--Seizing Saitama--
It seemed that poor Norika's suffering wouldn't be over anytime soon, in fact, it just got worse with the arrival of that showboating pilot, Teodora Constanza. Pyra was a patient girl, a calm and collected person even during the most intense rage-inducing moments in her games, a feat that required a certain talent for controlling your emotions, but even she had her equanimity truly tested by Teodora. While Hoshiko was no doubt louder than the blonde, at least the Japanese girl did so out of friendliness to cheer up everyone's day, but Teodora... oooh, this Romanian pilot had malicious intentions, Pyra was sure of it; the type of person who put others down with barely-concealed insults and rhetoric to feed her own ego. An insufferable bitch who couldn't even see her own pestiferousness even when it's spelled out right to her face, or more likely, she
knew but couldn't care less.
"..." The blue-eyed girl found herself staring a bit too long at Teodora, but then caught herself before the slightly-older girl could notice and silently continued with her meal, focusing on the mouth-watering smell and taste of the beef bowl to get her mind off the attention whore. She finished up shortly after Elise and pretty much did the same thing, returning her empty bowl and tray to the cleaning station then departing toward Horizon's Command Room.
..........
.....
...
The casual air of the mess hall had shifted away to the serious no-nonsense atmosphere of the strategy chamber. A familiar figure was already there even before the first assigned Frame Pilot entered the vicinity; Sandra Morrison, the woman in charge of the whole organization. Though the upcoming task wasn't categorized as a 'major' operation, the fact remained that the boss lady herself was manning the helm, meaning it was important enough for her to allocate her busy schedule for it.
Pyra occupied one of the vacant seats facing toward the central monitor before the briefing began proper. Blue eyes reflected the light off said monitor as Commander Morrison explained the details of the operation: its goal, field conditions, possible threats, and last but not least, team composition. Indeed, the main objective was to cleanse Warped presence from Saitama so it could be reclaimed by human authority. The Frame Pilots would ensure that the Japanese military wouldn't suffer crippling casualties just to reconquer this small part of the former Tokyo Metropolitan Area.
Fukada... Pyra mentally noted her would-be partner's name; the loud brunette who shared an ethnicity with her, wielder of Hinotori, a Chi-Mechframe specializing in close combat and rapid aerial movements, a fitting complement to Infernus' artillery abilities. That's fine really, Pyra didn't have any personal issues with anyone in the room, except for Teodora,
however, in the battlefield, even the most annoying pilot couldn't hold a candle to the existential threat of the Warped, thus if it came down to it, she was more than capable of pushing her own emotions aside for cold professionalism. As Dulac mentioned, they didn't
have to be friends to be coworkers, common goal begets petty squabbles.
"Understood, Commander," The shorter-haired brunette confirmed Morrison's instructions then proceeded to stand up,
"I have no further questions. I'll see you all out there, everyone, let's do our best." Then made her way to the engineering bay to receive her custom-built mechanized biosuit.
---
"...-and that's how you activate it. Got all that, kiddo?" A gruff bearded man curled a smile as he finished his instructions to Pyra;
Igor Pachmelnik Zakuskov, one of the many engineers employed by Horizon, a Russian man who lost his wife to the Warped incursions and now dedicated his life to prevent others from experiencing the same fate, no more children should grow up motherless if he could help it. He picked up a peculiar bracelet, purplish-black in color with distinctive fiery-red highlights, emblazoned with the symbol of a dragon's open maw, then offered it to Pyra,
"Chi-Mechframe Infernus, all yours. Good luck out there, Frame Pilot Pyralis.""Yes, I understand, sir." Although Pyra was intimately familiar with the ins-and-outs of Infernus by now, she knew that the engineer was just doing the final checks to really make sure she didn't screw things up right before a combat operation.
"Thank you." She received the state-of-the-art device, one that she had spent six months of constant training so far, then strapped the buckles to her dominant arm, the left. With a final nod, the brunette continued toward the hangar, there was no time to waste, especially since she was assigned to scouting duty, the squad at the frontmost of the attack group.
---
Moments later, minutes before departure time, Pyra found herself standing by at one of the launch bays of Horizon's hangar area. She had changed her usual clothes into a black skintight leotard of a similar design to an Olympic swimmer's uniform, the most reliable outfit to serve as inner wear for what she's about to do, and there were no red-rimmed glasses upon her face. Upon the signal for imminent launch, she held her left arm outward, enunciating,
"Infernus, blaze forth!"Flames immediately enveloped her.Starting from Pyra's left arm, the inferno traveled to cover her whole body from neck to toe, yet strangely they didn't burn her. Instead of disintegrating all in their path as flames would normally do, this conflagration coalesced to
shape into a set of biomechanical armored dress on top of her leotard; black in color with a slight purple hue in select spots, crimson highlights carved through trailing tongues of flames; the blouse, knee-length skirt, and socks manifested first before they were followed by the Mechframe's bracers and boots, fitting themselves perfectly onto Pyra's arms and feet, a dark purple orb adorning each of them. The dress was finalized when a tri-pronged shuriken-esque brooch emblazoned itself on her sternum, its orb shining bright orange.
However, it wasn't done yet as three swirling tongues of flame snaked out of Pyra's left palm, forming into a long lance in the silhouette of a dragon's head. Steel-gray and red in color, the weapon could be held reliably by either one or two hands. Her fingers grasped the handle and with a flourish, swung the draconic lance once as flames dispersed from her as the transformation completed. Even still, the occasional wisps of fire remained about her form, although they were completely harmless, merely a visual manifestation of the Core's power.
"..." Breathing out once, she hardened her gaze as the launch door hissed open before her, clearing the way to the wide open sky above Japan.
"Pyralis Constantina, Infernus, launching!" With that declaration into the comms, a pair of flaming wings sprouted from each of her boots as the One Born in Fire took to the ether, carving a trail of - mostly harmless - flames in her wake.
