Rio stuck around the back of the group, keeping everyone an arm's length away from herself. She wanted to get everything over with quickly. Even though Bill didn't show any interest in checking out the others' GEARs, he still wanted his teammates to look at his. Figures, men did like to boast and grandstand. Rio wondered why, though. From what she remembered, his GEAR was nothing special. Just a standard melee skirmisher with average performances.

Then the first red flag happened: The crowd of people. At first it looked innocent enough, but when her new team leader got into the mix she felt things weren't quite what she remembered. The GEAR was out of Rio's sight, but even though the woman couldn't see it, she still figured it couldn't have been the same one she fought last year. That one was too middle-of-the-road. The crowd started to disperse, but she hadn't paid attention as to why. It gave Rio the opportunity to get a little closer, getting her a good look at the GEAR.

Well, no wonder people flocked to it like mad. Rio's eyes narrowed as she intensely stared at the red-and-black machine. Even without knowing the first thing about it, the GEAR looked like an impressive piece of work. It didn't sit well with the woman, however. Her eyes darted over to Gurevich, who had just asked a question about the GEAR's functionality. Bill responded to the best of his abilities and planted a seed of doubt in Rio's mind.

[color=94ffad]" 'A GEAR is only as good as its pilot'? Atlas, I sincerely hope you're joking. If the team leader doesn't have any faith in their skill, then how are [i]we[/i] supposed to have faith in them? For someone who doesn't want to waste time getting familiar with each other's machines, you sure seem to be wasting ours."[/color] Rio sneered back. She leaned against a nearby wall, looking severely unimpressed.