Chapter 3

"Wow!" Ethan exclaimed to himself.

"Her name is Delilah. She was 13 when she went into cryo-sleep. Unable to age and stuck in eternal mental suffering, she has become a problem of the past for the people of Terra-Zeldra," Commander Grimhold said, staring at her pod.

Delilah had green hair and pale skin and had remained asleep for 50 years.

Ethan stared at her face through the pod and thought to himself, "Beautiful..."

“Okay, Ethan, this is going to be your first attempt at piloting one of these giant machines, and your partner will be Lily,” Commander Grimhold said, and Lily stepped out from the small group of students he supervised.

“Hi there…” Lily said with a big smile. She had orange hair, large orange eyes, freckles on her cheeks, and her hair was tied back in a ponytail.

Ethan, staring at her unusually large eyes, waved his right hand, “Hi…”

“First, we’re going to test your compatibility with the tenazoids. Follow me,” Grimhold said.

Ethan, Lily, and the other students followed the commander as he led them toward the hall where the tenazoids were stored.

As they moved forward, Ethan heard a faint whisper from behind him.

“Huh?” he said, turning around to see who it was. He peered into the darkness of the passage they had come from, but no one was there.

Lily stopped and said in a grim voice, “You shouldn’t get distracted, boy. If I get expelled, I’ll come for your head…”

Ethan turned to her and replied, “Oh… Sorry, I just… Never mind, let’s go!”

“These are the tenazoids; you may have seen them a couple of times being used in the field. These are tenazoids D1 to G10. You will each try them out to find which one you are compatible with. Your minds will serve as their remotes, and your emotions will serve as their batteries. Anger supercharges tenazoids and releases their greatest potential. Fear and sadness reduce their ability to the minimum, causing them to fail you in battle,” Grimhold explained. Then he turned to the students, “Subject 1010, Ethan Morphy, and Subject 1026, Lily Burnrose. You may proceed,” he said.

Both cadets stepped in front of tenazoid D1, a yellow humanoid machine with horns. They climbed an elevator toward its chest, and as they got inside, Commander Grimhold said, “The chips on your necks will serve as the link between your brain and the machine. If the link fails, you will be ejected and fall to your doom.”

“You’re only telling us this now?!” Ethan yelled, angrily hitting the glass screen in front of him with his fist.

“Take your positions; there’s no turning back now…” Grimhold shouted.

“That crazy old…” Ethan muttered, then turned to Lily. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Focus!”

“O-kay…” Ethan said, though he had already noticed that Lily was uneasy after Grimhold’s warning. This was a test of fate that would decide if they would live or die, and there was no turning back.

Both cadets placed a palm on the holographic control panels presented before them, and their eyes glowed faintly for a brief moment.

An AI voice suddenly sounded, “Connection attained. Linkage processing, 20 percent…”

“Calm down, calm down. This’ll work!” Ethan said, exhaling nervously. He glanced at Lily and noticed she was already sweating, her worry becoming more evident as the percentage climbed.

“Linkage, 40 percent,” the AI voice said again.

“They got to 40 percent…” one of the students behind Commander Grimhold commented.

Commander Grimhold sighed and replied, “They always do. Consider yourself safe once it’s above 60 percent. If it doesn’t get there, you’re dead!”

“Linkage, 50 percent,” the AI voice announced.

“We’re halfway through…” Ethan said, closing his eyes. Lily did the same, and both exhaled deeply.

“Linkage failed! Preparing for ejection!”

“What the…!” Ethan exclaimed.

Lily began sobbing, “I don’t wanna die…” she said as tears streamed down her cheeks.

The chest of the giant machine opened slowly, and the elevator that brought them up came back to take them down.

“Huh? That was a bluff?” Ethan asked as Lily opened her eyes. Both stepped out of the machine and were brought down safely.

“I guess it’s not this one then, moving on…” Grimhold said, turning away.

“Moving on?! All that talk about dying was just a bluff?!” Ethan asked, sounding upset.

“It was a test. Apart from linking with your brain, you also need to prove how focused you are under pressure, and both of you failed that test, but it’s something I can fix. Besides, aren’t you happy you’re not dead?” Grimhold said, turning his back to Ethan.

“That crazy old fart!” Ethan thought.

“Next is this big guy, D2. Move quickly; we don’t have all day,” Grimhold ordered.

Ethan and Lily moved forward, got on the elevator, and entered the giant blue machine. They both placed a palm on the controls, and the AI voice sounded, “Connection attained. Linkage processing, 10 percent.”

“Let’s hope this one works,” Ethan thought. He turned to Lily and saw she was much calmer than before. He smiled at her.

“Linkage failed! Preparing for ejection.”

“What? It didn’t even reach 30 percent,” Ethan said, confused.

Suddenly, the machine’s interior turned red, and alarm sounds began blaring throughout the storehouse.

“What’s going on?” Lily asked.

Ethan turned to the commander, “I don’t know, but this better be another bluff.”

Grimhold pulled out his tablet and tried to control the situation, but everything he did resulted in an error.

“Virus detected. D2 self-destruct sequence initiated!” the AI announced.

“A self-destruct sequence?” Ethan thought, then yelled at the commander, “Why would you jerks put a self-destruct protocol on a tenazoid?! As big as this thing is, it could take out half the city!”

Commander Grimhold stepped back in confusion. There was no way to stop the machine from self-destructing. He turned around and ordered the other students to clear the area. Everyone ran out, leaving only him, the giant machine, and the two cadets inside.

“What do I do now?” he thought to himself.