Emera and Raul crept forward down the suddenly ominous corridors of their school. They had been roaming around every inch of the gym in search of the lost pilots to no avail but had just heard the metallic squealing of a hinge. If the guesses were correct that the school was under attack from Gremlins that would be roughly the same sound one of them would make.

The couple had turned down a new hall, trying to spread out their search for Chase and Nami. That was when they had heard the noise the first time. Now they were slinking against the lockers, with Raul's weapons in hand. Whether or not they could actually do anything against a miniature Goliath was yet to be seen but it wasn't going to stop them from trying. Then the foot came down on the floor.

The robot moved into view, standing near eight feet tall, its head lowered a little to avoid scraping the ceiling. In the centre of the head was a single, ocular eye with a lens that whirled as it spun into focus and scanned the area. The red glass reflected Raul's face as it stopped on the youths. There was a flexing of mechanical fingers, the only sound that bounced around the empty space during the standoff.

"Emera," Raul whispered through the side of his mouth. "Are you able to run in your dress?"

"You know I have a hobby of reading tarot cards Raul?" Emera withdrew the large rectangular pieces of laminated paper she spoke of and fanned them out in her hand.

"Uh ok?"

"Well a popular model has to be able to protect herself right?" Emera gave the ninja a wink before whipping three of the cards through the air towards the miniature battlesuit. Two of them embedded into the chest armour of the robot, as though they were blades and not flimsy paper. The third one glanced off the machine's arm, leaving a small gash in the armour. The Gremlin looked down at itself in shock and Raul's jaw dropped. "Shall we kill it then dear?"

* * * * *

Chase and Nami stood still, statues in the school. The Gremlin continued its walk at the other end of the school, its sleek body gracefully drifting along. Being of Artisan construction it had a smoothness to its design that tried to emulate artistry. It had been painted an ominous black though, with a singular ruby eye that bathed over each locker and metal tile it observed. But it did not stop along its path. The mini-Goliath kept moving, never turning to look at the two students.

The pair gave out a little sigh of relief at the temporary danger passing them by. Chase tugged at Nami to get them moving towards the potential safety of the storage closet. "Don't tell me you're really going to try and fight that thing Chase. All on your own?"

"Nami I don't have a choice, I have to protect everyone. It's why I trained; it's why I'm here. If I don't do it, who will?" He turned to look into her eyes as he said it and the little girl's heart fluttered for a moment upon seeing his romantic determination. Then her entire chest shook. Down at the other end of the corridor, the Gremlin had returned, its sinister eye peering around the corner and focused in on them.

"Chase we...what do we...?"

"Run!" The fiery youth grabbed Nami by the hand and took off again down the hall as the Gremlin began to move, taking off with a mechanically-boosted speed. Even with their head start, that supply door was just too far away for them to reach it in time. The Gremlin was an exact miniature of a Goliath and Goliath's were fast.

As each side began to close in on the doorway in the middle, Chase began to see that there was no hope of them making it on time, certainly not with him being weighed down dragging Nami behind. There weren't really any options to avoid it. Except maybe one...

Chase reached back and grasped Nami's arms and smiled at her. "Get inside as fast as you can." And with that he threw the tiny girl with all his might. She floated through the air before her bum bounced off the ground and she skidded to a stop in front of the storage closet. The door hissed open for her as she sat there for a moment, dumbfounded.

There was a screech of metal as the Gremlin approached at its blistering speed, winding its arm back for a punch at the small girl. Nami squeaked and rolled through the door, getting halfway into the frame before the Gremlin was upon her. Down came the steel fist, the red eye whirring as the operator of the Gremlin on Earth tried to make sure it had a bead on its target.

Nami shrieked and covered her eyes. There was a thump sound and a rush of air blew past the feline female, ruffling through her blonde hair and plastering strands of it to her face. She pulled the follicles away with her hands as she uncovered her eyes and slowly let her eyelids slide open.

In front of her was Chase, his arms up in front of his body in a cross, holding back the attack from the battlesuit. His heels were dug in hard to the metal floor and he grit his teeth with the effort of containing the thousands of pounds of weight harassing his body.

With great effort, the fiery youth managed to turn his head and look back down at Nami on the ground. "Get inside Nami," he hissed through a clenched jaw. The girl complied instantly, wiggling the rest of the way inside the storage closet and letting the door slide shut. A light flickered on above her automatically with some sort of scanner detecting her presence. She fumbled around, knocking aside various cleaning products and extra textbooks to try and find a switch to lock the door. She was eventually rewarded by the sound of a click as she hit a button on a wall panel and she sank back against one of the walls in slight relief. Not that a flimsy door could hold out that monster...

Chase continued to hold back the punch in front of the door. With Nami safely inside the closet he could finally let up trying to hold back the attack, which was using up every ounce of strength he had. How had he done it anyways? It had been such a blur to move so fast, to put up that kind of strength. He knew he couldn't keep it up though. He also knew that once he let down his guard, this was going to hurt a lot.

The Gremlin's hand finally kept moving forward with its motion as Chase's strength slipped away. The fist burst through the crossed arms and straight into the teen's chest before driving straight down into the ground, denting the floor underneath slightly and sending shudders through the hallway. Chase felt ribs cracking as his breath escaped his body. He slowly managed to pick himself back up off the ground with the Gremlin watching, its user obviously shocked that a normal teenager was getting back to his feet after enduring the machine's attack.

Chase coughed and specks of blood showered down onto the ground before he straightened up. "I was right, that did hurt. Now..." Chase felt the tips of his fingers tingle and burn a little. The sensation spread through his hand before it picked up in intensity. He looked down to see his skin had ignited with fire and he clenched his fingers together into fists. "You tell me how much this hurts!"

* * * * *

The hangar for the Goliaths took on a very ominous, empty feeling when it wasn't in use. Its vast empty spaces, normally buzzing with the activity of workers and students, were like vacuums for light, casting themselves in darkness. Every Goliath seemed to be the hiding place of a smaller counterpart, not the embodiment of Enian technological advancements.

Each step taken by Gretta or Ardwen echoed back a hundred times, making it impossible to tell if they were alone or not. Somewhere within the hundred rebounds of sound could be someone else's, something much larger and far more dangerous.

"What about this Gretta?" Arden had found a small laser array system lying at the foot of a Goliath, meant to be loaded into the war machine's shoulder. The large, box-like component came up to Ardwen's head and was probably as wide as he was tall. It was tiny compared to some of the things used by Goliaths normally but was often equipped as a hidden weapon to spring out in close combat and give out a little edge. "Could we use it against the Gremlins?"

Gretta crept over, looking paranoid and weary as she constantly flipped her head around over her shoulder. "Hmm..." She observed it closely, leaning from one side to the other. "It could certainly seriously damage a Gremlin if it is just a small Goliath but..."

"But what?"

"How would we move it around exactly?" Ardwen's self-satisfaction evaporated as he searched around for a solution to Gretta's question.

"Well we could move it on one of the hover lifts!" Ardwen pointed at a flat piece of metal sitting on the floor with a handle on one side. Once activated it would indeed lift the block of metal and machinery and would allow the two to push the laser around effortlessly.

"Sure except this one has no manual launch system," Gretta noted as she continued to sweep over the weapon. "It needs to be fired using its computer system, from this terminal right here." Gretta shuffled over to a blocky computer that also sat next to the foot of the Goliath. Each battlesuit in the hangar had one of these at its base that kept track of all of its information and data. For ease of access to those who were not in the cockpit. "Do you have a solution for moving this thing around then?"

"Well I'm trying aren't I?"

"Sure I suppose you can have credit in that. But we couldn't take this anywhere. It would only be useful if a Gremlin came in here while we were here and even then I would have to turn it on and charge it and then someone would have to put the Gremlin in front of it so it could fire at it."

"And uhm...how...how long would that take?" Ardwen asked, fear suddenly slipping into his tone.

"Oh I don't know, a few minutes I guess if I started right now, why?" Gretta looked up from the computer to see Ardwen gaping at a sleek, black Gremlin that had just come in through the doorway. One that had its lens locked on to them.

"Yeah, could you start that right now please?"

* * * * *

Porter held the katana close to his chest as he edged up to the corner of a hallway. Some of the shaking seemed to be coming from down this way and he had determined to hunt down each and every Gremlin in the school. So he had to steel his nerves and become a hero. And Riya would be following him, much to his dismay.

"I don't know why you didn't just try to stay back at the gym where it was safe," Porter whispered. He felt not just the responsibility of saving the school settling on his heart but also to protect his love and it was getting heavy.

"Why didn't you?" Riya answered softly.

"Because I'm...I'm the leader."

"And I'm a follower. I follow the leader." Riya touched Porter's hand from behind him, the softness of her skin soothing Porter's nerves momentarily as he stood tensed. "I stayed behind when you went to Omnicorp, and you all got captured on your own. This time I won't let you be alone Porter. I'll help you." She squeezed his fingers before letting go, taking some of the teen's stress with her, as if she were syphoning it out.

"Fine." Porter didn't know how to argue with her at all. If she was set then that was how it was going to be. The school shuddered again, this time with the source much closer. The interim captain peered around the wall of lockers to look down the hall and see one of the Artisan Gremlins approaching, its red eye scouring over every doorway as it searched for something. Probably it wanted to find the way to the power core. It would never get close.

"It's here Riya. I want you to-"

"Stay here, I know," the shy girl interrupted. "I'll be safe Porter, trust me. Will you though?" She looked up into his eyes with genuine care inside her own and the two held hands together for a moment.

"With your support I will be." Porter smiled at Riya before gripping the katana tight and stepping away from her and out into the path of the approaching battlesuit.

The Gremlin immediately stopped upon seeing this new presence and seemed to ponder the situation for a moment. Then it charged, straight ahead, at top speed. It looked as though the machine were almost skating on the floor; such were the fluid and graceful movements of the Artisan craft.

Porter countered with a forward rush of his own, gripping his sword with two hands and hoping he would know how to wield it properly when the time came. He had to use two of them when piloting the White Storm, how hard could it be?

The two collided with glancing blows. The Gremlin tried to batter the teen aside as Porter swung his weapon upwards. The two bounced off one another, but Porter was sent tumbling from the weight of his opponent's strike and he eventually collided with the lockers upside down.

For a moment he was reminded of that day so long ago, when he had first been on time, looking up at Nami from the ground. The day they had been sent to see Mr. Shotuku the first time. Not long after that they would be in Easley. Now look at him.

Porter flipped up and rolled to the side as another fist smashed through the lockers, leaving a crater in the wall. The teen gave out a sigh of relief to have dodged such a fierce blow from the seven and a half foot robot he was up against but was buffeted by a sideswipe from the Gremlin.

This thing was fast. And it was relentless. It didn't wait around to see him get up again or regain his footing. It wasn't like the training drones. It wanted him dead and it was going to see to that result happening. Porter bounced back up again, feeling the bruise already forming along his left side from the blow. It had been his arm that had taken most of the punishment, along with his rib cage. Thankfully he needed his right alone to wield his katana.

A metal fist came straight for Porter's face this time and was turned aside by the sword as Porter spun away. The youth leaped into the air to get up to his opponent's head level and took a swipe at its head. Without the command console, the rest of the body was useless. But the Gremlin back-stepped, leaving just the tip of the sword to take a slice of the side of the round, skeletal head unit.

As Porter came back down to the ground he received a kick to his stomach that suddenly lashed out from his enemy and it sent him flying down the hall and skidding on his back until he eventually came to a stop. Porter struggled to get back up, using his weapon as support and propping himself up on it. He had to hold back vomit as his stomach lurched from the attack and his knees wobbled beneath him.

The Gremlin was coming again, ready to finish him off. Behind its robotic body, Porter could see Riya staring at him, her gentle face poking out around the corner to watch. There was sadness in her eyes watching him suffer. Porter didn't like the idea of making Riya sad. So he came up with a solution.

Porter got mad.

A/N: The battle against the Gremlins is on! Can the students survive though without the help of their Goliaths?