The test was not at all what Elijah expected. There seemed to be no way to skip questions and each question became significantly more difficult as he progressed. Math had been simple Multiplication at the start before it suddenly escalated into Algebra II then to Trigonometry then into Calculus II. The section about general Vain Glory knowledge went from things contained in the required reading to questions asking about the internal differences between a hypothetical Glory produced unit and their mass produced suits. Elijah quickly realized that in theory there may not be an end to each section so he charged head long until he got stuck then switched to the next section. Once he had cycled through the sections twice unable to progress, the tablet flashed blue, bid him farewell with a smiley face, and turned itself off.

Elijah yawned and stretched his arms wide. “How’d you think I did teach?”

“Probably fine. Boys seem to finish quickly though, no focus or stamina.”

The jab threw Elijah off guard and a laugh bubbled out of him.

“Now then, Let’s finish up so we can watch you get bullied by a teacher shall we?”

======================

“I need your thumbprint here.” The maintenance woman said as she handed a tablet to Esperanza.

Once Esperanza, Jennifer, Benaiah, and Sunny had arrived at the Hanger area things progressed quickly. The group of women that had attempted to block Lumi from unloading had quietly shuffled off quickly replaced by a much more pleasant group, and Evona and Saif had dropped all plans of shopping to catch up with everyone.

The hanger was impressive, the open space had five berths ready to house inactive Vain Glory units with ample room to kneel or lay out for upgrades and repairs. Behind each berth was a small room covered in consoles and screens presumably for diagnostic work and towards a back was an elevator and set of winding stairs.

One floor above was a design studio with more than enough room for all their equipment and separated by a set of blast doors was a private fabrication lab.

As they toured each new area Sunny and Evona both began to develop scowls though each for different reasons.

“This place is practically a palace compared to my hanger.” Evona griped.

“And you’d be the expert on that subject wouldn’t you, your highness.” Lumi snarked.

As they took a stop in the design studio Penny pulled out a little black box and pressed a button down on it. A red light began to rapidly flash before Penny pushed another set of buttons and the light changed to green.

“Yup cameras and microphones out the ass in this place.” Penny said with a slight frown.

“I knew it.” Sunny whined. “This place is too huge! It’ll take forever to debug and set up proper security. We haven’t even looked at the dorms yet dangit.”

She stomped her foot before sprinting back down the stairs to their equipment stacked by the berths.

“Slow it down half pint!” Lumi yelled out.

“Hell no!” Sunny yelled back. “Gotta go fast, move fast, finish fast bay bee!” Sunny shouted back.

======================

“I assume this is all satisfactory Dr Chase?” Elizabeth asked the group in the clinic area as the final checks were completed.

“Please, call me Nadia.” She said. “And so far so good.”

“Excellent. Now Elijah?” Elizabeth said turning to face him.

“Yes ma’am?” He responded.

“Normally pilot affinity readings are taken as standard during a physical. You’ve never received an affinity reading for obvious reasons but we have the means to preform the standard test here. Alternatively since you already have the implant we could take the reading that way but I’d prefer if you signed a waiver first.”Elizabeth explained.

“What kind of waiver?” Elijah asked.

“The gist of it being that we won’t be held accountable if you’re lying or have an ulterior motive for being here today and the alternative affinity test proves fatal.” Elizabeth said, holding up a hand to stop Bianca’s outburst before it could begin. “Yes Bianca, I know you usually wouldn’t take a joke this far or waste my time, but frankly it’s more likely that Elijah psychically mind whammied you than it is for him to have manifested as a pilot. Even with the scans for ESP detecting negative.”

At this point it was Nadia’s turn to be upset though Elizabeth also held a hand up in her direction.

“Yes there was nothing indicating anything like that in the medical records you provided but I was there when Gloria tested the first batch of prospective pilots, all veterans who had used that style of implant for conventional platforms. They were confident because they could receive data from tanks and forklifts and exo suits that this would be business as usual. None of that helped any of the men and women who volunteered. Gloria had exactly three survivors at the end of the first test, one of which was a man with ESP who’s danger sense refused to allow him to sit in the test chair.” Elizabeth paused to take a deep breath and looked Elijah in the eyes. “If this is some sort of game there’s still time to back out now.”

“I understand the gravity of the situation ma’am but there’s no joke here. At least on my end. With how strictly you take security how the hell did Yukio ever get an implant?” Elijah asked.

“That’d be a question for him. I certainly never would have approved.” Elizabeth replied.

With all that being said Elijah signed the waiver and was led to yet another room. This one had only a single chair similar to a pilot’s seat, a visored helmet with a jack dangling behind it, and a desk with a large monitor off to the side.

Elizabeth was preoccupied and had an apologetic look on her face as she quietly spoke with Nadia and Bianca so Lydia took the lead.

“This bit is pretty simple, you’ll just sit on the chair, plug in, and engage with the system.” She explained. “Pilot affinity is on a scale that measures from poor to perfect when done during a physical. This setup will be giving a more exact reading and should feel exactly the same way it does to pilot. After you’ve jacked in we’ll see how your body reacts and I’ll give you the go ahead to turn the key in the ignition so to speak.” Lydia said gesturing to the chair as she walked over to a monitor.

“Moment of truth dude.” Penelope said giving him a quick punch to the arm for morale.

With no hesitation Elijah sat in the chair and placed the helmet on his head. Elizabeth and Lydia stared intently at him as he plugged in and sat to wait.

“Hmm. Well he’s not dying? Elizabeth could you take a look at this?” Lydia said.

Elizabeth rolled over to the monitor and took a long look at the information that was scrolling by.

“Elijah.” Elizabeth began “How do you feel?”

Elijah took a moment to consider the question. A bit relaxed if anything, the chair was supremely comfortable and the helmet was lighter than he anticipated. His clothes were a bit warm and one of the perks he was hoping to cash in soon was an appointment with Vain Vogue to get a custom pilot suit.

He was sure that they’d probably love the chance to design something unique for him. As he sat there he realized neither Elizabeth nor Lydia had responded to him at all which was strange to say the least.

“Nadia, could you double check these readings?” Elizabeth asked.

But why Elijah thought. What’s so interesting about that monitor? Shouldn’t he be the spectacle here, the main event so to speak? He turned his head to see what his mother and Penelope were doing and saw that Penny was staring at the group huddled around the monitor while Bianca’s eyes had begun to glow.

“What’s happening son?” Bianca sent.

“Hey mom. Is everyone angry at me or something?”

“Not at all. Why do you think that?”

“No one’s responding to anything I’ve said in the last few minutes.”

“Elijah. You haven’t said anything.”

“Oh.”

“…”

“Elijah, I’m going to tell them to pull the plug on the test. Something’s wrong.”

“Nothing feels wrong. They haven’t even given the green light for me to fire up the system.”

“Then ask them for it, out loud.”

Elijah took a minute to thickly swallow, now that it was pointed out to him he realized that his whole body felt like it was weighed down and he was swimming through syrup. This had never happened with his Great Machine before and he firmly decided that he was tired of it. With an easy twist of his will he called his power up and let it flood the connection between himself and the helmet.

[Hello World.]

[Status check.]

[System awaiting input. Pilot suppression system is live.]

He decided that something named the pilot suppression system was not anything he wanted to deal with right this second.

[Deactivate Pilot Suppression System. Access data storage.]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[Acknowledged.]

He felt the relief immediately, and sat up straight. If Elizabeth or Lydia noticed any change at all they showed no sign of detecting it.

[Comms check?]

[Nine sources available for contact. Valkyrecords set as default.]

[Connect to GM-E - 01100010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101100 01100001 ]

[Acknowledged.]

Elijah frowned as he waited for the connection to establish with his watch. Was this how the test was supposed to go or was something odd happening? He realized that his mother may have been having trouble connecting with him while his power was active so he turned to face her and held a finger to his lips in the universal sushing motion. Then held his hand in an okay sign. Bianca raised an eyebrow at his antics but let her power fade.

[...Hello?]

The connection established with his GM and the AI within felt warm and mostly familiar. Where the GM would give feelings and impressions with it’s responses and Bestla talked like a person sped up to ludicrous degrees, now that they were integrated it seemed to be a strange blend of both. The response came with a feeling of sluggish drowsiness.

[Hello to you too. I need you to do something for me if you feel up to it.]

[Elijah..?]

[That’s right.]

[What do I need to do?]

[How much storage do you have available right now?]

[…]

[…]

[…]

[A few YB can be stored without issue.]

Elijah flexed his power at the test helmet and instructed it to save and send all the room’s available data to the AI core in his GM. Then requested that Bestla take all the data recorded in the system from the last twenty four hours and wipe it from the room’s storage.

As the transfer began it seemed that Lydia had finally remembered that he existed. She turned to face him, a small frown on her face and asked if he was doing all right.

“All good so far. I’m sorry, did you give the signal to begin?” Elijah asked.

“No.” She said and paused for a moment. “You don’t feel off at all?”

“Well, let me think about it for a moment.” Elijah said, stalling for time. “The chair is supremely comfortable. Terrible for staying awake and alert long term while on mission I’d assume. The helmet is pretty light as well.”

“And that’s all?” Lydia asked.

“I’m feeling a little thirsty…”

“Hmm. Well give me and Elizabeth a few more minutes to look over this data then we can get started in earnest.”

[Hold off on purging the data until after the group has left the room. Data transfer aside from the current task is forbidden.] Elijah sent.

[Acknowledged.]

[Yes Elijah.]

[Ten minutes until the transfer is complete.]

[Thank you.] He sent.

Soon Elizabeth and Lydia turned away from the monitor and he was given the green light to proceed. He flexed his power and sent two simple instructions.

[Cut communications.]

[Begin activation sequence.]

“Well I’ll be damned…” Lydia said.

“Congratulations Elijah, you have a near perfect Affinity.” Elizabeth said, turning back to the screen to double check the data.

“What exactly does that mean?” Elijah asked.

“A few different things really. What’s most important though is that you can interact with the VG core with no fatal side effects. Also important, but slightly less so is the ability to transmit instructions to a Vain Glory with very little lag.” Lydia explained.

Elijah blinked slowly in her direction. “You mean there are people out here working with high ping? Jesus.”

Penny stifled a laugh as Lydia gave him a deadpan look.

“Is there anything else you need from me while I’m all hooked up?” Elijah asked.

“No you’re clear, lets move on.” Elizabeth said.

Elijah made sure the transfer had completed before he disconnected and as the last of the group exited the room Lydia shivered and rubbed her arms.