*Author's Note – The setting is in the future, the world is ready to erupt into chaos; the nations of today still exist but have been walking a thin wire of peace with each other for ten years. Being ready for war at any minute, the United States of America has developed a new military system that combines military training in "mechs" with the schooling of today. The first generation of students are now in what we would call "high school." =)

*Another Author's Note – I have no idea why I named this story tranquility, it needed a name, so I gave one. Later on I'll make a reason for it being called tranquility. Probably it'll be the name of the squad that Choy is in. =)

Choy – Main Character, Silent, Moody, Dark, much like Squall from Final Fantasy 8.

Raika – Choy has a crush on her. Cheerful, Happy-go-lucky kind of person. Much like Rinoa from Final Fantasy 8.

Teaf – Funny, Annoying, Cool. Much like Zell from Final Fantasy 8.

Tranquility Ch. 1

"Nice work," Raika says. "It's nothing," I reply. Just a training run, after all. If this were a real battle it would have been ten times harder. "You've improved considerably," says my instructor. "I'm the lowest in my level," I think. What I say is, "I'm nowhere near Teaf or Raika."

"Yes, but you have tripled your skills in the past month." She counters, "If you keep this up you will be at instructor level in about two months." "Yeah, yeah, I know, you're most improved, don't give up your almost there, the work was worth it, wasn't it?" the voice in my head mimics. I was used to being the last in everything so why did I care so much about this one time? Probably because Raika is here, I answer. "Yeah, you're gonna pass me up," Raika says, "don't worry, I won't let you." She winks at me and I laugh. Laugh? When's the last time I did that?

"What's wrong Choy?" she says, "You're always looking lost when I talk to you."

"Nothing, just wondering."

"About what?"

"It's not important. I'm going to go now. See you later."

She looks at me with a peculiar face. "Why do you have to leave? You can help me with some schoolwork."

"Okay..."

"C'mon I'll show you where my quarters are." Whoa. I'm going to her quarters. Maybe she does have some interest in me. She leads the way, skipping along in her base uniform. She's so opposite of me, happy and carefree. "Hi, commander." I hear her say. I look up, and see the scarred face of the base commander staring at me with laser eyes. I stand and salute. "No need, son. I've come here looking for you." For me? What I could I have done? Maybe my suit needed synching. No, the instructor could've told me that. Then what? "Are you going to come with me or not, son?"

"What?"

"Follow me, I'll explain along the way."

"Yes, sir."

"Bye Raika, see you later."

"Bye, stop by my place later."

"Of course."

I follow the commander toward the labs of the base. "If I may ask commander, where are we going and why?"

"Everything will be answered when we get to where we're getting." He replies. Okay…maybe this was some top-secret thing and he couldn't talk about it in public. We reach a thick silver door and the commander scans his retina and speaks into the voice recognition. Whoa, maybe this is something. I walk in and immediately smell the smell of…science. You know that tangy weird smell that you instantly know it has to do with science.

"Hello commander, we've been awaiting you," says a small whiny voice. I turn to see a short plump man that looks like a pear with legs. "I see you've brought the subject with you. Excellent, excellent. We can really get started now."

Subject? I hope he doesn't mean me.

"Explain to the young pilot what's what." The commander instructs.

"Okay, well I don't know if you know, but you are shooting up the charts in term of power and skill. You went from a level thirty-one to a twenty-five in a week. That is a very short time for such an improvement. Do you feel different from say, half a year ago?"

Six months. The truth was that I was feeling stronger. The enemies in the simulator were becoming easier and easier.

"We think either that this burst of…improvement is from a late teen spurt or that you are using, um…" He looks at the commander then me. "…drugs."

Drugs?! How could I be using drugs? We are automatically tested every day. "Sir, I'm not using drugs, and even if I were, how would I get pass the auto-testers?"

"Well that is what you are here for. We are going to take a blood sample."

That's it? They could've done that without bringing the commander and interrupting me with Raika.

"We are also going to put you in a special simulator that measures brain waves."

So? That still didn't need all of this.

"We are going to try to…impair… your performance and see if your behavior changes in any significant way. This is very dangerous though and we need the commander present at all times. We also won't do anything that you feel is too dangerous."

Well. That explained it. They were going to experiment on me. "How dangerous is it?"

"Dangerous enough that you could be hospitalized or…dead. While this seems threatening, it could be worse if you "short-circuit" in a sim or real battle."

So I could either get hurt now or later. Great choices. At least here they were expecting me to go psycho. "I'll do it, if it's as dangerous as it sounds, it could be even more dangerous to others if I "short-circuit" while training in the sim with my partners."

"Yes. Well we should get started as soon as possible. If you'll step into the sim we'll get started." I step toward the red door that says SIMULATOR in large block letters. Inside is the usual chair surrounded by the array of controls. I sit in the chair and put on my helmet. "Can you hear me, Choy?" it's Raika. Great. She needs to be here while I screw up. "Yes. What are you doing here?"

"I followed you when you left with the commander. Mr. Aska explained to me what's happening."

"We thought it'd be less stressful if you had a friend watching." I hear the fat scientist in the background, who must be Mr. Aska. "She's the only one that'll know besides me and the commander, so don't think I'm telling the whole base." I'd rather the whole base know then Raika. I don't even know her besides from her being my fighting partner. What if she is afraid of me now? She probably thinks I'll freak on her while in the sim together.

The plain black walls evaporate around me and transform into what looked like a real city but was only a simulation. During a sim run, you don't move any but are tricked by the sim to thinking that there is a real life physical environment around you. It was all explained in the science courses, brainwaves, thought patterns, sensory perception but I never really understood it nor had the urge to.