Three weeks passed since his acceptance into the Movement, now officially known to them as Zeon Reformation Movement, and what once was a life of everyday struggle to survive on the streets of the colony now found itself replaced with a sense of meaning and purpose for Amaury. No longer would he have to resort to petty crime to eat and sleep and remain bathed and clothed, for now he had a home. It was run down, dark and cold, but it was no different than any other abandoned building he had slept in for the last six years or so. And here he had others who were like him, and not because of social status. They came from all walks of life; beggars and criminals, to those that, dare they not admit to it, appeared to be from wealthier families. None of that mattered anymore. They were all there for the same purpose, and because of that purpose their lives became tied together.
But for now, they needed to train. Train. Train. Train. Every morning from sun up, to sun down. Each aspect of the Movement had their own tasks to complete, from support staff to the expected direct combatants. Amaury and the others pilots-in-training basically began to live in the simulator pods; fastened together from old, scrapped mobile suits, barely resembling anything more than metal pods with seats and controls, but each uploaded with salvaged training software from before the One Year War, capable of going through every key component of operating a Mobile Suit. Pre-operation checks, fire up, shut down, movement and even combat. Everything. All of this was recorded, observed, rated and quality assured. The only downside being that it could only simulate Federation vehicles present during the opening of the One Year War, and Zeon Zaku II mobile suits. They were all being judged and ranked based on performance, Amaury and his peers, and they could not afford to complain. There was about forty of them being trained as pilots so far, excluding Monty. He may not have known it when they first met, but Monty was actually the lead pilot amongst the still-growing Mobile Suit Corps. The movement was growing stronger; their numbers multiplying into the hundreds, but only a few of them were even considered to be pilots. And with good reason too. If they were able to acquire mobile suits somehow they couldn't risk an unskilled pilot ruining a fully functional Mobile Suit.
For Amaury, the issue wasn't that he couldn't grasp the concept of piloting the Zaku; it was the unit's limitations. He had never piloted a mobile suit before all of this but after only a few weeks, he felt as if the antiquity of the Zaku II was showing. Having seen videos before of the newest generations of Mobile Suits and what they were capable of, it was plain to see just how outdated this one was. Still, regardless of the aging equipment, Amaury learned fast. His accuracy was in the top ten percentile of the students, and his agility in the top five. His learning was swift and without much questioning, as if what he was doing came as second nature, and even began to draw suspicion onto him. During the middle of his third week of training, some of the observers began to worry that this boy may be a Federation Pilot who infiltrated the ranks of the Movement, and pulled Monty aside to question the leader of the program. "What do you expect, General? He's obviously a Newtype; I can feel it. Come on, have a little faith." Monty argued with General Ishim, an ex-ground commander for Zeon forces in Africa, who frowned beneath his long, grown out beard. "I've trained countless pilots and not one, not even a few known early Newtypes, were capable of learning the Zaku so easily. I'm just expressing concern that-" The General retaliated before being rudely cut off by Monty, who now leaned on the railing, looking down at the boy who stepped forth from the simulator pod.
"Yeah, I know what you are saying. You don't trust my judgment. Don't forget that I worked for the E.F.S.F. for eight years, and I think I would know a spy if I saw one." The man replied, biting his lip to refrain from saying what he really wanted to say, deeming it to be out of line. But, form that refraining motion came an idea. "I'll tell you what. I'll prove to you that he isn't a spy." Monty stated, turning back to the General and staring at him intently. "He's done good so far, but he hasn't faced a true mobile suit pilot yet. You and I both know that, for the most part, Federal pilots act a certain way in the seat. You can spot them by their tactics and demeanor in combat." From the corner of his eye he noticed the boy below looking up to them, causing him to smirk. "Watch." He replied, walking away from the General and down the steps into the area where the simulators were situated.
Pulling his helmet from his head as he stepped out from the pod, the boy had looked up and watched the conversation play out in front of him, though he could not hear the words over the noise inside of the room. He could see the stern look of the observers, especially when it was him who their eyes fell onto with a piercing glare. Something wasn't right, and it couldn't be good. What could he have possible done wrong? Nervously, he climbed down the rest of the ladder to the ground and placed his helmet down on the table in the center of the large open room. From the corner of his eye he saw someone approaching him, but expecting it to be Monty, he was surprised to hear a female's voice. "Nice work in there. We were watching you on the screen up there." She stated, pointing up to a large screen that would cycle between active simulations for both the instructors and the students to observe. "Pretty impressive that you were able to bullseye that GM's sensor at the thousand yard mark despite the Zaku's inaccuracy at long distance shots, especially with the 120mm machine gun." The girl continued with a smile as Amaury's eyes returned to her from the screen. "Uh, thanks." He replied, trying not to show that she had caught him off guard as he stared at her in silence for a moment or two, unsure what to else to say.
"It's not… hard to me, if that makes sense. I just disable the aim assist program and do it manually." He replied as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously, hoping that what just blurted out of his mouth didn't seem vain or cocky. His vision naturally drifted form the girls green eyes, now finding it focused on the long black hair braided underneath her cap, the prominent yellow Zeon symbol proudly displayed at the peak. Noticing that he was staring at her hat now and sensing his apparent awkward nature when it came to introductions, she smiled and came up with her own solution to move the conversation forward. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't introduce myself." The girl swiftly seemed to hum, extending her hand forward to shake his. "I'm Carina. I'm one of the mobile suit mechanics here. Well, learning how to be a mechanic." She laughed a bit, looking up to the bow with that same smile. "I'm still in the basics; hydraulics, sensors, kinetic weapon systems. You know, simple things." As she rambled on, Amaury subconsciously smiled a little. He sure was glad she thought that was all simple, because if he had to toy with any of the hydraulics or systems in the mobile suits, or even a car for that matter, he would be up a creek without a paddle. Looking down at her hand, he placed his into her grasp gently and shook. "I'm Amaury. And obviously I'm a pilot here. Well, learning to be a pilot." He replied, jokingly copying what she had said and causing her to laugh a bit, the sound of which brought the slightest red tinge across his face. "You don't say?" Carina giggled, looking to her side as Monty approached the two, his facial expression less than welcoming.
"Amaury, get back in your pod." He said instructed, his boots clicking loudly as the rubber bottoms made contact with the hard floor. "Is something wrong?" He asked shakily while Monty picked up the boys helmet and tossed it to him. "Now Amaury, let's go. I'm not asking." He instructed again loud enough that everyone in the room was staring at the two now, Monty making his way down to the end of the row of simulator pods, where his own personal pod sat. Picking his helmet from the table and placing it on his head, he turned back to the boy who stood still, confused and uneasy. He didn't say it again, instead pointed to him, and then the pod, and proceeded to climb the ladder into his pod. Amaury swallowed harshly, all eyes on him now as he pulled his helmet on. He hated to be the focus of this attention, especially now that he knew something was not right. In a hurry he grasped the handles on the side of the ladder and ascended to the platform before sliding into the cockpit, the simulator team closing the door on him shortly after. As the pod booted up to run and the communications came online, Monty's voice almost immediately boomed across the radio, showing he was impatient.
"The men upstairs think you are a spy, Amaury." Monty began as the screen displaying weapon loadout options appeared, Amaury cycling through the weapons selections. A spy? Why would they think that? He had done nothing wrong, gave them no reason to suspect him of anything. He had nothing to hide! As usual, only the Zaku II was available for choice as the suit, so Amaury went with what he was comfortable with; a Zaku II with standard armament. 120mm Mg, Heat Hawk, 6 single-use Calf rockets and the standard 3 shot bazooka. This was a standard loadout during the war thirty one years ago, and it would offer the best versatility for whatever assignment he had faced before during the simulations, even dueling against other students. But then again, this was Monty. He had to remain vigilant and ready as he knew that even though they had yet to see Monty fight another mobile suit that wasn't artificially controlled, that he was not a beginner. "Prove to me that you are not a spy, kid. Give me everything you've got." Monty said with a light chuckle. "No holding back." This was going to suck, one way or another.
What Amaury didn't know from inside the pod was that everyone in the hangar now huddled around the monitors that displayed the simulations, curious to see what was about to happen, for it had not happened before. Sure, the trainees would duel to increase their skills. That was an everyday occurrence. But never has Monty, the leader of this entire program, dueled a student. With a deep breath Amaury sat nervously, the simulation beginning to count down from forty. It would be a preset battle, dropping directly into the 1v1 combat. The counter seemed to be counting slower and slower, until he watched the finally 5 digits turn as slow as possible, taunting him with each beep. The screen faded to black and when it came back online he found himself in an extremely vivid and detailed war-torn city, staring down his target about two thousand yards. But it wasn't a Zaku.
"That mobile suit… a Gouf?" Amaury asked out loud having read about these mobile suits in the archive. A 07B-3 Gouf Custom. Typically this suit was restrained to special operations use and were credited with dozens of mobile suit kills throughout the course of the One Year War and was far superior to that standard Zaku; a fact driven even further by Monty's yellow paint job and the not one, but two 75mm Vulcan Cannon Shield units as well as a jump pack. "H-How... How the hell did he get that?!" Amaury called over the radio as his voice echoed through the garage area. He was under the assumption that the Pods could only recreate Zaku II and I software. Was this why nobody was allowed to use Monty's pod? Did his pod posses data unavailable to the others? "You can't always expect to know what you are going up against in battle, Amaury." Monty replied as Amaury scoffed in frustration. How was he going to defeat this? "Yeah, but-" Amaury called back across the radio, before a short, harsh burst of fire clanged against his Zaku's shoulder shield, causing him to kneel behind a collapsed building to take cover. "Don't ask questions; fight or get out of my program!" Monty screamed, blasting into the building with both of his weapon systems.
His cover melting away and Monty closing in fast, Amaury relocated boosted backwards to a harder surface and lifted his Bazooka, launching one of the rounds towards the Gouf, only to have it swatted from the sky by the dual gatling cannons. "Well that's not going to work." Amaury mumbled to himself, prepping a second rocket as the Gouf sprang up to the top of the building above him. Forced to act quickly, the boy lifted the bazooka and point blank fired at the Gouf, sending it flying off of the building in the opposite direction. Metal debris dropped onto the Zaku, and despite what was going on, he was impressed with these simulations. They had all the right data to make this all seem real. Unfortunately, his rocket launcher seemed to have also been damaged from the shot, rendering it useless. Dropping the launcher to the ground and deploying the 120mm, he advanced cautiously into the dust clouds concealing the area around the building, scanning the area for any signs of Monty. Though he must have taken quite the hit from that shot, the simulation had not yet ended, and he knew that Monty was still active.
Amaury carefully maintained a watchful eye across all of his screens, nervously swallowing as sweat ran down his face. "Come on, come on... I know you are here." He mumbled to himself silently, just seconds before the Gouf appeared through the dust, almost directly against his Zaku, the Gouf completely undamaged. How could that be, he knew that he had hit it, he had to have hit it. Amaury gasped as he tried to move, but the speed at which Monty revealed himself was so sudden that the warning system in the Zaku went off two seconds after he revealed himself. Reacting as fast as he could, Amaury fired his weapon, but found he was shooting into the ground near the Gouf, which held the gun down to the side and away from its body. "Come on Amaury, you have to do better than that!" Monty called out the boy across the radio, using the Gouf's fist to smash through Amaury's weapon and into the cockpit, setting off all kinds of alarms inside.
Twitching in frustration and annoyance, Amaury boosted himself backwards and threw the now boomerang shaped 120mm MG directly at the Gouf's head as hard as he could, slamming into the unit's head and shattering the single sensor unit. "Who the hell does that..." Monty complained, his vision now distorted as he lifted his remaining Gatling cannon and pressed the trigger. The signature humming sound of dozens of 75mm rounds a second dumping from the barrels of the weapon were interrupted with their contact against the flat metal shield on the Zaku's right shoulder. Pieces of metal shredded from the mobile suit, flying everywhere as Amaury was forced to boost backwards again, instinctively evading the rounds as best as he could. This outdated suit was so sluggish; so slow to respond, slow to boost, slow to fire and to detect. It was hindering him, and he was being shot up because of it.
Finally managing to make some distance between himself and his rival Amaury moved behind buildings and through light cover until finally coming in sight of the Gouf down a large avenue. He noticed now that one of the shield-mounted Gatling cannons was missing, and concluded that Monty must have sacrificed it to protect himself from the rocket. It was impressive to think that Monty's reaction time could be so fast, but at the moment he wasn't looking at him, and due to his damaged sensors he probably hadn't noticed yet. He couldn't give up this opportunity to strike. With no other viable ranged weapons, he fired all six calf rockets at the Gouf to try and strike him while his guard was down, contemplating his next move.
Amaury feverishly thought about what to do as, form the smoke, came the Gouf, charging directly at him. Boosting backwards to buy himself some time, Amaury watched as Monty drew the large heat saber from the shield on his last Gatling cannon, now mangled and burning from his use of the weapon to shield against Amaury's attack once again. Although it wasn't his intention, it seemed that his rocket barrage had leveled the playing field, as they now were both down to melee weapons. If Monty wanted to fight melee, he would do the same, and it wasn't like he had much of a choice, if any. Drawing his heat hawk, Amaury slammed into a building and jumped back towards Monty, raising the heat hawk in the air and using the building as a jumping point. "Remember what I taught you Amaury, the heat hawk is out dated. It cannot stand up to the saber, especially a Beam Saber the Feds use!" Monty spoke warned in an almost punitive manor, just as he fired up the heat saber, it's blade glowing red with superheated energy as the two charged at one another, closing the distance fast. He was right, a saber versus a hawk would be suicide, but Amaury had no other choice. "Just try not to die!" Amaury growled back harshly as he opened his throttle as wide as the aging mobile suit could go.
Monty scoffed at the boy's attitude. Charging right towards him? He doubted he would have the gall to do that in a real combat situation. Who did this kid think he was. Though to be fair, nobody here understood the training that Monty had actually undergone. Slamming into one another as their weapons clashed, they recoiled back, disabled their thrusters and charged one another, this time locking blades. Nervously Amaury pushed back, realizing now that the Gouf's physical strength too was better than the Zaku's. He couldn't win like this. Stepping back he parried the Gouf's blade to the side and lifted the heat hawk to hack down onto the Gouf who instinctively blocked and punched the cockpit door of the Zaku again with his open hand. Amaury growled, knowing he needed to hurry this up if he was going to win, it was that simple. Smashing his heat hawk into the leg of the Gouf with a lucky swing, he neglected to watch where the Gouf's blade was swinging, and lost the Zaku's free hand at the same time; an eye for an eye.
While Monty snickered at his strike's damage as opposed to Amaury's, the boy struck again, lifting the heat hawk directly in the air without any hesitation or flinch at the loss of his arm, hoping to chop through the head of the Gouf and into the main chassis. "I've got you!" Amaury called out too early, as before the heat hawk could make contact, he was stopped. From the wrist of the Gouf shot a wire with a claw at the end, slamming into the Zaku's chest and immediately began to shock the cockpit. Caught off guard as he had not read of this weapon in the Gouf's files, Amaury's surprise wasn't just that his suit had stopped and that he was being shocked in the simulation, it was that he was being physically electrocuted, causing him to scream in real pain as the pod he sat in began smoking from the circuits on the outside.
Throughout the course of the whole battle the others in the room watched intently, without saying much, if anything. No one dared root for Amaury, but neither did they cheer on Monty. Monty, only a few years older than Amaury, may have been in charge of the entire Mobile Suit program, but he had gained the reputation of being a stubborn, arrogant man. A few people resented his command, but would never say anything. They were given a great opportunity here and were not willing to give it up because of personal gripes. As the battle raged on, the attention placed on the screen grew in intensity, escalating higher and higher with the exchange between the two contenders. Nobody had ever seen Monty take so long to finish a simulation. But as the shock attack began, Amaury's pod began to spark and smoke, they knew something was wrong. "W-whats going on?!" One of the pilots blurted out as Carina and a few of the other mechanics ran to the pod with their tools. The pods were actual decommissioned Zaku cockpits on the inside, so the mechanics believed they could do something. Upon inspection the pod appeared to be in proper working order, at least on the outside.
Not realizing that this problem was also occurring on the inside, Carina looked up at the screen and watched the Gouf shocked the Zaku, and now noticed Amaury screaming across the simulated radio. "Something's wrong inside too!" She stated loudly, climbing the ladder to the hatch and tried to pry it open, but was immediately shocked herself and fell to the ground. A few of the pilots ran and picked her up, watching the pod as electricity arced from the wires. "I'm alright, I'm okay." Carina said in shock as she stood and dusted herself off. What the hell was going on?! These pods were not designed to do this, or at least if they were, they were unaware of it. Running over to the area directly under the observation deck, Carina looked up to General Ishim and pointed to Amaury's pod. "Sir, you have to call off the simulation! Something is wrong with Amaury's pod!" She yelled up to the man, who watched on with his hands folded behind his back. He too, like all the others, had watched the fight with great interest. The old man looked down at her, and reached forward to pick up a radio on the desk that was connected to the simulator pods, but before he could say anything, Amaury's suit began to move, and all eyes returned to the screen.
Amaury continued to scream as he was shocked, trying his hardest to focus on the disrupted screen. He did notice that as it went on, it was more of being tased, which he had experienced a few times, except that this was over and over again non-stop. "Give up Amaury. You've done well, but I've got you beat. Surrendering in the field could save your life, you know." Monty stated with an upbeat, victorious grin sweeping over his face, feeling the boy about to crack, while Amaury ground his teeth, groaning loudly in anger and pain. He had to do something. He was not going to let Monty win with such a sly trick being the main vessel to his victory. Plus, he would never hear the end of it. He didn't know if victory would flag him as a spy, but he didn't care. He was going to win this game. Gathering as much focus as possible the boy moved his arm on the controls a little and found that the Mobile Suit still responded to commands, despite being stunned by Monty's attack. This was his chance.
Holding his breath he forced himself to push forward on his controls, screaming out in anger as the heat hawk wielding arm of his Zaku fell, swiping right down into the head and torso of the Gouf. "What?!" Monty yelled as the heat hawk bisected the head of the Gouf and imbedded into the torso, promoting his screens to go dark and his system to go unresponsive as Amaury's Zaku itself collapsed backwards into a building, resting to a stop in a sitting position amongst the rubble. The results were clear; neither man had won.
"A draw?!" Someone called out from the previously dead-silent crowd as the simulation terminated, looking at both pods to see which one would open first. "I can't believe it. That was... Intense." Marcus, one of the other pilots in the room stated as dropped his arms, having been crossed the majority of the fight. He intended to say something else but silenced as the pod down the other end opened, revealing Monty, who seemed less than pleased in the way the battle had just ended. "Oh, he's pissed." Marcus said again quietly to the ground around below him, smirking as a few of the others snickered at his statement. A few of them instead turned to Amaury's pod and stared intently waiting for him to emerge but he did not immediately show himself. Half a minute passed by and Carina could wait no more. They were taught that these pilots were their responsibility, and she would not allow one to die here in these training pods before they have their chance to make a difference. Climbing the ladder again, she made her way to the door, just as unsealed and opened up.
Looking up, Amaury stood in front of her, sweat running down his face as he panted heavily. "Are you okay?!" Carina yelled almost in his face as Amaury nodded and kept his eyes from her, looking down at the metal grate of the platform. "Y-Yeah…" He replied quietly, his fingers twitching from the electricity. He looked down at the other pilots, some of which smiled while the others looked concerned, then at Monty who was quickly approaching them all. Still trying to catch his breath, he dropped his helmet onto the scaffolding with a loud clang as it bounced and began to climb down the ladder to confront Monty. What did he do to him? Did he know that was going to happen? Did he know it was going to shock him? The two of them stopped directly in front of one another, Monty looking down at Amaury with a stern look, as Amaury did the same. It was clear that Monty was unhappy with his defeat, and the room grew quiet as tension filled the air, waiting for Monty to snap. But after a few seconds, Monty smirked. "I am very impressed Amaury. You fought like no Feddy I've ever seen, and I doubt you've ever been trained by one. The true son of a Zeon pilot, and an obvious example of a classic Newtype. Like I said." Monty stated, looking to Amaury, Carina and then up at the observation deck where General Ishim simply nodded, not entirely convinced but willing to accept Monty's statement regardless.
However, Amaury continued to stare Monty down despite the fact that he had no intention of staying much longer, still angered by his trick but even more perplexed by his declaration. Could he really be a Newtype, was that why he did so well? Was it really possible he was bred to pilot mobile suits? Quickly Monty turned and walked to a table, pulled his helmet off, slicked his hair back to its normal look and took a deep breath. "Ah, well. That's it for today everyone, see you in the morning. Depending on what news I hear back from on our informant on Earth tonight, I might have a story for you all in the morning." He said, staring at Amaury for a moment before turning back to Carina with a grin. "Carina, are we still on for dinner?" He asked, looking up at the girl who still stood at the cockpit door with Amaury's helmet in her hands blinked, causing her to nod. "Yes." She said sheepishly, looking down at the green flight helmet in her hands. Amaury's eyes focused on Carina in confusion. Dinner? He was taking one of the people who served under him out to dinner? On a date? Torturing students in simulations pods, taking others out on romantic endeavors; this guy was something else. "Good." Monty said with smirk, looking to Amaury once more with a wink and walking away towards the garage exit to freshen up.
"It's probably going to be a sex story." Marcus commented again quietly to the crowd, who all mostly snickered under their breath, except for Carina who scowled at him and turned a dark shade of red as she approached Amaury. "Here Amaury." She said, handing him back his helmet with a small smile, only maintaining eye contact for a brief second before turning and walking towards the exit, punching Marcus in the shoulder roughly on her way out. He waited until she left to walk towards Amaury, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Well buddy, you may not have beaten him but you sure showed him what we are learning and that this whole thing isn't just a waste of his time." He said with a grin, the others agreeing and bringing up moments from the fight, cheering about all that happened. However, even with everyone talking about his performance, Amaury couldn't help but stare at the door that both Carina and Monty had left through, his thoughts drifting off into a million different directions, including about what this news might be.