Prototype Zero

Kohana: “My new state-of-the-art training program is now complete. I now hereby dub the new Team Generation training center officially open!!!!”

Takashia is still wiping the sleep from his eyes as he tried to comprehend the situation that's at hand.

Takashia: “Soooo...you're saying that the training program is finished already?!”

Takashia hops up out of his bed with the energy of ten men and rushes into his closet and starts throwing clothes out of the closet to try and find an outfit for the day.

Takashia: “Misery! Get ready! We're going to the Usual Spot!”

Misery walks into Takashia's room with a banana and a muffin and tosses them both to Takashia. Kohana sips from her cup as she continues to press keys on her laptop.

Iteza: “Great. I can't wait to try it out. I've been up all night training due to my insomnia. I'm gonna take a nap since it's early in the morning and I'll be there a little later.”

Tri: “Same here. My burners are feeling a little burned out right now.”

Kaida: “Well in the meantime, Gabriel and I will be there for the grand unveiling of the new training center.

Kohana: “I'm running the last few diagnostic tests on the system now to ensure that nothing's wrong with the mainframe of the training program and removing any last little bugs in there. I'll be mobile and I'll be heading there now. I'll give you guys about an hour to head out there. So they'll be back soon for the unveiling.”

Shun: So it's finally done huh? I can't wait to see it later. I'll have to get past these strict nurses first.”

Lots of loud noises start coming from the Saitos' end of the call. Daitaro appears and looks at Shun through the video call with a sly look on his face.

Daitaro: “That sounds good and all Shun. What about your girlfriend there?”

A shiver strikes up Aione's spine as she rushes to the video call with a nervous look on her face , burning red from shyness.

Aione: “Girlfriend?! I'm not his girlfriend. All I did was stay because it got too late to leave the hospital and plus I didn't want to leave Shun by himself all night.”

Kohana looks at Shun with a glare that pierces through his soul. Shun looks around nervously as if to look for a distraction.

Shun: “I'll start getting ready now so I can be there on time since I'm the furthest away from the Usual Spot. I won't be able to Bio-synchronize due to my injuries but once I'm out of the hospital, I should be able to start my training to prepare for this tournament.”

Iteza: “Well we can't wait to get all of our training done and prepare for this tournament. I can't wait to see what's in store. Kaida and I are going to get ready to head out soon so we'll see you guys later. Bye for now.”

Iteza disconnects from the call. On Takashia's side of the call, he's scrambling in his closet looking for something to wear. Misery's leaning against the wall next to the closet door with his arms folded, shaking his head. He turns to the video chat and walks up to the screen.

Misery: “We'll see you guys there soon.”

Misery hangs up from the video call as well. The Saito twins as well as Shun, Aione, and Kohana are still on the call. The last bit of noise from the Saitos' end of the call. The smoke cleared but there wasn't much visual on their end of the call but you can still hear voices. Daitaro comes into view on the video call.

Daitaro: “Sorry about the noise. Last minute cosmetology mishaps. Fixing those now but everything should run as scheduled.”

Daijiro appears.

Diajiro: “Nothing to worry about here. Just making it nice and neat. See you guys when you get here. Gotta clean ourselves up. Bye”

The Saitos hang up from the call, leaving Shun and Aione at the hospital with Kohana. Shun looks around nervously again.

Shun: We'll I'm going to get dressed now and try to sneak out of this place. I'll talk to you later.”

Kohana: “Hmph!”

Kohana hangs up abruptly. Shun looks at Aione confused. Aione shrugs her shoulders and continues to gather her things. Zero peeps outside of the hospital room, on the lookout for nurses or hospital staff Machina. The nurses and Machina are going about their normal daily business as usual. Shun sees the elevator at the end of the hall.

Shun: “Here's the plan. I'll take the elevator at the end and meet you near the front entrance and you guys can just easily walk out since your not patients.”

Aione nods her head in agreement. Shun walks out of the room as fast as he can and heads towards the elevator as the other end of the hall. Aione and Zero walk the opposite way to head out of the hospital normally. Shun ducked out of the room and snuck into the next empty room doors down. He continued creeping until he was behind a food cart being pushed by a Machina that had left it unattended. He then noticed the elevator doors open as a female nurse had walked out of it and proceeded to walk down the hall.

Shun: (Now's my chance.)

Shun slips into the elevator after the nurse leaves just in time before the doors closed. He pressed the button to go to the first floor. The elevator starts to descend. Shun stands there patiently waiting for the elevator to reach his floor. The elevator stopped on the second floor. Shun's heart was beating very fast. The door opened and a doctor walked in the elevator with Shun. They stood there. The doctor had attempted to press the button for the ground floor and saw that it was already pressed. H stood there and waited for the elevator to descend. The elevator had reached the ground floor and opened. The doctor stepped out first and walked towards the exit. Shun followed closely behind and managed to walk right out of the front doors. Aione waved at him from a distance standing next to Zero.

Aione: “Over here. This way. The train station is about three blocks form here.”

Shun walked over to them and proceeded to walk towards the train station.

*Back at the Usual Spot*

Kohana: “Let's see...if I attach this wire here, plug this wire here, and connect this cord to this screen and-there we go!”

The handheld screen that Kohana was holding had come online and began to work.

Kohana: “Now that the control terminal is fully functional, we can get this training session started asap.”

Iteza, Tri-Blaze, Kaida, and Gabriel had walked through the door and entered inside the training room that was built into the Usual Spot. Iteza looked around the building and whistled from being impressed. Tri had went to the nearest wall and knocked on it as if to test its sturdiness. Kaida and Gabriel walked around aimlessly impressed and in awe.

Kaida: “You did all of this yourself”

Kohana: “Not exactly. I provided the entire layout of the place and all of the technology. Daijiro and Daitaro's company provided the means and manpower to make all of this possible.”

Tri: “So what about the rest of the guys? Where are they right about now?”

Kohana: “Well my brother should be here in about 5-10 minutes. As far as Shun and Aione, they should be here in about 30. They're coming from the hospital and Shun has to sneak out so we all know how that can go. Okay now let's test out the VR system here as well as the simulation program. Watch this.”

Kohana presses a few buttons and the walls begin to change to simulate a field opening in the middle of a dense forest. The others looks impressed and amazed as Kohana pressed a few more buttons. The setting had changed to an icy summit along a mountain range. Kohana had done the same again and the simulation had changed to an intense valley in the tropics where a volcano had erupted in the distance and lava was flowing alongside the slope of the hills. Ash flew the air as the booms and crashes of explosions filled the air. Rocks and burning pieces of cinder flew through the air and set standing trees on fire on contact upon descent. Kohana pressed two buttons and the room had returned to normal.

Iteza: “I'm impressed. Utterly speechless. This looks amazing.”

Kohana: “That's not all as well. I even added a combat system to the VR to allow you guys to train and fight individually against simulated opponents. You can adjust the difficulty of the battle and choose the settings of where to battle. It can even simulate your opponent to be other members of our team just to test your skills. These guys really need to speed it up.”

Kaida: “I agree. So with this simulation will we be able to fully train here anytime for as long as we need to in order to get ready for this tournament? How can we access the system if you aren't here?”

Kohana: “I've programmed the system to recognize your operators' watches upon entering the Usual Spot. No one outside of the group can access the system. I'll also be monitoring the system from my on personal devices at all times so I'll know if we're being hacked.”

Takashia walks in through the door, looks around completely and whistles. A huge excited smile smears across his face.

Takashia: “Those Saito men sure know how to do their work in a rush. Good craftsmanship also. I can't wait to break this baby in! You ready, Misery?!”

Kohana sighs and rolls her eyes.

Kohana: “Before you “break” anything, let me show you guys how it works. You can show the rest of the guys when they get here.”

Kohana huddles Iteza, Kaida, Takashia and their respective Machina to show them how to work the system from the console and their watches.

*Meanwhile*

Shun and Aione's train had come to a stop at the station.

Shun: “This is our stop. Now we just have to walk past the park over there, walk through the woodland behind it, and we'll be there in no time. I can't wait to test out this new system.”

Aione: “Me either. Can we stop by the store and pick up some snacks before we head there? I'm a little hungry.”
Shun: “Sure we can. I'm a bit hungry myself. I wanna stop home and get a change of clothes. Zero and Mirage you can go ahead of us and we'll meet you there.”

Zero waves to Shun and walks away with Mirage. Shun and Aione head to Shun's house. They walk in through the front door and notice no shoes by the door.

Shun: “No one's home right now. Mom must be out and Dad's at work like usual. Let me go upstairs and change real quick and I'll be back down.”

Shun headed up the stairs but not before petting Sky on the head while he laid on the table in the hallway. Sky stretched and walked into the other room. Aione walked into the living room and noticed picture frames so she decided to check them out and saw a picture of Shun from his childhood. Sky walked up on Aione and rubbed up against her leg. Shun walked back downstairs while readjusting the bottom of his shirt.

Shun: “Let's go, Aione.”

Shun notices Aione was in the other room looking at photos and walks up closer to Shun. She shows the baby picture to Shun and smiles. Shun's face turns bright red from shyness, his hand grew a little sweaty, and his heart began to beat faster than normal. She pushed closer to Shun and got even closer to him. She wrapped her arms around Shun and rested her head on his chest. Shun stood there nervous with his arms up.

Aione: “Thanks for everything Shun. I don't know what would've happened to me if you hadn't come along.”

Shun gently put his arms around Aione and embraced her hug. Aione was smiling serenely as she could hear his heartbeat. They stood there in the silence of the empty house for about a few minutes. Shun's stomach began to growl. Aione giggled and looked into Shun's eyes.

Aione: “You hungry? I have some strawberry pastries and other snacks if you'd like some.”

Shun: I'd love some. I would get some food from the fridge but I don't wanna leave any clues that I was here.”

Aione and Shun walk out of the front door while eating a strawberry pastry that she had gave him.

Around the same time, Zero has a weird sensation while walking through the forest. He stopped walking and began to survey his surroundings while Mirage looked confused.

Mirage: “Everything alright Zero?”

Zero: “We're being followed. But I don't feel any hostile intent. Let's proceed with caution.”

Zero and Mirage take a different route through the forest to get to the Usual Spot. It took them longer than usual but Zero was still feeling uneasy as they made their way there. They walked in through the door and everyone there had turned around and looked at them. Daijiro and Daitaro had been there as well with Raijin and Terra as well. Kohana looked a little frustrated and upset.

Kohana: “So you two are here and Shun and Aione are somewhere alone and not here yet? What's taking them so long?”

Zero: “I feel like we were also followed so we need to be careful. So how does the system work?”
his doesn't screw up the programming once we get control back.”

Misery looked up at one of the windows and prepared his fighting stance.

Misery: “Someone's here!”

The rest of the group had prepared to fight as well and was ready to fight. A figure dropped from the ceiling in the middle of the group. A sniper rifle and other weapons were laid out on the ground but no one could see who it was. The figure appeared out of thin air. It appeared to be a green Machina wearing a hood. Kaida's eyes widened as she recognized who it was.

Kaida: “Caliber?! What are you doing here?!”

Caliber: “I've come for you, Miss.”

Caliber bowed down on one knee in front of Kaida.

Kaida: "Whaaaaattttttt?"

Haywire Systems and Strawberries-End