3 The Son of Soul Gear Part 3

"Deploy your SGT, Victor," Clara said as they walked in front of a repair bay, "And then get off of it, you can do that, ja?"

"I think so," He held out his SGT activator, Lasgi's glove. An SGT activator was an object that was bound to the user's SGT and SG, their actual Soul Gear. The SGT formed around him, the center part held his body with a small exoskeleton that allowed him to control the suit, with two arm controls that controlled the arms of the SGT. His legs were attached to the actual legs of the SGT and controlled them with his movement. SGT moved thanks to wings that created hover forces and boosters to propel the suit forwards, his model lacked wings, so could never hover and couldn't fly, only extend his jumps, so when ranged opponents fought in the air, he was a sitting duck. His model was scrappy, with different types of metal on different sections of the model since he had made it himself and used scrap metal and cheap plates, even if his uncle was a rich man and lived in luxury, he never wanted to give money to his project and only gave money to the limiters to 'protect him' because of his power core. He walked it into the repair bay and the retainers that held him to the suit removed themselves and he hopped down to the floor. Clara put a working harness on and pressed a button on the control pad and the SGT rotated. There were four dense metal plates on the back of the legs of his SGT, they were bright red and had S- written on the corner of each of them. She grabbed an arm of the repair bay with a large screwdriver on the end of it. He watched her climb onto the legs of the SGT and began unscrewing the bottom of the top plates and the plates began shaking as she unscrewed the top screws. She paused and looked at him.

"Are you ready, Victor?"

"Ready for what?"

"Listen," She unscrewed the last plate and it fell like dead weight to the metal floor, bouncing as it hit the floor. A massive clang resonated through the room and caused echoes due to the force of the noise, making Victor jump, "Those are S- limiters, limiters go up to S, they are large weights to limit the power of your power core, nothing else, but now, I have to do these ones," She tapped a button on the working harness and four arms grabbed the limiter and disappeared into a storage room behind the repair bay as two metal doors closed behind the moving piece. She moved down and began unscrewing the last plates that were on the back of the legs of the SGT, "I think you should remove all the plating and replace it, the school has a lot of available sheet metal, so maybe steel, or titanium, what do you think, Victor?"

"Sure, yeah, if you think it is good, then it's probably best," Victor said as he sat down in front of the repair bay, "Are you allowed to do that?"

"Ja, I did that with mine a few months ago, I replaced the steel with titanium to have it be more durable, probably, it will need less for you, since your SGT has no wings," She pointed out, "So less to cover, but without these, Lasgi should be able to fly with the boosters alone without the need for wings," She let the other pieces drop making more loud clangs. Once they were moved away, she climbed down and walked over to the control pad and the SGT moved forwards and spun to face her, "Do you want to help me?"

"Sure, like, what do I do?"

"Take one of those, and put a harness on and we are going to get rid of the metal plates on Lasgi and I'll replace them afterwards."

"I assume we just get rid of the things that hold the metal plates and then remove them, right?"

"Ja, that's it, just look at what I do then, you repeat it, Victor."

"Okay."

Once they had gotten rid of the various types of metal that Victor had used to make the outer shell of his SGT, they climbed down and Clara clicked a button on the control panel. A list appeared and she selected titanium. The pod scanned the SGT entirely and after a few minutes several plates of titanium left the storage room, cut perfectly. Several mechanical arms attached the plates to the SGT. The arms left the repair bay and Clara sat next to Victor.

"What do you think?"

"It certainly looks better than before, probably is better than what I had before," He got up and climbed into the cockpit of the SGT. He grabbed the controls and the SGT locked around him, He walked forwards and noticed the significant weight difference, "It certainly feels lighter."

"That is what should happen, with no limiters, there is no weight stopping your SGT's movement," She said as she walked towards the arena entrance, "Let's start training."

"Sure," He said as she summoned her SGT, "Yours impresses me every time I see it," It was nearly the same size as his, black metal covered most of it. It had two hovering wings above its shoulders. It had a large left guard that she often used to defend herself when she used range and as a second shield when she used melee weapons. Unlike his, she had range and melee, since she didn't make hers, her father had it made for her, with top quality metal and a high quality core, being Double A+.

They walked out into the arena and stood face to face.

"Now, I will do my best to dodge you, and you just need to keep up with me, but please don't actually punch me, okay?"

"Yeah, no problem, but shouldn't we ask the arena control?"

"Arena 2 control to the SGTs in the arena, what do you want to do?"

"Ja, Clara to Arena 2 control, we are training, could you close the arena so that this would be a private training session?"

"Arena 2 control to Clara, of course, but no destruction, have a good training session."

"Thank you," She turned to Victor, "Ask Lasgi to limit your power to S-."

"Why?"

"A Triple S+ power core is unstable, if you use it to much, well, boom."

"Oh, okay, well, when it's put bluntly, Lasgi, did you hear that?"

"Yes, Victor, I will limit your power output, there, S- power and no risk of a 'boom'," She responded.

"Do you want to start? Since, well, you are the person who is leading this."

"Ready?"

"Yep," Clara's SGT lifted from the ground and her wings opened to let her hover. He began running with his SGT and activated his boosters as he jumped.

"Victor, your boosters will now allow you to fly, so watch your step," Lasgi warned him as the boosters activated. He flew towards Clara at a massive speed. She turned at the last moment, dodging him barely.

"This is amazing," Victor said like a little child who was unwrapping his presents at Christmas. He turned around and activated the boosters again and went for her again. She dodged again and again as Victor lunged for her. He landed hard on the ground, sending up a cloud of sand, "This feels so much easier," He looked up at Clara who was hovering off the ground. He noticed her SGT form its gun next to its right arm, she was death staring him as the gun formed. Once it formed, she aimed at him. Victor turned on the boosters and dodged the first round of her railgun, he used his SGT's speed to fly around the arena dodging most of the blasts from her railgun. He closed in towards her and spun, dodging the round she fired at near point-blank range. He tackle her out of the air and brought her crashing to the ground. He realized how much power he put and dismounted from his SGT and climbed onto her downed SGT and went to check on her. She was shook up from the impact, but she rose as he jumped off of it, "Are you okay?" He called to her.

"Ja, ja, I am fine, get back in your SGT, I think I can get a little more serious with you," She smiled at him, "Nice job, but now that I know what you do, maybe I might dodge and attack at the same time."

"Go ahead, if you think it will help me, then I'll do it," He got back in his SGT, "I will try to be more careful, I wouldn't want to hurt you."

"Of course you wouldn't," She smiled at him and they began again.

They trained like that for several hours until Clara was tired. Of course, Victor was exhausted and could barely string a full sentence together without being completely out of breathe. He climbed down from his SGT and sighed, out of breathe. Clara walked next to him and smiled, "Let's go train some more."

"Train, some, more? I am so exhausted," He said as they began walking to the exit of the arena.

"Clara to Arena 2 control, you can re-open the arena, and thank you."

"Arena 2 control to Clara, all clear, have a good day."

They walked together into the gym building, it was 10:30. He hadn't eaten since last night, and the food that Clara had prepared.

After a small warm-up, Clara continued to do cardio and Victor went to work out. Mr. Desportes was training at the punching bag, they were the only three in the gym. He put on gloves and placed weights on the bar for bench press. He lied down under the bar and place himself well under the bar. He put his hands on the bar and began doing presses. After a few, he heard Mr. Desportes talking to him.

"Yo, Victor, wasn't this a day off?"

"One second, let me finish my set," He said as he lowered the bar once more and then placed it on the hold, "What did you ask?"

"Why are you and Clara training?"

"Well, she is helping me train for the spring tournament."

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, what are you doing today?"

"Some bench press, leg press, seated rowing, maybe some deadlift, but probably I will join Clara in cardio, I need to work on that."

"You know your first match is with Catherine, right? She is built for brute force, nothing else, her SGT has a S power core and outputs massive power, I think we should probably train some dodging and fast movement, just to help you."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Deep inside, I want someone to put Catherine in her place, that is why, she might be one of the best in the school but she goes around as if she is the best at everything, even if you can beat her in actual hand to hand combat in impressive manners," He laughed, "Maybe you will beat her in the competition."

"I think I will try to beat her at what she does best."

"In brute strength?"

"Yep, I think one punch will be enough."

"Are you kidding me? Your SGT only has a B+ output."

"Yeah, and?"

"S beat B+."

"I know well, who cares? I'll find something if I ever need it."

"I hope you do."

"You know SGT outputs power based on its core and the user's strength?"

"No, I didn't, you see, unlike you Victor, I am a normal man, no SG capabilities."

"Well, that's nothing, no biggie, I only have one week, one week to make myself into the best SG user of the region and win the competition, no time to waste."