Chapter 22, From Paris with Love.
France, Paris
It was a really early morning for the gantz Tokyo team as they transferred in an abandoned factory in Paris’ suburb. Around them where the usual enormous space dedicated to the various VR training program Takashi established. The most space-eating one being the multiples individual equipment. Each of them consisted of a room, with cables to enable the user to harness all the grantz’ suit capabilities. The room’s walls were animated and controlled by the computer running the simulation. It would model itself to mimic the various surfaces the gantzers could encounter. Vertical walls? Check. Street corners? Check. Sloping roof? Check. The system could accommodate every situation, from industrial type to natural environment. The different individual rooms were linked together to permit a team vs computer or even team vs team match. The could also link themselves with the steering and flight simulators.
Four people were waiting for them when they arrived. The youngest apparently too eager to try the new equipment. The Tokyo members could see a wall-screen display her agility. She was currently climbing a rendition of Notre Dame de Paris, the french capital’s cathedral, people from the future would have said she must follow the creed even during the revolution. Unfortunately, not even Takashi had yet to play to this particular iteration, making the note unsaid forever. The old stone building construction went on for almost two centuries as it started in 1 163. The top part was almost a hundred meter high, riddled with sculptures of creatures, gargoyles, and others. And no, this ones neither sang nor dance. It still remained the most visited monument in Europe and one of the most visited in the world. The french team was cheering for the young girl, as she started from the ground and was able to reach the top of the belfry 69 meters above it in less than a minute.
“Bet won, pay up!” Said the oldest french member, laughing, holding his hand palm up in front of the other two. “You should never underestimate Squirrel when it come to parkour.”
“Ok, you won, don’t be a dick. I will take you out for drinks after the mission. Now take off the smug face and lets welcome our guests.” Said a brawny looking man, with a serious face and a shaved head, looking military.
Takashi and the group were looking at them, each side examining the other one in silence.
“I think your girl up there could go with my last upgrade.” Said the Tokyo leader his eyes focused on the screen.
“Which kind? You talked to us about a whole bunch of them.”
“The kind that would make her a flying squirrel.”
You could count on Takashi to go full tech-mode to break the ice.
“Special delivery”, yelled the last arrival, a blond woman with a turtle neck pullover, jacket and blue jeans, as she put a platter of coffees on top of a box of viennoiseries on a table next to the group.
“Squirrel, get out of here before they loot everything”, said the oldest french guy.
He had a mustache with a beard kept short on his cheeks, his hair in a brush on top of his head. The whole vibe he was giving would have made him the serious university teacher, or the venomous HR director of a company.
“The name is Frederic, oldest one of this bunch.” he pursued.
“Mine is Victor, their leader, firefighter. Then you have Camille the truck driver who just got us food, Richard the jock over there brooding for his part of the lost bet, the never stand-in-place-more-than-five-minutes youngest of the team Zoe in the VR room. We’re missing the last member for the moment.”
Takashi introduced his team at his turn, before the whole group seated itself around the table. The girl from the bet having exited the simulation, squeaking a small hello for the visitors when she saw Takashi and his group. She was really living to her code-name, Squirrel.
They started their discussion, Takashi explaining how all of his improvements worked. Squirrel was looking forward to the one he spoke about.
It was a wing-suit, commonly used in skydiving. The gantz version was doted with a small thruster on it’s back and special gantlets for the arms. As he went along the manual Takashi could see Zoe’s hungry eyes never loosing sight of him. You could physically feel her interest in this particular tech.
Takashi went along both gantz bikes, the normal armored gantz suit and his version of it. And his big suit he called Hulkbuster. (he could use the name, as he showed them the versions from the comics).
Two hours later, he was almost finished when the last member of the french team arrived, sparking a commotion directly.
“It’s me fellas, so at what time do this arrogant japs arrive?”
The silence who answered him didn’t seem to annoy him as he pursued.
“Ah, yeah, the Tokyo team and their useless leader arrived with the rising sun, go figures, at least they won’t waste anymore of my time,” he said as he tried to shake their hands with a bright hypocritical smile.
“Tom, could you stop your usual aggressive and racist behavior please, we could really use their help.” Tried to appease Victor.
“Why should I care, they should just hand over their tech. What? One of this yellow faces got lucky and unlocked their gantz ball? So what? I’m supposed to kneel and suck up to them now? Look at them, they don’t get a world of what I’m saying, not like this bunch would even try to learn how to speak with us” he pursued, with a smug face.
“Hallo, am wearry plized to meat yu”. Said Takashi.
“Yeah, same here nerd.” laughed Tom.
“hao meany languages doo yu spake?”
“Five, and you?”
“Only one. One, zero one, zero, zero. With that I could steal your money, your secrets, your sexual fantasies, your whole life, any country, any place, anytime I want. We multitask like you breathe. I couldn’t think as slow as you if I tried. It’s called the Geek-power, we own the world. F.Y.I. The F.B.I lookalike earpiece you didn’t seem to notice both our teams using have an instantaneous translation program. I could have gone with a wireless one but the cord could help people put it back in place if it ever got unplugged.” Explained Takashi, the French's version of his speech coming from his phone, as Tom didn’t get to use his earpiece yet.
The tall and slim young man in front of him had his face go white with fury, just like his knuckles. He was dying to punch the geek in front of him for standing up to him. Part of it came from the absolute confidence he had in his competences, his fighting capabilities, but most of it came from his temper. Young, he had to grow on the streets, working his ass hard to forge his place under the sun. He didn’t get to be born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The young upstart he faced didn’t have to do anything, winning the heart of an idol along the way. Tom wanted to impose justice, but was blinded by his own ego, as the rest of the people here could see it for what it really was. Jealousy for the position, the money, the power, but above all jealousy about the girl. He only considered himself to be good enough for the angel among mongrels he was seeing.
Wait until the mission start, I will get you killed in no time. Tom thought.
As i said in the last chap, BENEFIT.