Hiro reflexively caught the pink-haired meteor that rushed towards him, but was completely unprepared for the kiss she planted on his lips. Two conflicting feelings of alienness and familiarity stunned him, and he made no attempt to stop the kiss as they sunk to the floor. It felt like an eternity before the guards who'd failed to restrain the new girl finally caught up to her and separated them... and Hiro couldn't tell if it had been just the girl who'd clung on when the guards pulled them apart.

Septimus' scowl could have peeled paint, and his ire was not reserved for just the new girl. The other six pilots had completely forgotten their pretense professionalism in the face of this new development, and were scarcely bothering to whisper as their speculation reached fever pitch. A scathing look from him was, barely, enough to finally get some semblance of order and quiet, and he cleared his throat and spoke.

"I've called you hear today to introduce the eighth and final pilot of Delta squadron. This," his fulminating gaze rested on the girl, who beamed despite being held by the arms, "is Zero Two. As you may have noticed, she is not as well behaved as even you all, and the circumstances under which she was admitted to the Doppelsoldner program are similarly… questionable. However, and whatever concerns I may have, time is of the essence for surveying the VIRM threat, so we will deal with such issues."

Turning to face the guards, he continued, "Zero Two still needs to be in-processed. Take her to the briefing room, and," he stopped for a moment, then continued, "and I'll be along shortly. Dismissed."

The guards and the new girl began marching away, and after turning to the existing pilots and dismissing them, Septimus followed them.

...

"Jeeze, what was up with that Zero Two girl?" Cho asked, slightly louder than necessary, once the existing pilots were back in the Delta common area, "What kind of person just randomly kisses someone they've never met?" Turning to face Hiro directly, she asked more directly, "You have never met her before, right, Hiro?"

With attention turned toward him, Hiro jerked his hand away from where they'd lingered thoughtfully on his lips. "Huh?"

"I asked if you'd ever met that girl before."

Hiro gazed into the distance again for a few second before responding slowly, "I don't know. I can't remember her or anything, but when..." he trailed off into his thoughts again.

"But what?!" The other chorused along with Cho this time.

Hiro rubbed his temples, as if trying to make his mind work, and sounded more frustrated with himself when he continued, "I dunno. I didn't recognize her, but at the same time I felt something really... familiar." Seeing the befuddled expressions on everyone's faces, he shrugged and added, "I know, it doesn't make much sense to me either."

Before the interrogation could continue, the door to the cafeteria opened and the topic of conversation herself walked in. The soldiers that had escorted her before were visible, but they'd stopped at the door. Zero Two's grin remained affixed to her face, and while she walked at a slightly more restrained pace, there was still an undeniable bounce in her step as she crossed the room to the table the other pilots were crowded around.

As she approached the table, the squad mates parted. As she reached the table, without missing a beat she turned, planted her behind on the table, and kicked her legs over, neatly crossing the table, and sliding off the other side of the table… and directly into Hiro's lap.

There was nearly an audible click as Hiro's eyes flashed upon renewed physical contact with Zero Two. He smiled awkwardly at the situation, but made no move to separate himself from her.

Cho sputtered incoherently at the display, but before she could marshal a response, someone else voiced everyone's thoughts, "Hey, Hiro, I thought you said you didn't know her?"

Hiro's eyebrows knitted slightly, but the bemused smile didn't leave his face. "I didn't say that, did I? This is Zero Two. She's been my best friend since we were kids. Haven't I told you about her?"

Zero Two nodded enthusiastically in assent, but shocked silence fell over the others at this sudden reversal. As the silence grew longer, Hiro's face began to fall into a confused frown, until at last it was Song who spoke up, quietly saying, "Hiro… you've never told us anything about your life before coming to the Bifrost."

After she broke the silence, Cho finally got herself under control, and made an enraged march around the table to forcibly drag the two pilots apart. Focusing her wrath on the new pilot, she asked, "What the hell is going on here? You show up out of nowhere and are climbing all over Hiro. What is he to you?"

Zero Two's seemingly ever-present smile slipped into a lazy grin as she responded, "didn't Hiro just tell you? We've been friends for a long time. We even made a promise, to meet here on this ship." At the word promise, Cho's face froze and she turned to Hiro, who gave a more subdued nod of confirmation of his own. And there was something about the way she said 'Hiro'...

Cho looked completely crestfallen, and sank into a seat at the table behind the one everyone else was clustered around. Zero Two sat back down next to Hiro and they started talking and, while the other pilots interjected a few question, for the most part the two seemed to be in their own little world.

The last of the officers filed into the briefing room and sat down. While things were getting hectic as the Bifrost prepared to leave the system, the work was mostly delegated to ratings, and the chaos only made it more important that the officers remained well coordinated. Some officers might question that wisdom, but they were not the ones in charge. While the real briefing wouldn't start for a few minutes, virtually everyone in the SDF would aim to arrive 15 minutes early to anything, where by habit or by orders from above; for meetings, this was usually used for an unofficial prelude to the real meeting… in other words, scuttlebutt.

One leaned over his chair back to ask to Septimus with a sardonic grin, "So, heard you got some kind of wildcat to fill the last slot in Delta?"

Septimus sighed slightly, willing to be a little more informal among equals, "that's one way to put it. Seems she broke into a testing facility. They thought some idiot was just joyriding in the testbeds, but she'd hopped in a Doppelsoldner sim, and actually had passable scores."

"Just passable?" someone else chimed in, "I'd think they'd pass over a likely troublemaker unless they were really good".

"I think they would have… under normal circumstances," Septimus replied gravely, "Higher up has been desperate to get this cruise underway for a while, and I think they were willing to take what they could get at this point."

This got some nods of assent. "That definitely matches my impression, as well", another affirmed, "the smart money was on them launching within a month, short a Doppelsoldner or not." The doors opened again and the officers giving the briefing filed in, so she faced the front along with the other officers, but not before a parting remark.

"I certainly don't envy your job dealing with those kids."

"Told you we were gonna do Doppel training again." The twins grinned broadly as the pilots filed out of their briefing room and once again headed for Delta Squadron's hangar.

"We all agreed it was likely," Cho opined, "I just said it wasn't certain, since we'd never done it three days in a row before."

"And we said that having Zero Two on board would make that moot," they chorused.

Cho tried to respond again, but they'd reached the point where the boys and girls split up, and the twins briefly stuck their tongues out in victory as they walked away before she could argue her point further. Cho also spotted an uncharacteristic wave from Hiro, and nearly froze again when she saw that he was returning Zero Two's.

Entering the girls changing room, Zero Two wasted no time with modesty, stripping down and putting on the pressure suit in full view of the other girls. She also made no attempt at conversation, stepping into the stall for exoskeleton installation and heading out the door just as quickly.

Cho exchanged glances with Misha, then a flash of intuition hit her and she redoubled her own efforts to get changed.

Her intuition was proven correct, as when she arrived at the staging area Zero Two had already locked arms with Hiro, who was currently explaining some minutia of their training regimen to her.

Cho steeled herself and prepared to try to wade in, but Misha stopped her with a slightly sad smile, "you aren't going to win this one, Cho. You've flown with Hiro basically every training period, you haven't really got a claim over the new pilot."

Cho sighed and slumped slightly, then nodded, "alright. But I've got dibs round two."

That Cho could still muster some assertiveness seemed to restore Misha's good humor, and she slapped Cho's arm, declaring, "That's the spirit", before grabbing that same arm and dragging her towards their own Doppelsoldner.

Hiro and Zero Two clambered aboard the as-yet-unnamed number four Doppelsoldner. The slightly longer walk to its bay meant it had been the least used when there were only enough pilots to activate three, but in this case the longer walk had given Hiro more time to explain things to Zero Two, who could not have been a better student; she had hung on every word he said, smiling and nodding along.

The restraints were self-explanatory enough that Hiro only had to double check that Zero Two had gotten them right, which she had, before leading her through the activation sequence. As soon as he put his hand on the control yoke, her hand covered his. An electric feeling ran through his arm, and then the mecha began to wake.

-Doppelsoldner systems online-

-Synchronizing pilot-to-pilot interface-

Hiro felt as though he was being sucked into a void. There was no fear or feeling of danger, rather it felt warm, safe, right. Then the Doppelsoldner's third line shook him out of his reverie.

-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-

Hiro hadn't even realized his eyes were closed, but they jerked open and towards the display. He then turned to Zero Two, who also had her eyes closed and was breathing heavily. He shook her shoulder and she, too, opened her eyes. Seeing him looking her way, she smiled and asked, "What's up? I thought we were doing good?".

Hiro gestured towards the display in front of them. The numbers showed an 84/16 synchronization ratio. "You need to 'push back' when we sync. You were below the 25% threshold, which would knock you out when synching up with the Doppel."

Zero Two frowned, "that doesn't sound right. That doesn't feel right. It felt like were doing great until the system kicked us out."

Hiro sighed. "I was worried about this. I have a very high 'emissive' ability. It's why I've been having such a hard time synching with people. I have to pull back hard just to stay under 75%, and that's the opposite of what you're supposed to do to synch up. Did they tell you what your scores were?"

"They said something about a twenty-something and an eighty-something, could that be it?"

This time it was Hiro's turn to grimace, "Yeah. If those are your scores it's going to be nearly impossible for us to synchronize. Maybe we should..."

"No!" Zero Two's hand clamped down on his on the yoke, "no. I can do it with you. We promised. Run it again."

-Doppelsoldner systems online-

-Synchronizing pilot-to-pilot interface-

Both Hiro and Zero Two kept their eyes on the panel this time.

Once again the graph quickly headed towards a dangerously lopsided ratio.

Zero Two felt the same warmth grow within her as the first time, but this time she gritted her teeth, gripped Hiro's hand even tighter, and tried to force the comforting warmth out of her body.

Hiro, too, had to fight against his instincts and the familiar cloak that he knew would, for some reason, prevent him from synchronizing.

-Stabilizing at 74/26-

They'd done it. Barely. Breaking their eyes away from the screen, they looked at each other. They were both breathing heavily, and a cold sweat had broken out on Zero Two's forehead, but they'd synched successfully.

-Synchronizing pilot-system interface-

-Stabilizing at 68%-

Seeing such a good ratio, Hiro relaxed slightly. He attempted to mirror Zero Two's proud smile at having successfully connected, and connected the Doppelsoldner to the simulation.

They were, after their difficulties, the last to connect, and, taking in their slightly disheveled appearances, Cho asked, "Are you okay? I was worried you might not be able to synch."

Still wearing a broad smile, Zero Two responded, "My D-Hiro can be a little hard to handle. I can see why you... all have had trouble synching with him. But I'm good to go!"

Before the sniping could begin in earnest, Chad cut in, "Alright, we're slated for a two on two skirmish, now that we have an even number of units again. Me and Song in Unit 1 will pair up with Hiro and Zero Two in Unit 4. Cho, Misha and the twins will be the second team." And before anyone could comment, he sent a command to initiate, that put the teams on separate comm channels, and put them into a menu to select their preferred weapons.

As usual, Chad selected a sword, little different from the ones used by the Einherjar other than being scaled for a Doppelsoldner, as befitted a former Einherjar pilot, and a shield. Hiro and Zero Two wouldn't know the choices made by the other team until they spotted them in battle, but Hiro could make some predictions. He decided to leave the decision for themselves up to Zero Two, though, "What weapon do you want to use? A great weapon for beginners would be a-"

"A spear!" Zero Two had already selected Hiro's recommendation, a medium-length spear.

To keep the pilots on their toes, the start conditions were kept secret during loadout selection. So when the four Doppelsoldners 'spawned' within view of each-other, chaos broke out immediately.

The newest pilot scored the first point by charging instantly, surprising even her copilot. Any concerns over Zero Two's knowledge of piloting were dispelled as Unit 4 leapt forward and threw it's spear, hitting Unit 2, piloted by Cein and Kato, right as the spear reached the end of its tether, before they could raise either of their war-hammers to intercept.

Chad's team was awarded one point, and Unit 2 disappeared and reappeared some distance away; the scenario was designed to end after a certain number of points, to allow for a longer fight. Hiro had been as astonished as everyone else by Zero Two's instant aggression, but as soon as her attack had started, he'd left her to handle the momentary operations of the Doppelsoldner and kept an eye out for their next action. As such, when Unit 3, armed with a large autocannon, opened fire on them, they weren't caught gloating; Hiro had already started their own mech on a twisting evasive maneuver.

Taking stock of the situation while waiting for an opening to appear, Hiro noticed something else concerning; a warning had popped up, stating that they'd exceeded pilot-to-pilot synchronization threshold, but had returned to a stable level before the system shut down for safety.

Hiro turned to check on Zero Two. She had her eyes closed, operating purely on sensory feedback from the piloting system as she reeled their spear back in, but she sensed his concern and gave him another smile and a thumbs up with her free hand. Hiro decided to let it go for the moment, but also to keep an eye on their synch graph to make sure they didn't cause a shutdown.

It turned out that concern was well-founded. Throughout the exercise, it felt like they were playing hopscotch with the redline, hitting the limit whenever Zero Two pressed an attack, or Hiro let his attention wander too far from the present. There was a five second grace period before the connection was automatically severed, but by paying attention to it and focusing on leveling their ratio whenever they brushed the limit, they'd managed to avoid spending more than a second or two over the line.

The results, however, spoke for themselves. Unit 4 had cut a swathe through the competition. Zero Two, when leading the dance, was tough to match in an even fight, and with the slight speed advantage from their higher system synchronization and Hiro providing direction, they were taking a lot of fights in which they had an advantage, instead. This didn't mean they were unbeatable; the need to slow down to fix their synchronization meant they were sometimes caught out or forced to fight Doppelsoldners of the other team at once, but the team of Hiro, Zero Two, Chad, and Song won the round handily.

Meeting back up in the waiting room, they took a brief break before pairing off again for a second round of simulations. Cein and Kato immediately approached, making it clear there were no hard feelings as they pressed Hiro and Zero Two for details and advice on how they'd pulled off some of their stunts.

Hiro waved toward Zero Two. "Zero Two's the one you want to ask. She's a natural with a spear."

As the conversation turned away from him, Cho swooped in stake her claim on Hiro for the next round.

-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-

-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-

-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-

Zero Two drummed her fingers on the control yoke, waiting for Hiro to show up on the team monitors. Instead, Septimus came on the frequency, "Hiro and Cho were not able to synch up. I know this isn't the usual procedure, but we're going ask you all to rotate again. At the moment, it's more important to see who Hiro, and Zero Two and the other pilots for that matter, can and cannot synch up with than it is to continue training right now. We need to make permanent pilot assignments soon, and this needs to be sorted out pronto."

Zero Two was the first pilot out of the mecha.

-Abnormal synchronization detected. Pilot below threshold.-

With that, Hiro had washed out with every other pilot on the roster. With a sheepish smile, he once again found himself in the cockpit of the fourth Doppelsoldner with Zero Two.

-Doppelsoldner systems online-

-Synchronizing pilot-to-pilot interface-

-Stabilizing at 73/27-

With their prior round of experience, and several rounds of practice with other pilots under Zero Two's belt, they synchronized successfully on their first attempt this time.

No sooner had they popped into the squadron comm circuit than Septimus' face appeared again, "alright, that's enough for today. We've confirmed that Zero Two can still pilot with Hiro. We're going to make them, in Unit 4, our first permanent assignment. You two are free to go. Everyone else is to report to the briefing room where we will discuss the other three pilot pairings."

"So, what do you wanna do?" Zero Two asked, grabbing Hiro's hand as they left the changing rooms alone.

"Uh, I was wondering the same thing. Do you want a tour of the Bifrost? I know the pilots are restricted from a lot of the areas, but the ship is huge and there's plenty to see besides the squadron's quarters and the launch area.

"That sounds lovely. Lead the way!"

Somehow, despite being the one who knew his way around the ship, it felt like he was still the one following Zero Two.

"Okay, that wraps things up for today. Your final assignments are as follows: Chad and Song will pilot Unit 1, Cein and Cho will pilot Unit 2, and Kato and Misha will pilot Unit 3. You are all free for the rest of the day. Dismissed."

As the pilots filed out of the room, Cho came up to Septimus and asked, "Can you tell me where Hiro is? I saw him headed away from the squadron quarters when we were headed over here."

"I'm sorry, but when the pilots aren't under orders, I don't know any more than you do. You're free to go anywhere you'd like, as long as you stay out of restricted areas, when off duty, and you aren't tracked."

"Thanks anyway," Cho said over her shoulder as she sped out of the room.

Hiro and Zero Two hit their first roadblock midway through their tour.

-Access denied-

Attempting to bring Zero Two to a new section of the ship, her security badge wasn't working. Hiro had walked through the security screen just fine, but Zero Two had been stopped by it.

Hiro walked back through and said, "Try to walk through again. If that doesn't work, there's a panel beside the door so you can swipe your badge as a backup."

Zero Two shook her head, "no, I think I'm just not allowed in that area. See, my badge has a different border and letter, right? When they brought be aboard they said I'd be 'under observation for the time being'," she made an imitation of Septimus' severe demeanor there.

"Oh… that sucks. I guess we're stuck, then. Would you like to go do something else, then?"

Zero Two instead grabbed Hiro's hand and grinned conspiratorially, "nah, I wanna try something first." She then dragged him along with her and walked into the security barrier again. It beeped once, acknowledging Hiro's badge, and then they'd both made it through.

Hiro looked back and forth; no security seemed to be coming but he still asked , "are you sure this is okay? Where'd you learn that from?"

"You know, I don't quite remember where I heard of it. And it'll be fine, Darling. Let's keep going!" Zero Two pushed him on ahead toward the next stop on her tour.

An NCO entered Septimus' office, in which he was conferring with some of the Doppelsoldner maintenance crew, and stood to attention. Septimus broke off his conversation, returned the salute, and the NCO reported, "Zero Two has exited containment level four, sir".

Septimus nodded and asked a question in reply, "Who's she with?"

"Hiro".

Another nod. "Thanks for keeping me informed. Let me know if they leave, or attempt to leave, the level three area".

The noncom saluted again and left the room, and Septimus turned back to the maintenance crew. Before he could continue, one of them cleared their throat and asked, "Aren't you going do anything about that, sir?"

Septimus gazed back levelly, but the ghost of a smile tainted his lips, "I take it you don't deal with a great deal of problem children, either ratings or actual children?"

The crew chief, seeing where things were going, grinned and leaned back as Septimus continued to address the subordinate who'd asked the initial question, "We keep the Doppelsoldner pilots under pretty close observation, but we don't want them to know how close it is. So there is some 'padding' built into the restrictions on their movement. If they can leave their assigned area without use coming down on them, they're generally happy enough to have 'beat us', and we also have plenty of space to head them off before they get anywhere actually restricted. Similarly, there are deliberate 'holes' in the security of the initial cordon so that they're less likely to work on figuring out methods to bypass our real security."

"Zero Two is under special restrictions for the time being, which just means there's one extra layer around her. Given that she's with Hiro, who hasn't even bothered to violate his own restrictions, I doubt there's much to worry about while she's with him."

"Anyway, where were we...?"