Ammokkx

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

The more Zel-Ghin talked, the more infuriating he got. Being confident was one thing, but this guy was so arrogant and full of himself that he started looking down on Rhylaen simply for having helped with taking him out of the fight. Rhylaen, who Serah had the utmost respect for as she'd felt firsthand just how disruptive the Electric Dragonfly could be when piloted by skilled hands. The tevrainian defended herself, of course, and Serah had half a mind to share a piece of her own mind, but then Zel-Ghin brought Atty into the fold. He implied that she was leaning entirely too much on him, that squid was a failure in comparison. The girl only barely held herself back as her fist curled up into a ball and she started baring her teeth, wanting to snap at his attitude.

"Why you-!!”

Unfortunately for her, the lieutenant had decided to insert herself into the altercation. She ordered the pilots to spectate in silence, that further disruption would not be tolerated, so all Serah could do was grit her teeth in frustration and swallow the vitriol she'd been on the verge of spewing. Between Griff and Zel-Ghin, and even Bug's pre-fight banter, Serah was starting to wonder if all the guys in this squad were massive jerks. With a deep breath she turned her face away from Zel-Ghin, thoroughly regretting having invited him to come over and watch.

The battlefield, meanwhile, waited for nobody. As Serah turned her attention back, she'd been just in time to see Stella ripping Angel Zero to shreds, wincing as she saw Jake's VR helmet come off in the corner of her vision. If the feedback he received was anything like hers, then that looked like it could've really hurt. Stella and Goose just continued their charge unabated, a fierce battle unfolding between them and the team of Aurora and Sleepy. Aurora was pushing Sleepy's systems to the limit, though Serah had no way to tell how far- the only thing that truly betrayed it was Sleepy's systems failing one after the other. Black smoke oozed out of Sleepy and if Serah wasn't still seething with anger from Zel-Ghin, then she might have felt a twinge of pain in her heart from seeing the humongous beast being pushed so far. Right now, though, she was too distracted by her own fuming.

Still, it didn't take long for Stella and Aurora to exit the simulation in tandem, having taken each-other out. Serah briefly looked their way, but when her gaze fell upon Stella, a sudden pang of guilt mixed into her emotionally riled-up state. Stella wasn't like the rest of them, Serah had gotten that much from their brief time together so far. Stella really cared for everyone in her own way and, thinking about it, the simulation must have felt the most real to her out of anyone. The lilim had been adamant in not throwing Serah right into the lion's den and she'd dismissed that. Even if she had no intention of going out the way she did, the fact remains Serah lied to Stella, telling the lilim that she'd be okay in the end.

It all added to the distress Serah was feeling in the moment, a complex wave of emotions. She'd been feeling good just moments earlier, having had a blast with going all out- but now it dawned on her she really didn't like fighting her friends like this. She didn't like seeing Aurora push Sleepy so far, she didn't like the distress she caused Stella, she didn't even like how brutally she'd killed Rhylaen. Serah looked down at her own hand, palm open, and winced. Though it was clean, in her mind it was smeared red- like she'd rammed a sword right through Rhylaen's gut and had her blood splash all over her. As if she'd done this before, remembering Atty's blade cutting right through the armor of one of her allies. A numb feeling crept up along her arm, followed by a stinging pain- or the memory of one, at least. A feeling like her arm was being crushed by something heavy. Atty had gone berserk, he'd dashed at Logic Diver and he... he...

Serah shook those thoughts. 'Zel-Ghin just riled you up. Don't let it get to you,' she thought to herself in the hope to suppress those intrusive, uncomfortable images. She took a deep breath to steel and calm herself. The simulation must have taken more out of her than she thought if she'd start to daydream about a nightmare like that.

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Serah took Rhylaen's hand without hesitation and gave her a firm handshake, positively beaming as she complimented her. 'Rhylaen's a really nice person,' Serah thought to herself, even if the girl wasn't really expecting her to feel any animosity over it. "Dragonfly is really impressive, aren't they? I couldn't do a thing against your jamming... I felt like I had to take a gamble for my team to stand a chance against it,” she'd admit a little sheepishly. "You and Griff really gave me a lot of trouble. I'm just happy you'll be on my side next time, ehehe...”

When she mentioned Griff, her eyes narrowed a bit and she looked back at the screen, letting go of Rhylaen's hand. Serah crossed her arms, watching as he split off to go assist Elora. It felt good to cut right through that annoying 'Shining Fingers' module of his, but part of her still wasn't satisfied. 'I want to win,' she thought to herself. A burning, competitive flame flickered inside of her, lit by a burning desire to beat Griff and not be outdone by him. Even if Shiva outclassed Atty, even as Griff was clearly an expert pilot- Serah wanted to win. She'd need to practice a lot to make that happen, but...

"Hey! Catch!"
'Just you wa-- uh, huh?'

Her thoughts were suddenly cut short as the sound of Zel-Ghin's voice registered, the girl blinking and turning around to see what the fuss was about... only to get clocked right in the forehead by a lollipop.

"Ow-!” the girl yelped. "Hey, what was that for?!” she'd yell at him, just the tiniest bit upset. Rubbing her forehead, she looked at the ground and saw he'd tossed another stick of candy at her. Crouching down to pick it up, she scratched her cheek a bit in confusion. Looking back at Zel-Ghin, she'd ask: "Sheesh, how many of these do you have?" with no small amount of exasperation. "If you wanted to share again, you should come over here and do it yourself. What are you doing over there anyway? Come watch with us,” she waved over to invite him, then turned to the action again.

The situation had unfolded further in the brief moment Serah had been distracted. Shiva was firing on a charging Mother Goose while Angel Zero tried to sneak around her and recover Atty's lost blade. Serah puffed up her cheeks a bit- that wasn't his to use! Only Atty could properly wield that thing, or so she thought anyway. In truth, AZ managed to replicate the system Atty used to power it and it flickered right back to life, just like how it used to be. Serah definitely didn't know how to feel about that one.

But more importantly, she'd noticed how Aurora had been left all alone in the field. She didn't know if this was the plan or if people had abandoned her, but what Serah did know, is that what Sleepy was doing wasn't normal. Aurora had told her they were tempermental, that they didn't like others much- but the frame was oddly calm. Even she could see that much. But judging from the hellfire it unleashed, the pilot behind it was...

'Aura... are you doing okay...?' Serah would think to herself, slightly worried about her friend as she softly bit down on her lip.

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

The battlefield was like a blur to Serah. She dashed and weaved through the air with startling ease, fully working together with her frame to react faster than any person should be able to. Having already seen Griff's slag cannon in action she breezed past it on her descent, only to violently clash with him once down on the ground. He came in to parry her blow, and for the briefest of miliseconds Griff's arms managed to stop her sword in its tracks. The pain from Atty's side being cut didn't even register to her yet, even as she instinctively grit her teeth.

"I'm not... losing... to you!” Serah screamed from within her frame as her blade cut right through Griff's shining fingers, before her own frame was sliced in half. Her entire body tensed up as the searing pain shot through her, the entire left side of her body suddenly going numb. Serah didn't even have time to scream it out as her consciousness flickered, but gritting her teeth and with what little lucidity she managed to hold onto, she and Atty dashed right past Shiva. Coming to a halt in front of Dragonfly, Atty's flickering and unstable plasma blade was shoved right to its chest. Everything flashed red in her cockpit as the sim was dangerously close to disconnecting her from the neural feedback, Serah's own thoughts growing hazy and dim.

'Stella... I couldn't keep my promise... the rest is up to...'

Atty's core pulsed. With a violent, bright explosion, the world briefly went dark for him and Serah both.

---

Serah reeled as she disconnected from the VR sim, drenched in sweat as her body coursed adrenaline through her. Physically she was fine, but the feedback from her synchronicity with Atty still left her shaking and about to throw up from the pain. Her entire body was on fire, feeling like it'd been burnt to a crisp- nevermind the searing pain shooting through the middle of her body as she tried getting up. Only when experiencing the sheer level of this pain does it begin to dawn on her what kind of suffering she must have put Atty through. She winced at the thought, already feeling a sense of crushing guilt. 'Atty... I'll make it up to you, I promise...' she thought to herself, the pain slowly fading from her body as she tried sitting upright.

She looked around the room, seeing several other pilots waking up alongside her. Rhylaen and the green-haired boy from her team, as well as just one more figure- someone she didn't recognize at all. A young boy, maybe around her age but distinctly different from Zel-Ghin. That... was probably Banana. She felt a little pity for him, since Lorenzo was pretty clear his objective was to survive.

Lorenzo who, at that point in time, looked over all the pilots and firmly reprimanded them for dying so early. But his 'punishment' was merely for each pilot to watch the remaining battle. She didn't think he was too sincere about it at all, when phrased like that.

Shaky and unsteady Serah got to her feet, the pain from her virtual wounds mostly having faded along with her adrenaline only for an extreme soreness to follow suit. Her body was still protesting her stunt, but all she could do was grit her teeth and bear it as she stumbled over to watch the remaining battle. She looked for Rhylaen in the room and walked over to her with a sheepish and apologetic smile.

"Ahaha... sorry about that one, Rhylaen. I think I got a little carried away...”

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Serah & Stella

(ominous beat!)
It was then when the sky split apart, and a frame on silvery wings appeared. “Go, team Strawberry!” it said, as it shot a beam of magical rainbows to turn Shiva into a tiny rubber duck.

WHAT

Of course this was a masterplan by Lorenzo, who also appeared in his own frame, the Cruxi Fister. It was an outrageous Pink, the only reason why he had gotten mad at Pilot Duval was because he had stolen his paintjob.

(Okay, now seriously)

Serah and Atty slid across the ground as they just barely managed to swerve to the side after dodging the slag cannon, right behind Mother Goose’s now-deployed bastion. The girl clicked her tongue in frustration from having Shiva not follow her into the back line, and further, losing one of Atty’s wings in the process. She not only had nothing to show for her effort, but was now in a worse position than where she started. She needed to come up with another plan of action, and fast. Her screen was still lighting up red, too, nothing but garbled static coming through the long-range communications. Dragonfly was proving to be a problem with its jamming reaching this far back.

Then it hit Serah; if Electric Dragonfly’s jamming reached this far, didn’t that mean she was close by? It’s possible that Rhylaen was following her and Atty this whole time, cutting her communications off from the team. Even if that was so, though, that still didn’t tell Serah where Electric Dragonfly was hiding. Even if she went to look, she wasn’t going to be able to tell her team about it.

Stellan inside the Mother Goose winced, and twitched, as she brought her simulated hand to her face. Warning sensors were all over, analogues of pain seeping into the runtimes of her programming. The jamming was affecting her, like a fleshy being would feel pain by being stung by dozens of bees. Nevertheless, she winced, and tried to offer her best smile. Switching to short range communications, she managed to open a channel with Serah, using loudspeakers.

“Ge-ge-gene Serah, Pi-pilot. Are you alri-right?” Goose added as she positioned better to shield the damaged frame, Atty, and attempted to reach for one of Guinevere’s repair drones to begin emergency repairs on the fragile cracked frame. “Do you- Do you- want this-this unit to hunt do-down rivals?” She prompted, wincing. She really did want to react to Elora’s sorry state, abandon all the simulation, grab the poor girl and give her her best strawberry sweets, but Serah also needed her. She tried not to let it show how …difficult this was to her, as her childcare routines still commanded.

"...! Stella, I can hear you?!" she’d respond, slightly bewildered. Serah hadn’t thought about short-range communication still working from them being right next to each-other, Atty looking up at the towering Mother Goose. She watched as Goose tried to offer Atty a repair drone, but the wing was already beyond salvage, laying scrapped along the path she came from. "No- I’m okay! You sound like you’re in pain though… argh!"

Serah bit down on her finger in frustration, wracking her brain about what to do. Then, as Stella suggested hunting down ‘rivals’, an epiphany hit her. "...! That’s it! Stella, Goose, do you think you could throw Atty up as high up as you can? From in the sky, me and him can find where Dragonfly is! We can stop them from jamming us!”

Stella’s voiced cracked on static. “That-that-is not advisable. We-we-are in a fi-fight. Uppies can-can- wait. I’m fi-ne. This- this unit will-will perform her duties without trouble.” The voice sounded cracked, and severe. But firm.

"Its because we’re in a fight that I need your help!” she’d shout back, just as firm. Serah moved her hand to her chest, her frame mimicking her every movement. She and Atty were pleading now. "I promise I’ll come back safe! Me and Atty fight together as one, and I can feel his heartbeat. He wants to help as much as I do! And I’m not fighting alone,” she’d say, putting down the repair drone she’d been donated earlier on Atty’s shoulder. "Me, you and Sparks- we’ll all be fighting together! And… if it gets too dangerous, I trust you’ll be right behind me! So please, Stella!”

Stella’s voice cracked once more. “XO Lorenzo put-put sensors to a mi-minimum threshold. It-it will hu-hurt. Like-Like. Elora. Are-you-sure-about-this?” Stella would ask for a final confirmation.

Serah flinched. "You’re… worried about it hurting me?” she’d say, slightly bewildered. Then, she giggled. ”Ahaha… maybe, but I’ll be okay. I promise. And… it makes me happy you’re that worried. I’m counting on you, okay?!”

With that, Atty’s thrusters flared up as she moved in front of Goose(M15), Atty and her opening their arms to make it easier for them to be picked up.

Stella went silent for a moment, before Goose’s Massive arms grabbed delicatedly the diminute frame. “Uppies command re-received.” Serah could feel how the servos cracked and whirred as the [Ripping Fists] came to life, giving the arms new momentum. Then, a brutal G-Force shook Serah against the top of her cockpit, followed by another brutal shift, sinking Serah’s body to the bottom of the system. And then… lack of gravity, as Mother Goose launched the smaller frame high up at ridiculous speed.

"Ghh-!” Serah groaned as she was hoisted up, then tossed around in her control system like a ragdoll when she got flung through the air. This plan was, by all accounts, stupid. Orienting yourself mid-air, mid-flight, while also looking for a target on the ground would be too much for you average pilot. Serah was, however, not your average pilot. With a deep breath, time seemed to slow down for her. After all, her and Atty had [True Synchronicity]. If anyone could do it, these two could.

Casting a shadow over the ground as Atty blotted out a part of the sun, the frame and Serah spun around in the air, thrusters activated to keep the momentum going. From her vantage point, as she was mid-flight from (M15) to (S15), she could see almost the whole battlefield- including Dragonfly from the building she was hiding behind.

Serah’s breaths got ragged as the adrenaline coursed through her, muttering ”Found you…!” to herself. She almost lost her nerve for a second, but then remembered Astolfo’s speech from before the match. How he’d rallied Ava to lead them to victory. Serah smirked to herself.

”Ava, huh…?” she’d mutter again, smirking to herself as a competitive fire was lit inside of her. Atty’s blade flared with a [Core Charge], Serah superheating the system to make the sword rage wild. ”Are you looking at this, Bug?! I’ll show you what victory looks like!”

Serah wielded Atty’s remaining wing like a shield, occupying the length of the frame’s free arm as she spun around again in the air. From high up in the sky, Atty suddenly sped down at an alarming speed- as fast as its thrusters could carry it, plasma blade overheating from the sheer energy coursing through it. Straight at Electric Dragonfly(T15), ensuring it had nowhere to run.

"EAT THIS!!”

Goose would then grab her Bastion and plow forward, not caring about the building in the middle of her aggressive followup, followed by planting her Bastion once more.

[Move to P15 through the building, plant bastion again]

(Serah consumes the token for +1 movement in case Rhylaen flees)

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Serah clicked her tongue as she saw both Shiva and Raptor dash forwards on the battlefield, losing sight of Raptor but just barely managing to make out Shiva still from between the buildings. If she moved forward from this position she'd almost certainly be spotted by those two... and that's not a fight Serah can win, as much as she wanted to square off against Griff right now. She'll need to isolate him first, somehow...

'...No, wait! Think about your role, Serah!' she chastised herself. Taking a deep breath, Serah reached up to her ear to activate her voice communications to try and relay their positions. Just as she was about to, though, ear-bleeding static came through the channel and her monitor flashed red. 'This is bad...' she thought to herself, realising she'd been jammed. Rhylaen and Electric Dragonfly must be somewhere close by, but Serah hadn't seen sight of either of them. Several buildings surrounded Atty, so dragonfly could've been hiding behind any one of them. If she moved forward now, its entirely possible she'd be pincer'd by a majority of team Apple...

Then with a smirk, she asked her frame: "What do you think we should do, Atty...? Run away?"

His core glowed hot, his body was on fire. Its like the adrenaline that coursed through Serah's veins was also flowing through Atty. And, because of that, she knew he'd reached the same answer she had.

"...I thought so! I want to fight, too!"

Serah and Atty dashed out of their cover, speeding along the battlefield and keeping their eyes on where they saw Shiva and Raptor. If both of them were on standby for enemy units, then she'd just draw the fire to herself. Atty swung its arm, bringing both barrier shields up inbetween it and the other two frames to soak any shots that Atty couldn't dodge out of the way of in time. Then, after coming face to face with Shiva(P14), Serah briefly paused in her tracks and pointed the long end of Atty's blade straight at Griff.

"This is payback for earlier, you jerk!" she'd taunt him, even though the message itself was unlikely to come through. The blade's edge glowing hot, she dragged it across the floor and swung upwards, sending a wave of plasma energy barreling straight at Griff. It was obvious, it was loud, it was very telegraphed- and it was all exactly as Serah wanted it to be. Her team was behind her, she knew this much, so the best thing she could do right now was bring the enemy straight to them. After goading Griff, Serah knew her time was limited- she and Atty flew backwards as far as they could go, hoping to outrun Shiva and Griff and regroup with her team.

(Attack > use remaining move to go to M14)

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Serah furrowed her brow as Bug's private message to her came through. She didn't know if it was sincere or sarcastic, but all Serah had done was try to help out what she thought was a confused future-teammate. Bug telling her she'll treat her to sweets just made her feel like she was being treated like a child. Him posting a scandalous photo of Arrish and Griff wasn't helping either. Maybe if they weren't in a formal exercise, and maybe if she hadn't had her own encounter with Griff, Serah might've found this funny. Given the current situation though, she simply rubber her temples, being wise enough to have Atty not mimic her movements. Pulling up a virtual keyboard by swiping her hand in a certain way, Serah was quick to mail back to Bug:

'Take this seriously, please.'

After that she simply listened to the incoming chatter, with the new pilot telling them that the other team was threatening him. She found it a little fishy at first blush; Aurora, Elora and Rhylaen were all on that team. None of them would threaten their fellow pilot just like that, would they? Then again, Griff was on that team and she had a much easier time believing he'd pull a stunt like that. So, given the story seemed to check out, Serah would choose to trust team Banana for now. Not like she'd get much time to ponder it further; Ritsu's voice rang out loud and clear over everyone's audio equipment, going over the rules again. Professor Lorenzo chimed in with the second half of the explanation, and Banana's role in all of this. Before long, he'd count everyone down with a:

"Ready!
Set!
GO!"

With her thrusters flaring, Serah and Atty dashed right into the battlefield on Lorenzo's mark. "Atty here! Gonna try and get as deep as I can, I'll relay the position of anybody I find. Cockroach, I'm counting on you to cover me if I draw fire!"

Serah attuned herself to Atty's senses, feeling the cold wind brush against its chassis as the pair sped through the ruins. It was a nice feeling. The speed, the freedom of movement- Serah loved flying around together with it. For now Atty's wings were in their default configuration, making itself more aerodynamic to reduce friction as much as possible. Looking through the frame's eyes, Serah raced past the building which had once been in front of her right into the upper middle section of the map, just barely spotting a frame she'd never seen between all the buildings. It was moving away from Serah, though unlikely due to herself being the cause, ducking behind one of the buildings.

"Unknown black frame spotted making its way directly east. Highly probable its Banana."

With that report done, Serah continued on her own flight path, spotting another building directly ahead of the one she'd dashed past. It seemed like a nice, central location to get a lay of the land for while also providing some cover. Taking inspiration from Banana, Atty and Serah made their way along the building's walls, coming to a halt when she could just peer past its edge to get line of sight of the center-southwest of the battlefield.

(dash from F11 to O10)

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Serah is nothing if not meticulous about looking cute even inside of Atty, where nobody would see her. She'd double, triple, even quadruple checked every detail of her appearance in her locker's mirror. Making sure her ribbon was on the right way, making sure her pilot suit didn't have any folds in it, running her fingers through her hair so there were no tangled bits... she even had heels built into her suit so she'd look a bit taller and more serious alongside the rest of her crew. Once she'd applied some lip gloss and gave herself a wink in the mirror, Serah cheerily hummed her way towards the VR room. She gave both her team and the other team one last look, spotting one unfamiliar face in the crowd with a black suit making his way towards the other team's pods.

'Someone new...?' she thought to herself. Serah could remember faces pretty good, and he wasn't someone she'd seen around the base before. She didn't have a lot of time to ponder what it meant as she linked into the simulation, but one thing was for sure: Lorenzo was probably up to something.

Once inside the simulation, Serah felt a wave of comfort wash over her. "Atty...! They brought you in too, huh?" she'd talk to her frame, eyes sparkling. Serah expected replicas of everyone's frames, but it seems like Lorenzo had done something to load them all in directly. Serah wasted no time getting settled; the MMORPG harness she had on made her feel like she was floating inside the cockpit, her piloting system forgoing a traditional seat with switches and steering wheels. No, all Serah had was a small handlebar to mimic Atty's plasma blade for her to grip onto and a whole lot of wiggle room. She did some checks by stretching out her free hand in front of her, moving each individual finger and watching Atty's fingers do the same through his own eyes. As if she herself was looking at it, Serah saw the battlefield stretch out before her, a wasteland of deserted and dilapidated skyscrapers. Her and Atty's head turned to look to their left, seeing everyone else's much taller frames in formation.

"MMORPG system working as intended! Core energy charged and stable! All systems green, too. Me and Atty are ready to deploy!"

Once her system checks were over Squid's pilot, Zel-Ghin, chimed in himself. Then Serah heard another voice come in through the general communications. A male voice, one she's not heard before. He asked if anyone on either team could hear him. Figuring the pilot was inexperienced, she chimed in to the general chat: "Oh, are you the new guy I saw earlier? I thought maybe Lorenzo had sent someone new into the other team last minute. Everyone can hear you on this channel, so if you wanna talk to your team you gotta use a different frequency!"

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

A lot more people had noticed Serah's headache than she thought. First Minerva asked if something was on her mind, and before she could even respond, Bug had already asked Stella to take care of her. The Lilim quickly patted her down with some cloth, and the girl protested with a sheepish "Thank you, but I'm fine, really!"

Then, the boy who's gaze she matched from earlier slid over a lollipop. "Strawberry~. Sweet things to keep the bad thoughts away" he'd tell her.

"Oh! Um... thanks?" she'd tell him, slightly confused, but accepting the gesture nonetheless. The team still had some time before the simulation, so she fumbled with the wrapper a bit and popped it into her mouth. No reason to refuse his kindness and she did like sweets.

From there, the discussion progressed. Minerva laid out her plan, then Bug built upon it. The sweets-loving boy didn't seem to like it, though, siding with Minerva instead. Then Ava inserted herself with a third plan, proposing to split the squad in several different tasks. With so many different voices throwing their thoughts into the mix, things were bound to get muddled... and its not like they had that much time to think.

"Timeout!" Serah suddenly spoke up, hand raised in the air. Without thinking about it, she jumped right on top of the table and addressed everyone like she was on a podium. "We're totally gonna lose if we all have different ideas. So... I think we should leave it at three plans for now. There's seven of us, so if we all vote on an idea, I think we'll find the strategy to go with! ...I think."

She realised what she'd done by jumping on the table, hand still in the air like a dork, and she gave an awkward little laugh as she scratched her cheek. "Uhm... so, Minerva wants to split into a frontline team and a mobile stealth team. Bug wants to start as two teams while he goes off alone, and have me break off to try and find Logic Driver when we've advanced enough. Ava wants to split us all into pairs; Stella and Zel-Ghin advancing on the front, Sparks supporting from behind, Minerva causing a distraction to let Ava herself sneak in, then me and Bug picking up any stray targets we find. That's everyone's ideas, right?"

Serah gave everyone a moment to get their thoughts, corrections and misgivings in so she could climb off the table and take a look around. She took the opportunity in order to find some conveniently left behind papers and a pen to scribble on them with. She wrote down the names of the three people who'd proposed something, then held up the paper for everyone to see. "So... mark your vote or forever hold your piece!"

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

Serah didn't entirely know how to stop Stella from bulldozing her way through the crowd and claim Elora for herself, but Sparks was quick on the uptake and intervened on her behalf. A relief to be sure. She took the opportunity to look around the room again to find where the rest of her team was. Ava went over to try and help Sparks pry Stella off of Elora while Minerva outright ignored the commotion and beckoned everyone over to a table in the corner of the room. The team still had some time before their strategy meeting though. After all, 'Strike Force Apple' hadn't yet moved to another location... on account of their poor, kidnapped intel officer.

Serah's eyes wandered off again, this time landing on Astolfo. Something about his behavior seemed just a little off, but Serah couldn't put her finger on it. Instead of worrying over it, she tried finding the last member of her team. It didn't take her too long, but it was also no surprise she spotted him last; the boy had separated himself from the crowd and stood at a distance. When Serah's eyes did shift over to him, though, his gaze met hers... and a shiver ran down her spine when she saw the look he gave her. It didn't last long luckily, his attention being drawn to Elora shortly after, but something about that guy told Serah he was bad news... well, more than his choice of clothes already had.

'Guess I shouldn't keep Minerva waiting...' Serah thought to herself, turning around once Elora had finally pried herself free from her Lilim assailant's tight grip.

Then, Serah heard the recording play out as Stella departed: "-zzz-Go team Strawberry.-zzz-"

"Team... strawberry?" she mused to herself, before a killer headache suddenly assaulted her. She clutched her head as the sharp pain shot through her skull, like something which was suppressed deep inside of her psyche was trying to resurface. Peering through her fingers, Serah looked ahead of her, straight at Minerva, and muttered: Sig...ma?" to herself, the image of a younger girl flashing before her eyes where Minerva sat.

The headache soon abated, with Serah blinking and seeing Minerva look the same as she'd always been. She stayed standing there for a few moments, bewildered, before realizing her team had already gone ahead. Serah jogged over to join them and took a seat at the table, shooting an uncomfortable glance Minerva's way before deciding to put her mind elsewhere.

"So... did you have a plan, Minerva? I can't come up with much, ehehe..." she'd break the ice on the conversation, acting her usual cheery self to mask the uncomfortable knot she felt in her stomach.

Nerves In Carbonox Reforged: A Roll-Your-Own Giant Mecha Roleplay

In the period between Lorenzo's class and the present briefing, Serah had spent what little time remained hovering around Elora, Stella and especially Aurora. She hadn't gotten particularly close to anyone else yet, after all. After her encounter with Griff, she also very blatantly steered clear of all the guys, and wasn't caught on her own without one of the other girls around so she could hide behind them. It did mean that Serah wasn't too familiar with the trio of green-haired new arrivals, though given that they were all boys it didn't bother her too much.

The lieutenant went over the details of the VR mission they'd been assigned. The pilots would be split into two teams, pitted against each-other. It disappointed Serah just a little bit, as she didn't want to fight the people she'd be fighting together with. Especially when Elora and Aurora had both gotten assigned to the opposite teams... but then again, when she saw Shiva being listed among the other team, Serah felt something else too. A fiery, competitive and vindictive drive pushing her forward. She punched her fist into her other hand's open palm, thinking to herself: 'I'm going to be getting payback on you, jerk.'

Cooling herself off a little with a breath, she glanced around the room. Elora scooted closer to Arrish and Aurora, presumably to discuss strategy or something. Serah should do the same with her team, all things considered. And yet...

"Hey you three," she'd cheerily say, approaching and inserting herself into the conversation. "Looks like we didn't make it on the same team. I'm a little disappointed, but... well, let's all try our best alright? Me and Atty won't lose easily!"

She shot Aurora an apologetic glance in particular, even though she knew it wasn't up to her how the teams were divided. With a little wave and a wink, Serah ran off again and looked for members of her own team to mingle with. Of all the people in the team, she was only comfortable approaching Stella and Sparks... well, on her own anyway. She hoped to get some more courage to talk to the others by tagging along with one of them. Sparks was the closer of the two, so Serah scooted over next to him.

"Hi hi," she'd greet him all chipper. "Looks like we're team Mango! I hope you, Dancer and Guinevere can keep us safe out there, ehehe."