User:SilverCrono/TL/6

"Shot down! Shot down! Please retry or exit the cockpit in an orderly fashion."

"Dammit!" That was the fourth time the pilot had been shot down within twenty minutes. Progress was slow, if existent at all. "This thing is busted." With an aggressive press of a button, the simulated cockpit top above Aaron Tsidaal slowly lifted, exposing him to the empty training room in which he had taken refuge for the past few hours. He sat up and ruffled his hair with irritation. The time passed had given him no noticeable increase in skills.

"Maybe it's the pilot that's busted, hm?" The sly and husky voice of the training center's only other occupant grated on Aaron's nerves and his fists clenched tightly. Without looking in her direction, he replied with distaste.

"Did you come here to pick on me again?" It hadn't taken long after the commander's speech from hours ago for the girl, his apparent lapdog, to seek him out and begin mocking him. She found his failures at the simulation amusing enough to keep coming back to the area no matter how brusquely Aaron pestered her to stay away.

The vivacious redhead chuckled without much humor and tossed her hair over her shoulder, scattering it in the weightless atmosphere, before allowing herself to float slightly and cross her legs in the air. "You never answered my question."

Unsatisfied, Aaron spat on the steel ground beneath him and returned to the pseudo cockpit that housed the AU's simulation center. He started to another skirmish program but didn't close the hatch around him this time. As the operation began, he stole a glance at the peaceful looking girl. Her back was to him and her outfit was as tight as ever. Reddening, he looked back down to the controls and grumbled out a reply. "I don't have to answer to you."

The girl kicked off the wall in front of her, propelling herself to the cockpit that was directly adjacent to Aaron's and began starting it up with her slim fingers. "That kind of attitude will get you killed," she muttered. Right on cue, Aaron was shot down in his program as he looked away at her again. It only took about 25 seconds for his AU to be destroyed; that was a new record. He let out a yell in frustration, prompting the redhead to snort as she began to handle her cockpit's controls. "Getting mad is just blinding you. I'm sure that's why you failed in real combat. It's a wonder you survived."

Aaron glared at the girl, speechless at both her words and her apparent mastery of the AU system. She rocked with the system as it moved slightly and tilted her body with each movement of the control sticks. Without even looking, she would swiftly hit a switch or press a side button, and for a moment her AU was completely invincible. It took 3 minutes for her virtual machine to finally get shot down.

The redhead sighed and gracefully flipped from the side of the cockpit and started to drift towards the door. Aaron spoke out to her, curiously, but still with a twinge of bitterness. "If you're so good at this, why didn't they make you the AU pilot? Why did that loud-ass commander let two complete strangers use the only two Armored Units on this ship?" With a scoff, the woman turned and put her hands on her wide hips. Aaron could feel his face reddening slightly, but he refused to look away from her. He felt it would be a sign of weakness in the face of her sheer confidence.

She answered with what felt like a tired old lie. "What happens in a simulator isn't always what happens in real combat." As if speaking to an ignorant newcomer, she seemed to sweep his arguments away effortlessly and with boredom. "And I'm not such a veteran myself." After a moment of silence, she turned and started to leave again. The door out of the training center opened in front of her automatically.

"Wait!" One last time, Aaron's words froze her in her tracks. She didn't turn and look at him this time. The refugee hesitated and finally looked down, his hands nervously playing with curls in his mane of hair. His face reddened further. "...What is your name?"

One last chuckle permeated from the girl's full lips, although this one was filled with condescending scorn. "Answer my question and I might get to yours." She kicked forward and the door immediately closed behind her, and Aaron realized for the fist time that she was the most interesting woman he had ever met. He didn't know how this made him feel, so he angrily grunted and returned back to the combat simulator.

*****