Elora smiled, and nodded with closed eyes after Lucius confirmed having been the owner of the drone she encountered. “Thinking back, they looked scary at first, but…they’re also cute. Um, that m-may be strange to say, sorry,” she backpedaled afterwards, as a blush of embarrassment emerged on her. “Bye,” she quickly spoke, and left the handsome young man.

She blinked as she was surprised by Aurora approaching her and Serah, and actually answering her question: she figured the older pilot was still upset with her due to the simulation, but it seemed she was not the type to carry a grudge towards her teammates. The intelligence specialist found herself nodding along to the red head's assessment. “I-It was a bit bizarre. I felt more, how do you say, awake during all of it, like after drinking an energy drink or two.” She gave an uneasy smile afterwards as Aurora then mentioned heading off to speak with Arrish. “Oh, uh, okay. I'm, I’m really sorry, Aurora,” she muttered, though the other pilot barely heard it as distance was already made between the two.

Her awkward expression turned positive, and she smiled as Serah, as bubbly as ever, recounted her own experiences. “Oh, you were? I’m sorry to hear that.” She nodded a bit, her eyes averted as Rhylaen’s Framewerk was mentioned.
“I’m glad the professor placed us in the same team. I would have probably been useless with her jamming working against team Apple.” Serah then announced her departure. Elora was about to wave goodbye when Serah surprised her with an offer.
“Really? That’s great!” She lifted her elbows with her clenched hands, and nodded with some assertiveness. “I’ll ask on your behalf then. But to think mister Bugatti is so kind…He is quite odd,” she mumbled, Serah having left the conversation.

Elora found herself alone for a moment, and looked at the other pilots from a distance. Griff seemed surprisingly upset: was he blaming himself for what happened with her? She grimaced: she didn’t want him to feel bad for her own mistakes. She promised herself she would talk with him and explain what happened, maybe over some training.

Minerva was also in there, speaking with Bug: she also seemed to be in a bad mood. Then again, she always did seem to be. She wondered if she carried a grudge for Arrish stopping her and Argo from finishing her off. She also saw Stella, and smiled as the kind Lilim provided for everyone. She was grateful for the talk with her, as that gave her the courage to see this mission to the end.

Then she saw as Ava opened the pod, surrounded by fretting engineers and scientists. Elora’s cheeks reddened: even in a situation like this, she was always so cool and composed, and beautiful. Elora still didn’t have the courage to approach her. Maybe once she had trained and gotten more confident in herself. Elora spent the rest of the time looking through her personal device, reading up on Jake and Lucius’ Framewerk specifications.

Finally, it was time for Lorenzo’s evaluation in the briefing room. He was standing behind the podium like before, with an even taller pile of scattered papers on it. He sighed…And then slammed his hands hard on the podium, scattering the papers in a startling explosion.

“FOOLS! All of you! I’ve seen primeval ooze with more brain cells than you lot! Even Cruxi shocktroopers would laugh at your lack of tactics…And they have been cybernetically lobotomized to have no emotions aside from rage!” He then started coughing violently, and after a short break and a swing of medicine from Liisa, he recovered.

“Let’s start with you, Cadet Gene,” he spoke with a tone of irritation, and pressed a button on his device. The projector behind him turned on, and showed footage from the virtual reality mission: shots from the battlefield, closer to the pilots, and even first-person from the cockpits, as if looking through the eyes of the pilots themselves. The footage was focused on Serah’s Framewerk Atty.

“Your role is as a high-speed scouting and harassment unit. You had an opportunity to flank team Mango to the west. But instead, you go for a suicide dive! Granted, you managed to take out Electric Dragonfly and her jamming, but it was far too reckless, lassie!” He pointed a finger at her as the footage showed Serah’s badass self-sacrifice in slow motion. “If you really want to kill yourself I won’t stop you, but such cowards are not welcome in my project. The only true victory is an overwhelming one, with casualties minimized when possible. You fight to live, not to die! Never forget that!”

Lorenzo then pressed the button again, and the footage shifted to Horst. “Cadet Duval, you may have survived far longer, but you were even more foolish!” He showed footage of Horst heroically coming to Logic Diver’s rescue, a slow motion shot of his Bastion slamming down to guard her against Argo’s deadly claws.

“You prioritized a disabled liability, and in the process left Sleeping Thunder, your sole Backliner, open for an enemy offensive. Not to mention meddling with the virtual reality program,” he added, as if in afterthought. He afterwards showed the awesome, heart-racing duel between Horst and Argent Wings. “You let your emotions rule over you, laddie. The Cruxi make easy prey of white knights like you. Never forget the mission, no matter the circumstance.”

“Speaking of easy prey…” the footage shifted to Logic Diver, showing the Frame as partially visible during the time Elora advanced while cloaked, allowing team Mango to observe how she operated while invisible. Elora herself was aghast at the footage, and clenched her fists with wide eyes.

“Cadet Liu’un, you’re ultimately the reason your team lost,” Lorenzo accused with a gnarled finger. “You had an opportunity to gather more data on the battlefield, and take a reasonable flanking approach. Instead, you threw caution to the wind, and immediately targeted Cockroach and Argent while far behind enemy lines, leaving no opportunity for backup in case your infiltration was compromised.”
The footage showed Cockroach’s drone bomb, followed by Logic Diver getting shot by Cockroach. “And in the end it was, leading to the rest of the battle.” Elora sniffled, holding back the urge to cry as her face reddened in shame.

Lorenzo, without hesitation, moved to the next target in his roasting. “However, at least you acknowledge your faults, unlike a certain other pilot.” His eyes narrowed on one pilot in particular. “Cadet Zel-Ghin, you think yourself better than the other Cadets. But you were one of the first ones to fall, weren't you?” He showed footage of the Squid charging forth, only to be bogged down by multiple Apple Frames, and ultimately wiped out. “While it is true that your role is as a Frontliner and vanguard, you nonetheless charged forth alone into combat with four opposing Framewerks when you should have stuck closer to Mother Goose and provided cover for her to close the distance. Granted, you were surprised and quickly incapacitated by Electric Dragonfly, but that might not have happened if you stuck closer to your allies and defended your allies.” He shook his wrinkled fist. “Learn some discipline, whipper-snapper!”

He then cleared his throat. “However, your brother did not fare much better. Cadet Mema-Ka, you ran off to the rescue of Logic Diver and left Sleeping Thunder undefended. Also, what Tevranian nectardew were you smoking to choose to confront Cadet Bugatti instead of staying to provide backup to Horst, and with a sacrifice no less? You might look like the more reasonable one, but you’re also just as foolhardy as your brother.”

The footage switched to Guinevere. Like with Logic Diver, the footage showed a half-camouflaged Framewerk, showing team Apple his movements during the battle.
“Cadet Quinn, though you may have been the sole survivor of this skirmish…That doesn’t excuse your cowardice!” He slammed the palm of his hand on the podium. “A Specialist’s role is to support the team with their given area of expertise, not huddle in a corner and wait for the smoke to clear! Even with Electric Dragonfly jamming the area, you had opportunities to advance further and scout to your allies via loudspeaker communications like Cadet Gene. Remember, every shot you don’t take is guaranteed to miss.”

Then, his eyes leaned to Griff. “Cadet Burnhardt…Against all logic, you performed better than I expected. You stayed within supporting distance and didn’t run off to rescue a lost cause. There were some small blunders here and there, but at least you know to follow orders.”

“Cadet Rhylaen, you also performed your role as a disruption specialist according to protocol, and didn’t stray too far from your unit. You likely would have survived longer had you tagged closer to your team, but you provided an anchor point for the rest of the team to rally behind.”

Lorenzo switched the footage to Rex Artus. “Cadet Sterling, you failed your mission objective of staying alive as Team Banana. However, you performed adequately when faced with overwhelming odds. Your drone setup was commendable, as was your vantage point for taking on team Mango. You likely would have done better with a proper team backing you up. Ten points and a parrot sticker for you,” he mumbled, and moved on to the next one.

“Cadet Briars, your performance as a Backliner was acceptable, hampered as it was by the disappearance of half of your team. However, you let yourself get carried away becoming hysterical. You must always keep calm and rational, no matter the situation. The Cruxi won’t be giving you the opportunity to shoot them while they are panicking, so neither will you.”

“Cadet Twilight, you had the opposite problem.” The footage showed Angel Zero moving forward to engage Mother Goose, only to be flattened by a shield bash from the Bastion.

“You kept a cool head even at the end, and stayed within supporting distance of your team, engaging as needed. However, you lack awareness. You made rookie mistakes with your positioning that the enemy could easily take advantage of. However, aside from that, you were one of the best performing pilots during the mission.”

He then looked at Stella. "Cadet Stella, your handling of Mother Goose was performed as was expected, though I don't fully condone the enabling of Cadet Gene by throwing her. However, unaware of her plans, that is excusable."

Then, the footage showed Argent Wings, dashing forth and delivering a deadly combo slice to Rex Artus. “Cadet Lane, you also performed well enough considering the circumstances. You used the cover to your advantage, stayed within supporting distance, and engaged as needed with the enemy. However, while you have experience, you tend to develop tunnel vision as the situation turns complicated. At one point you made an unnecessary tactical retreat, seemingly to perform hit and run tactics, when you could have engaged more directly, as there were not enough allies at that point to perform a viable distraction strategy. Still, you performed commendably.”

“And finally…Cadet Bugatti.” Suddenly, Ritsu coughed into her fist. Lorenzo turned his head in her direction. “Executive Officer, if I may speak for a moment…” The old man blinked. “Hm? What is it, Lieutenant?”
She tapped at her personal device. “It seems you overlooked Cadet Minerva.”
Lorenzo blinked again, and looked at Minerva. There was an awkward pause.

“Oh,” he mumbled, and pressed the button, showing Argo’s excellent flanking and assault maneuvers, as well as the hair-raisingly brutal final battle with Shiva.
“...I suppose you performed well enough.” Then, as if he hadn’t even given her another thought, he moved on. “Now, Cadet Bugatti. You taunted the enemy team with psychological warfare, mangled your own drone weaponry, and even misused weapon technologies to create technological abominations.” There was a pause, as he looked grimly at him…Before he broke out into a smile with his half-missing teeth.

“Now that’s the kind of grit I want to see! You use whatever is given to you with creativity and pragmatism, and survive where no other pilot likely could have. If only half of you were as ruthless, the Cruxi would be quaking in their slimy alien boots!”

However, lieutenant Ritsu did not share in the professor’s positive assessment with a slight shake of her head as she kept her arms crossed.

Lorenzo then sighed heavily. 

“Now then, it is time to announce the promotion to squad leader. Truth be told, none of you are qualified for this role. However, I realized that a compromise could be made. Therefore, I decided to make an additional promotion of secondary squad leader. Maybe when the two of you combine your half-wits, they make for a single brain cell. And those two will be…”

There was a pause, purposefully done to build up anticipation, until finally, he spoke again:

“Cadet Lane, and Cadet Bugatti. Lane’s previous experience shall be put to good use in a squad leader role. And to complement her straightforward thinking is Bugatti as secondary squad leader, answering to Cadet Lane. You shall provide the alternative, out-of-the-box tactics when other plans fail. Congratulations, hah hah!” 
The old man guffawed, followed by a bout of violent coughing and a chug of medicine. Elora, however, clapped her hands to congratulate the two…followed by a blush as she quickly stopped.

Lieutenant Ritsu approached the two with a salute, and opened a tiny flat box that contained four items. Two of them were armband badges, shaped like hearts with two intersecting cogs piercing through them. The other four were pistols.

“As part of your promotion, you are hereby authorized to carry taser pistols,” Ritsu explained.
“You are also permitted to use them to uphold discipline during an emergency situation. Are there any questions?” She asked, not only the two freshly promoted pilot officers, but also the rest of the team.