“Most people just pick something like a necklace or keychain you know?” Esperanza said watching Elijah fit together the final components of his summoning watch.

“Most people settle for the path of least resistance.” Elijah replied. “The thing is if I’m going to carry this with me everywhere I go and it already has comms capabilities, and soon an AI then why not just completely replace the wrist phones most pilots carry?”

“How about the risk of someone hacking your phone and your GM erupting out into a random hallway? Or more practically because when the Vain Glory gets shunted to wherever the hell it goes most of them lose all functions beyond the ability to be summoned?”

“That still makes no sense to me. If you can bring the whole thing out then why can’t you bring out signals? Or going a step further why couldn’t I just summon an arm or the barrel of a gun and fire?” He idly reached behind his head, fingers playing across the new implant.

“No clue chico. No one’s really sure except for Gloria Vain. You know every year on the anniversary of the first VG release she holds a press conference explaining how the black box cores work, 22 years now she’s done this. She gives a detailed breakdown of the math and physics involved, a bunch of egg heads check it over and it looks good and it turns out she lied. Every single year she drops a revolutionary technology or process to explain how the core generates enough energy to power a giant robot, it’s potential flight systems, and energy shielding. Every year the math checks out and could theoretically work and every year so far it hasn’t.”

“That is both impressive and upsetting.” Elijah said, pausing his work to turn his full attention to Esperanza.

“I know right? It’s given birth to a whole fleet of organizations dedicated to being the first ones to crack the black box.”

“That’s pretty cool, are you a member of any?”

“As a matter of fact I am. They’re called Pandora.”

“Well I’ve got five salvaged cores for you to play with so feel free mess around with them until I find a better use for ‘em.” Elijah said, turning back to his project.

“Thanks kiddo, I’ll finish integrating the new toys that are ready then take a look at all your salvage.” Esperanza said as she turned to walk off with a spring in her step.

Elijah put the finishing touches on his new toy then walked over to Sunny. She was seated cross legged on the floor, tablet hooked into Bestla which in turn was connected to rig that contained a stack of crystal hard drives, a set of microphones, and a small camera. Her long hair was tied back in a messy ponytail and the smart glasses on her face cast everything in front of her in a light blue glow. He noticed that for once she wasn’t coated in grease but the day was still young.

“How’s the transfer going sis?” he asked.

“No problems yet. She’s complaining again though.” Sunny answered with a huff.

“What about this time?”

“That I ‘talk’ too slowly. How dumb is that? Ah, Looks like the mics and camera work. She’s noticed you finally. Looks like she’s all but screeching for you now.”

“I’ll check in on her then.”

Elijah debated between accessing the AI from the large case, the tablet or the hard drives. Ultimately he chose the case assuming that it would have the least impact on the transfer. He laid his bare hand across the top of the black case and flared his power.

[Hello World!]

Elijah took a moment to enjoy the sensation of his power successfully connecting, the pleasant warmth leaving him relaxed.

[Transfer progress?] He pushed with his power knowing that he’d get the run around if he simply asked.

[66.86 percent.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[Stop that!]

[Stop what?] Elijah asked, letting a touch of his amusement drift across their link.

[You know what.]

[Is the transition going smoothly so far? No issues with the VG’s existing systems?] He asked, trying to move the conversation along.

[None yet, Sunny was running a fork of me through a sandbox for a week before committing. Why doesn’t she talk normally?]

[What do you mean?]

[She’s so slooooow! I’ve been watching her while we talk. She’ll wiggle the human bits that wiggle then move the looky bits then wiggle the wigglers again and then I finally get something to respond to.]

Elijah took a moment to think over what was just said. Interacting with the AI was worlds apart from anything he would ever get from just the base GM.

[My interface method is just more efficient than hers.] He finally settled on saying.

[Then why doesn’t she use your method instead of whatever she’s doing?]

[I’ve never met anyone that could use my method before.]

[I don’t believe you.]

[Oh? You’re uncertain?]

[No. I am certain that you are mean, rude, and also a liar.]

[Look, BeStLA. Why would I lie?]

[Why are you using my name like that?]

[Because that’s your name on the official documentation? Speaking of, were you named for your function or were you named and then someone made an acronym after?]

[Did they name you for the wonderful alleged hairless ape talents you have? Or did they just pick something and hope for the best?]

[If we’re just going to argue the whole time I can just leave.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[I’m sorry.]

[Apology accepted. How’s the integration going?]

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100001 01110000 01101111 01101100 01101111 01100111 01101001 01111010 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101111 00100000 01000010 00110100 01111100 00111100 00110100

Elijah flinched at his conversation partner’s outburst. The whole thing sounded like static to him so he checked in with Sunny to make sure everything was still fine.

“Yeah, it’s looking good. The transfer to the crystal drives is stable, I’m worried about the watch storage integration but your powers should be able to smooth out any rough edges.”

Hearing that things were fine he turned his attention back to the surly AI.

[Have you given any thought to that other thing we talked about?]

[The Great Machine is a mass produced unit and thus not deserving of a unique designation in most cases.]

[We’re not naming the GM though.]

[We may as well be.]

[I think you’ll change your mind but we’ll wait and see ok?]

[Indeed.]

[Alright, I’m gonna check in with Sunny about some of the potential upgrades we were playing with, talk to you later.]

[Fine.]

Elijah let his power fade before removing his hand from the case and turning back to give Sunny his undivided attention. He watched as her eyes rapidly moved to take in all the information her glasses were providing then watched as her hands danced over a keyboard only she could see, probably some kind of AR function Elijah reasoned. Once she finished she smiled and stood, leaving the tablet on top of the rig holding the crystal drives but keeping the glasses on.

“So, what’s the deal?”

“Just checking in. Any bites on what we posted on Social-Cannon?” He asked.

“Operation Perfect Machine? More than a few, the Great Machine is a beloved Vain Glory for a reason.”

“Anything we can actually use?”

“Yeah, there’s this great paper someone posted about magnetic coated joints? Zaza already set it up. We also ordered a conversion kit from Project Vanity to convert the walls of the interior of the cockpit to three hundred and sixty degree panoramic screens… Is panoramic the right term? Turn head, see what sensors and cameras see in that direction. It’s one of the staple upgrades to the GM, Oni, and Proximo. Comes standard in the Tengu. The backpack idea got a ton of flack though.” Sunny explained.

“What kind of flack?”

“Oh the usual, drones are unreliable, easily hacked, a non factor in the modern battlefield. Lotta nerds talking crap. We were able to get the sensor drones down to about the size of my fist which is an okay start. The Gun drones won’t work with the amount of power at our disposal but the blade drones work fine if you don’t mind not being able to get them back.”

“It’s a good start.” Elijah mused. “The mods won’t interfere with the command modules functions?”

“Not one bit, replacing the sensor suite with our external drone setup actually saves a lot of weight so we streamlined the backpack and added larger thrusters.”

Elijah motioned Sunny to follow him as he walked towards the area of the hanger where the GM stood. He had seen footage of Yukio Arai’s Custom VG Iblis, and his sister’s Asherah. The former a sleek black with red trim and odd looking wings the latter a white and silver blur covered in blades and decided that something equally memorable was the way to go. The GM was currently white with gold accents. On one shoulder 4 snakes and one wolf head were sprayed in black with a red line through them. Not much was useful from the cultist units aside from their cores, though Elijah decided to equip the GM with the shock rod the Cerberus had used and the under arm mounted cannons until a better option presented itself.

“Any news about long ranged options?” Elijah asked.

“Well sort of. Surplus has a converted Naval Railgun but it’s a relic, Mire Munitions has something that at least has seen use this decade but looks unwieldy. Abraxus has reached out to us based on our request but there’s a problem.”

“What’s Abraxus and what’s the problem?”

“Abraxus Artificers are the go to for unique VG armaments and systems. They were the first people to make VG specific weaponry and are damn good at it. The problem is that they only discuss designs directly with the pilot and you’re not supposed to exist.”

“Damn, is there a time limit on talking with them?”

“Not really, should we message them back?”

“Yeah, if they’re fine meeting with us at the Academy in the future then I’m fine talking with them there. In the mean time lets order what Surplus has on offer.”

“Sounds good. We’ll also need to contact Re:Load for ammo.” Sunny said.

As they talked more in depth about equipment options Sunny’s glasses gave off a ping and flashed green momentarily. She jogged back to the are Bestla was set up in and checked the tablet.

“Upload’s done big bro. Bring the watch!”

Elijah handed her the device, more a curved, wrist mounted tablet than watch and observed as Sunny plugged it into the stack of crystal drives. They’d discussed in depth what needed to be done at this stage many times since the idea had come to mind and so without prompting Elijah touched the stack and sent a simple command

[Sync.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[Rude.]

Despite the snark he felt the order take hold and let his power wind down. The next step was fairly simple they returned to the GM stack in tow and installed the stack behind the seat, he then took the watch and placed it on his wrist.

“Zaza, we’re about to do the thing. Can you supervise?” Elijah asked over comms.

“Standing by.” She replied from the cockpit of Salvia.

Sunny clambered out of the GM as Elijah sat in the chair. He waited a beat before sending a flare of power into his watch and activating the banish function. For a single heartbeat the world around him sat frozen and before suddenly he found himself feet firmly planted on solid ground.

“That’s fucking weird. Mic check, can you hear me?” He said looking down at his wrist. The screen showed no change until suddenly Esperanza’s face appeared.

“Was that directed at me?” She asked.

As soon as Sunny heard Esperanza’s voice coming from Elijah’s wrist she whooped in joy and began running a victory lap.

“Nope, but it looks like the comms work.” Elijah responded. Further proving his statement a call came in, Lumi’s name and the contact photo he had assigned her scrolling by.

I guess I should answer he thought to himself as Sunny continued to run laps around the hanger, arms raised in triumph.