"That’s a dragon! It’s so cool!"
"Holy shit, that dragon is huge!"
"I want to ride one of those! Look at its wings! Damn, this is awesome!"
The trip towards the Giverna Valley was filled with excited exclamations from the teenage pilots of the Zen Mechas as they watched the dragons flying beside them! This was the coolest thing they had ever seen! The people of Varigan were already used to seeing and fighting against monsters since they had faced the Lynx many times before, but there was nothing that could have prepared them for the sheer majesty of a literal dragon! Jason had sent out Ragnar and a few other low-ranking dragons to serve as scouts in case any danger was approaching, and the Sovereign and his dragon, Trigon, were also patrolling further back in case someone tried to sneak up on them from behind.
"Hey, are you sure we can really trust these people? Are we sure they are really from another world?"
One of the mecha pilots, a chubby boy who piloted a large purple Zen mecha along with a cute girl who wore large glasses, spoke up with a frown on his face. The chubby boy didn’t like Jason right from when he laid eyes on him, and he felt a bit of mistrust seeping into him! But the girl beside him just rolled her eyes at him! She knew that the only reason the boy was speaking up was because of how Hayley had been all over Jason earlier and how Gina had attacked Hayley for it. It was obvious that most boys in the Zen program had massive crushes on Hayley, so the girl could smell jealousy from a mile away!
"Just focus on moving and stop thinking nonsense. If the higher-ups say that it’s okay, then it’s okay."
The girl with glasses spoke disinterestedly, and the chubby boy huffed as he refocused on piloting the mecha.
"Hey, Haruto! Can you focus!? I can’t drive this thing properly cause you’re so distracted!"
Rei shouted at Haruto in anger as she tried to make their Zen stay stable! Haruto had been looking at the dragons flying around them in awe, and Rei felt her eye twitch when he didn’t even look at her when she called for him! Rei roared in anger, and she immediately leaned over and bit his shoulder hard!
"Holy fuck! What the hell!? Did you just bite me, you dog!?"
"Focus on me, you bastard! I’ll crash this Zen and kill us both if you keep getting distracted!"
"You animal! What sort of person just goes around biting people!?"
Inside a military vehicle driving behind the Zen, James leaned forward and turned off the communication device connecting them to the Zen pilots when Haruto and Rei started to curse each other out, and he apologised to Jason and Gina sheepishly.
"Sorry about them. They just became partners, so they’re still getting used to each other."
James was the one driving the large military vehicle across the wilderness with Hayley sitting in the passenger seat beside him, and behind them, Jason and Gina were seated together. Hayley was extremely disappointed in Haruto and Rei, and she gave James an annoyed look that said they would be talking about this later! James was the team handler, so he was meant to be responsible for keeping them in line! Hayley was trying to make sure they put their best foot forward in front of these two, and James’ problem children were ruining that! Hayley smiled at the couple through the rear-view mirror and spoke.
"Those two are just some of our more troublesome children. We have plenty of other cadets that are very promising."
Jason just huffed silently at Hayley’s words. Jason didn’t really care to comment on Haruto’s and Rei’s attitudes. Even though Jason himself was also a teenager and he was likely only a year or two older than Haruto and Rei, Jason knew that he was just too mature for his age. The way Haruto and Rei were behaving right now was perfectly normal behaviour for most teenagers.
’Hey, babe. I can see that look in your eyes again. You’re planning something.’
Gina spoke up when she saw the way Jason had been staring at the mecha robots that were moving ahead of them, and Jason hummed before smiling calmly. Gina just knew him far too well.
’I’m just really impressed by those robots. I’ve never seen anything like them before.’
’That’s not what I’m talking about.’
Gina gave Jason a look, and Jason just shrugged. Gina knew that Jason had already sent some subordinates to look for the Pharynx that was in the centre of this world, and this was because Jason was planning to help the humans of Varigan to take care of the Pharynx. In truth, Gina was very torn at this moment. Gina knew that Jason was more than strong enough to take care of whatever this monster was, and she also knew that it would be a good thing to help the humans here take care of it, but on the other hand, Gina knew that they were being chased down by the Machina and spending time here might just give the Machina a better chance of catching up.
Jason and Gina had been on the road for nearly two weeks now, and they had been through some of the most beautiful as well as the strangest worlds out there! There was one world that was made up of giant black widow spiders, and they stumbled on one of the females eating the males after having sex. There was another world where they ran into a giant in medieval armour that had immediately attacked them because he thought they had come to harm his master, and one world even had the concept of ’gravity’ being inverted. So ’up’ became ’down’ and vice versa. Thankfully, they appeared within a tunnel when they entered that world, so they were able to anchor themselves to the ground to prevent flying off to the sky.
But through all this, Gina and Jason had both been moving really quickly to try and lose the Machina, and right now, Gina was almost certain that they had already lost them. But spending any significant amount of time in this world might allow the Machina to catch up to them again before long. Gina looked at Jason, and she saw the nonchalant look on his face before she sighed and decided to accept Jason’s plan. Gina was also really tired of simply running away from the Machina, and she was sure that helping the humans of Varigan would allow them to unwind a little. If the Machina managed to catch up to them, then Gina was sure that they could take care of them. Gina finally turned to Hayley and asked a question.
"Do you only use children to pilot those things? Wouldn’t it be better to use adults since they’re more mature?"
Gina frowned after this question, and she waited for an answer. Gina wanted to be sure that these children weren’t just being used as child soldiers. Hayley looked at the frown on Gina’s face and swallowed slightly. Hayley knew that she had to be careful of how she answered here. People who weren’t from this world might not understand why they had to do what they were doing.
"We only use teenagers to pilot the Zen since they have the highest Zen compatibility index. A pilot needs to form a mental link with their Zen before they can pilot it, and teenagers are just the best age group for the job. The last time we experimented with adults in the Zen, the adults nearly lost their minds from the mental overload."
Gina frowned at this piece of information, and she leaned to the side and put her head on Jason’s shoulder while ignoring Hayley’s gaze. That answer was good enough for Gina, so Gina didn’t have any more issues with this! Gina closed her eyes to get some rest before they got to the next Dimensional Tear, and Jason smiled before he spoke to Hayley calmly.
"We understand what you mean, no need to worry. Tell me more about the Pharynx. What do you know about it?"