey, what…what even ARE you things?!" Lanz asked, drawing his Shieldblade. His and his friends' right irises brimmed red. They saw the outworlders as masses of darkness, demonic spirits that spoke incoherently and hungered for their life.
"Eunie, what's wrong?" Chuko shuddered as the Entia aimed her rifle. "H-Hey, it's me. You fixed my knee, remember? We're—WAAAH!" Eunie shot the ground at her feet, Chuko flying back.
"I don't know what they are," Noah said, "but destroy them by any means possible!"
"IT'S MWAMBIN' TIME!" Mwamba cocked his rifle at Suna, but she was faster in kicking him away. Joran used mudbending to bend the surrounding soil out of the snow, liquefying it and attempting to entrap Mowchan in a huge mass of it. Mowchan shook free of the mud and Goron Rolled backwards. Joran encased himself in mud and performed a Joran Roll, so Mowchan tried to meet the challenge and roll into him. His girth was stronger than Joran's mud, so the green-haired was smashed against Mowchan's hair. The giant grabbed him off and shook the mud, squeezing Joran firmly but gently.
"Joran, don't you remember helping wash me? Now I need another bath!"
"Let go of him!" Lanz slashed Mowchan's wrist, the boy crying and dropping Joran, but Lanz's jaw was bent by Kansai's baseball. The Sector Leader leapt and swung upward, knocking Lanz's blade out of Mowchan's wrist. Lanz turned his fury onto Kansai, the latter's baseball bat overwhelmed and knocked away. Kansai fell on his back, dodging Lanz's stab by rolling on his front, then sprinting for the bat. Lanz was unable to chase when Suna intercepted him. Chuko chucked fireballs at Eunie, but she had burn medicine prepared for any one that managed to hit her.
"Get ready to be MWAMBED!" Mwamba attempted a sneak attack in Chuko—but fell victim to Tattsun's own lightning strike sneak attack.
Pochi was swift in dodging Noah's large, red Veiled Sword. "Noah, it's me, Pochi! You told me that if you could leave the battlefield, you'd rather play music!"
"I won't be swayed by your temptation!"
"Do-do-do-doooooo…" Pochi attempted to mimic Noah's song, but the act only seemed to make him more panicked. Noah spun for a more powerful swing: Pochi, in a hasty reaction, swung his arm out again hoping for the same flash.
"WHAT?!" Noah's blade was slashed in two. Everyone else faced him in concern.
"Your blade!" Eunie exclaimed.
"Pochi! Where'd you get that sword?!" Chuko pointed.
Not even he noticed it as quickly: a long, silver katana formed in his hand! The hilt had a circular gap with a purple light, shining a Japanese symbol. "L…Lucky?" Pochi read in confusion.
"What… kind of chi is that?!" I asked.
"Watch out, Noah!" Lanz took Noah's front and implanted his blade in the ground, erecting a shield. Pochi, though confused, slashed the sword determinedly and severed Lanz's weapon. "SPARKS!"
Joran conjured a group of mud clones and charged at Pochi in a circle. Pochi considered doing a spin attack, but feared hitting the real Joran; instead, Mowchan bowled over and flattened the clones, but when he felt the real one, the giant stopped and grabbed Joran off the ground. "AAAAH!" Joran squirmed. "GUYS! HELP!"
"Relax, Joran!" Mowchan gently petted him. "We aren't gonna hurt y-"
A red pixel-bolt stabbed Joran in the head, Mowchan paling in horror. Joran shattered into particles. "J-J-J…"
"HER!" Tattsun whipped a finger up at the floating girl. "She did it! WAH!" A bolt nearly struck him, but Tattsun fell back… and realized it was meant for the grounded Mwamba. The Mwachina derezzed.
"THEY KILLED JORAN AND MWAMBA!" Noah cried, his blade reforming as he lunged Mowchan.
"NO WE DIDN'T!" Kansai defended the giant once more, struggling to counter the blade with his bat.
"Suna!" Pochi ran for the skater. "Throw me up at that girl!"
"Got it!" Suna grabbed him by his free arm and spun, throwing him straight up at I. He stabbed her straight through the shock-ridden eye… yet, she showed no pain.
"This is no mere glitch. But I'll be rid of you in time." Her holographic body faded into static. "From now on, all of Aionios will be your enemy… as will the Titans."
In her last moments of existence, the hologram exploded, blowing Pochi away. He was lucky to land in Mowchan's soft hands, but the strange sword, what seemed to be his only hope in this situation, dematerialized as well. "Hey, let's get out of here!" Mowchan scooped the others off the ground and tossed them in his huge knapsack. "We can't keep fighting, let's figure this out later!" The giant rolled deeper into the valley, trees toppling in his wake.
"What do we do, Noah?!" Eunie asked.
"Send a message to Supreme Commander Zeon; tell everyone in Keves to look out for these monsters! If we don't destroy them, it'll spell the end for all of us!"