The Mage of Primordial Chaos

"… Wait. Your work?" I couldn't help but speak up at this. "You mean… you made these?"

Doc gave a nod, a look of surprise on her face.

"Yeah. Problem?"

"Uh… no… not particularly…"

Truth to be told, I was very surprised. To think someone as messy and disorganized as her could design and create impressive robots like this. I suppose my earlier hunch was right—despite some of these teachers having weird or unorthodox personalities for a 'teacher', they are all very well-versed in their craft. In other words, although they may not be the best at teaching, they are very good at what they do.

"So… we'll be riding these Hexdroids into battle against the Hex?" Feng Mian asked, raising her hand. "How do they function, exactly?"

"Well, these babies in particular? No," Doc said, answering the first question. "These ones are simply prototypes. They can be used, but definitely aren't capable of withstanding actual combat for the time being. I'm working on the real thing, but I have to teach too, so it'll take a while. Still, these should last for simple training purposes, which is what this class will be all about until I finish the designs of the real things."

"I see…"

"And as for how they function… heheh, follow me."

Saying that, Doc headed down the hangar, between the lines of mechs on either side of her. The rest of us followed, gaping in awe at the machines all around us. Compared to the size of everything in this place, we felt like ants traversing through the world of humans. Just reaching the end took so long, and in all honesty, even the smaller models towered over us like a mountain.

Finally, however, we arrived at the last row, between two massive mechs just like the others. This time, however, while the right one was the same as any other, the left was 'open'. By that, I don't mean it was broken or anything. I just meant that every part on the mech that could be 'activated' was, activated.

"This is going to be our lesson subject for today," Doc said. "A basic overview of the different parts of the Hexdroid. Tomorrow, I'll teach you children how to actually operate them, but for now, let's discuss its functionalities and capabilities."

Saying this, she snapped her fingers, and suddenly, the ground below us rose up like an elevated platform, taking us by surprise as we were lifted into the air until we were at eye-level with the mech, before stopping in place.

"This is the head of the Hexdroid," the Doc explained. "These optical sensors here are honed with incredible detection capabilities, including simple stuff like night vision and underwater vision. However, its true strength lies in its AR technology—augmented reality."

At this, the students were all confused. This was fresh terminology to them, and quite frankly, I was a bit puzzled as well. Augmented reality usually referred to interact with real-world objects through a virtual platform, but I fail to see how that works here.

"Essentially, what this does, when toggled, is turn the world into one of black and blue," Doc explained with a wink. "All objects will be turned blue and highlighted, while everything else—the environment, the sky—will be turned black—invisible. This will make it easy for you to see threats, especially in a situation of chaos. In addition, these ears here? Heheh, they're built to mute any unimportant sounds, and allow you to focus on your fellow students' comms and footsteps and attacks of enemies. Great, isn't it?"

When no response came, simply due to the students being too busy marveling at the appearance of the mech, Doc didn't seem particularly displeased and instead carried on, snapping her fingers again. This time, the platform rose even higher, until they were above the mech's head, which, by the way, had been 'opened'. As in the top of the head was gone, revealing its interior workings.

And inside… was a chamber, not unlike that of a pilot's in an airplane. It was like a cockpit with a comfortable-looking chair and everything, only… uh… there was something else in there too. An oddly-shaped stool of some sort, in front of the chair. I thought it was just a footrest at first, but as I would soon find out, that was not the case. Far from it.

"This right here is the control center of the Hexdroid," Doc explained. "The Elite and Support will share this place and control the Hexdroid through their combined efforts, with the Elite controlling movement and weapons while the Support controls aim and when to actually use said weapons. I know all these controls and stuff look very confusing to you right now, but I'll teach you about them all tomorrow, so don't worry. Next-"

"Hold on, hold on," I interrupted, raising my hand. "You said both the Elite and Support will share this place when operating the Hexdroid, but… there's only one chair, and there doesn't seem to be room for another one."

"Exactly," Doc said with a casual blink. "Only the Elite will be sitting. The Support will be lying down, like this."

Saying this, Doc climbed into the mech's chamber, and lied down on the stool I mentioned earlier on her stomach, face-down. She placed her hands on the steering-wheel joystick-esque device in front of her, and pulled it in close to her eyes so that she was staring through its visors. After a few seconds, the demonstration was complete, and she pulled back out before landing on the platform again.

"Now, when this baby's powered up, gentle restraints will pop up to lock the Support in place as well as provide some support for comfort, but that's the gist of it. The Elite sits behind them, and yeah. I'll go into further detail about this tomorrow so… any more questions?"

Uh… yeah. But not one I'm gonna ask out loud. In a position like that, the Support's practically jerking their ass out at the Elite, who was sitting directly behind them. That meant if the Support was a girl and the Elite a guy, some very peculiar things may happen. It was almost reminiscent of a certain sex position, but I'm not going to go there.