Work Text:
Hana Song hummed a cheerful tune as she worked with her wrench. She had just finished a test run with her MEKA unit, Tokki, and was now making some adjustments to it. Thankfully, with Dae-Hyeun’s instructions texted to her, she knew what and where to work on. On the whole, she was pretty happy that the run had gone as well as it did.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
The sudden shout caught Hana off guard, forcing her to jump in place a bit. She cried out in pain as her head slammed into the cover of the arm cannon she was working on. Hana peeked her head toward the office near her station in the MEKA garage, rubbing her head as she looked to see what was going on.
Other than the shout, however, she couldn’t really hear anything coming through. Looking through the window, she could see the person on the inside in some kind of argument, if the sight of her throwing her arms around was any indication. Hana frowned as she watched her former esports teammate, now her MEKA teammate, Yuna Lee, continued her phone conversation. Before long, she watched as Yuna, designation D.Mon, stormed out of the office.
“I can’t believe this!” She hissed in frustration, making her way out of the MEKA hangar. Hana left her MEKA unit, chasing after Yuna.
“Hey, Lee!” Hana called out as she rapidly walked up to her team leader.
The older woman stopped upon hearing Hana’s voice. “Huh?” Hana saw Yuna visibly perk up a bit as she saw who it was that called out her name, “Oh, hey Song. What’s up?”
“What’s going on?” Hana asked when she was close enough, “You sounded pretty upset in there.”
Yuna sighed. “Oh, you heard that, huh?”
At that, Hana shook her head. “Honestly, you’re lucky it’s just me in here,” she said, “otherwise everyone’d be able to figure out where you got your nickname.”
“Least of my problems, honestly,” Yuna said, “That call was about something extremely stupid.”
“What?”
“Command cancelled our test mission next week.”
“What?” Hana asked, “Why? I thought we were supposed to show off the new micro-rocket launchers then.”
“We were,” Yuna said, anger lining every word, “but apparently one of the designers isn’t happy with the launchers for some reason and wants to redo them. So now we’re all screwed until they’re done. It’s ridiculous. They already finalized the designs, and we’ve already got them installed on our units. We just needed to run a few tests to make sure they were integrated right, and we would’ve been ready for the showcase. Now, though, who knows how long it’ll be before we can get these things off the ground. It’s not like the Omnics are gonna wait until we’re good and ready to put up a fight before they make their next move.”
Hana couldn’t help but roll her eyes as Yuna explained the situation to her. “They know we
need
those things, too. This is, like, the worst time for them to do this.”
“Seriously,” Yuna replied, frustration coming through again, “The more tools we have against the Omics, the better off we are. Start taking crap away from us, and we’re dead in the water. These idiots are gonna get more people killed while we just sit here and watch it happen.”
“C’mon, Lee,” Hana said,”it’s not like that. We’re still gonna be able to defend people. We just won’t have little rockets in our MEKA’s arms for a while.”
Yuna sighed, “You’re right, Song. It’s just so frustrating to know that we were so close to having another weapon we need, just to have it yanked away from us at the last minute.”
“Everything’s last minute, Lee. We’re in a war. Shit’s gonna come when we’re not ready for it. We just have to do the best we can with what we’ve got.”
“Yeah, I know. I just can’t help feeling like we’re helpless here.”
Hana sighed, letting her mind mull over Yuna’s words. A few seconds passed before an idea struck.
“Hey, come on,” she said, grabbing Yuna by the wrist and leading her out of the hangar.
“Wait!” Yuna cried as the younger woman dragged her forward, “where’re we going?”
“To therapy,” Hana said, a smile on her face.
Several minutes later, Hana stepped into the training area. She adjusted the sparring pad strapped over her chest, making sure it was in place. When she got to the sparring mats, she took a moment to adjust her gloves and sparring socks, making sure they were in place. She wiggled her toes a bit.
“Never gonna get used to these things.”
“Me neither.”
Hana’s head snapped up, seeing Yuna walking onto the mats, dressed almost the same as Hana. The younger pilot’s eyes took note of the fact that Yuna’s sparring gear was red-and-white, while her own was blue-and-white. She eyed the two golden stripes on Yuna’s black belt, her thumb subconsciously running over the two at the end of hers. Yuna had a red helmet tucked under her arm, which she brought up to her head.
“You ready, D.Va?” Yuna asked, strapping the helmet to her head. Hana took note of Yuna using her callsign, rather than her name. That was the older woman’s clue.
D.Va had summoned the D.Mon.
D.Va simply nodded, strapping on her own helmet after retrieving it from her side. Lights on both women’s fighting gear began to glow, outlining the colored sections of their padding.
“Ready?” D.Mon asked one more time, sliding a gumshield into place. D.Va did the same, nodding at D.Mon’s question.
“Fight!” she called, activating a timer off to the side. Five minutes began to count down, and the fight was on. Both fighters bounced on their toes, eyes dancing around each other, trying to figure out who was going to act first, and how.
About five seconds passed before either fighter acted. D.Mon hopped forward, bringing her forward leg up to fake a kick. D.Va reacted, bringing her own leg up in response. The two fighters played a game of foot-based chess, each of them darting forward to fake kicks, while the other took a step back to act in defense. The two of them had done this kind of thing plenty of times, whether Yuna was upset at something or not. They both knew what the other fighter was capable of, and were trying to game plan around it.
D.Va acted with intent first, quickly stepping forward. She fired a punch at D.Mon’s chest with a shout, looking for a quick score. D.Mon saw the strike coming, however, and leaned back. The fist of the younger pilot made contact, though with D.Mon having reacted the way she did, it didn’t have the impact it needed to count. D.Mon took the opportunity to try and retaliate. She hooked her forward leg out, bringing it up to swing back at D.Va’s head in a back hook kick. D.Va just barely had enough time to snap an arm up to block the kick, though D.Mon’s attack forced her own arm into her head. The force of the kick caused D.Va to stumble to the side, allowing D.Mon to spin with the kick. As soon as her toes touched the ground, she fired the leg up again in a front kick to the younger woman’s chest protector. D.Va had no chance to defend against the kick, allowing the strike to connect with a solid pop of stiff plastic on vinyl. The lights on D.Mon’s kickpad, as well as D.Va’s chest armor, glowed with recognition.
Two points on the board. D.Mon drew first blood.
D.Va quickly scrambled back to her fighting stance, just in time to see D.Mon charging at her with her front leg up. D.Mon shot her leg out in a high side kick to D.Va’s head. The gamer hopped back, causing the attacking foot to fall short. She threw a quick roundhouse kick of her own at D.Mon, just barely getting past the arm the older woman tried to block with. D.Va grinned as her foot made contact with D.Mon’s helmet, causing another set of glowing lights to go off. D.VA’s eyes snapped to the scoreboard, and her smile grew wider at the sight.
“D.Va takes the lead,” she taunted as the two women reset themselves. D.Mon looked at the scoreboard herself. Sure enough, D.Va was up three points to two. D.Mon grinned at D.Va.
“First time for everything.”
D.Va giggled at that, bouncing on her toes once more. D.Mon began to bounce as well, just as ready to get back to the fight as D.Va. The two wasted little time getting back into the clash, each of them springing forward. They threw side kicks at each others’ head, their legs crossing at the knees. Both women leaned their heads back, though D.Mon’s slightly taller build allowed her kick to connect while causing D.Va’s to come a bit short. D.Va winced as D.Mon’s attack landed, reminding her as to why her leader’s callsign was what it was.
‘Damn! Good thing we wear helmets for this, or she’d kick my teeth down my throat!’
D.Va quickly struck, trying to get at D.Mon before the older woman could recover from her attack. She fired a fierce side kick to D.Mon’s chest, igniting another set of flashing lights. D.Mon was caught completely off guard by how quickly D.Va was able to recover from getting a foot in the face, and the kick sent her spilling down to the ground. D.Mon groaned as she hit the mats, more out of frustration than any kind of pain. She sat up, looking at her opponent and breathing heavily. She noticed that D.Va was much in the same boat as her, panting to catch her breath. She wasn’t bouncing as nearly as much as she was before. D.Mon pushed herself to her feet, taking a moment to adjust her chest armor and belt.
“Gettin’ tired, D.Va?” she asked, amusement in her voice.
D.Va offered a grin of her own. “Of kicking your ass? Yeah right.”
D.Mon chuckled at that. Once she was sure she was set, she settled herself back into her fighting stance. D.Va followed suit, smiles fading from both women’s expressions. A couple of seconds passed, the pilots sizing each other up again. D.Mon, deciding she needed to get back at D.Va, leaped forward. She threw a punch at D.Va’s chest, surprising the younger woman with a burst of speed that prevented her from getting a solid guard up in time. The strike lit her gauntlet up, but more importantly it gave D.Mon a chance to grab onto D.Va’s dobok. D.Va grabbed a handful of D.Mon’s dobok as well, forcing the two women into a clinch. The two held onto one another tightly, circling one another as they did. D.Va tried to take advantage of the hold, bringing her knee up to strike at D.Mon’s chest armor, though D.Mon answered every attack with knees of her own.
After a few moments of clinching with one another, D.Mon decided that the pace was too slow for her. She used one final knee strike as a point of leverage, pushing off with her leg while releasing her grip on D.Va. The gamer was caught off guard by the act, and she stumbled a couple of steps back. In an attempt to try and keep her opponent away, D.Va threw out a front kick. D.Mon, however, darted in, using one arm to block the zoning attack. She then brought her leg up high in the air, bringing her heel down on D.Va’s head with a vicious axe kick. The kick landed cleanly and heavily, drawing a cry of pain from the younger fighter as D.Mon’s heel drove itself onto her forehead. D.Va’s world went into a blurry tailspin from the kick, and she quickly found herself crashing to the ground.
D.Va blinked as hard as she could, trying to clear her vision while she slowly rolled on the ground. D.Mon, seeing what kind of damage she’d done to her junior pilot, ran over to check on her.
“Hana!” D.Mon called out, trying to help the younger woman fight through her haze, “Hana! You okay?”
A moment later, D.Va shook her head. Her world stopped spinning, and she was able to sit up.
“Yeah,” she said, nodding her head, “Yeah, I’m good. Frickin’ hurt, though.”
“What about you, though. You feeling better?” Hana asked, smiling as she got to her feet. Yuna sighed, though she met Hana’s smile with one of her own. She nodded in response.
“Yeah. Much better. Thanks, Hana.”
“No problem,” she said walking up to Yuna and extending her arms into an invitation for a hug. Yuna accepted, and the two embraced for a few seconds before separating. As they did, though, Hana quickly popped Yuna in the side with a roundhouse kick. The older woman, not expecting the attack, yelped and stumbled for a second.
“What the hell, Hana?” she asked. The younger pilot gave Yuna a cheeky grin, pointing at the scoreboard. Yuna turned to look at it, eyes going wide as she watched the last four seconds of their sparring match tick away.
The kick had given Hana a two point lead and Yuna no time to do anything about it. The timer buzzed, and the scoreboard made a display of declaring Hana the winner. Yuna slowly turned back to Hana, her eyes narrowing in anger.
“You little shit!”
Hana quickly turned and ran, a rampaging Demon hot on her heels.