Sigma/Star

Chapter 123: The Bump

Rex was like a stray puppy. He was everywhere on the island, following anyone he found interesting, bouncing between encampments, and touching everything possible. He had been booted around the place, kicked out of almost every area as he pestered people with questions, or accidentally broke something. And every time he was knocked to a different part of the island, Shotuku would be there to scold whomever had kicked him out. 

Porter grumbled through all of it, nearly beaten to death on numerous occasions by Shotuku for scaring off Rex. There was something troubling and unsettling about the youth. Perhaps it was his exuberance towards everything, or the favouritism shown towards him by the elder teacher, but Porter didn't like it. The thing he noticed the most though, the part of Rex that really stuck out to him...

"Like a young Chase, isn't he?"Rick stood next to Porter, sipping at a cup of tea. The man had burst into Porter's thoughts, ending them abruptly right as he had been reaching the same conclusion. "He is brash and bold, daring with Miss Nami, and yet he is eager to learn. It is a slight departure from the departed."

"It's strange, Rick, strange in ways I hadn't imagined-"

"And you don't like it?"Rick tilted his head to glance at Porter before he resumed his drinking. "When I was in my earliest days, training as a Circuit Breaker, I had a rival. We would butt heads daily, always trying to surpass the other, fighting for everything, and he was constantly beating me. Always I was trying to catch up, to show everyone that it was my turn to be the best." Rick paused for a moment, his eyes drifting out over the ocean. "But before I could, he was killed during a mission. Just like that it was over."

"Rick, I'm sorr-"

The man held up his hand, cutting off Porter, and symbolizing that he was not finished. "A year or so later, a new recruit showed up around our facilities. He was a hotshot, young and arrogant, ready to prove he was incredible. I saw so much of my former rival in him, so much of what I had once hated and fought with, and I brought it all out against the rookie. And he bit back, as he should have, until him and I grew to loathe one another. It was only later, walking away from it all, that I realized I had a chance to make it all right, that I had a chance to treat him properly, to shape who he was and work with him, not to simply fight a new fight. Do you see what I mean Porter?"

The teen nodded his head in agreement. "It is a touching tale, with a strong message. It is a shame you made the whole thing up."

"The whole thing," Rick echoed, nodding and sipping at his tea, his hands shaking the entire time, making his ruse quite clear.

"You're an awful liar, but for someone who once tried to kill me, you're a decent friend." Porter patted the man on the back, leaving him to his drink. The story may have been fabricated, but the moral was quite obvious. Rex was not inherently evil just because he was new and favoured; if anything, Rex was a stray, a lost dog looking for affection and direction. If Porter could get his hands on the young boy, could show him the proper path, could make him respect and worship Porter, everything would be fine.

Porter struck out in search of Rex, and it didn't take him long to find him. Unfortunately, the youth was not alone, and was completely surrounded by the other students, who had gathered to admire Rex's Goliath. And so Porter had to shuffle in among them, grumbling to himself about missed opportunities, his attitude immediately shifting back to how Rex was definitely inherently evil and here to steal his thunder. At the very least, Porter did have to admit that Rex's Goliath was an incredible marvel of technology, and it was like nothing he or any of the other students had seen before, save for pictures when studying. 

Since Dalarcya did not have any strong chi users, or even a concept of chi as a whole, the battlesuit was powered only partially by the life force of its pilot. The rest of it was all a feat of engineering, and it showed in the sharp design of the warmachine. Its edges were smooth and round, much like an Artisan craft, yet it was slightly bulky, similar to the Enian constructs. Along its body were channels of blue circuits, coated in bullet-proof glass, and all the networks ran up to the shoulders, equally exposed and capped with glass. The head was a hybrid, the lower half reminiscent of Porter's White Storm, while the upper half was nothing but more circuits. It seemed that the wiring struck a chord with Ardwen, Nami, and Gretta, who had never seen anything like it before, though Porter had no idea just how complex a Dalarcya machine was. He wasn't even sure how complex his own machine was, to be fair.