Growing Pains: Part 2

[FEB 23, 2015]

Naomi was depressed, she had been for the last week. It turned out she'd been right about her injury as soon as it happened, a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee. Her mom had taken her straight to the emergency room after she'd collapsed, and a quick examination by a doctor confirmed it, no more running, no more heavy exercise, and certainly no more kickboxing until she was healed. Naomi had gone pale when the doctor told her how long that would take, a full six to eight months.

Kickboxing was her main passtime, followed closely by heavy exercise, then by running, now all of them were forbidden. Everything wasn't all bad though, because after some convincing her mother had allowed her to keep going to the gym to watch the classes from the sidelines, if she couldn't participate she could at least learn by watching.

While she was watching her fellow students she would find herself looking out the window to the public library across the street. The crowds had died down a lot since that first day, but people were still coming in and out of the library regularly. Despite people telling her about the simulation constantly she had yet to try it, she looked to her class, then to the library and sighed. Naomi stood up and got her crutches, then hobbled her way out of the door.

With a bit of a racket caused by her crutches Naomi pushed open the door to the library and looked around inside. She hadn't been in since the simultors were installed, but it was the same way she remembered it, a quiet, well maintained building. It seemed busier than she remembered, and it was, people had come for the simulators and stayed for the books.

She poked around and found the simulators in the back, with a short line to use them. Naomi had thought it would be longer, given the nonstop talk about the Pilot Trainers, but most people had simply given up after not being able to progress. People kept eyeing Naomi's crutches and the brace on her knee while she waited in line, wanting to ask what happened, but not wanting to be rude. The person in the simulator slid the door open and climbed out dejectedly, clearly having just lost. Naomi watched him go and crutched up to the next spot in line as the next victim entered. She thought to herself as the door closed

'What could be so hard about this?'

After only five minutes she heard a muffled voice from inside

"No!"

The door opened once again and once again a defeated pilot stepped out of the simulator.

Naomi was next in line.

She leaned her crutches against the rear of the large white machine and peered into the darkness inside. While Naomi didn't like video games she could still tell the simulator was well built, it actually looked very comfortable inside. Bending her knee to slide into the long seat made her wince, but the pain went away when she got seated.

The fresh faced pilot looked around the cockpit and examined the alien looking controls. She took a breath and pulled the door shut like the people before her, causing the center screen to come to life and the keypad to glow. She entered her name and social security number into the fields and pressed enter, a message appeared telling her to pull down the EEG crown suspended above her head and put it on, she did it.

The screen faded to black.

Naomi placed her hands on the controls and her feet on the pedals and waited.

After a moments delay all three screens faded in and Naomi was transported to a 75 meter tall robot in the middle of a city, with an equally massive foe standing across from her. It immediately dawned on her that she had no idea what she was doing, she'd never so much as read a manual for the simulators, much less piloted one. Butterflies started to manifest in her stomach, she felt exactly the same as the first time she'd stepped into the ring with another fighter. She reminded herself that it wasn't real, the graphics weren't even that convincing, but a deep rumble through the speakers around the headrest drew her attention back to the game.

Her opponent had taken a step forward.

Naomi instinctively pressed the pedal under her right foot, she felt her seat rumble and noticed a small armature display in the virtual cockpit had lifted its left leg at the knee.

Her opponent had taken another step, the distance was closing and she'd only managed to shift her weight.

Naomi looked down at her hands and pressed the analog stick on her left thumb forward, the armature moved it's left foot in the same direction. She released the pedal and the foot planted itself with another rumble, she looked back up and the opposing robot was only one more step away, already pulling its fist back for a strike. Naomi swore and pulled back hard on the right control stalk, imagining a high block in her head. To her surprise the armature did exactly what she was imagining, as the opposition was pushing its fist straight towards Naomi's pilot seat her own robot's huge arm eclipsed her view and swung into place… about half a second too early.

The massive fist sailed right under her arm and directly into the viewscreens, causing a loud crunch and a violent rumble. Naomi flinched and saw only blue sky when she looked back to the screens, a single strike had made her lose her balance and topple over backwards. Once again she was reminded of that first time in the ring, but this time she didn't know how to stand up.

A shadow went over her as the enemy knelt down to deal the killing blow, it raised its fist into the air and brought it down directly onto her cockpit.

Everything went black.

Red text appeared on the screen:

TERMINATED

Catastrophic damage sustained

Projected SR: 18%

That was it.

No score, no leaderboard, just failure.

Darkness again as the machine reset for the next person in line.

Naomi pulled the door open and stepped out of the simulator, the next person in line wasn't looking at her crutches or brace this time, but at her face. A grin stretched from ear to ear, she may have felt the nervousness and the defeat she'd felt on that first day in the ring, but she also felt something else from that day.

Passion.