Jolting awake from another nightmare, I'm rubbing my face, feeling the sweat and how clammy my skin felt. A soft groan and I was rolling out of bed, almost smacking my face against the hard cold floor. Once again, my insomnia medication had failed and I was left with my only other option. A run with Omega. Running with my wolf mech usually did the trick and I slept easily for the rest of the night. Slipping on a pair of sweatpants and a light jacket, I headed down to the hanger after a drink of water. As usual, Omega is curled up in his spot in his wolf form, the circle that surrounded him in the floor lightly glowing. Unlike Weller's Holons, which stood against the wall in their individual bays, Omega needed to be in his wolf form to charge. As I approach the large wolf mech, his eyes open, glowing yellow for the time being, and he looks at me. I pat his nose. "You know what's up, huh, bud?" I asked with a soft smile. "Let's go for a run." He waited until I had climbed on to sit behind his head before he lifted himself to his paws and padded out of the hanger into the chilly night. A few yards from the nearest building and Omega is launching into a full run, forepaws reaching as hind paws thrust against the hard ground. Out here, with Omega, the world and my issues seemed to melt away and in that rare occasion, I felt weightless and free.
Closing my eyes, I let my body rock back and forth in time to Omega's paws hitting the ground. I let the wind cool my face and blow back my hair, already messy from my rough sleep. As I was only synched to Omega by a thread and not fully, I had limited extended senses. With my eyes closed, I could see farther and better at night than I could normally and I could hear far better. I could hear nor see nothing that meant immediate danger so I relaxed completely, allowing Omega to run where he wished.
As my body rocked to the rhythm of Omega's gait, my mind wandered back to those Holons. They had arrived a few months ago. I had known Chase and Yazmin from before as Weller had talked to me about them being the first candidates for the Gen:LOCK program. I didn't know them very well before they had come here, but I had read up on their exploits. It was Chase who had introduced me to Migas and the two had introduced me to the game of Seige. It was fun. It got my mind off my objective of destroying The Union and allowed my mind and body to relax. Which was what I had needed. A vacation of sorts from the front line.
I had been the one to help Yazmin when she first ed and then we had helped Chase. Helping to train Yaz and Chase became my new escape from the nightmares. And then when they had gone with Weller to The Anvil, Omega and I had returned to the front line to await for the call to return and meet the rest.
When we had made our entrance, Chase had laughed while Yaz had rolled her eyes. But I could tell something had gone wrong between their trip from The Anvil to RTASA. The other three, however, had been impressed. They had grown used to being the only mech based pilots and had never seen one like me, who was forever linked mentally to hers. While I was able to vary the strength in which we were linked, from a thread to fully linked, I could never sever the link entirely so Omega could feel my thoughts and emotions. While he was unable to speak in return, I was able to know his moods.
In turn, I found myself fascinated by the three as well. They each came from different backgrounds and had their own personality. Yaz and Chase had explained about how it had been rough at first, but the team was slowly coming together, some pairs already having been able to go to Phase 2, or Mind Sharing.
Then it had finally hit me what exactly was wrong. Weller wasn't with them. His death hit me hard and I had ordered the team to gear up for a sparring session. Chase, seeming to know what was wrong, allowed it, but kept his distance, watching us. He had only stepped in when my rage and sadness had reached its peak and I lost control. Between him and Omega, who restricted the link himself, I was dumped into the waiting hands of Chase's Holon where I broke down and cried. The others had quickly retreated to while Chase carried me back into the hanger where they met us and Yaz hugged me and we both cried together.
Later that night, I explained to them that me and Omega was what gave Weller the idea for the Gen:LOCK program to begin with. I told them everything. All the experiments and testing that finally linked me with Omega and the training we endured to refine that connection until finally, everything came to a head. Omega was an AI and when working with an AI system, especially one as refined as Omega, things were bound to happen. And happen they did. Omega had finally had enough of feeling my negative emotions through the link and rose up, destroying the facility and everyone in it as we escaped to freedom.
We had been found by RTASA and brought here where we met Weller. He took us under his wing and we flourished as a pair under the guidance and care of everyone. But even then, we couldn't stay long. We were restless, we needed to be on the move. We had been chosen to renew the fight against the Union and so that is what we did. With Weller wishing us well, and after promising that we'd speak so he would know I was alive, we headed for the front lines and gave the Union hell.
The last time we had been at RTASA was when we were seeing Weller, Chase, and Yaz off when they were going to The Anvil to meet up and train the other three.
My musings returns to the three pilots themselves. I had been the most fascinated by Cammie. Being the youngest, the Scot was also the shortest of the trio. As such, she had had difficulty adjusting to the height of her Holon's 42 feet. It had prompted her to redesign her Holon's legs. It now had bunny legs, which brought it closer to the ground and thus, be easier for Cammie to operate without feeling like she was walking on stilts. She had even outfitted it with bunny ears. She was a tech wizard and was always up for some adventuring in the Ether when they weren't training or called to fight.
My mind shifts to the next one. Kazu. The guy couldn't speak a lick of English, but due to the translators we all had implanted, we were able to understand him. The guy was straight Japanese, which was fun. He could also cook like nobody's business. I was able to eat home cooked food when I hadn't before. He could also play a mean guitar, which Omega liked. When he knew Kazu was playing, he would nudge at the connection until I opened it enough so he could hear it too. That was until I told Kazu and now he played where Omega could hear him himself. Most evenings would find the three of us seated together in our own little group outside. We'd enjoy the cooling weather and the quiet of the approaching night while listening to him play. Sometimes, Val would us and play some, having picked up the talent from when the two had Mindshared.
Val...Val was the mystery. The mystery I wanted to unwrap. I had found that they were genderfluid. I had been mystified at first, not knowing what it was until they had explained and then I was fascinated. I wanted to know more. A little wheedling and once they saw that I was truly interested, they'd talk to me about it. In exchange for rides with Omega, which Omega was happy to comply with. He enjoyed running in the vast area around RTASA and was always up for an opportunity to stretch his paws.
Sometimes, if we didn't have anything better to do, we'd race, wrestle and play. We'd always have to stop when they reached their limit and needed to back to their bodies. It allowed me time to rest my own link with Omega and breathe. While my link with Omega was permanent and I could change how much or how little the link ran, we were always connected. But even we had a downside to our connection. If were were fully linked for too long, Omega's AI system would start to fight me for control and if I didn't restrict the link back to its smallest, it would fight until it ripped control from me. Omega did his best to keep it at bay, but there were times when he closed the link himself. However, with the right cue, and as long as someone remained with us and kept an eye on my vitals so they could issue the counter command, I could open the link to its fullest and surrender control to the AI for an amount of time.
Even surrendering for an amount of time was dangerous. The longest I had surrendered had resulted in a week long coma and then restricted to a bed for the better part of a month. I know when I'm reaching that limit when I start developing a headache. It's always been the signal that my brain is starting to get overwhelmed by the feed from the link. But sometimes I'm so caught up in the fighting that I ignore it that's when Omega starts to pay attention to it and if I fail to stop it myself, he'll step in and interfere.
I jolt to wakefulness when I find myself falling. Opening my eyes, I look straight into a pair of brown eyes as strong arms caught me. Kazu. He looked up at Omega as the wolf mech returned to his place. "Fell asleep on another ride, didn't she?" He asked the mecha. Omega's nearest yellow eye gleamed as he snorted. Kazu chuckled. "Thought so." He looked down at me as he cradled me in his arms.
"I didn't even know I fell asleep." I commented in Japanese to him. I was aware he could understand whether I spoke English or Japanese, but I liked to talk to him in his native tongue. "I woke up from another nightmare, couldn't go back to sleep, and then took Omega for a run. Sensing everything was quiet, I let my thoughts drift. How'd you know I was awake, anyway?"
"Cammie's little bunny thing." He replied. "Omega told it you fell asleep on your ride and needed someone to bring you to bed. It woke me up and let me know."
"It spoke?" Maybe spending all this time with Omega was turning it sentient. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but learning that her little robot sidekick can suddenly speak might give poor Cammie a shock.
He smiled. "Its eyes showed me an image, like a projector, of you asleep on Omega's nose. It's how we always know when you're awake at night. It'll wake one of us up to bring you to bed. What were you thinking about that relaxed you enough for you to fall asleep?"
"I was thinking about all of you guys actually." I told him
"About how I met you guys and everything."
He nodded. "And what did you think ?"
"We're a motley group with different backgrounds and different views, but when it matters most, we'll pull together and get the job done." I replied after a few minutes of thinking about it. "Gen:LOCK is a little rough around the edges, but progress is being made."
"Weller had high hopes for us." I yelped and clutched at Kazu as Chase appeared walking next to Kazu. I threw a string of swears at him in Russian, Japanese and Persian for the surprise. Knowledge of the languages comes courtesy of Val(Russian), Kazu(Japanese), and Yaz(Persian)*, the three having taught me. Kazu laughed.
"And now she's awake." Kazu stopped walking and placed me on my feet.
"No thanks to you." I scowled at Chase who just grinned at me.
"You were gonna be up in an hour anyway." He replied.
I blinked. "Its that early?" No matter if I woke up during the night or not, my internal clock always woke me around 6am.
"You can help me with breakfast." Kazu told me.
I perked up at that. I loved Kazu's cooking. "What's on the menu?"
"Chocolate chip pancakes sound good to you?" He asked with a smile.
"They sound delicious. Just don't blame me if more chocolate chips end up in my stomach than in the batter." I replied. "You know I like sweet things."
"I know, which is why you won't be mixing the batter. Can you handle a knife?"
I shrug. "Not as good as Val, but I'm learning."
He laughed. "You can cut up some fruit to go with it. I noticed we got a shipment of fresh fruit in a few weeks ago and I want to make the most of them before they go bad."
"Chocolate chip pancakes with strawberries and melon on the side sounds good." I tapped my lower lip. "Fresh orange juice or fruit smoothies?"
"Smoothies sound good."
I started to grin, realizing what else I was able to do, being up this early.
Chase laughed. "I know that look. She just realized she could wake everyone up for breakfast."
Kazu smiled, knowing I owed both Cammie and Val for the past times they had woken me up.
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I started this months ago and for some reason, I ended up losing a chunk of it so it kinda sat in my drafts up until a few days ago when I decided to finish it. And then I kept trying to find a way to end it as it didn't seem to want to stop. It ended up longer than my usual shorts. But, all in all, I'm satisfied with how it came out.
*The Gen:LOCK wiki states that Yazmin is from Iran. The most spoken language in Iran, according to Wikipedia, is Persian.
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