Fandom High

Krak' Attack

Ace awoke to the sound of a sudden train whistle blasting through the air. She yelped and sat bolt upright in alarm from the sudden noise. After looking around wildly and catching her bearings, she remembered that night had fallen on the train and she had gone to rest in one of the cabins.
She sighed, quickly realizing she was far too awake to go back to sleep again. Ace swung slowly out of her bed and pulled on her boots. As she did, she heard a dull thud come from what sounded like the outside of the train.
Ace paused for a moment and heard it again - the exact same sound. A small metallic thumping, as though something big had collided with the train. But the girl pushed it from her thoughts mildly and walked quietly through the cabin door.
She peered around the shadowy hallway, dark and tinted a bluish color. She heard a crack of thunder sound from outside the rain, but she didn't jump. She had always loved storms; she never knew quite why. She figured it was just one of those quirks that people had.
Ace stepped out of her room and closed the door behind her quietly, careful not to wake any other students resting on the train. She had noticed that the train wasn't like the Hogwarts express, but like the one from the Hunger Games movies. It was fast and silver; like a bullet train. The trip was also quite a bit longer than the one to Hogwarts. She figured this was because they would have to go from San Francisco to England which was quite a distance.
Ace yawned tiredly and walked to the front of the train car, where the seats were. She laid down backwards on one of the leather seats, so he head ing off the front and her knees hung over the top. She pulled out her phone and opened Tumblr to scroll through her feed. She was only doing this for a few minutes before she heard the noise again.
She looked up and waited, jumping a little as she heard it again. "What is that...?" She whispered to herself. She hadn't expected anyone to answer.
"The way I see it..." Ace looked behind her in surprise. The boy she had run into yesterday, Wesley, crossed his arms, looking out the window thoughtfully. "Either something big is trying to get out... Or something bigger is trying to get in..."
Ace blinked. "What would want to get in?" She asked.
Wesley looked at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I take it Cheri gave you her 'pros and cons of Fandom High' spiel."
"Yeah..." Ace blinked. "So you're saying a con wants in?"
"Ooh, that's a neat name. Better than monsters." Wesley said. "Let's call 'em Cons from now..." His voice trailed off as something hit the side, sending a small tremor through the whole train. The slight shaking faded away as lightning lashed across the sky and thunder boomed, resounding through the air ominously.
"So... Are we under attack?" Ace asked in a hushed voice.
A small smirk grew slowly on Wesley's face, as though the thought of danger excited him. "Oh yes." He said. His eyes flashed mischievously. "Wanna see what's out there?"
"You mean to protect the train?" Ace said.
"Depends what it is." Wesley replied.
Ace hesitated, considering the idea. Then she made up her mind and held up a hand. "Stay there."
"Sure thing." Wesley crossed his arms as Ace ran back into her quarters, returning a few seconds later with her metal backpack strapped to her back, bound around her stomach by one thick buckle that looked like it had been cut from an average, boring dress belt.
"Okay, let's check it out." Ace said.
"What's that?" Wesley asked, gesturing to her wings.
"What got me into Fandom High." Ace answered. "Now come on, I wanna see what this is."
"Alright alright, hold your Susans." Wesley said. He walked down the train corridor, leading the way.
Ace fell in step beside him and looked at him in confusion. "Susans? Who's Susan?"
"He's a horse from Doctor Who, eleventh incarnation." Wesley said. "If I were you, I'd sort of just accept the weird things people say. Odds are it'll be a fandom reference. Last time I asked about a reference I was called a 'Pansy cake'."
"Pansy cake?"
"Divergent fandom." Wesley explained. "Bunch of nut jobs, all of 'em. That's what happens when too many characters get killed off, you know... The fandom goes a bit crazy." He sighed. "So SnK is absolutely nuts. Supernatural's pretty far gone too."
Ace winced. "Marvel's pretty lucky I guess."
Wesley snorted. "Yeah, I don't think any main character really dies forever." He said. "Thor: Loki dies, but not really. Thor 2: Loki dies, but not really. Avengers: Iron Man dies, but not really. Captain America 2: Fury dies, but not really."
Ace laughed quietly. "That's basically Marvel." She said. "But if I may add one... Guardians of the Galaxy: Groot dies, but not really."
Wesley grinned. "I like you, Ace Brandhoff. I think you'll fit in well with us."
Ace tipped her head. "Thank you, Wesley O'Connor."
Wesley stopped at he end of the hall. "You ready?"
"Always." Ace said.
Wesley nodded and reached up, pushing open the hatch in the ceiling. Rain instantly fell through, hitting both of them. Ace went up first, ignoring the feeling of rain soaking her skin. Wesley followed, pulling a weird looking red flashlight thing out of his back pocket and putting it between his teeth as he climbed up the ladder to the top of the train.
She stood up carefully so as not to fall off. She looked around and gasped as she realized the train was not trekking across the land, but across water. Railroad tracks stretched across the sea, waves lapping up against the quickly passing train. It was then that it sank in. They were traveling from San Francisco to England. There was an OCEAN between them.
Before she could wonder how the track could have possibly been built, her thoughts were abruptly interrupted. "Holy SHIT!" She looked at the hatch as Wesley dove back down. She looked up just in time to see a massive blue-ish tentacle sweeping towards her above the train. Ace let out a yelp and leapt up, just managing to clear it as it went under her like a jumprope. As she landed rather clumsily on the slippery wet surface of the metal train, she looked up at the massive creature, greatly resembling a popular sea creature.
Her eyes widened as she stared at it, Wesley climbing up out of the hatch to stand next to her. "Why is an octopus attacking us?!"
"I don't know, but I think-"
"FOOLISH HUMANS." Wesley was interrupted mid-sentence as the octopus decided to enter the conversation, his deep, gargling voice booming louder even than the thunder.
"DID THAT THING JUST TALK?!" Ace shouted.
"Oh no..." Wesley groaned. "It's not an octopus."
"What is it then?!"
"It's a squid..."
"Why is it trying to kill us?! And speaking?!"
"Because the goddamn fandom is completely insane and their Con are freakin' squids."
"SQUIDS?!" Ace shouted incredulously. "WHAT THE HELL KIND OF A FANDOM HAS A SQUID AS THEIR MAIN VILLAIN?!"
"The Team Crafted Fandom, apparently." Wesley muttered. He and Ace leapt over another tentacle. "Okay, hang on, I have an idea. And don't panic, people are no use when they're panicking."
Ace took a deep breath. "Okay." She said. "What do we do?"
"Go get Cherri up, she can kill this guy easy."
"How?!"
"You'll see, now hurry up! I'll stall it!" Wesley help up his flashlight and flicked it on, making an odd electronic sound as it glowed red. "OVER HERE YOU BIG SEXY OCTOPUS!"
Ace quickly jumped back down into the car and out of the roaring wind passing by the quickly moving train. She ran down the hall and was about to open the door to Cheri's room when the pink-haired girl opened it herself. "What are we facing?"
Ace blinked in surprise as she noticed her strange attire. She wore white pants with weird brown straps and buckles all over them, with a lighter brown jacket with a Rose crest on the shoulders and back, which only went about halfway to her hips. Under the odd jacket was the black tank top she had had on under her green collared shirt. "Uh... Psychotic talking squid." Ace said distractedly. "What on earth are you wearing?"
Cherri sighed and ignored her question. "Goddamn Team Crafted Fandom..." She muttered as she strode past Ace down the hall. "Come, Falcon girl." She called.
"Hey, you're going the wrong way!" Ace said as she caught up to the Japanese student. "The ladder's that way!"
"I'm not going to the ladder."
"Then where are you going?"
"To get my gear."
"What gear?"
"My 3DMG. I'll need it to get close enough to the squid to kill it."
"What's 3DMG?"
"Hang on..." Cherri stopped, sorting through her bag before pulling out a black book and tossing the bag itself aside. "Here."
Ace took it, and noticed it was made of some kind of metal. Instead of pages in between, there were two screens attached to one another in the shape of a book. "What is this?" She asked.
"Information book. Everyone has one, but you don't really need it after you understand everything in the fandom." Cherri explained. She stopped suddenly. "You wait here. Ask it about 3DMG while I get it on."
"Um... Okay." Ace jumped as the squid outside shook the train again, and Cherri ran out of the train car to the next.
Ace looked down at the book, noticing big red letters on the fronts reading, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." She flipping it to the back, which read, "DON'T PANIC" in large, friendly letters. Wasn't that from a movie or something? Yeah, she remembered, her dad had loved that movie. The one with the Vogon things and the dolphins and the depressed robot.
She took a deep breath and opened the odd space book. "3DMG." She said.
The scene suddenly lit up, and a British man's voice spoke. "Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear, or 3DMG, is a machine used in the anime Shingeki no Kyojin. It allows propulsion into the air using gas and cables so trained scouts can get high enough to slice out the necks of the titans."
"And Cherri's in the SnK, fandom, isn't she..." Ace said to herself. She hadn't expected the guide to hear her.
"Student: Kumiko, Kess. Alias: Cherri. Freshman valedictorian, dual major. Top scout in her squad. One of the best hunters in the school. Friends describe her as loyal, enemies say she's dangerous. Was admitted due to her independent discovery of demons and ability to see through the mist without Wind Serum."
Ace blinked in surprise. "...Ace Brandhoff."
"Student: Brandhoff, Annie. Alias: Ace. No Fandom High records entered. Was admitted due to her stunt of testing out her own invention by jumping off the roof of a building. Has not received her student ID."
"Huh." She said fascinatedly. "Um... How about... Fandom High map."
No voice appeared but a map did. Ace's eyes widened as she realized just how big it was. It was round, with three walls. Each was named. The largest was Maria, the middle one was Rose, and the smallest was Sina. The smallest was separated into three equal pieces - Doctor Who, Supernatural, and Sherlock. Superwholock. How fitting.
The middle section between Rose and Maria was divided into seven pieces by walls matching the three circular ones. Each one was labeled with a fandom, some of the, separated between them. The last wall was more like a border, with semi circles all around it with more fandoms inside. Just outside wall Sina was a thick black line that went all around, with the words "dorms" written repeatedly in red.
Outside all three walls was a large rectangle, labeled "Marvel". Ace had a funny feeling she knew what it was, but didn't have any time to think about it as the voice came back on. "Each section is the school, featuring classrooms and sights from the book, show, or terrible movie adaption itself. Students do not sleep in their schools, but in their assigned dorms. Each student has one flatmate they are assigned-"
Ace straightened up and closed the book sharply as Cherri walked briskly back into the car. She turned around and saw her wearing the same metal gear as the guide had shown her on the screen. But as she was about to walk towards the ladder to the roof, she stopped, looking past her. "Oh, hello." She said. "Are you a new student or an escort?"
"Student... And you're an escort." The boy standing there, his voice sounding very British, nodded to Cherri, then to Ace. "And you're a new student, like me." He glanced down at his phone. "An inventor too - ooh, you're the one who jumped off a building to get in, I like you."
Ace blinked. "How did you-?"
The boy grinned, pushing his thick framed glasses onto his nose. "Magic." He said.
Ace looked at Cherri questioningly. "Harry Potter Major...?"
"It's not magic, it's skill." Cherri said.
"Huh?"
Cherri shook her head, brushing briskly past the peculiar brunette. "I will explain later, Falcon girl." She said. "Now we must refrain from dying."
Ace blinked. "Well if you put it that way."
The boy smirked as the two fell in step, following the pink haired, 3DMG-clad warrior. He held out a hand. "Detective Thomas Basil, Sherlock Major."
"Right, that makes sense... Can I call you Black Cassidy?"
"Ah, a Marvel Major." Tom grinned.
Ace nodded. "So you're really good at that deducting thing."
"I like to think so, yes." Tom said.
They reached the ladder and stopped as Cherri went up. Ace looked at the boy. "You should probably take your coat off, it's pouring out there. It might get ruined. Or like... Bloody."
"Nah, I'll be fine." Tom said, flipping up his collar as he started up the metal ladder. "My coat is my battle gear, Miss Brandhoff."
Ace rolled her eyes. "You sound like Star Lord..." She muttered as she followed. Above, she heard his surprised shout as he realized just what they were up against. "What the holy shit is that?!"
"It's a squid, what does it look like?! I thought you were a genius!" Wesley shouted.
"Last time I checked, squids aren't fifty feet tall, idiot!"
Ace groaned as she stepped onto the roof, in the rain again.
She watched Wesley roll his eyes and look at Cherri, who now held two rather large swords in her hands. "Look, Cherri, just kill this thing so we can go back to bed." He looked at Ace. "Can you fly with those things?"
Ace nodded. "Yeah, I can, but it won't go up. It's like a hang glider."
"So to go up, you'll need a big gust of wind." Wesley said.
"Theoretically yes, but I'm not sure if they could handle that kind of pressure." Ace replied. "I've only tested them once and they broke."
"Wow, what a shitty inventor." Tom said, crossing his arms.
Ace glared at him. "Look I was working with scrap metal and a few old rusty tools, give me more credit."
"Ace! Watch out!" Wesley shouted suddenly. Her head snapped up, and she saw a big blue tentacle heading right for them. Her eyes widened, not waiting a second before jumping into action. She grabbed Tom's coat collar, her wings folding fast out of her backpack. She leapt up, landing lightly on the tentacle the second it passed, and pushed herself into the air above. Her wings allowed her to go further than humanely possible, keeping her in the air a little longer before she fell back down onto the metal top of the train, landing roughly.
Basil landed on his back with a painful thud as Ace landed on her feet. She slipped on the wet, metal surface and stumbled back. "Whoa!" She cried as she fell over the edge. Tom yelped and grabbed her arm before she could fall too far for him to reach.
"Got her!" He shouted.
The squid roared and headed towards the two through the storming sea. Ace gasped. "Hurry up and kill that damn thing!"
"Working on it... Sit tight!" Came Cherri's reply.
She suddenly ran forward and jumped off the train. Ace thought she was crazy for a second, before two cords shot out of the metal contraptions at her sides. They cut into the squid's skin, allowing her to be propelled forward. She made her way around the squid and up to its neck, at which point she brought down both swords. Ace would have thought they would cut clean through. Maybe they were supposed to. But they didn't.
Each sword shattered, and she was knocked up onto the squid's head. She gasped in alarm. "T-The skin is too rough!" Cherri shouted. "I cannot cut through!"
"The eyes, get the eyes!" Tom shouted.
"What?!"
"Stab it in the eyes, it'll connect directly to the brain and kill it!"
"Good thinking!" Cherri slammed her handles into the 3DMG, pulling both out with new blades attached. She ran forward, falling to her knees and stabbing one into each of the squid's eyes. It roared in pain and shouted something unintelligible before falling down into the water, dead as a stone. It rested still along side the unmoving train.
"Yeah, we did it!" Tom cheered.
"Yes, and I'm stuck here now." Cherri said from the top of the squid's head.
"Damn it..." Wesley muttered. He looked around, clearly searching for an idea. His eyes locked on Ace and he stopped. He grinned and ran over, sliding to a rest on his knees beside Tom. He grabbed her other arm and together, the two males pulled her back up onto the train.
Wesley didn't waste time before scooting behind her and shining his red flashlight on her back. "What's that thing? What are you doing?" Ace asked in alarm.
"Relax. This is my sonic screwdriver, I'm using it to tweak your wings."
"Define 'tweak'."
"Look at it this way. Cherri is now trapped on the head of a raging squid with no way down, due to the fact her wires won't stick into the metal on the train. We need someone to fly up there and get her down. I'm resetting a few gears and wires in your wings so they can flap, and carry you upwards. There." He put his sonic away and helped her up. "That should work... Should."
"You don't sound very confident."
"Neither do you." Wesley looked to Basil. "Alright, Sherlock, let's get her up." He locked his fingers with the Sherlock Major's. "Step up." He instructed.
She stared at him uncertainly.
He grinned. "Trust me." He said. "I'm a Time Lord."
Ace hesitated a moment longer before she finally sighed and placed her boot on their hands. "If I die, Wes, I'm gonna kill you."
Wesley ignored her. "Alright. One... Two... Three!" He and Tom threw her her up. She let out a high squeak and she tumbled over the edge.
"Oh shit!" Wesley ran to the edge and glance over. Just then, Ace shot up past them and stopped in mid air, facing them.
"Um... Wesley?!" She shouted. "I can't control these things!"
"Try shifting your weight towards the squid!" Tom said.
Ace nodded and did as she was told. Her wings suddenly shot up, launching her high into the air. Then, suddenly, they stopped, dropping her. She fell maybe twenty feet before landing on the top of the squids head. Ace held out a hand to Cherri. "Ready to get awkward?" She asked.
Cherri smirked. "Falcon girl, I think you will fit in well at this school."
Ace winked before picked up her acquaintance bridal style. "Hold on!" She instructed. She ran and jumped over the edge of the squid's head. Her wings seemed to be doing their normal thing again, simply gliding along. "Okay, I'm gonna drop you on the train." She said, realizing she would go too far to land. "Ready?"
"Ready." Cherri said.
Ace waited a second longer before dropping her. She glanced behind her as she flew past the train, sighing in relief as she realized Cherri had made it safely with the help of the boys.
Then, suddenly, her wings became alive again. She cried out as they jerked her upwards, then went haywire. She had to be over a hundred feet off the ground as it jerked her around.
"Falcon girl!" Cherri yelped in alarm.
"Take it off, take it off!" Wesley shouted.
"I'm trying!" Ace replied. Her hands fumbled with the buckle around her waist as her wings went awol. Finally, she managed to unclip it and she fell out of the straps as the wings themselves flew off to god knows where - looked like Maine, or maybe even New York City. If that crazy metal thing could make it there, it could make it anywhere. All Ace could think was, "New York, New York, it's a hell of a town" alongside, "Oh hey, I'm gonna die" as she plummeted from the sky towards the angry sea.
"Ace!"
"You idiot, what did you do to her wings?!"
"James!"
Ace heard her new friends shout for her on the top of the train, but she knew there was nothing they could do. The squid had fallen under the surface, leaving nothing for Cherri to use her 3DMG on. Neither Tom nor Wesley had any way to get up to her. And just as she was thinking about it, she felt arms wrap around her waist. "I got you." She heard someone say.
She tensed, the wind almost seeming to quiet in her ears. "What's going on?" She asked in alarm.
"Just relax. You're in good hands, Annie."
Ace felt the falling feeling in her stomach stop abruptly, and she was suddenly pulled upwards. She felt the metal train roof beneath her feet and she gasped, stumbling and falling onto her knees. She felt her whole body shaking. Dimly, she could hear voices, and she felt a hand on her shoulder. She slowly sat back into a kneeling position and took a deep, quivering breath.
"Falcon girl, are you alright?" Cherri said. It was her hand on Ace's shoulder, looking at her worriedly.
"I got this I got this!" Basil exclaimed. He ran up and threw a weird-looking orange cloth over her shoulders.
Ace looked down at it slowly, her eyes narrowing in confusion. "What's this for?"
"It's a shock blanket." Tom replied mildly. "You're in shock."
"...No I'm not."
"Yes you are, look at you!"
Wes groaned. "Sorry about my escortee, he's kind of an idiot."
Tom glared at him. "Says the git who almost got her killed with your magic flashlight."
"Sonic screwdriver."
"Quiet, both of you." Cherri said harshly. She turned to Ace and smirked. "So, Falcon girl... How was your first near-death experience?"
Ace hesitated. "...First?" She looked around as the pouring rain died down to a light drizzle. "Actually, I have a question. How did I survive exactly?"
"Oh, that was me." She looked beside her as a boy sat beside her with a huff. He had blue-green hair, clearly dyed, that was brown on the sides. He wore a white long-sleeved shirt under an orange tee shirt that read "Camp Half-Blood" in large, thin black letters. He also wore jeans and white converse. His eyes were electric blue, his hair sticking up on end like he'd been struck by lightning.
"How?" Ace asked.
"I caught you. By flying." He grinned cheerfully and patted her shoulder. "I couldn't just let a pretty girl like you fall to her death, now, could I?"
Ace's face flushed.
"Sorry, who are you exactly?" Wes asked. "I don't think I've seen you before."
"Oh, how rude of me, I'm James K. Jason." He said. A small grin appeared on his face. "Son of Zeus."