The Academy for SITs

The world has been plunged into intergalatic war with an alien army, and humanity has to allocate almost all their resources into defending their home planet. This leaves no available humans to teach and guide the new generation, so this problem was solved with the invention of Virtual schools, where students from all over the world would plug into a server, serving as individual schools, which was run by an Artificial Intelligence. The AI was programmed to watch over the students, teach them, and guide them into finding their best fit for the wartime effort. Some would be guided into being soldiers, others military engineers, or doctors, wherever they would best serve. In this school the students must learn to trust each other as humans, and learn to fight aliens together, in addition to their normal education. There is still danger to these students, as the system may not be as secure as the humans believe.

"Pretty good job out there sis, you almost did as well as a five year old," Harley teased her sister as the two girls changed into their normal school attire. Gym class had just let out and it had been target practice again, developing their shooting skills even though few students had ever really seen combat before. "You do know you're supposed to aim for the bullseye, right?"

"At least I actually HIT the target, Sis," Danielle retorted, sticking her tongue out playfully at her elder sister. She reached out and lightly punched Harley's shoulder for good measure.

"Not to mention I wasn't the one who fumbled with the assault rifle," she added, snickering a moment.

"You didn't think that was for real did you," Harley asked, folding her arms. "I did it on purpose so you wouldn't look so bad compared to everyone else. Can't have everyone thinking my itty bitty sister is the worst person when it comes to marksmanship."

She ruffled Danielle's hair, smirking. "Besides, to everyone else I just had an off day, they all know I'm a boss with fire arms."

Sylvain showered and changed quickly, so as to arrive in the hall before Harley and her sister would emerge. His shooting today had been the best all quarter long, and he had hopes that the elder sibling had seen his skill; he had certainly been impressed by hers. Perhaps his methods were archaic, but that was where they were existing now. An archaic world, but with significantly advanced weaponry.

Stop, he told himself. She should be out soon...

His mind could so easily wander. It was a very poor habit, his instructors had told him. Something which would easily kill him in battle.

He learned early on in the academy to keep such thoughts to himself. Still, he felt a small wave of shame arrive at the thought; that was what he was here for. He was no judge of the method, his nor the academy's. This was his life's work.

Come on, now, Harley, he thought to himself. Certainly they would emerge soon.

Danielle rolled here eyes in reply. "Suuure, Sis. Sure. And I'm sure that the AI constantly having the targets constantly rotating and shutting off the lights for fifteen minutes there had nothing to do with it."

"Of course not," Harley agreed with Danielle's sarcastic statement. She finished up changing and grabbed her backpack. She didn't need one, whatever she needed for class she could just program in with a thought or two, but she liked the feel of carrying something on her back, soldiers carried packs in real life anyway so hauling it around would be a sort of practice.

"We should get to our next class, before the AI decides it's time for a random earthquake drill or something."

"Agreed," Danielle replied, once she finished changing herself. As they emerged out into the hall, she noticed Sylvain nearby, and immediately perked up.

"Hey, Sis, look who it is. Hm, didn't Sylvain actually beat your record today?"

"Did he? Well, I guess that means I've got a new record to beat," Harley said, though it was hard to tell how serious she was about that statement.

"You mention him a lot, and I've seen you steal glances at him in class," she added, quietly.

Danielle blushed slightly, but frowned at her sister and swiftly whispered back in reply,

"Y-Yeah, so what?"

"He's standing right there, why don't you go talk to him," Harley suggested. "Or are you hoping if you think about him hard enough he'll suddenly realize you're the love of his life?"

"I-I have no idea what you're talking about," Danielle huffed, crossing her arms. "Why would I want to talk to him? He's just another stupid boy."

Sylvain leaned against the wall, attempting to appear inattentive as the sisters arrived from their gym class. It had been quite strange, the methods the AI had used today, but he wanted not to question it. The conditions in battle would be utterly unpredictable; that was what they were training for. Expect the unexpected. Such a strange idea. If one was expecting the unexpected, wouldn't it make it expected? Strange.

Otherwise, it was a necessary part of their training. He glanced up at the eldest sister, as her and her younger sister remained across the hall.

"If you say so," Harley said, shrugging. "Though you are being kind of defensive about "just another stupid boy"," she teased. "Let's go then." She began walking toward their next class.

Harley understood why the school was set up like it was a real school, but sometimes she could swear the hall ways were lengthened just to make them try to hurry to class before they were late.

"Whatever," Danielle dismissively replied. She hesitated in her walk, though, and cast an uncertain look at Sylvain.

"Still, it'd be rude not to stop and say hi to him....not that I want to or anything! Just saying..." she said, choosing not to look at her sister at that moment.

"Oh of course not," Harley whispered out of the side of her mouth. When the two reached him Harley stopped, "Hello Sylvain. It's not every day someone goes ahead and tops one of my school records, you must be pretty good with a rifle."

Sylvain was surprised by the approach of Harley herself, having not yet chosen between humility or an attractive confidence, he offered a quietly effortless smile.

"It looks like my practice has finally paid off. Even I was surprised to score so high, though. You were at the top for the longest time."

Other students rushed by on their way to their classes, noticing as their classroom doors began to grow farther and farther away, further into the distance.

"Not to sell your accomplishment short, but I don't intend to just let you keep that record for long," Harley stated, again it was difficult to tell just how serious she was about it. While she was talking she reached behind her and nudged Danielle's back, since it was her idea to even talk to this guy in the first place she should say something to him.

Danielle glared sharply at her sister, before gazing back at Sylvain. She cleared her throat nervously, searching for something to say...

"Y-You did pretty good out there, I guess."

Well, that was better than nothing...

"Haha, we'll see about that," Sylvain said, playfully, smirking now at the elder sister, finally confident.

He noted the girl beside her, and her hesitance.

"Well, thank you," he said, softening his expression.

'Wow, Dani, that was really lame,' Harley thought. She had to force back a smile; Danielle was not going to be hearing the end of this for awhile. But what was it about this guy that Dani liked? He was apparently good with rifles, he was attractive objectively, but that was the only things she could think of, she barely knew this guy more than she knew the other students.

She realized that she hadn't said anything and it was getting awkward. "Uh... Yeah, see you around I guess." She was about to head off when she noticed at the end of the hall: Aliens. "We got hostiles," she announced to the other two, and with her mind coded in an assault rifle, a different version than she'd been using earlier.

Danielle nearly sighed with relief, glad to be brought out of this awkward moment, and hoped that this little training exercise would make her sister forget her utter fail at trying to woo Sylvain.

Danielle quickly manipulated the data around her to create a sniper rifle, and then terraformed the floor to create a waist-high wall to duck under. Danielle rushed to slip under her cover, not bothering to see if her sister joined her.

"Lay some suppressing fire, Sis. I'll pick them off."

"On it," Harley replied, taking cover behind a column and peeking out to take aim briefly before firing at the aliens. They quickly dove out of the way, but Harley kept the pressure on, firing short bursts, ducking back behind the column when they returned fire.

Danielle took shots at the exposed aliens, taking down several of them before they hid behind cover. That was three down, five more to go. This should be rather ea--

And the AI, being the sadistic, unfeeling machine it was, decided to further test them by cutting of the lights, rendering their vision useless, if just for a few moments. Nonetheless, Danielle swore.

"Damn that AI! Sis, throw a flash-bang at 'em! If we're gonna be blind, they may as well be too!"

Sylvain edged toward the AI's Aliens, in spite of the evident danger in doing so; he followed the instruction of Danielle as well as taking a few shots at the aliens themselves. From behind a wall, he searched briefly for a night vision device, but the AI was growing nearer, shots louder. He continued to aim for them, fighting the nerves building as other students began to fire also. Classroom doors were fired into by the aliens; the scene was growing louder, even brighter at times.