Chapter 03 - Gearing Up

*Beep Beep Beep*

“Good morning soldier! Get up and get out, today’s a new day!”

*Beep Beep Beep*

“Get on out of bed! It’s 0500 hours! You told me to wake you up! Get on out!”

*Beep Beep Beep*

“Okay! No more being cute, get out of bed or I’ll cut-“

*Click*

Eric’s hand clicked a button on a box attached to a small screen resting on his headboard. The screen displayed a cute animated girl dressed in old-world military gear holding a large trench knife before fading to black.

“I’ll never understand why Iris got this thing for me…” Eric yawned out, lazily getting out of bed. “Or why I use it.”

Dressed in nothing but his underwear, he dragged his feet to the restroom to wash his face and prepare for the day.

“I don’t remember coming home last night, I must have collapsed from exhaustion.” He said to himself.

He looked at himself in the mirror, fully realizing that he was near naked. Without a shock or even the slightest eyebrow movement, Eric muttered the name of the red-headed mischief maker who he knew was responsible. Almost on cue, he heard a knock on his door.

He walked over and opened it, knowing who to expect; in the doorway stood Iris and Alice. Iris exaggeratedly covered her face and let out a fake cry. Alice said nothing and stared at the ground quietly while Iris put on her show.

“Oh, you pervert! Brazenly displaying yourself to two young and beautiful girls! You need to be locked up!” Iris put on a performance worthy of theatre.

“I thought you liked seeing me like this, seeing as how you’re the one who undressed me.” Eric retorted, putting his hands on his hips. “Late at night in my own dorm room, how uncouth.” Eric teased back.

Iris's face and body froze in the pose she had, knowing that she’d been caught. “How do you know it was me?! It could have been Alice! Or-or maybe some pervert on the base, we should go report-”

“You did the same thing to me in exams training. And also blamed Alice then, too.” Eric crossed his arms. “You know, you call me the pervert, but you’re the one suggesting lewd things and always undressing me. Something you need tell me?” He smirked.

“Oh, I’m deeply in love with you! Ever since the moment we met in exams I was head over heels for you!” Iris put on another theatre performance.

The two stared at each for a brief silent pause before both of them erupted into laughter. Alice stood there with a smile on her face before joining in, giggling quietly.

***

0600 hours, Hangar nine. Eric was dressed in his reactivated suit and stood outside the hangar. Alice and Iris accompanied him after multiple back-and-forths arguing if they should join him. Ultimately, Eric lost the battle of attrition as time was not on his side and he needed to leave. Plus, he also knew there was no way to stop them from just following him even if he didn’t agree. He carried his case with him and his mind raced with what function the gloves inside held. He took a deep breath in and went to open the side door to enter. As he was about to put his hand on the handle, the door swung open with a towering man standing in its doorway.

“You’re late, Valtor. I said 0600 hours, that means 0600 hours, not a minute later.” The instructor said, his tone filled with disappointment and disdain.

“Sir, I’ve been outside for the last 5 minutes, I am on time. I-”

“Outside is not in the hangar, therefore not on time. Too busy fooling around with your classmates? This is a training facility, not a speakeasy, nor is it high school anymore. Get that through your head.” He turned and walked inside.

Eric jumped and grabbed the door following him inside. Alice and Iris glanced at each other, turned around on the spot and walked away silently. Halford walked fast and Eric jogged to keep up. “Sir, I’m out of line, but what is your problem with me? From day one- no, from exams and pre-training you’ve been nothing but exceptionally hard on me versus everyone else. I don’t know who you are, I’ve never met you, what have I done to wrong you?” Eric said, placing his case on a table and continuing to chase after him.

“You’re right, you are out of line and you don’t know me. But I do know you. You’re the special one, the one hand picked from a long list of trainees whom I believe are miles ahead of you in talent, skill, and intelligence. However, you are also related to the brightest mind this world had ever seen and probably won’t see again.”

“Whitlock?”

“Don’t speak until given permission.” Halford slammed the clipboard he was holding onto a desk. “Yes, Whitlock. Who else? You boasted about him on day one here. I know you’re proud of that. Don’t be. You are far from what we need but I have orders from people in places way above my paygrade.”

“Sir, I don’t understand, how am I special? What have I been chosen for?” Eric stammered out quickly.

Halford paused and let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “For this.”

He reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a small switch. Pressing it, lights and sirens turned on inside the hangar. The middle section which housed a large helipad-looking platform surrounded by large metal barricades opened up with a large puff of smoke covering the hole. The sounds of gears whirring like an elevator echoed in the hangar as the sirens continued to chime. For several long moments, Eric stood there, waiting for whatever was on that platform being raised from the ground to be revealed.

The sirens stopped and the sound of the raising platform ended with a loud ‘thunk’ noise. The smoke slowly dissipated and the silhouette of a large object crept out from behind the cloud. Eric’s eyes widened and his mouth slowly gaped open in disbelief.

“There’s no way... We actually managed to manufacture one?!” Eric shouted out.

Standing on the platform was a large piece of humanoid machinery. It stood on two digitigrade legs that had bulky thighs and jet engine-like, squared ports on the outer thighs. The arms were slim around the brachium and bulkier on the forearm ending in claw-like hands. Both parts were connected to a center body that had little protection and housed a human-shaped seat kept in a T-pose. The entire machine was painted in a shining silver coating with red accents along the legs and arms.

“This is the Exosuit Machined Whitlock Mark 7 Beta 3. Codenamed Yatogami.”

“God of the Night Sword?”

“You know your Japanese. Good. Some of the techs in the lab named it. It’s the tenth version of this exosuit and the only one that’s stable enough for you to be allowed to use it.”

“I get to use this?!” Eric exclaimed.

“To my dismay, yes. This is why I’ve been so hard on you; you need to be better than everyone, including yourself as you are now.” Halford put his hand on Eric’s shoulder, gripping it. “Despite everything I just said to you, I do not hate you son. I simply don’t want to see one of my trainees kill themselves using something beyond what they’re capable of.”

Eric stared Halford in the eyes. He didn’t have the usual disdain in his gaze, this time he had genuine concern. Eric swallowed hard and sweat started to drip down his forehead as a sudden revelation swathed over him.

“Sir, how imminent is the threat?”

“Good catch. Maybe I underestimated your intelligence.” He walked over to the table he threw the clipboard onto and picked it up, passing it to Eric. “30 years ago, the two opposing factions, Axis Front and Perching Kingdom, agreed to function under one banner, The New Axis Kingdom, NAK. Five years ago, we got word they were looking to develop class 4 weapons, mainly trying to recreate the Oxygen Destroyer that The United Front developed in the 1950s after Trinity. 6 months ago, we heard they’re almost at testing.”

“It’s taken them nearly 200 years to recreate it?”

“When the two factions were at war with each other and being under a global agreement not to develop such weapons, it makes it hard to get away with it. After joining however, we are the only remaining real opposition.”

“And we don’t want to fight fire with fire, so we went mecha route. Understood.”

“We have vulnerable spots; our territories that are far from our general landmass will need protection. That’s where this group comes in. You are being dubbed the Exosuit Advancement group. Don’t let this get to your already inflated ego, but you are the center of it. Everything is to support you and this machine.”

Eric paused as a wave of responsibility washed over him. Halford was right, he had been taking it too easy, treating it like it was high school with his friends. As much as he cherished Alice and Iris, he needed to focus on the real goal.

“I understand sir.” Eric said, standing at attention and saluting. “I apologize for my immaturity and am ready to put my all into training.”

“Good start, but I’ll believe it when you show me. Now put on your gloves and get in the robot.” Halford smirked and nodded.