Elora felt like a mess. She wanted to be useful to her team, to collect vital intelligence on the enemy as soon as she could, and that way aid her allies in the fight. Instead, she made a complete fool of herself, letting herself be caught, and leading to team Apple’s strategy falling apart. But then, something surprising happened that caused her to blink: Bug, the pilot who caught and hobbled Logic Diver, was the one to approach her first.

[quote=@AtomicNut]
"Wipe off your tears. You need to keep seeing. You're an intel officer aren't you? I guess there will be a chewing of this after all. So learn. Take the torch of those before you." Bug said to Elora. "Lorenzo thinks you can do it, and I think i know what he has seen in you. And look..." He added, his shaky finger pointing at the screen.

"That stupid horse maniac is still on the fight, and he's not going down easily." He added, pointing at the screen and the comms.
[/quote]

She raised her head up from her slump, baffled by his kind words. “The torch?” She asked while taking the offered handkerchief, understanding the word and the meaning, but not the purpose behind the mention. She then glanced over at the screen, and saw as Horst and Ava were in a fierce duel: just as he said, Arrish was still in battle, despite everything. “Th-Thank you, mister Bugatti. I-I won’t make the same mistakes again.”

Elora wiped her tears with the handkerchief when Lucius was the next to speak to her.

[quote=@Crusader Lord] 
[color=silver]"There's a reason VR is used for practice and training, really, so...hey, this guy's right. You didn't fail, heck you made your opponent pay for coming after you a little AND glitched the sim a bit it seems. And you helped push one Banana-split-in-two idiot to think about his actions a bit more at that, heh, so you've my thanks as well. 

Never know what our actions might lead to sometimes either, but...Mr. Pink here said you're a comms officer? Right? Information is your forte then. With that in mind, perhaps we really oughta' see this through to the end yeah? Even if its hurts, it's part of how we learn. Its how we move forward and try to make ourselves better."[/color]
[/quote]

“R-Really?” Elora reminisced on the battle, and remembered the frightening sight that befell her once she was down on the ground, crawling with her Framewerk.
“That drone then…It was yours, um, Lucius?” She asked, starting to gradually regain her composure, as she was distracted by the technical topic. “I didn’t see any drones like that when I read through the profiles…Thank you,” she spoke, and a slight blush emerged on her cheeks.
“For helping me there…I appreciate it.”

The third person to speak had fewer words than them all.

[quote=@DarkRecon]
[color=f7976a]"...take it from an information pilot ma'am. You did well"[/color], Jake then said to Elora.
[/quote]

However, they still mattered, as Elora now stopped slouching, and sat up straight in her simulator pod, having found new courage from the praise.

“Th-Thank you. You’re Jake, correct?” She asked, just to ensure she didn’t confuse him for someone else. “From what I saw of your Framewerk, it’s really cool. I’d like to see your and Lucius’ Frames sometime later, if that’s okay.”

The final person to approach the Elora at that moment was Mema-Ka, who was the latest to be disconnected from the virtual reality program. She blinked as he gave a cordial mention of Lucius’ accomplishments in the mission, before turning to her.

[quote=@Dezuel]
[color=82ca9d][b]"Do forgive me for leaving you in such a difficult situation Elora. You performed admirably and bravely fought to your last. Keep your head high. We wouldn't have gotten this far without you."[/b][/color]
[/quote]

Elora nodded with closed eyes, and an awkward smile managed to reach her expression.
“Thank you for carrying Logic Diver around. It must have been a burden in all the fighting. I’m glad you believed in me despite fumbling very badly in there.”

[Arrish disconnected]

Suddenly, Arrish had woken up, having met his end after a particularly lethal dosage of electricity. Now it was Elora’s turn to approach him, as she stood up and approached him.

“Hey, Arrish…Thank you for saving me from Minerva. It probably would have been better for Apple if you left me to die, but you didn’t.” She placed her hands behind her back, and scratched the floor with the front of her boot, looking awkward as once again she blushed a bit.
“So, um, sorry,” she mumbled.

[Sparks disconnected]

Finally, the last pilot woke up: Sparks, who ended up as the survivor, not only of team Mango, but the entire mission.

Lorenzo was still reading his personal device at the time, and then realized how most of the pilots were looking at him.

“...Oh. I suppose the mission is over.”

Then, without further fanfare, he walked out of the virtual training room, followed by Liisa.

Ritsu then addressed the pilots with a salute.

“The practice mission is now officially over. Report to the briefing room in ten minutes. The Executive Officer will be handing out evaluations for your performance as well as handing out the position of team leader. That is all, dismissed.”

Elora sighed, and placed her hands on her cheeks.

“Geez, I hope hope he won’t be yelling too badly…Ah, who am I kidding,” she mumbled, and went over to greet Serah. “Hi. So, um, how do you think the mission went? I don’t think we saw each other at all in there.”