Easley was empty during the day. The odd person would meander from one storefront to another or would float around the central square but other than that it was quiet. There were few animals nearby either, most of them losing their homes to the surrounding fields and farmlands and most birds in the town seemed to sleep during the day in nests constructed on roofs.

The students of St. Maurius were just leaving this silent setting to step just outside the buildings and into the area where their Goliaths were now kept. For obvious reasons the bulky, fifty foot tall machines could not take up residence in the middle of the town and so they had to move them off to the side.

Porter scampered up onto the foot of his behemoth, White Storm, and flipped onto his back for some rest. He was exhausted from the continuous training Mr. Shotuku had been putting them through all day. Everyone was. Nami's forehead was covered in sweat, Chase was panting, Riya was red-faced and flustered, and Ardwen was doubled over from cramps. Only Raul seemed in top condition, ready to continue the activities, and he was still carrying many of the weights across his body that had been strapped there by the evil Mr. Shotuku.

Since the night in the basement, not much had been spoken by the group to each other, mostly just them listening to Mr. Shotuku's lectures and submitting themselves to training in a silent war to become the best. Now each one of them was near their respective Goliath while Mr. Shotuku stood in the center.

"I must explain to you all how the strategies here will go. I hope you all remember that we are here for an upcoming war, not just to fool around with training exercises. Ardwen will be leading the group and thus he is now your commanding officer. I must go now to speak with the academy about your progress." Mr. Shotuku returned down the pathway back to town but stopped halfway and looked back over his shoulder, his white beard flipping over his back. "Also, the young Grimsley will come by soon to talk to you about the town's defence plans." And with that he was gone.

The rest of the group turned to look at Ardwen en masse and he adjusted his glasses with a push up his nose. Porter knew what was coming. They all knew that Ardwen was clearly most suited to be the leader. He was a master strategist and his Goliath, "Mother Gaia," a Mana-class Goliath that was built for healing other Goliaths and pilots, was an easy choice. Surrounding its light frame were a few small metal balls which hovered around when the Goliath was active and could be used for projecting shields or for using their small tools to restore battlesuits to working order. Its capacity to defend others and heal made it the perfect suit for the commanding officer.

In contrast, Chase's Goliath was built to be constantly fighting and destroying, and Raul's was designed to make precise, sneaky attacks along the lines of a ninja and so he could not be relaying commands either. Riya's Goliath was a massive golem with immense firepower. It was a heavy-hitting turret, not a thinking machine, and Nami was more akin to a sniper, needing focus and silence to make educated shots. That left only Ardwen able to be the commander (well Porter too but for obvious reasons he would not be picked) and everybody knew it. But not everybody was happy.

"How come brainiac gets to be the leader?" Chase was leaning against his machine with a look of discontent on his face. "Shouldn't the best fighter be the leader?"

"Then I would be," Raul said coldly, his eyes closed as he was attempting meditation.

Ardwen ignored the two and addressed the group. "I've spoken with Mr. Shotuku already. There are about ten Goliaths approaching the city, with a Staff Sergeant leading them. We have no combat experience in the real field and so this is our best chance to prove our worth to the army. I also shouldn't have to explain to you that failing results in death, not just for us but for this whole town and anyone else beyond. We must work together to win." At this he shot a glance at Chase. "We will all have a duty as a unit. Making up the front line are Porter and Chase, the two most capable fighters."

Chase scowled at Porter in disgust. Ardwen continued: "In the rear will be myself and Riya, me for medical support and Riya for heavy fire support. Taking up point is Nami. Her skills for eliminating targets through calculation and precision require time so she sits in the back. Raul works to infiltrate the enemy lines and eliminate the leader for disruption purposes. We will unfortunately be working amidst the farmers fields outside of town and must use their own barns and homes as our cover. We must keep them from approaching Easley so as to save as many lives as possible. Is this understood?"

"Mildly. I think we should just unload on these guys," Chase said. "Between my fists, this Raul guy's ninja skills, and Riya's super firepower, this shouldn't take longer than a few minutes."

"Arrogance is bliss," Ardwen muttered. He shook his head and scaled his machine to board the cockpit. The Goliath roared to life and Ardwen began to go through different warm-ups and checks over his system. "The Goliaths will arrive in roughly nine hours," he broadcast from his suit. "We need some sort of cohesion in our unit by then or we die."

Riya and Nami's warmachines started up as well as they activated them. Raul remained sitting cross-legged on the ground in meditation and Ardwen seemed to agree with his stance. Chase threw up his hands and climbed inside his own and Porter followed suit.

"I have taken the liberty of ordering practice drones for us to fight against," Ardwen explained. "I want us to fight each one individually so that I can observe our strengths, weaknesses, and fighting styles." Enormous metal pods dropped down from the sky, smashing into the ground and causing minor earthquakes throughout the area as they cratered the earth and shot dirt high into the air. The pods split open and five Goliaths emerged, each one remote controlled by Ardwen. Unfortunately they would be slower in reaction times and would not nearly have the fighting capacity of even the lowest ranking piloted Goliath but they could still supply a moderate challenge to young rookies.

As soon as the drones each moved towards the different fighters Chase leapt on the first one. His titan-class Goliath, the "South Star," had no weapons on it other than its fists. It was the same size as the average Exo suit and thus was fairly mobile but its hands were reinforced to deal with the constant fighting style of a brawler, and it had shield generators within it so that it could take a large amount of ranged fire on its way to punching the crap out of enemies. And it did exactly that. Chase ducked low and dashed forward, flying upwards with an uppercut that sent the drone sprawling onto the ground and he immediately tackled it and sat atop it, continuously pounding the machine's face in.

Nami took a different approach and her Valkyrie-class battlesuit responded. It was a light pink hue on a thinner, smaller build, with two wings that burst from its back and contained jet thrusters underneath. Her extreme mobility allowed her to take up great locations, though she couldn't get hit much. It didn't matter though because she was already analyzing the enemy as her suit, "The Pearl," was customized to allow for advanced observation and computation. She had identified the weak points and withdrew her lengthened energy rifle. Its barrel glowed blue as highly contained energy began running along it before it released three quick shots that pierced the components of the enemy, immediately crippling it and winning the battle in a moment.

Riya also had a Valkyrie-class machine, "The Warlord," but its wings had been stripped and it was significantly bulked up. Its arms now ended in large square missile pods, rows of warheads lined up and ready to fire, while on the right shoulder was a massive railgun that could destroy most any opposition in a flash. On the left shoulder was a Gatling gun, a petty weapon that paled in comparison to the awesome firepower on display. Riya levelled her missile pods at the enemy and in a hail of explosions the combat drone was blown to bits. Porter could hear Riya over the intercom apologizing to the now deceased robot and he felt his heart go soft at her compassion.

Raul had a mongoose-class Goliath, a deep blue machine riddled with hidden weapons. The only one that wasn't disguised was a giant metal shuriken strapped to the device's back and attached to its right hand by a long chain, looking like a saw-blade and functioning in much the same way. Raul sleepily opened an eye and slowly crawled up into his cockpit. As soon as it had closed the shuriken was tossed with perfect accuracy and lightning speed, sawing straight through the enemy's chest before returning to Raul. Not long after that he had come back out and was meditating again and thus the "Blue Blur" had struck once more.

This left only Porter fighting his drone and his hands trembled on the controls. He had certainly practiced before; hundreds of times over the years. He actually wasn't that terrible at piloting but at the same time he certainly wasn't that strong at it either. He raised his twin blades up into a fighting stance and lunged for his opponent. The drone stepped back easily to avoid the swings and Porter gripped the controls a little tighter. Was his confidence rising the more he used his machine or was he just embarrassed to be losing to a remote controlled toy?

His uppercut became a little stronger as it glanced off the Goliath and sheared through some of its armour. He followed up with a right hook and nearly shouted with jubilation when his sword drove straight through the enemy, severing its mechanical spine and rendering it useless.

"That was amazing!" Grimsley was down on the ground below, watching in wide-eyed amazement. "I wish I could pilot one of those."

"That's enough everyone," Ardwen commanded as he exited his Goliath to greet Grimsley. Chase gave his enemy a final punch that knocked its head clean off before finally getting off of it and Porter struggled to yank his sword back out of the armor it was embedded in. "Grimsley, I'd like you to meet our team." Ardwen introduced everyone as they left their Goliaths and approached Grimsley, all except for Raul who remained sitting on the ground in meditation.

When Grimsley saw Porter the two stared at each other for a moment in confusion, their appearances so bizarrely similar they couldn't quite get past each other, almost as though they were brothers. "Grimsley, we will be defending the town for you from the upcoming attack. We need you to get the troops together and keep them contained as best you can. If we fall we will try to eliminate as many Goliaths as possible so that you only have to deal with enemy infantry. Do you have any vehicles you can use for defence?"

Grimsley blinked in a stupor at Ardwen's questioning and orders. He had never been in this position before. "Umm, well we have a couple of old humvees with Gatling guns on them."

"That's good, that should work. Anything else?"

"I have an...an old tank in my barn...but it doesn't really work. It was a Goliath-killer at one time but now it is more like a relic and-"

"-could you get it to work Nami?" Ardwen cut him off.

"No, I'm afraid I'm only good for Goliaths actually..." Nami looked a bit disappointed in herself for not knowing something for once.

"Uh, no that's alright it's really just sitting in the barn. I don't think it could ever work again." Grimsley faked a smile about it and the group fell into a mildly awkward silence.

"Well, then if you can get those humvees in position at the western edge of the town and could have your men start building fortifications that would be great. We will see you on the other side of the battle then won't we?" Ardwen shook a very confused-looking Grimsley's hand and spun him back towards town.

"You didn't exactly give him the best reception did you?" Porter asked.

"No, and I hope we do the same for the enemy later today. Alright everyone, let's get to bed for a midday nap before the battle so we are fully prepared and rested." Ardwen delivered his commands with perfect confidence, not revealing under his strong exterior the fear he held inside, a fear each one of them contained within themselves...

* * * * *

Porter was restless as they slept and found himself continuously blinking and letting his eyelids flutter open. They had closed the door and extinguished all lights so it was completely dark in the room and yet Porter still could not rest.

At first he thought they were all like that, until he heard Chase's snoring and knew the rest of them could pass out in a time like this. Raul was possibly meditating again so he would sleep, Ardwen seemed confident in command, and Nami was so calculated she could settle through anything. That would leave just him and Riya as the two possibly nervous ones staying up.

He heard a rustling in the bed beside him and rolled over to look at it. He could make out a very faint shadow, where someone's body was inexplicably darker than the dark surrounding and he could thus see their outline. It must have been Riya. Porter's bed was between the two girls, though he couldn't remember which one was on which side of him or which way he was even facing now. Everything was a bit confusing for the moment; disorientation in nervousness.

"P-porter, is that you?" It was a female whisper, so soft and soothing, but Porter couldn't identify it. All whispers sounded the same, other than being distinguished by gender. Of course it would be Riya though who was awake at this moment.

"Yeah, Riya, I'm up."

There was a pause and the movement stopped. Then Porter saw the shape slide off the bed and sit against it on the floor, curling up into a small ball in fear. He found himself following suit and moving over beside her, not fully understanding why he was doing this for someone who had never spoken to Riya since they had met. It just seemed so right to do at the time. Forget their lack of a relationship; he was going to comfort this woman and expose his feelings for her. If he did at least he would be acting like a man! He would be the tough one here to soothe her nerves. "I'm just...I'm so scared for tonight. I mean what if..."

"...we won't lose Riya. We're the best there is in the school. Look how strong we were today!"

"I know it's just that...I mean I don't...don't want to lose...anyone special."

Porter felt the flutters in his stomach, the butterflies moving to escape. Across his chest his muscles tightened on his lungs. This was the moment; the timing was set for him to expose feelings for his secret crush. He took in a deep breath and held it for a second before letting it out as he spoke. "Riya, we will win. Nobody will lose. But...but I...I mean in case anything was to happen to me I just..."

Porter was spinning out of control. His tongue was slipping around his mouth while his mind scrambled to come up with the right thing to say to this girl. He placed a hand on her lap and found hers there too. It was soft. Not as soft as he remembered but the constant training could do that to something once so precious. Touching her calmed him for a moment so he could finish. "I just want you to know...just off my chest...that I just...I mean I like you Riya, love you maybe even some would say...and I just want you to know that before...well in case..."

There was again nothing from Riya. It was motionless silence between the two. Then she moved a little and her hand travelled up to rest on his cheek. It was so small and tiny, so fragile, and he shuddered a little internally with excitement and nerves. "Porter, I...I've liked you too, or loved or whatever you call it. For awhile now I have. I don't...I don't want to lose you..."

He smelled her approaching, that head drawing up towards him and both their eyes closed as the two connected for a moment, and his lips met hers, two weary, emotional teens, kissing in the dark. Her hand slid over his cheek again to his delight while they kissed and he felt them part a little as it stopped. She was still right there, just inches away from him. The girl of his dreams, and she had kissed him too!

Porter's watch lit up for a moment as the hour changed, an annoying habit it had that sometimes woke him up at night if he was sleeping with his arm in front of his eyes. The light lit up his lover's face, small, feline features and large eyes displayed in front of him for a brief moment until the light went out again. And there it was for Porter to see. He had not kissed Riya at all. He had kissed Nami.

A/N: The final training? Their first battle finally upon them! But what's this? Secret love coming true in the dark? Find out what happens next time!

Hey I definitely want to hear back from you on what you think of this chapter, especially the ending, to see where you want it to go! Maybe you approve, maybe not, I want to hear your reactions!