Guardians appear all around the courtyard. I turn to Do.
“Get everyone that’s not a guardian out. Take them to Base 7. You know where to go from there. Then as soon as you’re sure they’re absolutely safe, come back here if you don’t see me there first,” I instruct her.
She nods in understanding then does as she’s told.
“Half to back, half to front!” I yell to the other guardians.
They nod and do as they’re told. I turn myself into a blood-like substance and slide up the robot. The other guardians start taking its legs and arms off and climbing up the robot.
I hide my true energy levels to low as I get to the head. I do a sweep kick at the neck and it hangs off the body. About 2 metres of metal is still keeping it attached. I leap up and kick down on the giant head with great force.
“Timber!” I yell as the head crashes to the ground, bringing the body with it.
I scan under the robot for life forms. None detected.
I hop off of the head and run to Base 7. Oh Hell. More robots.
Do rushes up to me and stands beside me, ready to attack or defend. Just as we were taught.
“Is everyone safe?” I ask her.
“Yes, they’re all on Streamline,” she reports. “Good. Now, we’ve got,” I pause to count. “6 robots. You take 5 people and take care of 3 robots. Go in pairs. I’ll do the same. Instruct any others you see to help.”
She nods and we zip off in opposite directions. I see a group of guardians, all of them I recognise. 3 girls and 2 guys, 4 of them are my cousins. 2 of the girls notice me and look up.
“Hey Akane!” one of the two calls to me in her Irish lilt.
My cousin Dawn has black hair and a pale complexion sprayed with several light coloured freckles across her nose and a little under her light, grey-blue eyes.
“What are the orders?” the other girl asks in her Californian-and-Irish-also-tinted-with-Oklahoman accent.
Dusk and Dawn are twins (as you may have figured out from the classically opposite names) but Dusk was sent to America to help out when she was 5 years old and has had extreme training since.
Dusk is far more tanned and her hair has adopted a red tinge from all the sunlight in Cali. She switched between bases in California and Oklahoma so she has a very mixed accent of mostly Californian (where she spent most of her American life), some Irish (where she was born) and a speckle of Okie. She’s finished her training at 17 and has come back to the U.K. with a new recruit. Speaking of which…
“Akane. Good to see you,” Scar salutes with her index finger.
She’s from Arizona but her parents spent most of their lives in England where they met, heavily influencing their accents so Scar has ended up with a half-Arizona-half-Liverpool accent which is very interesting to hear.
Scar is short for Scarlett, which is the colour of her hair and eyes. She has a yellow-based complexion and is very pale, since she never tans. Her bright red irises start turning electric blue as they get closer to the pupils. She has a truly striking appearance.
Scar was born in Arizona and was sent to California for ‘A’ Level Training. Or I guess they’d call is ‘A’ Grade Training.
“Pair up for each robot. Heart or head drill,” I instruct, making it short and sweet.
“Sure thing Akane,” another cousin speaks up in his Essex accent, like mine.
Marcus’s tourmaline eyes meet Dusk’s dark blue ones through his dark brown hair which always covers one eye as they nod and take off towards a robot. I hear a large ‘THUD!’ and whip my head around to see Do and her friend, Kylar, take down a robot. She grins at me and I salute her with my index finger.
I turn back to my group to find that Scar and Dawn had gone and only one guy stood there – my cousin Andre. Hands in pockets, he blows a strand of blonde hair out of his face, watching it rise and fall. He sees me watching him and looks at me.
“You ready?” he stares at me expectantly at me with his forest green eyes that lighten into a lemon yellow on the edges.
I sigh and nudge his arm, “Come on then.”
As we rush to the last robot, I see me friends, Misty and Daven, take down a robot.
We dodge several falling robots as we run for the last one. Being the stronger one, Andre grabs my hands and swings me up. I do a little flip to get myself the right way up, then grab the closest ledge push myself up with my arms, and at the same time, kick off with my legs, travelling up the robot that way until I find its ‘shoulder’.
I punch through the metal and leap inside the huge metal tower. I make my way to a huge amount of cables bound together and slash them all in one go with my arm which I extend into a scythe.
I hang onto a nearby bar of solid metal and brace myself for a fall. I hear a ‘THUD!’ after Andre leaps onto the robot and yells ‘Timber!’ The gigantica tin can of wires shakes throughout, making me feel dizzy.
Shakily, I get up and blink furiously, trying to get my vision to adjust. I squint and see a blob of colours I recognise as Andre.
“Hey Akane, you alright?” he asks.
“Yeah,” I reply, rubbing the back of my head. I blink a few times and my vision comes into focus. I take Andre’s hand and swing out of the robot, landing on the ground with a gentle ‘Tap!’
I scan the whole court for life under the robots and find none.
“Do!” I yell out.
As per usual, she pops out of nowhere beside me.
“Good job there kid,” I ruffle her short red hair.
She winks at me and skips off. Ah. Just another normal day.
I run all the way back to base 3, zip to my room, slam the door, flop down on my bed and sigh heavily. We were going to have to go to Streamline soon. It would be an AKAI situation and we’d have to train up and position ‘G’ since the threats aren’t that great, as far as we know anyway.
Ah Hell.
