Serah taunted her opponents on team Apple, goading them to chase after Atty, and launched out a plasma wave that cut through the air like a green blade of wind itself. The deadly projectile careened straight towards Shiva, only for it to be intercepted in spectacular fashion: Griff, who had endured the taunt by sheer will alone, was prepared. With glowing palms, Shiva performed a cross chop like a martial art master, deflecting the energy projectile with a precise motion right at the middle of the burning arc.

That was when Griff went for a counterattack: first: he shot his Markerlight, which was blocked by one of Atty’s protective wings, the Combat mode bullets cracking the wing. However, as Serah was about to escape, she realized that Shiva followed up with a Slag Cannon shot, destroying the broken wing. 

That was when Serah, who spotted Sleeping Thunder crawling in the distance, that she had a [Clairvoyance] vision, but not one from the future, rather: it was of a woman that Serah had a faint feeling of familiarity, as if in another life she had known her. Like Aurora, she also piloted a Frame with an arachnid body, though a simpler one with a single main weapon. She saw the strange Frame’s Slag Cannon, and how it had a peculiar trait to it as it fired: that it would perform a second shot upon connecting with the first one. 

Back in the present and armed with this knowledge, Serah let instinct take over, and successfully dodged the second Slag Cannon shot that came after the first, before she finally reached the safety of Mother Goose and her Bastion. Shiva then reloaded the Slag Cannon while taking position, and vigilantly prepared for enemies to arrive within firing range at the flank, a [Supporter] ever watchful.

Lucius, having reached the safety of cover, took a defensive position with Rex Artus, and deployed his X-Type Variant 2 Attack Drones: three to guard him while concealed with cover, and one around the corner, ready to intercept any foes. He peered around the corner, and was witness to an incredible sight: the Cockroach, in the blink of an eye, had turned a pastel pink in color.

Elora, who had prepared for deeper data aggregation of the enemy Frames around at K23, was also stunned by the change, and momentarily forgot to collect data, having also missed Aurora's order to retreat.
“W-What, how did it turn pink? Is the VR buggy?” She wondered with a tilt of her head and a concerned look, and then glanced at Argent Wings, blinking.
“Wait, it’s not advancing. Rather, it looks like it’s…Sweeping for me!” 

With panic rising up, Logic Diver began fleeing south, but it was already too late: Elora glanced at the rear cameras, and her eyes opened wide as she saw Bug’s Silverfish, in a brilliant move, nosedive from the top of the building, exploding like a silver shooting star: in the ensuing shockwave caused by the drone unleashing a great pulse, she was revealed, and all hell broke loose on the poor girl, as she was beset upon by Framewerks, like a pack of wild dogs.

First, Argent Wings delivered a double barrage of Markerlight rounds, the harmless tracking rounds having successfully struck the egg-shaped Frame’s armor on surprise, improving team Mango’s accuracy on the Light Framewerk. Elora managed to twist and graze the second round of shots knowing their trajectory. But then came the heavy blow, Cockroach’s Particle Cannon, at a devastating three-round charge, blasted through the battlefield like a horizontal pillar of luminescent light.

Elora’s [Clairvoyance] kicked in, and she sent Logic Diver in a risky barrel roll in an attempt to dodge the foreseen attack: however, even with prediction on her side, she could not fully dodge an attack that potent at such range and assisted by Markerlights. As a result, Logic Diver was hit in the legs that were obliterated, causing the egg to crash hard and tumble a fair distance as her movement was reduced to a mere 1, passing by the building Rex Artus and his drones used for cover.

“Mayday! Critical damage sustained!” Elora screamed into the comms, as tears drifted down her cheeks from the pain she felt: possessing an unnaturally high aptitude for synchronization with Logic Diver, she felt a great scorching heat on her legs, and for a moment dreaded that she had been paralyzed. Fortunately, it seemed she still had motor function over them, but it mattered little, as then the third Frame would swoop in: while having initially flown off in a completely different direction, Argo’s speed was such that it had already turned back, its magnificent minigun revving up to deliver a hail of bullets on Logic Diver. The egg clanged and dented rapidly, and some bullets even managed to pierce the Medium-armored Frame in the joints and weaker plating, causing major damage to her systems: Logic Diver lost its ability to perform data collection with the Combat Analyzer, and the Hyperwave Array was now on the fritz as half the words in Apple communications started to be overcome by Electric Dragon’s jamming-induced static. If Logic Diver were to fall, so would all communications in the Tevranian’s domain of influence.

“I* s**ry! I m*ss*d u*!” She screamed again through the broken comms to units near Rhylaen, though it didn’t take a genius to figure out what she was saying. Logic Diver, now lying on its back, prepared for a last stand as Elora grit her teeth, seeing Argo and Argent Wings speeding closer. Diver lifted the Automatic Battle Rifle delivering crossfire on Argo, the high-volume rounds delivering minor damage to the latter’s Medium armor, banging it up, though to a lesser extent than the poor intelligence unit. More importantly, she hoped the shooting would slow Minerva, and buy her even a second of time for reinforcements to arrive and save her…Though she had a feeling this would be the end, as she saw an unknown yet scary-looking attack drone aiming its weapon at her from the side.

Meanwhile, the combat heated up towards the center of the battlefield, as Electric Dragonfly bravely flew into the fray, and like a corona of dazzling light blinded Zel-Ghin, the disorienting attack unable to be redirected by the Stargazer. Still, from years of combat experience at the labs with his twin brother and his grit, he had successfully sustained a splitting Stargazer field that separated the Markerlight rounds away, managing to defend himself against being marked. However, he failed to redirect the shots that came afterwards from Horst, his Heavy Assault Gun delivering major damage with the APFSDS-A rounds while Zel was unable to fully defend himself. As a result, The Squid’s right forelimb was blown off as shots managed to pierce the heavy armor and separate it from the joint. As a result, speed was now reduced by 2 from damage. The Stargazer was also hit, now only working at half effectiveness. While he was reeling from the flash, he also incurred lesser attacks: they were Attack Drone laser cannon shots from a drone peeking around the corner, and he recognized the sound it made…it was from his own brother and his Raptor Frame. While a single attack drone wasn’t too threatening on its own, it nonetheless delivered minor damage, scorching the Squid’s armor and causing plating to melt at parts: at this rate, it would turn into copper calamari with the beating it took from the pack of Apple Frames. However, Raptor was unable to secure a proper firing line to get reaction shots in, the right side proving advantageous in cover for the Mango hunter squad.

Finally, with a surprise attack, Angel Zero uncloaked and delivered a deadly offense, also utilizing the potency of a Heavy Assault Gun to deliver armor-penetrating shots. These shots connected towards the Squid’s center and shoulders, taking out one of his Dual Acid Cannons with a shot right through the barrel as well as a shot nearly managing to reach the cockpit’s walls itself, having left a visible dent that was close to piercing into the enclosed space itself. Angel then took cover, preparing to cloak.

Sleeping Thunder and Mother Goose made their marches towards an inevitable clash, the former locking on to Mango Frames in preparation for an Itano Circus, while Goose brought out a Great Wall to repel all unwanted shots. Guinevere placed a drone on the top of the building to survey the battlefield. Unfortunately, due to Electric Dragonfly’s jamming, the camera feed was white noise, and the audio mere static.
Still, the manipulation unit was still untargeted, and could make a decisive move as the battle grew closer.

By this point Lorenzo had noticed the color cheat that was activated, and frowned angrily.
“That punk…He thinks he can play around just because it’s virtual, huh?” He mumbled, while Ritsu simply shook her head in disbelief. “Childish display. I honestly expected better from Cadet Duval.” “I suppose he did make a point,” Lorenzo then muttered, and Ritsu’s expression shifted to inquiry. “Executive Officer, what do you mean by that statement?”
“He’s proven he can cheat the system, but he only did a mere prank. I suppose it takes some balls to go that far to prove it. Not that I will overlook such a blatant display of buffoonery though.”
Ritsu smiled devilishly. “I suppose it was bold…But very stupid.” She pointed towards the nearby guards. “Bring me the technician responsible: we’ll have a talk. A long one.”

[img]https://i.imgur.com/Ya1mYMB.png[/img]