Back at School

Nicholas boarded the first bus he came to, hoping to find a seat alone to ponder all that had happened. Unfortunately, Sandra Cummings did not like this plan and plunked down beside him.

“I was worried about you, Nick. What happened in there?”

He hesitated for a moment, unsure of how much to say. Then he began: “Well, I decided to see what was down the stairs. They led to something that kind of looked like an aircraft hangar. Must have been something in the walls that blocked the signals because the only sign I had that anything unusual was going on was when part of the chamber collapsed.” So far, he was proud that he had been able to stick close enough to the truth to not raise any red flags. “At that point, I started climbing out of the rubble as I could see sunlight. It was difficult, as stuff shifted position, probably due to the fight going on. I did see a flash of silver and heard explosions but really my mind was on getting out and nothing much mattered until I saw that teacher standing there.”

“Are your parents home tonight?” She asked.

“Dad might be. Mom is somewhere doing whatever it is her job calls for and should be back in two days.”

“Call your dad. If he is home, then go, spend time with him, but if he is on assignment, then please, come to our house and have dinner with my parents and my sister. You’ve had a rough day and should not be forced to be alone. Plus, it is your birthday.”

He was touched by the concern in her eyes, but then turned away as he remembered that quick kiss that she’d given him. He took out his phone, at least partly to hide that he was furiously blushing, then hit the audio only button, and called his dad

“You have reached the phone of Sato Hakama. I am not able to take your call at this time. Please leave a message.” Sato briefly considered lying and claiming he had gotten hold of his father, but felt Sandra deserved better and said into the phone: “Hi dad, it's me. If you are going to be home tonight, give me a call to say when and I’ll have dinner ready. If not, I am going to spend some time with a friend and will probably eat there. Love you, dad.” He then hit the send button and closed the connection. As he did so, he looked out the window - the bus was now passing through what was left of Old San Francisco - towering corporate skyscrapers, heavily armed and defended, holding court as if nobles of old over blocky residential structures and the ruins of a once great metropolis. Nick’s mother ran one of those corporations, and thus he typically saw her once or twice a week, usually in a video call (she had called him this morning to wish him a happy birthday, in fact) and for two or three days every other week when she was in town.

The buildings that still stood had been designed to withstand earthquakes - a fact that made them also immune to the attacks of the lesser kaiju like the Blastcrows, and resistant to the slightly stronger ones like the Drillgar. The armaments and force fields protected them from the intermediate kaiju, and so far, none of the truly powerful ones had set their eyes on this territory. Soon the bus had moved through the old city and onto one of the retractable bridges leading to New San Francisco, floating in the bay near what was once a feared prison called Alcatraz. The city was a gleaming mass of spires and domes, with sensor arrays, force field projectors, and weapons emplacements carefully designed to fit in with everything else and give the illusion that this was a paradise, not a world at war.

The second largest and, according to military experts, best defended floating city on Earth (the one that replaced New York City was the largest, but it lacked the budget for proper defenses and relied mostly on mobility and erratic force fields for defense), San Francisco became the capital of the Confederation of the Americas twenty years into its founding, with the top rivals - Washington, DC, Sao Paolo of what used to be Brazil, and Toronto from the nation once called Canada - declared the sub-capitals of the Southern, Eastern and Northern sectors.

The school, named after a man believed to have led the country during the “lost years” (though, admittedly, the records were unreliable at best), Obama High School, was the first structure completed in the floating city, with the regional control center and the headquarters of both the Navy and the Air Force built adjacent to it, before any shops or residences were approved. The four transport vehicles pulled into the school lot and the students were let out. For the most part, they followed procedure and headed to the Assembly Hall at the southern end of the building, though a few of the less-disciplined students ran off into the city instead. There, older students and some teachers waited to catalog their discoveries and grade the expedition. 

 At the door, the lead teacher, Miz Melanie Parker, addressed the group: "As our expedition was disrupted, all who report in will receive a passing grade of a C. Any who made a real effort and found anything of historical interest will earn a superior grade. Proceed to your homeroom sections, sign in, and report your discoveries!” She announced to the throng as she pushed open the doors.

Sandra leaned close to Nick: “Did you get anything else? I turned that lock mechanism in to one of the Teachers already.”

Nick realized that he had grabbed some of the tools before he picked up the odd backpack and took them out of his belt. “Found these. A few look like they are still usable,” he said.

Sandra looked at the tools. “Not likely to get an ‘A’ grade, but definitely better than nothing,” she mused aloud. Nick nodded agreement.

Sandra had turned in a few items before locating Nick in the factory; as she checked in, she asked if the credit for the lock mechanism could be shared, and the student she asked made a note of it. Because she had not acquired the device itself, and their removal from the factory wall had made it unusable, she was docked a few points but managed to pull an ‘A Minus’ grade.

Nick did not fare quite as well, as only two of the tools were usable and the only other item that he could show anyone was a “Fallout Shelter” sign he’d found on the stairs down, and only managed a solid ‘B’ grade. The grade might have been lower, but a quick chronoscan showed that the tools dated back to the Dark Time, when records were unreliable or just missing, and that gave him some bonus points.

He thought “Too bad I can’t turn this M78 thing in, would probably get extra credit.”

“We are bonded, Candidate. We are one.”

“Then call me Nick, not Candidate. Do you have a name?”

“No, Nick, I do not. I was always the M78 prototype. Do not know where the term came from, as I know of no other prototypes,” it replied in his head.

“You seem more of a teacher. Perhaps I should call you Sensei?”

“If you wish, Nick. Before I was forced to power down you had unlocked the second level. That allows you to choose either the Advanced Sensory Array, Flight Mode or Aquatic Mode.”

Nicholas barely kept himself from saying “Flight Mode?” aloud.

Sensei took this as a command, instead of a query. “Flight Mode selected. Initial Top Air Speed of one hundred kilometers per hour, Initial Maneuverability Class of Poor. You may also apply one upgrade to either Armor, Strength, Turbolaser Accuracy or Turbolaser Power.”

“I wanted more details on Flight Mode, not to select it, but that sounds cool. If my maneuverability is Poor, I probably need more armor.”

“Armor upgraded. All upgrades will be enabled the next time you power up “

Nicholas suddenly realized something and asked: “How do I power up? I did not have much choice that first time!”

“Simply tap the disk on the back of your neck. Tap it again to power down, unless I run out of energy and force a shutdown,”

“How do I avoid a shutdown?”

“You cannot. I gain a small amount of energy from your movements and biological processes, and, in armored form, can draw energy from solar radiation. The Turbolasers and shifting to and from Gargantua Mode draw off a lot of power. I hope future levels unlock improvements in power consumption.”

Nicholas was about to question Sensei further when he heard: “Earth to Sato? You with us buddy?”

Nick looked up to see his friend, Dan Conroy, with a smile on his face barely concealing a worried expression. Sandra was behind him to one side, and on the other side was Peter Maxwell, the boy who had spotted him crawling out of the rubble at the factory. Peter held the hand of a pretty, dark-skinned girl that Nick did not know.

“Sorry, Dan, just lost in thought. Hey, Peter, thanks for finding me; I might still be crawling out of the debris if not for you and that Teacher.”

Dan came from a wealthy family and was born with everything except athletic talent - wavy golden hair, sparkling blue eyes, an impressive intellect and an easygoing manner that won him friends everywhere he went. Only a total lack of coordination kept him from being perfect - and his desire to improve that had led to him becoming friends with Nick, an average student with a powerful but not particularly wealthy family and great, apparently all-natural athletic prowess. The two had been helping each other out for several years now.

“We were all going out for milkshakes since classes were dismissed. You want to come, it's on me, birthday boy?”’ Dan grinned.

Nick was about to reply, when his cell phone chimed. Glancing at it, he said: “One moment, it’s my dad.”