As soon as the attack from Operation Slingshot was over, Jake immedately got out of his framework. No sooner than he did that he saw the medics swarming the Neo Angel.

Even with the Neo Angel mangled as it was, it still stood there though dropped to one knee to allow the cockpit to be close to the ground as much as possible. He then saw some medics near the midsection...raising a high tech strecher to help carry out it's pilot.

It soon then lowered along with the medics and Jake saw that Mai, now calling herself Maria, was out. Worse, he saw that there was some slight dark coloring around her eyes...server exaustion perhaps. But then again, she had really taken a pounding if she fought and beat a Cruxi Elite of all things.

"Mai! Maria! Talk to me!", Jake called but was held back by medics.

"Cadet Armstrong. Please stand back. We'll take care of her but due to her sync being at a hundred percent, she is still considered to be in critical condition", the medic responded.

That caught Jake off guard when he heard that.

"Wait. A hundred? But she was at seventy two when we went in!", Jake then asked.

"We don't know what happened but due to that sync, she felt every inch of pain and trauma from whatever did that to her framework", the medic responded, pointing to all the damage on the Neo Angel.

Jake then remembered the "stab" hole he saw that seemed to go clean through the Neo Angel when he was assisting Maria.

"Cadet Armstrong. Go to the waiting room in the medical ward but please, don't make our jobs harder", the medic said as they all stared to move.

Jake wondered now EXACTLY what happened in that room with the Cruxi. Then there was the status of Cadet Elora.

"Wait. What about Elora? Is she in the same condition?", Jake then asked.

"I'm afraid I've been ordered not to reveal her status", the medic responded.

"Don't give me that! What is-"

Security then seperated him from the medics as they entered the intensive care area. Jake didn't bother resisting as security led him to the waiting area.

But even he was getting sick and tired of all the "secrets" that were being thrown around...