All of us were packed up into a large van under gun point and driven to a bunker. Once there, we were brought inside and then to the holding bay. Each of the 10 MTMs were tall and imposing. They were yellow, orange and egg white now. Apparently, those were the colors of the flag of the country. Each pair got assigned an MTM. Kody and Karl, the twins, got number 1 as they were the ones with the highest Synchronization Rate. That was a high honor for them. Shane and I got number 6. Paul and Kira got number 7. Mark and John were given number 5. Oliver and Henry got number 9. Goldie and Clara got number 10. Alex and Sara Masters were a pair of siblings that got number 2. It seemed being related helped with the Synchronization Rate. Chelsea and Ryan received number 3. Felix and Charlie got number 4. Danielle and Rachel were the only female only pair. They had the number 8 mech. I was happy with how this all shook out. Our group was altogether, and we were doing well. I still needed to see how hard it would be to actually fight a giant from another dimension. It could be tough.
Being that we had access to the real thing, we were told to activate them. We now had to practice both moving and combat in the MTMs. We had to take flight of stairs to reach the scaffolding where the cockpits were. They all were centered in the chest. It was where the most armor was for this reason. They opened up to both our palm scans. I was a bit surprised at that. They had been registered to us in advance. Once the chest cavity was open, we saw the pristine white cockpit. I was a Top, so I went to my seat. Shane looked around the cockpit a bit. The chest cavity closed itself up when I sat down. Shane looked at me and asked if I was nervous. I shook my head. It would probably be the same as last time. That is what I told him. He seemed to take that to heart. He got in position in front of me. The monitor could be heard falling as we closed our eyes. I was able to make more matches than last time. I got 43 matches this time. That meant 86%. Shane was still at 74%. It seemed the NPCs had the same level every time unless paired with someone with a specialty or did a special training.
Catching those extra matches brought the Synchronization Rate to 64%. I opened my eyes and watched his bar increase. Due to my skills, his yellow bar raised to make the Synchronization Rate rise by 10%. He grunted out loud as his body clenched up. It sounded a bit painful. His bar skyrocketed all the way to 86%. It actually matched mine here. "MTM Synchronization Rate 74%." the monitor reported. I heard the hiss coming from Shane's waist and I saw the handles with the controls extend to me. I felt warm and tingly all over my body. It was even better than the last time. Shane felt the same way and I could tell that he was probably hard. I took hold of the controls and tried to take a few steps. The MTM had some delay because the Synchronization Rate was not 100%. However, there was something about the way we were able to stomp around as a giant robot. All of the others began to come online. Now that we were walking around, it was time to do some combat. As a Top, I had to be the one to use the weapons and maneuver around the place. I liked using all the giant rifles and lances.
