Chapter 43 Training Begins
True to his word and to everyone's dismay waltfeld woke the four of them up at 5am. Taking them to the gym onboard Heliopolis, he led them through a series of stretches before pointing at the track. "Nice and easy warm up, just a 2 mile run, then we can get startes." He grinned.
They ran around the track the 2 miles. Cassandra, being in the best shape, was far ahead, Kitty not far behind her. Megan was pouting as she ran, Wlatfeld had caught her trying to fly and added a lap. Mike was last. He had never seriously trained his body, and it showed. But he was determined to finish. As he collapsed, having finished the run, Waltfeld walked up. "Mobile suits are hard on the body, Gundams even more so. That's why you need to stay in good shape."He paused, looking at them. "2 Minute rest, then we will go inside the gym and begin lifting."
True to his word, after 2 minutes, he led them inside, They saw Dick Grayson and Stephanie Brown in the gym working out. After greeting them, Waltfeld set the four to a rigorous weight program that lasted an hour. They were given an hour to shower, change, and eat.
The rest of the morning was dedicated to classroom lessons on the mobile suits. Tactics, weapons, weaknesses, and transport, everything they might need to know. At lunch, Waltfeld asked when Mike had his meeting. "At 1500hrs." Mike replied.
" Then, from the end of lunch to 1430hrs, we are going to spar in some Zakus." Waltfeld declared.
True to his word, they got into 4 Zakus in a portion of Heliopolis that was unused at the moment. "All 4 of you against me." Waltfeld said, "Hand to hand weapons only we can practice with the ranged weapons another time." He then pointed to 4 training weapons he had Mike summon the night before.
Picking up the weapons, Kitty asked, "4 on 1, are you sure?"
A grin came over Waltfeld's face. "Prove me wrong, then," he replied, picking up another training ax. When the spar began, he showed them just how outclassed they were. The 4 of them could barely get a strike in. He moved as if the mobile suit was a part of him manipulating them into attacking each other. By the time they were done, the 4 zakus looked like they had been through a major battle. His still looked new.
"Rest of the day off, kids see you bright and early. He then wandered off. After putting the Zakus back in the hangar bay, Mike went to the meeting. When he sat down, Tony said, "Whats up, kid, you look worried."
"We have a major problem." Mike awnsered.
"More than normal?" Bruce asked in a rare show of sarcasm.
Mike then explained, "An expiremental Gundam escaped. I have no idea where."
Silence permitted the table before Reed said, "Mind running that by us again?"
Mike sighed, "What I'm about to tell you is top secret. You guys have been close to me for a while now, Bruce Cassandra probably would have filled you in anyway, so here it goes."
Pausing to compose his thoughts. "My power allows me access to knowledge from another world. Using it, I modify it and try to use it for the betterment of this world. One piece of tech I was given the schematics foe was a piece of nanotech known as the Devil Gundam. It had gone haywire in its native world as the result of a group of greedy assholes. I believe the technology could be used for exploration or high-risk mining and resource gathering."
"This thing went berserk, and you thought it a good idea to bring it here?" Bruce asked, clearly angry.
"No, not at first. I merely had the schematics. I could never get the AI to stabilize, so it was never supposed to be in production." Mike explained.
"Somehow, there was an error in the automated lab, and a few DG cells were created. They multiplied quietly, and by the time I knew what was going on, it fled to deep space." Mike scratched his head nervously. "I have every resource available looking for it."
"Really?"Tony asked, exasperated. "You couldn't have brought this up with is sooner?"
"Like I said, it was never even supposed to be built till I had the AI fixed." Mike tried to explain himself.
"Mike, this isn't like losing a school assignment. we are going to need all of the data you have on that thing." Reed said gravely.
"And you need to let us know now if there is anything else going on we need to know about." Bruce said seriously. "Once is a mistake. Pick yourself up, and we will deal with it. Twice is negligence."
Mike could agree with that, and he needed their trust back, so he showed them the handful of top secret plans he was still working on. They stopped at Project starchaser for a minute. "This requires an AI as well. They pointed out.
"The AI isn't programmed yet." Mike responded. "Besides, if you have a pilot capable of withstanding the forces, then it is just another Gundam."
The meeting went on for another 4 hours, and Mike sent them home with all the data he. had available on the Devil Gundam and promised to let them know if he discovered its where abouts.