The ship flies through the sky as the morning sun begins to rise, it's golden gleam beginning to shine off of the Airship's metallic hull. At this first light, the crew inside of the ship begins to rise, as the time has come for them to face off with two Grandmasters of Techway. Everyone meets in the vehicle hangar of the ship, Nond's arm was feeling better, but as it had only been a day, it still wasn't ready for him to do anything extreme. Pool yawns and rubs her eyes; she was clearly the st one to awaken from her slumber. Chris stands with his arms crossed, popping his neck loudly, he was ready for battle to ensue. Corry finishes typing some commands into a panel on the wall, two transport vessels being lowered down into the hangar with a crane-like mechanism. The vessels were long, but somewhat thin, only being able to fit a few people. MAPI watches everyone from one of her monitors that were currently lowered into the room.

  "So... who's going with who and where?" MAPI asks, her eyes filled with slight concern for her crew members.

  "We'll probably go with the people we were paired with during the first Techway raid, I'll go with Pool. Chris and Nond can go together as well, then we just figure out which enemy we're going after." Corry suggests.

  "Supposed enemies-" Nond corrects.

  "Yes, supposed enemies." Corry restates.

  "Anyways... In that regard, I think I'd rather go after the weakest signature if it is in fact another Techway Grandmaster." Nond says.

  "Ehhh-?? Damn... Corry and Pool get all the fun... Though I guess Nond's arm is still kinda injured..." Chris sighs.

  "I suppose that means Corry and I are heading for the one in the... Rocky Mountains, was it?" Pool asks.

  "Yep! If we want to beat them and be back before the sun sets, we'd best leave now." Corry says.

  "Got it." Chris affirms.

  "Well then... I guess we'll see each other soon... Hopefully-" Nond says somewhat pessimistically.

  "Oh, quiet you. We'll see them again." Chris states, dragging Nond by the hood of his sweater to the transport vessel.

  "See you soon, guys!" Corry calls out before turning to Pool.

  "You ready?" He says with a bright smile on his face.

  "Y-Yes, of course I am!" Pool remarks with nervous courage.

  "Good luck on your trips! I will be here to await your return!" MAPI says happily, waving to them from her computer monitor.

  Corry and Pool wave back at MAPI as they both enter their transport vessel. The doors to the hangar open up as the transport vessels slowly begin to lift off of the floor and fly out of the Airship, their blue jet thrusters glowing brightly. The two vessels split up and go their own ways, towards Nebraska and Wyoming respectively...

  First Battle Squad: Team Nond and Chris.

  Inside of Nond and Chris's vessel, Nond was typing in the coordinates to the weaker energy signature's location as Chris sits in one of the seats toward the back of the ship. Once the coordinates were set in the navigation computer, Nond walks back and sits by Chris.

  "I wonder what this Grandmaster is gonna be like..." Nond asks aloud.

  "I'm not too worried about it. I'll kick his ass either way, I'd like to see this guy stop me." Chris states.

  "As unfazed as ever I see..." Nond says exasperatingly.

  "What are you so scared about?" Chris inquires, crossing his arms.

  "Oh, I don't know... Maybe the fact that the Keller guy was able to kill the Headmaster from so far that we couldn't even see him!! You're also not considering the fact that this guy is probably going to have more soldiers with him!!" Nond shouts.

  "Then we just beat our way through all of his soldiers to get to him." Chris says bluntly.

  Nond stutters before just giving up, rubbing his temples.

  "How can one person be so dense..." Nond groans.

  About two hours pass before computer announces that they have arrived at their destination. Nond, who was taking a quick nap, awakens and looks around. Chris had been sitting in the same spot the whole time, just looking out the window next to him. As the ship nds, giant patches of grass the size of trees rises up past them before the ship nds.

  "Oh jeez... I heard that the Great Pins were heavily affected by the war, but I didn't think it would be this bad-" Nond says softly as he looks at the world outside.

  "It's like a jungle..." Chris murmurs.

  The door opens, revealing the overgrown pins fully to Chris and Nond. The two look around in awe as they leave the vessel before remembering the task at hand. Nond lifts his watch up to his face to make sure they were in the right area before looking ahead.

  "The signature is coming from just up there." Nond points out.

  Chris looks in the direction that Nond was pointing in. There was a lone boulder sitting just a little way away from them, however, the area around it was strangely spacious, as if the tall grass was avoiding a ten-foot circle around the rock.

  "I think you may be right, Nond..." Chris says before walking ahead, Nond tailing right behind him.

  Once they reach the rge rock, they seem to inspect it for a bit, trying to see if there was anything weird about it. Everything seemed normal for the most part before Nond seems to spot something: There was a square on the rock that seemed oddly out of pce.

  "Chris... Come here, I might have found something." Nond states.

  Chris comes walking around from the back of the boulder to look at what Nond was pointing out.

  "....What is it?" Chris asks.

  "I think it's a panel, try lifting it." Nond suggests.

  Chris manages to stick his fingers under the panel and lift it off of the rock. Underneath was a button, the kind of button you would see on a hotel elevator. Chris and Nond look at each other curiously before Nond pushes the button, which lights up afterward. Nothing seems to happen for a little while until walls spring up from the ground around the two, much to their surprise. The floor starts to move down into the ground, a new patch of dirt sliding out from the side of the square hole to repce the one that they were already standing on. After a few minutes of going down, the elevator finally stops moving as one of the walls slides down. Outside of the elevator was a hallway, it was very dimly lit and hard to see, what could be seen was the fact that the walls were made of a shiny metal substance.

  "....I don't like this; this creeps me out..." Nond whimpers.

  "Let's just keep going forward..." Chris says softly, walking inside.

  Nond follows behind Chris, shivering lightly out of fear. It was quiet in the hallways, only the sound of their footsteps echoing throughout the area can be heard.

  "I'm not seeing any soldiers... This guy must be really cocky if he thinks he can take us on all by himself." Chris says in a snarky tone.

  "That, or he knows for a fact he can beat us..." Nond mumbles, gulping.

  The hallways had various different ways to turn and there were several rooms on the sides of these halls. it was like a giant maze with no end. Paranoia begins to climb upon Chris and Nond's shoulders, the empty feeling of being alone... yet the gut-wrenching feeling that there was something or someone watching them. Becoming fed up with it all, Chris raises his head up and yells.

  "COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF ALREADY, YOU STUPID GRANDMASTER!!!" Chris yells out angrily, his voice echoing through the halls.

  Nond quickly runs to Chris's side, covering his mouth.

  "What do you think you're doing-!? You're giving away our location!" Nond whispers aggressively.

  Chris grunts, pulling Nond's hand off of his mouth.

  "Well, if he wants to face us so bad, then he should come out!" Chris shouts before running down the hallway.

  "W-Wait, don't leave me alone!" Nond gasps, running after Chris.

  As they run through the halls, a pink gas starts to slowly fill the area. Noticing this, Chris and Nond skid to a stop and cover the mouths and noses.

  "Toxic gas??" Chris asks in a muffled voice.

  "...No, I don't think so...I've never seen a chemical that has this shade of pink..." Nond says, taking his hands off of his face.

  "Wait, Nond-!" Chris starts.

  Nond takes a deep breath through his nose, thinking for a bit before looking at Chris.

  "It's just colored fog, the type you would see from a fog machine on Halloween." Nond states.

  Hearing this, Chris takes a sniff too.

  "You're right... Then that would mean that whoever is in here is just trying to obscure our vision more... It'd be easy with how dark it is in here..." Chris realizes.

  The fog gets even thicker as they talk, filling up the halls. Chris and Nond remain on guard, seeing as anything could happen in these low visibility conditions.

  "The bad feeling is back... Like there's someone here... Standing right with us... God, this is like a horror game..." Nond whispers to himself as he starts to slowly walk ahead again.

  "Now that you say it... I can kind of see what you mean now... Kind of like someone is breathing down your neck, right...?" Chris mutters.

  "...Kind of? I wouldn't exactly describe it like that..." Nond starts before realizing.

  Nond quickly turns around, all he could see of Chris was his almost invisible silhouette through the fog... There was another figure standing right behind Chris, raising a weapon over his head...

  "CHRIS, GET DOWN-!!!" Nond shrieks, his voice echoing almost endlessly...

  To be Continued.