In the following few days, Dachii and Marachii had to get used to the massive and elegant S-1 Mansion. The cleaning robots, the moving furniture, the escalator stairs, the holographic lights and projections, it all was too advanced.
Marachii spent his time checking out all of the technology, studying it, and writing notes. Dachii, on the other hand, was keeping a close eye on Hikari and Akari, who weren't paying him much mind.
"Well, they are pretty hot. Of course, it's not gonna be easy——"
"Ugh."
Then he reminded himself to text his old friend. "Oh, wait! She's gonna be pissed!"
He pulled out the phone and checked his text messages, and sure enough, Mihina had texted him over 200 times, worried about him and Marachii.
"heyyy"
"where r u?"
"hello???"
"HELLOOOO?"
"DACHII MARSHAWN JONES, if you don't ANSWER ME BACK RIGHT NOW—-!"
And basically, the same things over 200 more times. After letting Marachii see, he checked his own phone and found out that she had also texted him numerous times. Both boys shared a look.
"She's gonna kill me!"
"She's gonna kill ME! I have more messages!"
"Well, I guess...we respond?"
Dachii replied with a heart, and he got an instant angry text.
"How DARE you ignore me? I was so worried!!!"
Marachii sent her a wave and she chewed him out as well.
"And YOU too! What happened to being responsible?"
After many more attempts of trying to calm her down, it finally worked. They told her that they'd moved to a new land called Voltiana, and she began to look it up, never having heard of it before.
Then after many failed attempts to find anything about it, she relented and asked them to invite her someday.
"Well, should we?"
"Probably not. Unless she's not still with Okuda, then...."
"Ugh."
Meanwhile, Kia and Morino were in Morino's house. Kia had her head down, and Morino was patting her back. "Kia, it's okay, the boys will be fine."
"I don't want my kids serving in their army!"
"Well, it's kinda hard to get them out right now! It was either that or they'd try to execute them—-!"
"I WISH they would."
"Look, until we can get this sorted out, I'll watch over them, and General Fujii will too!"
"Right, because General Fujii is a SUPERHERO."
"Kia, honey, just trust me."
"I trust YOU, not those DEMONS in disguise!"
"Okay, okay, we'll make sure to keep them out of most of the action. They'll just be back up."
"Yeah, because that's so much better. Dad, just don't let my kids get hurt or get hurt in the process, messing with these idiotic creatures."
"Well, I'll try."
"And BRING them back home as SOON as you can! I don't like these "powers," they are using!"
Morino rubbed his chin. "Neither do I, Kia. Neither do I."
Later that day, Fujii gathered up all of the Squad in the now-repaired training room. Fujii stood with a bunch of human-sized training robots behind him. "Okay guys, let's get you ready for this HUGE war! Let's see your basic attacks!"
Dachii groaned. "Do *I* have to train?"
"Yep! Come on, it'll be fun!"
Akari stepped forward. "Here." She held out her hand and shot a wide and controlled energy blast that slashed through all the robots with ease. "Done."
"Nice! 100 points, if I do say so myself."
Many more came in to replace them.
Next was Hikari. "Is this really necessary? I told you before, sir, my power won't work on robots—-"
"Then use your other abilities! You've got a deep bag of tricks!"
Hikari used a similar amount of strength she did the other day to rip one robot's head off and toss it into another, breaking it. When a handful more tried to attack her, she used her magic to store them away.
"Is that okay?"
"Better than okay, GREAT! 85 points!"
"Thanks, sir!"
Luca walked up next. He scratched his neck and shifted into his gorilla form, easily tearing through plenty of robots like child's play. He shifted back into a human.
"Complete."
"Sheesh, those animal powers are super underrated! 90 points!"
"I appreciate it."
He looked between Dachii and Marachii. "Who's up next?"
Dachii tried to avoid stepping forward, but so did Marachii. "Come on, you two! You got this!"
He grabbed Marachii first. "Tear those things up with your tech!"
"Hey, wait, I can't—-!"
As Marachii was faced in front of the robots, he tried to keep calm and focused. Fujii called to him from a few feet back.
"Try a cannon! Like you did at the Tryouts!"
"Okay, right. Cannon."
He tried to aim his arm out, thinking of turning it into a cannon. His arm shifted, and it turned into—-
BOOOOOOOM!
...a rocket launcher.
A lot of the robots were scattered and blown into pieces as the force knocked everyone back. Marachii sat up. "Sorry, everyone!"
"It's cool! Rocket launchers are AWESOME! Gotta teach you control though. But 75 points!"
"Damn, I got dirt in my braids. And I just washed them."
Akari and Hikari began to converse. "Sooo, what do you think of his power, since, you know, you faced him already?"
"Dangerous. But it's unique."
Akari thought in her head: "Tech powers. How ironic. I wonder what he's capable of."
Dachii was brought up last. "Dude, I really don't want to—-"
"Try using that mystery power on them! We all wanna see how it works, don't we?"
"Sure," Akari stated.
"Kinda?" Hikari replied.
"Indeed," Luca said.
Marachii nodded.
"Ugh. You yes-men—-!"
He turned and faced the robots. He looked at his right and left arms, then he clenched his fists. His body began to glow light gray. He took a deep breath as the robots approached.
"3...2...1..."
He punched one in the face. Nothing happened. "See, this is exactly what I mean—-"
Then it flew back with immense force, colliding into another. "Oh, wow." He looked at his arm. "Okay then."
"Interesting. Try using a long-distance attack!"
He aimed his hand out, attempting to shoot out something, anything, and...
Nothing.
"Doesn't work."
"No ranged attacks at all? Mmm. This is a strange power indeed. Well, I guess you can get 70 points!"
"Only SEVENTY?"
"Yep! Nice start, but you only took down two robots!"
"Ridiculous."
Fujii then clicked a button on the wall and many red targets appeared on all of them, moving up and down. "Now, I want the rest of you guys to try and hit as many of these as you can at long range. Let's see what distance attacks you've got!"
Dachii shook his head and stood back as everyone lined up. Akari walked up first, holding both hands out. With a calm breath, she shot out lots of mini energy blasts, hitting many targets, which turned "green."
"How was that?"
"Nice! 1000 points!"
Next up was Hikari, who looked a little nervous. Fujii simply walked up to her and said: "Use every asset you've got!"
"Okay."
Her hands glowed golden and she stored some rubble caused by the earlier training using her magic. Then she focused, aimed, and...
"There!"
She opened a few portals, shooting the rubble out of them like bullets, hitting quite a few targets and turning them green. "Yes! It worked!"
"Nice application! 850 points!"
"Thanks!"
She high-fived Akari, who told her: "Next time, you've got to use your ACTUAL power."
"It only works on living beings!"
"Is that right?"
"Yeah...?"
She had an amused laugh, to Hikari's confusion. Luca was called out next. Fujii walked up to him.
"Try shifting into an animal who can attack from a distance!"
"Right, let's see..."
His body shifted, and he turned into a large cobra, and he spat out a large amount of venom pretty accurately at dozens of targets, and they turned green.
"How's that?"
"Great! 880 points!"
"Alright, Marachii, come show your stuff!"
"Oh....okay."
More targets appeared for him, all red. He aimed out his arm.
"This time, you'll need accuracy, not power! Make something more ACCURATE!"
Marachii thought in his mind of what he could use. He debated for a moment, then settled on a laser gun. "I think...this should work!"
He concentrated, and...
A grenade shot out of his arm, blowing up a good amount of targets, turning them "green," though it did some damage to the wall they were on.
"Oh...oops."
"Damn, some punch that grenade packs. Definitely gotta work on those weapons! But 710 points!"
He looked at Dachii. "Sure you don't wanna try?"
"Uh, I can't, literally nothing comes out!"
"That's what the training is for!"
"I hate training!"
"Come on, show that power!"
Dachii reluctantly walked forward, getting his own set of targets. He held out both hands and...
...nothing.
"See. No dice."
"Huh. That is weird. Well, training's done for now! How about you guys bond some more?"
Before they could protest, he literally left the room in a flash. With the five teenagers left standing there, they all walked back to the living room.
"I'm going to sleep now. Luca, watch the humans."
"Alright."
Akari left to go upstairs. Dachii scratched his head. "She's sleeping? At 6 p.m.?"
"Girl needs her rest. Apparently."
"How old is she? 60?"
"Fifteen. Like the rest of us."
"HOW are you all the SAME age as me?"
Marachii sighed. "Of course I'm the youngest."
Hikari walked outside to test her power on the plants. Luca sat in the middle of the living room, scratching himself again. "So you're fifteen, and let me guess, you're ten."
Marachii snorted. "Do I LOOK ten?"
"Honestly, yes—?"
"I'm THIRTEEN!"
Dachii looked around the S-1 Mansion. "Where are the other adults at? What military relies on mostly kids?"
"Oh, Fujii only takes in soldiers that have Elements. It's the only way to make sure his squad is the best of the best. Though from time to time, he is known to take a very powerful regular Voltian as well."
"And let me guess, Fujii has one himself."
"Oh, of course. That ice isn't magic."
"Figures."
Dachii looked around. "So you all use technology and magic in your day-to-day lives?"
"More or less."
"Oh."
Marachii began to inspect the technology and robots in the kitchen, such as the automatic stove. It was already cooking a steak dinner on its own. With a "ding," it opened, to Marachii's surprise. A robot hand, appearing from the top of it, grabbed the food and set it on a nearby table.
Luca noticed this and got up. "Oh, dinner's ready."
"Wait, can *I* do that too?"
"Eh. Who knows, really."
Luca grabbed the giant steak and ripped half of it off, taking it with him back to the living room and beginning to eat it. "Oh, the rest is yours."
"Don't those girls need to eat too?"
"Eh, they should be fine. They're rich."
"Right..."
As Dachii and Marachii split the steak, nightfall came soon after. Dachii began to head up to his room. "Okay, see ya."
The other two said goodnight as he went into his bed. Hikari came in, smelling food. "Oh, what's that smell?"
"It WAS dinner."
"What! You ate without me?"
"Yep."
"Ughhhh!"
Eventually, everyone went to their rooms as Fujii came back in, holding an icy katana in his hands. He laid it on the dining table as he seemed to be lost in his own thoughts.
"Don't worry...Dad...I'll find her. I promise."
Then the ice katana seemed to melt into his flesh. He headed into his room on the first floor, as Dachii spied on him from upstairs.
"I knew it. He WAS in my dream."
The next day, Fujii woke everyone up with a: "Morning, kids! I hope you all got a good sleep, because we're gonna go slaughter some dwarves today!"
Dachii opened his door, tired. "Can I stay here, or better yet, go home?"
"Come on, rookie! Time for battle!"
In a few minutes, he had everyone in the main hall, in some "military outfits." They were gray and white bodysuits with utility belts, pouches, shoulder pads, knee pads, straps, and hoods. Dachii put his hood over his head. "Oh, I feel gangster NOW."
The boys had pants with pouches and straps on them, and the girls had bodysuits that cut off at the legs, wearing thigh-high boots with straps on them. Each suit had the words "S-1" etched in platinum on the chest area. Fujii was in his own suit, with a hood and robe on it. Marachii looked his suit over.
"Wait, so like, do we get weapons?"
Fujii laughed. "You guys ARE the weapons! Don't worry, you've got this!"
Marachii pointed at Luca. "Well, he has some."
"Extension of my power. You'll see when the time comes."
"What?"
Akari nudged him. "I'll need you to teach me, soon."
"Due time. Due time."
The five walked out behind Fujii, and in front of the S-1 Mansion stood the other six squads and their generals. They all wore similar uniforms to S-1, but the Squad names were etched in various colors, from bronze to gold to silver to iron. The male generals wore outfits similar to Fujii, the female generals wore the same hood and robe, but feminine like Akari and Hikari.
Fujii raised his hand up. "Everyone ready for the mission?"
They replied with an uproar of eagerness. "YES!"
"Then let's go to Asmana Forest! Let's go take out the Dwarves!"
—-