I awoke that morning to a light tap on my shoulder.

The sun hadn't even started to rise over the horizon and it was already time to leave.

Although it was pitch black in the One Stinger, I could still make out Dakotas figure.

Dakota Way: ‘Dude, we gotta go!’

X.D: (Grouchily) ‘Yeah, I know.’

Grabbing my equipment bag (Yeah, I know, we all packed bags full of useful equipment. It's just a resource management thing.) I headed to the front door, where everyone was waiting in silence.

Stepping out into the streets outside, Ronnie locked the door and we were on our way.

The city started to shrink behind us as we walked along. The spires of light and hovering cars growing distant to the point where only small buildings remained.

Everyone seemed too tired for small talk. Well, all except Ronnie of course, who kept singing about the things he saw as he walked.

To be honest, we were all too tired to complain.

The journey must have lasted for at least two hours just to get out of the city. Of course, we couldn't just walk out the gateway, so we found a nearby building against the wall to climb over it. Our ropes made light work of the task.

To be fair, I'm not a city guy. Finally returning back to a land fueled with more natural sources was a relief to me.

The light breeze passing through the trees was more than amazing to feel. Dawn had finally passed, and a very small sliver of light was shining. It gave a bright orange tinge to the treeline. Almost as if every tree had caught fire.

Miu Shizuka:(Smiling) ‘You really have a thing for landscapes, don't you?.’

X.D: ‘Of course.’

Raisen swooped down onto Miu’s shoulder. The bright purple bird nestled itself against her neck.

Yuuto Ito: ‘Do we have to remind you all that we don't have time? The ship leaves soon.’

In my trance, I hadn't realised that everyone was already over and ready to go.

As we walked along, I couldn't help but mildly admire the group we had made.

I was stood behind them all. Their silhouettes in the morning sun looked like something you would see in an action movie.

Even so, the walk was still mildly boring. It was all dirt roads and trees.

After another hour of walking, we could finally see the outline of the ocean appear off in the distance.

Yuuto Ito: ‘We are approximately twenty minutes from our destination. As long as we walk straight from here, we should arrive at the dock on time.’

Kiri; ‘Good.’

As she was walking along, she turned towards us whilst walking backwards.

Kiri: ‘Ok, so, we have a crew member on the ship that knows we will be boarding. He has prepared a small boarding platform near the back entry of the ship. We need to get on there without anyone seeing.’

Ryu Jianar: ‘And how are we supposed to do that?’

Kiri: ‘We have timed it so that our agent will deliberately sabotage the ship’s carrying arm to drop one of the containers. Whilst everyone is distracted, we will be able to get on undetected.’

Lewis Sterge: ‘And are you sure this will work?’

Kiri: ‘I'm more than certain of it.’

X.D: ‘Good. just don't hurt anyone with it please.’

She gave me a confused look.

Kiri: ‘Why would I try and get people hurt?’

Miu Shizuka: ‘Well, your track record of plans has always seemed to end in someone getting killed. May I remind you of the security guards?’

Kiri: (Crossing arms) ‘Yeah, but that's different.’

The two girls argued for a while until we finally arrived at the port.

Although smaller than expected, the port was still stacked high with shipping containers. There was only one main building on the site, but trust me, each individual container made it seem like an entire town.

Kiri: (Whispering) ‘Alright, follow my lead.’

Keeping low, Kiri lead us through the maze of steel. Going down many twists and turns, we tried our hardest to maintain stealth.

Eventually, we reached the clearing to the side of the port. The ship we were meant to be boarding had just arrived. And believe me, it was huge.

Kiri:(Whispering) ‘See that small doorway near the back of the ship? That is where we are boarding. Just wait for the signal.’

Ryu Jianar: (Whispering) ‘Yeah, just wait for the extremely loud gunshots.’

Kiri kicked him in the shin.

We waited for around two minutes in silence.

Eventually, a large crane arm started rotating from the ship. Just like Kiri said. It picked up a container, started bringing it in, then dropped it.

Kiri: ‘Go, go, go!’

As we ran towards the door, it flung open, with a wooden board being pushed out by one of the crew members. Quickly, we all boarded, thanking the man, before he went back to his duties.

Kiri: ‘Ok, In here.’

Entering a green container, we all sat down, before Kiri shut the door.

Again, we were back in the darkness.

Kiri: ‘Phew, just on time.’

Yuuto Ito: (Providing the only light, other than Mr Wiggles) ‘Yep, we have two minutes left for departure.’

Dakota way: (Giddily) ‘This is gonna be awesome. I have never been on a boat before man.’

Ryu Jianar: ‘As if we will see anything from the inside of a box Dakota.’

Dakota Way:(Smiling, I think) ‘I don't care bro. Still on a boat.’

A large shudder caused all of us to have to balance ourselves.

Jamie Eruu: ‘Whelp, that's us departed then.’

X.D: ‘Hey, what does Paris look like now?’

Andrew Weber: ‘Same old same old, although the tower thingy has been turned into a facility.’

Miu Shizuka: ‘Tower thingy? How can you possibly forget the name of the Eiffel tower? Idiot.’

Kiri: (Rolling her eyes)‘I can agree to that.’

Andrew remained silent.

Atsuko Viola: (Silently) ‘I...it smells w...weird in here.’

Jamie Eruu: ‘It's probably just Andrew. Don't worry about it.’

Andrew Weber: (Moodily) ‘If you're going to pick on me the whole way, I will jump overboard.’

Miu Shizuka: (Laughing) ‘I can give you a hand with that.’

Andrew Weber: ‘Yeah, thanks!’

Mr wiggles, who was sat on Crystal’s shoulder, began to pulsate with a faint blue.

Crystal: ‘What's wrong little guy? Cold?’

The mushroom nodded, so she took a small piece of cloth and covered him with it.

Lewis Sterge: ‘It's going to get a lot colder soon.’

Yuuto Ito: ‘According to weather forecasts, we don't have any storms coming our way, so the ride will be smooth at least.’

Kiri: ‘Ermmm, Yuuto…’

Yuuto Ito: ‘Yeah, what's the problem?’

Kiri: ‘... The laptop battery’s on 1%.’

For a few seconds, Yuuto said nothing, until he eventually sighed.

Yuuto Ito: (Ranting) ‘Well, isn't this just typical. I can't remember the last time this happened. Oh, wait, noooow I remember. You bl….’

The laptop shut itself down before Yuuto was able to finish his sentence.

Ryu Jianar: (Trying to write) ‘I Can't believe we packed everything but a flashlight.’

Dakota Way: ‘Yo, Lewis, don't you and Miu have lighters?’

The two gave him stern looks.

Dakota Way: ‘Oh, Right…’

Again, silence.

I will be fair, it's kind of awkward, sitting in a dark, enclosed container for five hours. There is nothing more you can do other than sit and wait.

After about the two-hour mark, a huge crash caught us all of guard. It sent the shipping container sideways, making all of us fall over one another.

Before any of us could even ask what the hell was going on, we were sent rolling again. The clashing of steel against boat was heard, until a large splash from outside.

Lewis Sterge: ‘Crap, this is bad.’

Miu Shizuka: ‘I know! My dress might get ruined!’

X.D: ‘Look, everyone just stay calm.’

The density of water outside caused the metal outside of the container creek from the pressure. Small trickles started leaking into the container. Everyone was preparing to have to make a dash for the surface of the water.

All of a sudden, the crashing of water sounded as the container was lifted out of the ocean. However, I could hear a completely different motor than the one the ship was using.

Kami, (Who had scrunched herself up into a ball in the corner when we went into the water) tried to look through the small cracks in the container, to no avail.

Christian Baraster: ‘Do you think it's an IWEC escort?’

Jamie Eruu: ‘It can’t be. They don't use motorized engines.’

Jack Jenkings: ‘It sounds super familiar…’

Kiri: ‘Look, let's keep our heads and voices down. We will find out soon enough.’

We sat in the darkness for a rather nerve racking while.

Eventually, whatever was now carrying us stopped. Soon after, our container was being raised up into the air. The container was brought down onto a solid land in no time.

Preparing our weapons, we waited in ambush.

The latch on the crate opened. Both doors were pulled open slowly…

All at once, we raised our weapons through the doorway, startling the two armed soldiers outside.

Soldier: (Waving arms) ‘Wowowow! Hold your fire!’

I can tell you now, the sight we saw was nowhere near what I had expected.

We were not on solid ground. We were on some kind of seaborn robot monster!

Kiri: (Shouting) ‘What the hell!’

Lewis Sterge: ‘Wait, you know these people?’

The two soldiers saluted.

Kiri: ‘Yeah, this is the group we were talking about.’

Atsuko Viola: ‘W..where are w...we?’

Soldier: ‘We were given orders to bring you back to HQ, so we did.’

Kiri: (angry) ‘We never agreed to this! You knocked us off the ship to bloody drag us here! Why not just meet us at the designated area like normal people.’

She seemed like she was going to punch the guard, but she held her anger.

Kiri: ‘*sigh* idiots. All of you.’

Soldier’s: ‘Right this way please.’

The “ship” was unlike anything I had ever seen before. It was just one huge robot in the middle of the ocean. It glided along carelessly like a dragon on the water's surface.

We were escorted inside, where we navigated through countless numbers of rooms filled with military units.

eventually, we reached what appeared to be a control room.

Inside, we were told to take a seat in the chairs provided. Although uncomfortable, they weren't that bad.

A man with a red hat walked in through one of the doorways opposite. Like Davis, he wore a trench coat, however, his was designed for sea voyages. He had rather similar features, except the fact that half his face was robotic.

Kiri: ‘Is this your idea of a joke Capt’n?’

Capt’n: ‘I gave direct orders to bring you all here. It turns out IWEC already know that you are all heading to France, so they have blocked off all available ways into there without a scheduled check.’

Kiri: (Crossing arms) ‘You should at least have told us…’

Capt’n: ‘We did! We sent a message to your companion Yuuto!’

Everyone sighed.

Capt’n: ‘Anyway, allow me to introduce myself to you all.’

He tilted his hat at us.

Capt’n: (Cheerfully)  The names John Esgate, but you can call me Capt’n. I'm the commanding officer of this vessel and the leader of the Anti-collective fighters.’

He sat on one of the chairs next to the “ship's” main console.

Capt’n: ‘I have a feeling you already know why you're here, so let me get straight to the point.’

He brought up a screen of a bunch of IWEC facilities. Each had labels describing in-depth the entire floors of each.

Capt’n: ‘We have been planning for a while now to try our hardest to locate the main IWEC HQ, which has proven incredibly difficult to do, as each line of coding has been set to each individual facility as a kind of network code. We need to access each key facility remotely in order to extract information.’

Hundreds of different facilities flashed on the screen.

Capt’n: ‘However, since your group seems to be capable of extracting information with ease, we have realised that we only need to assault a few facilities in order to gain the whereabouts of the HQ. So, let's strike a deal.’

He turned to us with a serious look on his face.

Capt’n: ‘You provide your services to the Anti-collective fighters, and in turn, we will lay our lives on the line in order to secure whatever it is you are looking for. Deal?’

He gestured to shake on the deal.

I found it rather typical that everyone was staring at me.

X.D: (Shrugging) ‘Agreed.’

We shook hands. His grip was as firm as a Captains should be.

Capt’n: ‘Well, Let's get you all settled in!’

Kiri: ‘Right, follow me. Rooms are this way.’

Leading us down through the back of the control room. Inside was a lot different than the rest of the robot. It was a rather large room, which led off into different sections rooms. Like I’jnh’s facility, this one also had our names on each door.

Miu Shizuka: ‘Wow, they really planned this out well. What would happen if we refused? Would they have just taken down the nameplates?’

Jamie Eruu: (Jokingly) ‘Naaa, they would have just executed you.’

He had a large, almost manic grin on his face.

Andrew Weber: ‘Yeah, right. As if we could dent this lot.’

X.D: ‘Never underestimate your team Andrew. Even Atsuko could bring down a tower if she put her heart to it. So why can't anyone else?’

Lewis Sterge: ‘Well said kid.’

Atsuko was now looking at her hands. I could tell that she was wondering if my words were literal. To be fair, even on that day, I knew everyone was going to get much, much stronger.

I had a hunch.

Kiri: ‘You might want to get some rest. We will have a briefing in the morning.’

She quickly remembered something

Kiri: 'Remember to charge Yuuto, Atsuko!'

Atsuko Viola: 'I w...will do that r...right away.'

Everyone went to their rooms, wishing each other goodnight.

I, on the other hand, was more focused on the amazing view out of one of the windows.

Although the glass was incredibly thick, I could still see the ocean with ease. We must have been on the bottom floor then, as we were fully submerged in the ocean. Many different types of aquatic life whizzed past, almost camouflaged by the deep reds and oranges of the corral that dotted the rustic ocean floor.

Still, the silence made me realize how much I missed being alone. Yeah, it's great to be with friends, but sometimes, it's great to just be in isolation.

Eventually, I did end up retiring to my room… which seemed exactly the same as the one that I’jnh had me in, except this time there was no TV.

Bumer.

Still, as I was laying there in the dark, the light from the moon reflected through the water and into my room, leaving lapping waves of moonlight dancing over my being.

I was out cold before I could even get into a comfortable position.