01.14 - Black and White

“Gabe and Luc against Mirai and Hannah, how does that sound?” asked Aurelius.

“I mean…” Luc paused once more. ”Sure, if everyone else is fine with it.”

“I’m in,” said Hannah from the back of the crowd.

“How about you? Mirai? Gabe?” asked Aurelius.

“I’m in too, but first, I’d like to add some armor to my unit,” said Gabe.

“Fine with me, I’ll take the unit as is. No need to slow me down,” said Mirai.

“I’ll be fine as is too,” said Hannah.

“Same with me, but I need a projectile dispenser,” said Luc.

“Traitor,” said Gabe. “You could have at least pretended to be on my side.”

“I am on your side,” said Luc. “At least in the battle. About the equipment… If I go with heavy armor, Hannah is just going to beat me like a sitting duck. My spells are better with high mobility.”

The back-and-forth continued while their parents finished unloading the Thrones and attached some of the armor and a projectile dispenser stored at the hangar to two of the new Mark I Thrones.

Throne equipment was standardized, so it didn’t matter if the target Throne was brand new or a model from a century ago, dating back to the Great War.

While five of the Thrones were taken into the hangar, the remaining four knelt at the side area near the regular training grounds. One arm down, with an open hand.

The area was wide open, except for some reinforced metallic obstacles and crates, as well as some dummy buildings to the sides, useful for cover and ambushes.

The four combatants walked onto the open hands of the Thrones, which then raised them up to the cockpit, situated slightly above the center of the Thrones' torso.

The hatch of the cockpit closed itself at the press of a button. The layout within was strange, to say the least. Instead of the usual buttons, panels, and control sticks, there was only a shimmering halo above the headrest.

This was new.

Soul synchronization or not, this thing had to be controlled somehow.

As Luc rested his body on the control chair and his head on the headrest, his vision faded into black, then his field of view expanded. He was up high above the battlegrounds. At least that’s what it felt like.

For a moment, he stared down to where his arms were supposed to be, only to see a black arm with an artificial hand on the end. But for some reason, it felt… natural. Was that the right word?

Hannah’s Throne took its first steps, while Luc was still slightly overwhelmed by the situation.

Finally, he carefully took his first steps without damaging his Throne.

After about half an hour, the four kids had gotten used to their new metallic bodies and assumed positions on opposite sides of the training grounds. Their parents and fellow kids had moved to an elevated viewing room on the side of the training grounds, far enough away from most potential ricochets, yet still secured with reinforced walls and four layers of transparent aluminum windows.

Every machine held onto a metallic battle staff and had seven practice targets attached to it: one each to the head, arms, and legs, as well as two at the torso. A unit was counted as defeated once three or more of them had been damaged or destroyed, if its Aura batteries were emptied completely, or if the pilot resigned.

The battle was about to begin.

This wouldn’t be easy.

Hannah was a melee combatant, while Luc, Gabe, and Mirai were better suited to ranged attacks. The battle would be over if Hannah managed to close in on them. To make matters worse, Hannah could employ a Body Creation spell to summon autonomous body doubles with a limited lifespan of a few seconds to a few minutes, depending on the Aura spent.

Luckily, one of Gabe’s spells employed Space Transmutation and allowed him to switch the position of two bodies within the boundaries of his diffused Aura. It had a small recharge of about one to five seconds, depending on the size of the objects. The range was about ten meters in person. This was increased tenfold by the Throne and its attached Aura battery. His other spell used Matter Creation for a condensed water cutter.

Unfortunately, Gabe’s sister Mirai had a few tricks of her own. One of her spells of the Time Deviation kind allowed her to peek a few seconds into a possible future. It too came with a downtime of about three times the window of the lookahead. Her other Matter Manipulation spell conjured a simple but effective medium- to long-range fireball by changing the reactivity of the surrounding gases.

Aurelius gave the signal to start the match.

Hannah and Mirai took cover immediately.

Seconds later, three identical Thrones emerged from Hannah’s hiding place and closed in on Luc.

Was it a diversion?

Sniping them all could be a colossal waste of Aura and projectiles.

But that was only true if their lifetime was short.

If they were long-term copies, or if Hannah’s Throne was mixed in with the bunch, the calculations were different.

Then again, destroying the practice targets alone might be an easier route.

Mirai had left her cover too.

Hannah’s Thrones had already closed in half the initial distance.

It was now or never.

“Headshot incoming, dodge to the right,” Mirai’s voice rang through the battleground.

Unfazed, Luc emitted a volley of three relatively slow projectiles in quick succession, each aimed at a different Throne’s torso, followed up by a single faster one aimed at the head of the middle Throne.

The left and right ones were blocked mid-air.

The middle Throne used its staff to intercept the slow projectile, then dodged the following fast one with a quick head motion to the right.

That was their mistake.

With Mirai’s spell on recharge and Hannah half a battleground away, Gabe switched the positions of the fast projectile and Luc’s Throne.