Vincent slowly woke up from his slumber. His mind was foggy and he could barely feel anything. As his eyes began to perceive more details about his surroundings, he discovered that he was surrounded by white.
White ceiling, White bulkheads, White furniture. White bed.
“This.. where am I? Why do I feel so.. fuzzy?”
“Vincent! You’re finally awake!”
He looked to the side, only to see his girlfriend looking at him with concern and happiness.
As she was wearing a hazard suit right now, Vincent figured out that not a lot of time had passed since he was forcibly put to sleep.
“The battle..?” He weakly groaned.
Raella Larkinson smiled at him in a reassuring manner. “It’s all over. We’ve won. While the losses we’ve suffered are considerable, I’m glad you’re not among them. You’re a hero, Vincent. You stepped up when it mattered the most. You confronted the Trost head-on despite facing an overwhelmingly superior mech and mech pilot. Everyone in the clan recognizes how much courage it took to face an enemy that could have easily crushed you like a bug.”
The memories flowed back into Vincent. If his body wasn’t so weak, he would have jumped out of his bed!
“I fought an expert mech!” He shouted in shock. “Not only that, I survived!”
He knew how fortunate he was for being able to wake up like this and face his girlfriend with his mind intact. Thousands of other mech pilots had fought against the enemy expert mechs as well and did cruel and unjust deaths.
Expert mechs were too powerful!
Every attack aimed at them either stopped in front of their resonance shields or bounced harmlessly off their fantastic armor.
Whenever an expert mech made a move, it could easily tear through the defenses of any standard mech as if they were made of leaves.
Expert mechs and standard mechs didn’t even belong in the same category of machines. Vincent barely remembered what was going through his head when he pushed himself to fight against the Trost and actually managed to fare better than most.
“Wait a minute.. Didn’t I advance to expert candidate?”
It was only now that he recognized that something inside of him had changed. As his mind slowly cleared up even further, he instinctively felt a source of strength that matched the descriptions of what he read about expert candidates.
“I committed to something?” He looked puzzled.
It was common knowledge among mech pilots that expert candidates and expert pilots always dedicated themselves to a certain goal, principle or ideal. This was the source and foundation of their extraordinary will and dedication.
When Vincent explored the changes in his mind, he felt as if he had become larger than life as soon as he thought about his masculinity.
When he fought against the Trost, he felt compelled to face the threat as a man. He despised the thought of being regarded as a coward and a boy. The fear of being regarded as a failure overcame his fear of death!
That wasn’t all. The last thing he wanted to do was to validate the stereotype that Hexers held towards men like him. A part inside him and his mech wanted to prove to everyone that men were more than savage monsters or incompetent little boys.
As death loomed closer to Vincent, he resolved to become more than an average mech pilot! He wanted to become stronger and achieve fame as the manliest mech pilot in human space!
Perhaps a normal mech pilot would feel ashamed at this aspiration, but Vincent only felt pride as he imagined becoming known throughout the galaxy.
This was what a real mech pilot should pursue!
He held no doubts about himself anymore. He knew who he was as a person. All of the doubts and confusion in his mind had faded away. No matter what uncertainties he might have, he knew that he would never get lost as long as he stayed true to his heart!
“I am a man.” He declared with steel in his voice.
He felt greater and stronger than ever before. It was as if he had previously been muddling around without knowing what he wanted to do in his life.
He didn’t need to drift around any longer. After spending his life as a descendant of a rich family, a rebel cadre, a hero of the Sand War and a member of the Larkinson Clan, he finally settled the matter of his identity once and for all. A smile settled on his face as he embraced his new truth.
He was a man.
“What are you smiling about?” Raella sharply poked his arm.
“Huh? Can’t I enjoy a moment to myself? I’m an expert candidate now! I’m a hero!”
“You idiot. Don’t you know what this means? You can’t take part in our competitive circuit anymore. You’re too strong now! Team Solo Vincent will have to go on without Vincent from now on because it will just be bullying if you duel against the other contenders.”
His eyes widened. “Damn! I didn’t think about that!”
He wasn’t a normal mech pilot anymore. Even though his new strength paled in comparison to that of a genuine expert pilot, he was still capable of performing above the level of a normal human mech pilot.
As long as this was the case, it wouldn’t be fair anymore for him to bully around others who fought like children in his perspective.
While he looked forward to his vastly-improved performance, he lamented the end of his brief and short career as a mech athlete.
He suddenly remembered something else.
“Wait.. what happened to my Adonis Colossus? I remember that my mech collided right into the enemy expert mech. Is my mech still…?”
Raella shook her head. “It’s not in a good shape. Let me show you how it looks after we picked it up from space.”
She tapped the wrist of her suit, causing a projection to appear that displayed a very vivid depiction of a ruined mech.
The Adonis Colossus was no longer as grand as before. It had lost its masculine contours and its pleasing appearance. Vincent’s heart bled as almost nothing of the mech’s frontal structure was left intact. The straight collision not only crushed and distorted the entire front of the frame, but also squashed much of the internals.
“I’ve spoken to a mech designer who was surveying the damage.” Raella carefully said. “She said that while it is technically possible to restore the Adonis Colossus, it’s too difficult to bring it close to its original condition without involving a mech designer who is much more skilled than an average Apprentice. As the mech is Ves’ work to begin with, his involvement is essential.”
That was basically impossible. The patriarch wasn’t under anyone’s beck and call. He had much more important matters on his agenda. While it was true that the Adonis Colossus was his personal work, Ves had moved on to greater and more impressive mech design projects.
“He won’t bother with fixing up an old third-class mech.” Vincent sighed in disappointment. “Our clan urgently needs both second-class mechs and expert mechs. Even I know better than to take up his time with a request to fix the Adonis Colossus.”
Raella silently nodded. As a figure of authority within the Larkinson Clan, she understood this reality even more. The battle just now had painfully demonstrated to her and fellow clansmen what it was like to bring cannon fodder mechs in a fight involving lots of high-quality machines!
The two briefly discussed the changes in Vincent’s life and what mech he should pilot next now that the Adonis Colossus was trashed.
“I haven’t heard any mention of a hybrid mech from the Design Department, so you’ll probably have to wait until the mech designers complete the Bright Warrior IB to pilot something that fits you somewhat.”
Vincent had gotten used to piloting a mech with a myriad of integrated weapon systems, so he didn’t really look forward to getting back to piloting specialized mechs.
“The basic mech types are too boring to me. I don’t think that any of them reflect my current piloting style.”
“Hey, it’s not that bad. Just like the original version, the new Bright Warriors are all modular in nature. You can switch loadouts whenever you feel like fighting in a different way than before.”
That hardly sounded ideal to Vincent. He knew that it took a fair amount of time to switch a Bright Warrior configuration. What he truly wanted was to have multiple options at his disposal during battle. As far as he was concerned, this was the key to surviving on the battlefield!
Just because he aspired to become the ultimate man didn’t mean he was eager to throw away his life! He did not look forward to repeating his earlier life-threatening confrontation against the Trost!
As time passed by, Vincent felt more vigorous. His strength came back and he felt eager to hop out of his bed!
“Let’s get out of here!” He declared while grinning saucily at his lover. “We just survived a huge battle. Do you know what that means? We should celebrate our victory in style!”
Strangely enough, his girlfriend panicked. “Wait, Vincent! Don’t go up yet! There’s something you need to know!”
He didn’t listen to her. His thoughts had already strayed to the inevitable party that the Larkinsons would host on the 12th deck.
However, as he tried to push his body off the recovery bed, he strangely stayed in place.
“What’s going on?” Confusion marred his face.
He drew back his blanket, only to learn why he wasn’t feeling anything below his waist.
“WHAAAAAHH??! MY LEGS! WHERE ARE MY LEGS!”
Vincent discovered to his horror that the area below his stomach was covered by some white machine. It covered his entire waist and conspicuously did not leave any room for a pair of legs.
Unless the high-tech brace possessed a dimensional space pocket, the sight basically indicated that his legs were gone!
“Your legs were amputated.” She told him. “When the rescue party pulled you out of your ruined cockpit, your lower body was in bad shape. When the cockpit of the Adonis Colossus became compressed, the interior essentially squashed your legs. While your piloting suit tried its best to keep you stable and alive, your situation was deteriorating by the minute. In order to prevent further damage and minimize the risk of death, your rescuers had no choice but to…”
She lifted her palm and made a sawing motion, causing Vincent to wince.
He suddenly recalled an even more important matter.
“Wait.. when they separated my lower body from my upper body, did they.. cut my third leg as well?”
His girlfriend fell silent. Vincent’s heart sunk all the way to the bottom. Had his worst fears come true?
Just the thought of it alone almost caused his will to shatter! How could he regard himself as the ultimate man if he no longer possessed the organ that served as the core of self-image?
Vincent felt as if he had already descended into hell! Losing his manhood was a fate that was worse than death in his eyes!
“Hahaha!” Raella suddenly laughed. “You should see the look on your face!”
“What’s going on?! Did I lose it or not?!”
“It’s still there, Vincent! It didn’t get crushed when the front of the cockpit pressed up against your lower body! Your third leg is too small for that, hahaha!” Raella wheezed.
Vincent coughed. While he was happy with this news, he didn’t like how Raella left him in the dark for so long.
He truly worried about his future as a man for a moment!
“Don’t be such a baby, you big hero. An injury like this will only inconvenience you for a couple of weeks. The docs are already regrowing a new pair of legs for you. They can grow an additional organ while they are at it. Still, I do have to say you’ve lucked out this time.”
Once he heard how close he came to losing his most sensitive organ, Vincent immediately made a vow to himself.
“I’ll wear a solid codpiece next time. I’m not going to go out anymore without wearing sufficient protection!”
