The choice of Gundams is made for her.

Allenby glanced back and forth between the two before ultimately coming to her choice. "I'm not looking forward to riding that bull, but when you think about the weaponry involved... The beam cloth isn't too different from Nobel's ribbon. Plus, no offense, Rain, but its weapon systems are all totally bizarre. You'll have better luck if you stick to the Jester's guns-"

Jervale had been watching with his usual resting frown, ignoring most of what was being said while lost in his own thoughts. At the last minute of Allenby's reasoning, however, he interrupted. "No, I'm afraid the Jester's already been synced to your brainwaves, and the Matador to Rain's. Poor foresight, such a pity."

"Well unsync, then resync! This is a matter of life or ****, Doc!"

"This is a matter of time, young lady," Jervale corrected her. "I'm a genius mechanic, obviously, but I can't work that fast."

"Perhaps with the both of us-" Rain began to offer, before the "doctor" cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"I'm afraid not. I finally figured out how I want it, so it's happening like this." Both of them gave him strange looks, and his frown deepened in frustration as he realized he'd broken character again. "Bah, get on with it! Hop on in and suit up, lives are at stake, robot zombies or whatever, I've already said it!"

Neither of the drafted Gundam Fighters looked confident, but Rain was the first to speak. "Allenby, let me go in first. If there's something wrong, we need you safe..." By that, Rain probably meant Allenby was the one between the two of them best suited to apprehend the stranger if turned out to be a trap. She didn't give Allenby a chance to argue; through her trials with Domon, courageously supporting her partner came naturally to Rain, and she climbed into the Matador's cockpit with little hesitation. She glanced around her, surprised to find the control systems were so similar to the Rising Gundam's. The Mobile Trace system tended not to vary much between units... but still, the similarities here were uncanny. She thought to remark on it, but decided it could wait. "The machine's condition looks okay. I'll prepare to launch now!"

As she began to strip off her jacket, then unzip her shirt, it occurred to her that she had no idea if the shady doctor outside had installed some kind of cameras in the cockpit. In most situations, stripping down was just part of preparing for a Gundam Fighter, as normal as an athlete dressing into a uniform, but the strange circumstances made it more sketchy. Ordinarily, that camera placement would be prohibited by Federation law, but she had a feeling Doctor Umjervale was working far outside of those rules. Still, she admitted to herself that after summoning up the courage to enter the cockpit, it'd hardly make sense to turn back. Ultimately, she found herself in an unknown land in an unknown Gundam, and not in much else, having stripped off even her white panties. She felt a little strange, entirely bare except for her head accessories... Because of the way the system worked, it wasn't necessary to remove those.

The blue eyes in the head and yellow eyes in the armor of the Matador Gundam lit up, signifying its system start-up. More importantly, the Mobile Trace system activated. With trepidation, Rain glanced up at the mechanism over her head while still crossing her arms over her now bare breasts. There was an inner ring, which she recognized would fit over her head and form the shoulder line of the suit, while a latex tent was spread between it and the outer mechanical ring. As that outer ring spun downward, she braced herself: what came next was difficult enough when she had to do it in a machine she was familiar with...

Upon her activation, the latex-like material stretched across Rain's shoulders, almost forcing her to her knees as it tightly wrapped her skin. The pressure was enough to risk injury to an untrained civilian who didn't know how to manage it. For most trained fighters, it didn't seem to cause much trouble, but for an operator like Rain, it was never easy.

... Jervale stood with Allenby outside the cockpit, smiling as he listened to the unintentionally erotic moans of the woman fighting against her own suit-up process inside the bull-shaped Fighter. "Mmm... Yes, I think this is definitely one of the things I can still enjoy," he muttered, too quietly to hear. Allenby's tense look of concern was the exact opposite of his shit-eating grin.

Rain struggled to tear her body from the clinging wrap of the mobile trace system. First, her torso came free when she **** her arms up and out. The latex of the suit formed skin-tight to the body without any visible seams, accenting the torpedoes of her breasts and the curvature of her waist. With another grunt of exertion, she tore her legs up and out of the material, which hugged her wide hips. Once more, the bodacious body shape of Neo Japan's operator was fully displayed, although other than the fit, the suit was relatively conservative...

Allenby listened as Rain's voice came from a radio console nearby. "This is Rain. All systems appear green. Movement check..." The Matador's head turned left and right. Its arms raised, one after another, then its legs lifted separately in turn.

As Rain stood doing a high leg lift in the cockpit, she found herself glad she'd decided to keep in shape. Even if she wasn't a fighter, an operator needed to be ready to pilot their mobile fighter at any time. "Movement check all green. I have to say, this Fighter has been kept in excellent condition... There's only one thing that seems off."

Jervale hit a button on the console to respond, smiling knowingly. "What seems to be the problem?"

"It's nothing, only... there's some suit discoloration," Rain noted, glancing down at the suit covering her body. The pattern was identical to her ordinary pilot suit, but the hot pink that normally characterized her outfit was replaced with a cream-colored white. As she observed more closely, the black also looked somewhat splotchy at the edges.

"Do you really have time to worry about that, now?"

"I'm in the habit of delivering a thorough report. That said, I can't complain about the performance, especially given our limited time. Allenby, if you would... I imagine a system like the Jester is going to take getting used to."

The Neo Sweden rep nodded. She was used to performing as a fighter in front of a crowd, not serving as a soldier... It felt strange to think that when she mobilized, she wouldn't need to do all of the spins and twirls that she ordinarily performed for an audience's benefit... or, she admitted, just because she felt like it. She definitely didn't feel like it in this situation.

Allenby climbed into the cockpit. As soon as the door closed, she stripped off her jacket. As she began shimmying down her unitard, she voiced Rain's earlier concern more directly through the radio. "You watching, Doctor Umjervale? If you're somehow watching this, don't expect mercy when I get back..."

"Me? Watching? Never..." Jervale replied in a sweet tone, holding his eyes shut as ever as if for extra reassurance. In reality, his mind's eye, which could travel anywhere in the tower he liked, could view Allenby's stark nudity as clearly as if he was standing in the cockpit next to her. He was a bit past the point where a woman's nice abs, perky breasts, and trim blue pubic patch could excite him much, but apparently not past the point where viewing them in secret could.

He needed to get all the enjoyment he could from that, because Allenby's suit-up was far less dramatic. With her fitness and familiarity, she had pulled herself through the latex encircling her as quickly as the rings of the Mobile Trace system could descend. That said, her reaction following was still pleasant to the demon. "W-what the heck?! Rain said something about 'discoloration,' right? Is that the right word for this?!"

It was understandable that Allenby would be upset... After all, compared to Rain, she wore her familiar pilot suit far more regularly. Therefore, it was a big surprise to her when the suit that formed around her had an entirely different pattern. The forearms and legs below the knees were fully black, except for white coloration in the shape of short gloves at the hands. The rest was far more ridiculous, a pattern of thick, alternating purple-and-orange stripes running down its height. When Allenby had thrust her chest up for her familiar ribbon to appear as part of her suit-up sequence, like magic in a cartoon-heroine's transformation sequence, an enormous, frilled jester's collar had appeared around the neckline of the suit instead, as if mocking her. Allenby pinched at the suit by her hip as if wanting to pull it off, grimacing as she imagined how this unflattering pattern must make her butt look bigger.

"Ah, I apologize, is something off? It must still be fitted for the Jester's original pilot's specifications," Jervale remarked innocently, stifling a laugh.

"Uh-uh, this is definitely intentional! That guy and I have a completely different body shape! How would it... Ugh, whatever! I get it, you've got some weird tastes! Not like you're the first eccentric guy involved in Gundam fights, I guess. Just open the hangar and let us out." As she made her demand, Allenby gave her systems a quick, prefunctory test. The head and legs moved simply enough, but she had no idea how the original pilot had comfortably worked the arms. It must have had something to do with his same ability that let him mimic martial artist's moves... She bent her elbow up and out, but the arms of the mobile fighter didn't seem to respond at all unless she was spinning her torso horizontally. Finally, she realized it was because the armor was in place... Once the yellow ribbons of armor unwrapped, she'd probably be able to maneuver the arms freely.

The platform the Gundams were on began to shake, and the roof opened up as it rose. Rain and Allenby became aware they were evidently below sea level, as they could see a complicated system of vents rapidly ferrying away water as the elevator pushed its way up and through, leaving Jervale and the outer platform of the hangar with its radio equipment behind. Finally, the platform was just above the sea of the Tower's island, giving them their first look at the blue skies, blue sea, and the Tower itself. They only had a moment to marvel at its bizarre construction...

"**** Birdies!" Rain exclaimed. Allenby couldn't believe Rain had researched the Devil Gundam incident so thoroughly she knew the names of these mass-produced zombie fighters, but she didn't doubt it was right: the machine Rain was referring to looked like a green **** Army soldier strapped into a massive flight pack. The flyer had enormous wings and arms separate from the Army soldier itself, armed with dangerous cannons. "Look sharp, in the water. Two **** Navy!" Allenby noted these as well. Unless Rain and Allenby had the poor luck to end up fighting underwater, those might be less dangerous: they were essentially yellow **** Army soldiers with fish-tail bottom halves that could propel them on or below the water like mermaids. They were only armed with tridents... and, of course, their bodies, which they were fond of using to dive-bomb their targets.

"Hang back and focus on guiding me, Rain!" Allenby took point, although trying to hide the boxy shape of the Matador Gundam behind her Jester was an exercise in futility. Her concern wasn't just with Rain's fighting ability: it was now clear to her that this situation was a major bind for the Matador, which relied on charging attacks and close-range weaponry. "Doctor Umjervale might have mentioned we were going to be fighting on a little stage surrounded by the water... If you fall in there, those fish guys will turn you into fish food!"

That became a pressing concern immediately as the two Navy disappeared below the surface. Their positions became impossible to track. Meanwhile, with their mono-eyes flashing, the two Birdies swooped in and began strafing laser fire. If this was an advance scout ****, it was certainly aggressive.

Allenby could easily dodge those shots, but she realized Rain wasn't so lucky. The Matador Gundam was already taking hit after hit. Its armor was thick enough to resist it, but Rain's voice shouted out, nonetheless. For actual combat instead of a duel, the Mobile Fighter had a major weakness: the link between the unit and the pilot caused any damage incurred by the machine to be felt by the human inside. "Tch! Rain, try to use the beam cloak to block the fire! I'll focus on taking these guys out quick!"

Unlike Rain, Allenby wasn't stuck on the platform. The Jester's flying Top Mode should give her just the tool she needed to strike back! She jumped into the air... then found her Gundam crashing down in a humiliating pratfall. "Agh! What gives?! I can't figure out how to operate this stupid thing...!" Cursing her luck, Allenby rose in her Jester Gundam and attempted to stave off the **** Birdies with her vulcans and machine cannons, but it seemed like an uphill battle. The Birdies had far superior mobility, and a glancing shot at a distance hardly seemed to damage the bulky flight packs the soldiers were using.

Meanwhile, Rain desperately attempted to defend herself, whirling the cape in the direction of shots as best she could. It was a pale imitation of the intended use of the weapon, which ought to mimic the graceful movement and utility of a matador's cape, but it was getting the job done... Suddenly, the two **** Navy emerged from the water at the edge of the platform she'd backed to, wrapping their arms around the Matador's legs. With their thrusters firing, they were attempting to drag her under. "Oh no! Allenby!!"

The Jester's fighter clicked her teeth, trying to decide if she could afford to leave the Birdies alone and save her friend. Loathe as she was to, she finally decided to use the radio. "Doc, we're getting eaten up out here! The machines work, but we can't keep up! Neither of us have any idea what we're doing! Is there anything you can do? Doesn't Neo Indonesia have any defenses at all?!"

After a short pause, Jervale's voice came through the radio. "I'm afraid you're it."

"Is 'I'm afraid' your catchphrase?! You've gotta do something!"

"... Well, I suppose there is that. There's an experimental system I was working on here... It's actually the reason I picked two such eccentric Gundams to have transferred. The Hood system will fully link the pilot and Mobile Fighter, so that any experienced pilot can operate with ease. From here, I'll be able to make modifications to increase your compatibility with your suit. Do I have your permission?"

"I'm no big fan of 'experimental' systems, but do what you've gotta do! I'm volunteering Rain as well!"

"... Excellent."

Jervale wasn't intending to let a little thing like a lack of permission stop him, regardless, but it was always more fun to see the reactions when a challenger later realized they gave you the go-ahead themselves...