The hologram's chiding received a turned-up nose from the antihero.  How very predictable for one who watched from afar, impassionately viewing but never understanding!  Neither did the self-righteous smirks of his supposed colleagues bother him in the slightest.  Even in the midst of these teens, alike in peculiarity, the Margrave stood alone.  Not a soul among them treasured him as one hero ought to do for another—not that he needed their pity of such tender, delicate hearts.  If the Wards' handler was so insistent on Elliot not being able to expose his superiority through words, he would elevate himself through his deeds.  It was with an undeniable, independent flair that Elliot moved to take a seat.

Compared to his own style, that of the gifts paled in comparison, but he supposed it would do.  However, Elliot reviled sight of colorful wrapping paper and springy bows; did the man behind the mirror imagine him a sissy?  Such fanciful offers were not, he imagined, doled out at Protectorate briefing sessions.  Masking his disdain, the ostentatious youth pulled the trappings apart to reveal the treasure stashed within.  Turning the simple-looking device over in his hands, Elliot listened to the item's inventor's explanation.  All that, packed into an unassuming disk?  [color=8F9779]”A gizmo most worthy of your illustrious codename, Decoy.  What you have entrusted me shall not be wasted.”[/color]  He would consider it a miracle, though, if the dynamic poses included in the gadget's limited catalog captured even a fraction of the phantasmagoria of his own.

In the end, what Decoy offhandedly appended to his shpeal interested Elliot more than the holographic ability of his new toy.  [i]Tonight's mission.[/i]  Another jaunt into the howling dark, then, and so soon after the permanent though varied losses of two team members.  Casting an eye toward the newest girl present, Elliot couldn't help but feel dubious.  No doubt this Lillian boasted some superb power or another, but 'flighty' was one of the gentler uses of his boundless vocabulary that fit her personality, based on what he'd heard so far.  Eccentricity did not, of course, doom one to the life of a pariah -unless everyone around one happened to hate one's guts, out of what one could only ever assume was jealousy- but she struck him as kooky to a high degree.  [i]How..[/i] he mused, gazed at her over the back of a hand arched across his lower face to obscure his nose and mouth, [i]Vexing...[/i]  The others prodded Decoy with needless questions to which they already knew the answers or for which no effort ought to be expended.  Ira alone held her tongue; she radiated a solitary ray of rationality amid the gobblydegook that plagued this room, surely as concentrated on the notion of a new assignment as he.  Though she might not imagine it, a single thread of camaraderie linked them as, in silence, they waited for further instruction.