2024-08-11: Sensing Evil Star
- Cast: Sousuke Sagara, Kaname Chidori
- Where: Team Crossbow Hangar, Huffman Island
- Date: U.C. 0099 08 11
- Summary: Seconds before a match starts, recent reunions make Sousuke falter.
The moment is coming soon. The enemy has to have sensed them.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Private spaces are rare, for Sousuke and Kaname right now. The only 'office' they really have is set up at the back of the Crossbow's hangar; thanks to some knife-based shenanigans Sousuke got into with another arena contestant, right now they're stuck staying with Nami and Michel Lemon in a single hotel room so they can sleep somewhere with guards who at least don't take *cheap* bribes. (Sousuke is sleeping under the bed, of course.) But...
Fortunately, every so often, there's a chance. Sousuke is suited up in preparation for a match, sitting in Crossbow's cockpit as they run down precheck.
The bootup screen identifies itself as AL II, a customization Sousuke made himself that he hasn't talked about beyond his initial request. But while that's happening, he looks up to the rim, where his trusty computer engineer is working. "Yuta came by the other day. I don't believe I mentioned."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname's sitting on the edge of Crossbow's cockpit, one leg dangling inside, the other braced against the edge. There's a laptop resting on her thigh, and she's got one eye on the rapid scroll of diagnostic data as it boots. "Hibiki?" she asks, one eyebrow raised. "What's he doing here? Didn't really expect him to stay all up in Akane and friends' business after Gridman left..."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke leaves the Master Arms unlocked for now; they have quite some time before it's time for the actual match. No need to strap in just yet. It leaves him room to tap a few commands in. The Rk-91 doesn't have nearly the voice command input functions that he got used to with the M9-series...he has to make adjustments by hand, if he's making them. "He didn't," he says. "It seems he's doing freelancing work. He was driving our parts shipment, the other day." He holds up a business card - the SSSS Yuta Company, with an emblem that might just scan as Gridman's face, if you'd seen it to know it. "From what he said, it seems he's been doing his best to find his own way since Gridman left him."
Hm. His eyes turn down. "Even Akane and the Gridman Alliance seem to have moved into official service," he says, some unnameable frustration clawing at him.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname takes the card from Sousuke and looks for a long moment at it. "SSSS... heh. I'm glad to see he's figured something out, at least." She hands it back to him, and pauses. "Wait. Really? Who are they with?" she asks, sounding a little worried.
A pause, and she glances at her laptop. "Oh. Right, Nami mentioned the right elbow was sticking a little on the high end--we might want to bring down the torque limits a little bit so it doesn't seize." There's a small sigh. "Probably just need to get more lube on the bearings, but she didn't want to pull the whole thing apart the day of the fight."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"The Grand Glorious Guard," Sousuke says, entirely seriously because what's funny about the name, huh?? Nothing. "The OCU alien and kaiju-response organization," he clarifies. "It's not outside their experience, but still..."
He keeps his thoughts quiet, partly because he has so much trouble knowing himself. But maybe Kaname can tell it bothers him; people they've known in peace finding themselves at war. A peace he himself can't return to while he and Kaname are hunted.
He glances to the readouts. "Mmm. I see it. Agreed; let's bring the limits in slightly. It shouldn't be a problem for one match." He taps a few other things. "I mainly use the left side for stabilizing," he adds.
Then he also adds: "We're rising quickly..." and makes a quiet face. Maybe seeing Yuta made him think of it all again. "...I expect Amalgam will approach us about the illegal battles soon. It...might be time we talk to Nami."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname looks at Sousuke for a long moment. "... Unless something big's changed, it's still 3G. They're not just soldiers going to war." She frowns, though. She'd like to check in on them, for Sousuke's sake if nothing else... but with Amalgam's attention likely growing, it's a bad time.
She wants to be here with Sousuke... but she misses her old life. Her thoughts turn to their friends from back then... when it's all over, will they accept Sousuke and Kaname again? She can't help wondering, the way everyone talked to them that day at the stadium.
"Yeah. Good idea," she replies simply, tapping out a few commands on the laptop.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Sousuke sits for a quiet few moments with that. He's rarely been the type of man to speak when he, at least, didn't know what he wanted to say. The problem being that so much of what he says doesn't seem to make sense to anyone else, of course. He reaches forward and thumbs a few toggles, starting up warmup procedures. "We haven't run into any match-fixing problems yet, but I imagine it's a matter of time. Please be careful."
He grips a control rod, testing the hand tracking. The Crossbow's fingers bend obediently. "We've seen the kinds of things they'll do if they think it will force our hand. Our only protection while we're here is audacity."
His eyes cast down, briefly, thinking of the injuries - the bombs...the army Amalgam brought against them, the day Euphemia and the world both went mad.
"I'll take you back there," he whispers. "I promise."
Fire enters his eyes and his jaw sets, tension shooting through him. "Once you're safe. Once Leonard Testarossa is dead."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname looks over at Sousuke when he says he'll take her back. Is she that easy to read?
She lays a hand on his shoulder and nods. "We just have to keep going. As long as we survive, we can make it back, right?" There's a moment's pause. "...How much do we tell her? I'm pretty sure we can trust Nami at this point, but it's still a risk..."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Every so often, Sousuke manages to figure out someone else's thoughts. Or, at least, be thinking the same thing at about the same time. A gloved hand comes up, resting on hers. The thin shaft of light casting into the cockpit from the ceiling lights is interrupted only by her silhouette. "Yeah," he agrees.
"If we need to use Crossbow, we won't have much of a leg to stand on for secrecy," he says. "But she'd be quite right to tell us to keep her out of our private war, too." He grimaces. "And then we're at square one again. We have to handle this carefully. I wonder how much further we could even go before someone takes exception to us in a way more dangerous than thugs at the bus stop."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname just smiles for a moment, leaning in to give Sousuke a smooch on the cheek.
"We'll need to plan for being turned down... but we can't wait. We need to tell her while things are still pretty calm," asserts Kaname. "If we do, we risk putting her in danger, fucking up our trust, aaaand then she tells us to fuck off anyway."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The contact seems to settle him, and he pats her hand again. "Agreed," he says, looking up with that smile he only gets when the strain is low. "Better she finds out from us than an Amalgam assassin turning up with half the police force."
The machine shakes, dong dong from a wrench bonking the armor.
"Oi!" comes the voice of Asch, Crossbow's head mechanic. "Save the cute stuff for later! Match is in five!"
"We'll work it out with her after the fight, then!" Sousuke says, changing modes in a moment. He puts his hands into the Master Sleeves, the heavy wrist-and-arm cuffs that translate his motion to Crossbow's. "It appears it is nearly time for the operation."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
"Right." Kaname unplugs the laptop from Crossbow's service port, yelling down, "Software check's all clear! We're ready to go!" with a thumbs-up. She leans in, giving Sousuke another kiss, this time on the lips. "Good luck out there, tiger. Fuck 'em up." She winks.
Kaname hops off the mech, catwalk rattling as she makes her way down to ground level, flashing him a grin and a thumbs-up!