The hangar was a massive room, and she figured it was about a kilometre long and wide. It had mecha suits of all sizes in it, many shapes, with different appendages and weapons. They were organized row upon row upon row, each suit with a plate on its docking bay that read the name of the pilot that flew it. She followed the three closely, and they eventually stopped in front of a long row of guymelefs.
"Choose one." Dilandau instructed her. Gabrielle looked back up to the massive metal monstrosities, listening to the dank metallic sounds of the air swirling inside the massive space.
"You can make customizations to it later, once it's been chosen and registered." He continued. She nodded slowly.
"Yes, sir." She acknowledged and looked to her left. There was one that caught her eye. She started down the hallway after it.
"Lord, do you think it wise to let a girl into our squad and get a 'melef on the first day? A brand new one?" Migel asked. Dilandau's body went rigid with rage.
"You dare to challenge my authority and judgment?" He screeched with a wild gleam in his narrowed eyes, and Gabrielle whipped around just in time to see Dilandau land a punch on Migel's face.
A hand flew up to her mouth, and she ran back to where they were. Migel's eyes rolled up inside his head, and he swayed a few times before his legs gave out. She caught him before he hit the floor. He was heavier than her, and his sudden weight dragged her down a little. Migel was unconscious, and she made sure he was still breathing. His nose started to bleed a little. She looked up at Dilandau, standing tall above them, casting a shadow down on her. He looked imposing.
"... Are you going to do something about him?" She asked. "Sir?" She added hastily. She looked up at him, standing so high above her. The very bottom of his left eye twitched.
"N- Yesss..." He hissed.
"Chesta... Go take Migel to the medic." he said slowly, keeping his fiery gaze locked on hers.
"Sir?" Chesta asked, confused.
"You heard perfectly crystalline what I said! Go take Migel to the medic! Now!" He barked. "I'll teach her how to fly myself!" He growled. "Monkeys. I am working with monkeys! If you want anything done correctly, do it yourself..." He muttered under his breath.
"Migel," She said quietly to him. His eyes flickered, then opened. "You're going to the medic." She said just as quiet. She knew his head would be ringing like anything after a blow like that. Dilandau's eye twitched again. Not from suppressed anger, but from a suppressed expression of confusement. Her actions seemed so familiar... The way she moved, the sound of her voice... Everything...
Chesta leaned down and helped Migel to his feet, casting Migel's arm around his shoulder. He hobbled off with Migel, supporting as much weight as he could. Wow... Thought Chesta. That was amazing. The way she spoke to him like that... And lived. I wonder if Dilandau is growing soft for her... Chesta wondered. Oh, I highly doubt it. It's probably just the fact that you're not supposed to hit girls... I don't know... He thought as he dragged Migel off.
Dilandau looked back at the girl. He couldn't believe himself. Why hadn't he struck her? What had held him back? Something deep inside him had told him not to hurt her. Rather, to protect her. He studied her, and her large, expressive blue eyes looked back at the floor. He looked at the colours of them. On the edges of the irises, they were very dark blue, like an ocean. The dark blue lightened as it drew closer to the pupil. There were some lines of silver that looked like lightning bolts going through her irises, and the occasional soft ripple of gold. He ripped himself away from staring at this mysterious girl.
"Choose your guymelef, already. I need to check the operating systems and make sure they function." He said monotonously.
"Yes, sir." She replied smartly, and turned smoothly from him and walked back down the row of mechs, looking for the one she had seen a moment before. After a long time of walking, she stopped in front of one. He followed her, and arrived there in half the time it had taken her to reach the same spot.
She was looking at the new model, the Ending Dragon. It had been based off of the White Dragon that they were trying to capture, and furnished with the highest technology available. It looked just the same as the White Dragon, but this one was a smooth orange and jet black. It lacked the option of transforming into the humanoid form that the other suits and the White Dragon itself were capable of. He looked at the description panel. It had razor-tight controls, was equipped with an invisiblility cloak, and it could reach speeds in the air of over eight hundred kilometres per hour. Its running speed was clocked at a speedy eighty five.
He followed her gaze up to the thing's 'face.' It had yellow jeweled eyes that gave the pilot a crystal clear view of what the head saw, as well as numerous more vision screens on the interior. From what he read on the panel, the pilot could control the mecha from either the interior or exterior.
"Put your hand up to the panel at the front of the mecha and stand very still." He instructed. "If the mecha turns on, this is the right mecha for you." He finished. He looked up at the head again, its yellow eyes devoid of light, its long neck bent in a smooth curvature. He likened her form to it.
She stepped on the floor up to the panel, the dark, quiet room echoing with her footprints. The panel glowed, and characters in a very strange writing system beeped and came online as she drew closer. She put her hand over the panel, over the drawn picture of one, and placed down her hand. Both of them watched.
There was a low metallic whine. The mecha's eyes glowed the colour of sour fresh lemons, and the neck uncurved and moved downwards, towards Gabrielle. For a horrible moment, she thought that machine was going to open its jaws and swallow her, but it stopped with a hydraulic hiss in front of her.
"Okay, now walk up to its chest and place your hand on the crystal there." He instructed patiently. She looked back at him, and then walked up cautiously to the crystal. It was large and translucent red. She pressed her hand to it, and it sunk fluidly into the crystal, as if it were gelatinous. It rippled around her hand as she held it in. She yelped. "Keep it in the crystal. It's reading you to make sure you really are right." He assured her, and surprised even himself in the gentle tone he said it in.
The massive metal head of the dragon lifted it's head back to the curved position, and it's eyes glowed a hot white. Gabrielle caught her breath at the sharp pain, and then the crystal ejected her hand. The appearance was the same, except the colour at the base of the crystal was offset by a rich, darker red. Gabrielle's blood. She clutched her hand. The palm was cut open, and she was bleeding profusely. Her breath caught in her throat, and she stared wide eyed at it. The cut was gushing blood, and there wasn't anything she could do. A computerized female voice rang from the dragon mecha.
.: Libreia online. Registered pilot's serial number 68372. :. It said. Gabrielle's head was beginning to feel light. Dilandau turned his head back to her, as he hadn't been watching. He'd been watching the door for Chesta's return. He looked once, and turned around on his heel.
She was holding her wrist, trying to slow the flow of blood by squeezing and elevating it. Dilandau stood in front of her and he touched her hand to get a better look. All of a sudden, he saw an image in his head. It was of Gabrielle, but a long time ago... As quick as it had come, it was gone with a white sear in his mind. His eyes widened and he backed off from her. Something drew him back to her, and he almost involuntarily snatched her hand again.
He didn't know how he did it, but the bleeding stopped on her hand. The cut was still there, but it was sealing over rapidly. He watched it dumbly. There were clicking footsteps outside, and the door opened. Chesta walked in, and he saw Dilandau holding Gabrielle's hand.
"W-what's going on?" He wondered out loud to himself. He looked at the floor, and saw there was blood. She looked shocked, and he couldn't see Dilandau's face. He cut her? Chesta screamed inside his mind. Now he's gone too far! He shouldn't be trying to kill people in his own regiment!
"Dilandau!" Chesta yelled. Dilandau didn't hear him. A high pitched, rushing noise in his head had taken over all else. Chesta took it as a sign of his malice.
"Hey!" He yelled, and dashed in between Gabrielle and Dilandau, Chesta withdrawing his sword. "Now you've gone too far! You shouldn't hurt her, you... You... Crazy idiot!" Chesta screamed, and put up a defensive posture around Gabrielle. Dilandau was stunned.
"What... Did you... Just call me?" He managed, trying to control himself from reaching out and snapping Chesta's neck. "You filthy ingrate!" Dilandau yelled, and smacked him. Chesta winced. "You! I give you a guymelef! I pulled you off of the streets! I helped you! How dare you?" He raised his voice, and it took everything he had in him not to just kick him.
"No, how dare you hurt her! She did nothing to you!" Chesta roared back.
"Ooh, your audacity! I did nothing to her, either! If you will strip a few layers off of your incredibly thick skull and save yourself from jumping to conclusions, you will notice that I was helping her, you delusional fool!" He snapped, and Chesta blinked. "You idiot!" He snarled at Chesta. "I should just-" He began, and Gabrielle interjected.
"Woah! Guys, the mecha cut me, relax. I don't know how he did it, but Lord Dilandau stopped the bleeding and fixed the wound." She said rapidly, and Chesta flushed.
"I-I-I Oh no. How can I explain this... I thought you had cut her hand, Lord Dilandau, I apologize, I jumped to conclusions! It'll never happen again, sir!" Chesta stammered, and Dilandau ground his teeth and clenched his fists.
"Never, ever speak that way to me again, or I will personally kill you!" Dilandau snapped, and raised his arm to hit Chesta again. Gabrielle gripped it suddenly and without thinking.
"Please, forgive me, Lord Dilandau, but please, don't hit Chesta, sir. Please." She begged him. His gaze whipped around to stare her in those blue eyes again. His tense arm hesitantly relaxed.
"Fine..." He growled. "But just this once. I have a flight lesson to teach." He hissed.
"Why didn't he hit you, Gabrielle?" Chesta whispered to her when Dilandau was a few metres ahead of them. Chesta trying to say it in a low voice so that Dilandau couldn't hear.
"Chesta, shut your mouth." He spat. The colour drained from Chesta's face.
"I'm sorry, Lord, I was only curious as to why you hadn't-" He began.
"Don't question me on that subject. Never ask me about that. There is not an answer that you need to know." He menaced, and then was silent. "Gabrielle, enter in your number on the computer interface," He said, suddenly calm.
"What computer interface?" She asked him, and hastily added, "My Lord." Dilandau looked back at the description.
"Oh. There isn't one. It's voice control. Walk up and talk to it," He told her, and so she stepped up to it. The mech's eyes glowed.
.: Visual unit recognition: Registered Pilot number 68372. :. The computer's female voice spoke.
"Or, no need, I suppose. What a strange thing."
"Okay, now get in it." Chesta told her.
"Libreia, requesting access…?'" She muttered, unsure.
.: Access granted. :. Chimed the voice, and she stepped up almost instinctively to the thing's chest, where the doors opened with a hiss.
She felt at home in the cockpit. There was a computer screen with a keyboard, a comfortable chair, several buttons, switches and dials, and a steering mechanism. She rapidly typed a command in the computer and four screens appeared. They were a view of outside, but different ones used heat recognition, infrared, and night vision.
"Cool!" She exclaimed.
Outside the mech, Chesta turned to Dilandau. "Lord, don't you find it... Strange... That she knows how to operate this already?" He asked.
"I find a lot strange about her," He absent-mindedly responded.
"She fell from the sky, like those old legends say..." He trailed off, unwittingly voicing his thoughts aloud. Chesta pretended to pay no notice.
"Gabrielle, do you know what you're doing?" Chesta called out.
"Um, yes and no!" She shouted back, and she laughed. "And call me 'Gabbi,' Alright? … It says 'Primary Functions Online.'" She announced. They could hear her fiddling around with the gears and switches, finding out what weapons and gadgets the massive thing had on it.
"Nice! This thing's got five different flamethrowers! Awesome! ... It also has ... Are liquid metal claws as literal as they sound?" She looked through the system.
"Chesta, stay here. I'm going to get the mechas. We're going to take her flying." Dilandau said with a slight flicker of a grin. His expression was somewhat sadistic. Just what did he have in mind?
Chesta nervously saluted him, and stood watching her. Gabrielle had discovered the controls for the head, and she moved the dragons' face nose to nose with Chesta. .: "Hello." :. She said through the dragon's head. The jaws opened. Chesta took a small step back. .: "Relax, I'm just speaking through the dragon. The voice doesn't sound too tinny, does it?" :. Chesta shook his head.
"No, it sounds like you're inside the thing's mouth." He replied. The dragon slammed its jaw shut.
.: "It's the 'Libreia,' not 'thing.' She has a name." :. She said through it, trying to sound polite. The jaw opened and closed. .:"Know what's weird?":. She asked.
"What's weird?" He tilted his head.
.:"I can control this thing mostly with my mind. I just sit in the chair, and two gauntlet thingies go over my wrists and ankles and then I control it. It's like I am a dragon. It's quite odd. But I like it!":. She exclaimed through it.
She raised one massive orange dragon's forearm up almost to the ceiling, and the claws opened. Out of the palm of its three-fingered hand, a massive curved blade emerged. She made it withdraw, and interchange back to the dragon's normal paw-like hand. .: "Watch out, Chesta. I'm turning around," :. She announced, and she made the guymelef place the two slender arms on the ground to heave herself forward. The Libreia swung around, and she was careful to maneuver the great tail out of Chesta's way.
The mecha began to walk on all fours, and she followed where she had seen Dilandau go and turn the corner. She saw him all the way down the hall, and she walked a little faster. She then stopped directly in front of him, who was just activating his and Chesta's mecha suits.
.: "Autopilot activated," :. She said, mimicking perfectly the computer's voice. Dilandau whipped around to see her lift the dragon's arm and see the scythe blade emerge from it's hand. .:"Target acquired.":.
"Ah! Gabrielle, stop the damned thing!"
.:"Target locked,":. She said, still mimicking the computer's flat, explanatory voice. The blade swung forward at lightning speed, and Dilandau turned to run from it. The blade blocked him. He heard her laughter from inside the dragon.
.:"Squadron commander Dilandau identified as extremely gullible.":. She said between the laughter.
"That's not funny." He said flatly. She laughed harder. He crossed his arms. He imagined how stupid he must have looked, and he controlled a small grin that was threatening to display some emotion. Her laughter died down, and she cleared her throat. "Don't do that again." He said, surprisingly still calm.
.:"I'm sorry, Lord Dilandau. I couldn't resist. I must work on my self-discipline.":. She replied. The orange horned head of the Ending Dragon bowed to him, the lustrous metal reflecting him in faded colours. He left it, surprisingly, at that. He just hadn't the time. She would learn. For the most part, this enigmatic girl was well-behaved. He supposed he could excuse her one misdemeanor.
He activated the two suits, and he climbed up into the red one she had seen earlier. A small bleep a few seconds later from her radar screen told her it was online. Chesta walked up from underneath her, and he climbed up into the blue one next to Dilandau's. They started a heavy walk in one direction, and she followed them. She noticed that her mecha sounded a lot lighter than them when it walked. The hydraulic noises coming from the Libreia were quieter, also. She was impressed by their mechas, however. They looked heavily armoured, and she could see that the red one had a variety of weapons on it at Dilandau's disposal. Chesta's looked similar, but his weapons centred more on blades than anything else.
She followed them to the launch bay, and she waited while Dilandau conversed with one of the operators. A moment later, there was a rumble as the door lifted away, revealing the open sky, thousands of feet in the air. They both walked up fearlessly to the edge, and Chesta waited for Dilandau to jump first.
The legs in the mecha snapped up as it fell, and an engine glowed at the bottom of the mech, stablilizing it and making it hover in the air. The arms retracted halfway, and several metal platings rearranged and became more streamlined. The mecha flew back up and hovered in front of the door, giving ample room for Chesta to do the same thing. She swallowed. It was not the flight she was afraid of, but her performance in front of those two. What choice had she but to appease these strange ones who had taken her in? She walked right up to the edge of the launch bay and looked down through the dragon's eyes.
There were clouds far below them, and sometimes when they moved, she could see a city or mountains below. She backed up from the edge.
.:"What's she doing, my Lord?'":. Chesta asked Dilandau.
.:"Just wait and see,":. He answered. There was a rumble above them, as they had sunk lower to allow room for her to jump off. Her mecha was longer than theirs, and also had a wider wingspan. The floor above them shook, and then an orange and black thing propelled itself off of the edge.
The wings opened with a snap, and her stomach felt like it climbed to her throat. She felt pressed down by the sudden gravity, and then she returned to normal. She found that the steering was very much like those flight simulator video games she had played before she'd come into this world. In fact, it bore such a startling resemblance that she immediately felt she knew how to operate it.
.:"Now that you've got control, we want to see if you can track us. Think of it as a kind of game. Both of us have our invisibility cloaks on, and we're flying around. See if you can catch us.":. Dilandau commanded.
She thought for a moment, and then she remembered a science lesson she'd had years ago. The teacher had said that the section of light that was visible to humans was actually very small. On the red side of the colour spectrum, there was infrared, and on the opposite, the violet side, it went to ultraviolet rays. She couldn't type on the computer pad, because she had to concentrate on her steering.
"Libreia, display infrared screen." She commanded.
The vision worked on a sort of headband. It went around her eyes with a comfortable melding fit. It displayed a panoramic screen of the view outside. The sky turned from normal blue to shades of red, and she turned her head to look all over the sky. She saw one, far up above her. She couldn't tell if it was the blue or the red one just yet, but she could see it. Pretending she hadn't yet, Gabrielle flew straight up and diagonal to it to get above. She watched it move in a zig-zag fashion, to her left. She continued climbing in the sky, and when the pilot had regained his confidence that he hadn't been seen, she swung upside-down and flipped over, changing her trajectory to the guymelef.
He realized her fake, and he dropped straight down, making random patterns in the air. She followed these easily; She was used to things moving erratically like that on her video games. Tracing his moves effortlessly Gabrielle drew closer to the guymelef, she noticed by it's darker shade of red that it was Chesta's. She drew up right above it, and the Libreia's claws came down, latching onto the metal surface. .:"Gotcha!":. She cried.
.:"Damn. Oh well. I guess I should tell you; Dilandau's using an invisibility cloak that can't be seen by infrared.":. He explained.
.:"You fool! You shouldn't have told her!":. Dilandau's voice rang with an acidic tone on the radio. She unlatched the Libreia's claws from the blue mecha's back.
"Libreia, track last position of radio frequency emission." She said.
.:Last radio frequency emission from the Alseides was directly to your left.:. Libreia responded.
"Thanks." She grunted, out of habit.
She tried heat-seeking vision and other various modes, but she still couldn't see Dilandau. She made tight circles in the sky, concentrating on finding where he was. She suddenly had the feeling to grab, so she released the Libreia's claws that instant, and they latched onto metal.
.:"Got you too, Lord Dilandau!":. She said with a smile, and he released the invisibility cloak.
.:"How the hell did you see me?":. He asked her, totally shocked.
.:"It's... Very difficult to explain, my Lord.":. She replied.
.:"I'm listening,":. He replied, insistantly.
.:"I... You'll think I'm crazy...":. She said.
.:" I want to know how you caught me.":. He persistently asked of her.
.:"Alright. I had a vision. That's how I saw you, Lord Dilandau.":. She blurted. The line was silent.
.:"Well, it's not unheard of,":. Chesta shrugged it off, trying to make her not feel so awkward. .
.:"You mean to say, you closed your eyes and you saw where I was?":. Dilandau asked slowly. .:"Basically, yes. I've never told anyone else that I can do that. Please, don't tell anyone that I can. They'll say I'm a freak. Please, my Lord, don't tell anyone. Chesta, you won't tell, will you?":. She begged.
.:"No, of course I won't tell, Gabbi.":. Chesta responded. Dilandau was weighed in loud silent for a moment.
.:"It's our little secret.":. Dilandau said, hating the fact that he knew every move and radio broadcast was being monitored. His radio crackled with a message from inside Zaibach.
.:"Commander Dilandau, we need you. We have new information on the White Dragon.":.
A male voice said.
.:"Alright. I'm coming in.":. He replied. He knew there was also more than new information on the White Dragon. He didn't want Gabrielle to go and have to visit the Scientists; There was no telling in what they might do. But, unfortunately, the circumstance was beyond his control, and if the Scientists wanted to see her, he could not stop them. He knew that they'd stopped monitoring the radio waves.
.:"Gabrielle, don't tell them anything, for your sake.":. He grunted, and he shut off his radio as he streaked towards the docking bay.
.:"Chesta, what did he mean by that?":. She asked him.
.:"Mean by what? I didn't hear anything.":. He responded.
.:"Oh, nevermind then. We had best go in now; It's starting to get dark, and I'm tired.":. She said.
.:"Yeah, me too.":. He replied, and he flew back to the base. She performed a loop in the air to gather speed, and she followed him.