"Oh, I dun know where he is now, I di'n see him afte' that..." Maya said, looking a little sad. "I think he was crying right befo'e he left." She looked like she was pouting a little bit; she likely had forgotten how exactly the encounter with Akumu had gone. He had tried to kill her and everyone around them after Kaitlon had defused him and Kuro, separating them again, but for some reason hugs and pity and friendly words made the man blow up into nothingness.

"Besides, I'm sure they have plenty more of it," R.D. said, sitting down on the opposite side of the table, facing the wall instead. "I doubt the cooks will mind if we take some of their food when we leave Aube."

As R.D. brought his burger up to his mouth, a hand slapped heartily against his back, jolting him forward. "Man, you're something, brave enough to take this place's slop with ya," a cheery-sounding voice said behind him. "Most people check to see if their poisoned when they're done here!"

R.D. peered over his shoulder at the newcomer--what he saw was a tall, well-built man with brown hair and blue eyes, in black-gray fatigues and a tank-top. He had a tray of food balanced between one hand and his hip as he grinned down at R.D..

"Hey, I remember you, you're that kid that was down at the coordination center," the soldier continued. "Didn't know they were letting kids pilot robots these days."

"You are...?" R.D. questioned, very unsure at the moment. Who was this joker?

"I'm Darren! Darren E. Massimo," he greeted, waving to them. "You can call me Rodeo."

===Area K, Innerpeace===

"Yes. Magma Dragons are capable of manipulating fire, magma, and lava to an incredible degree," Seril confirmed, settling on her haunches while looking down at the Mother Unit. "That was why I hoped there would be one living here."

Edited by RisingDragon on May 7, 2009 at 13:47:54.

Well, this one was eager. "Hey," Matt said, tipping his chin up. "I'm Matt." He pointed to the others, one at a time. "That's Helena, Alasea, Ileyna, Hugo. And that's R.D.."

Rodeo opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by another voice. This one belonging a Latina-sounding woman.

"Darren, you harassing civilians again? You're gonna catch hell with Raven if you keep this up," the woman said, approaching. Dressed similar to Darren, this woman had darker skin, black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and sharp brown eyes. Her dog tags, to those who could see well enough, labeled her as one Maria Vasquez.

"Aw, give it a rest, Maria," Rodeo whined, sitting down next to R.D.. "These guys aren't civs."

"How the hell do you know?" Maria taunted, tossing her own tray down on the table.

"Well, R.D. here," he began, tossing an arm around R.D.'s shoulder, as if they were buddies, "Just got put into the mech roster in the coordination center today."

"No shit?"

R.D. shot Rodeo a look and shrugged off his arm. "Yeah," he said. "Its a special case."

"Well then, why don't you tell us about it?" she said, grinning. "Let me get the others over here."

"If everyone's going to come over here, let's get a bigger table," Hugo said. "Or drag two of them together."

(OOC: I freaking hate it when I work on a large post and the browser crashes and can't recover the text. So the rest of this post will come later, I guess.)

As Maria walked off to find the "others", R.D. sighed and stood up. "I'll take care of it," he said, walking over to an unoccupied table. Grabbing its edge, he pulled the table across the floor and pushed its end up against the other table.

As R.D. sat back down at his place next to Rodeo, the man commented on his appearance. "You do know that your shirt's missing a sleeve, right?" he asked.

R.D. sighed and rolled his eyes, causing Ileyna to giggle. Alasea looked around for Maria, and spotted her across the mess hall, where she was talking to seven other people, six men of varying shape and color, and one other woman.

"That's called a fashion statement, Rodeo," Matt said, tipping his head back real easy. "Me, I don't understand it either, but I never was a man of fashion."

"The sleeve got ripped off in a fight, Matt," R.D. muttered, shaking his head. This was the same outfit he had been wearing before, back when he first met with Matt and Hugo. His shirt had two sleeves back then, but one of them got torn off in one of the many fights that occurred after that fateful meeting. "Give it a rest already."

"So you kids aren't rookies, huh?" Rodeo commented, gesturing with a spoon half-filled with food. "Not bad. Most of the refugees here suck at fighting."

"Well, civilians aren't supposed to fight," Alasea pointed out.

"That's true," Rodeo said around a spoonful of food before swallowing it. "But that doesn't stop the enemies. There's been too many close calls with the civs already."

"Maybe you should consider training them," Matt said. "At least in basic self-defense."

"Against giant demons?" Helena said. "That's not going to work."

"Just sayin'."

Helena tore off a slab of her salami and beef sandwich at an angle, full tilt with her teeth. She swallowed it quick before saying, "They have a better chance of surviving if they just run and leave the fighting to the soldiers."

(OOC: Exams may have killed him. I am currently building my fortresses to prepare for the worst, myself.)


"Ooh, ooh." Maya let out as she jumped up a little on the balls of her bare feet. "We were goin' out to play hee so we woulden disturb Awai-san and Riuru-san. I just followed Mercy." Maya stepped around a little dancily and then stood still and stared at the other child. "Why did we go this way anyway, Mercy?"

"Well, that's what we normally do!" Rodeo exclaimed. "But hey, these monsters, they don't fight by the book, you know? They just do what they want, disregard the rules of engagement, and sometimes the civs get put in danger because of it."

"You still sore about that incident, Darren?" a loud voice said behind the man. Looking back, Rodeo saw a large, balding black man in the same clothing wore by off-duty G.A.R. soldiers. There were a bunch of others with him, including Maria.

"Hey, Leon," Rodeo greeted. "Come meet the new guys. This is Matt, R.D., Hugo, Helena, Alasea, and Ileyna."

He turned back to Matt's company and aimed a thumb back at the newcomers. "These guys are the rest of the squadron I'm in. You already met Maria earlier..."

He pointed to each of his teammates in turn, identifying them. "This here's Adrian Maersk. We just call him Raven, he's our flight lead."

Adrian, a tall man with black hair and gray eyes, merely nodded to them, saying nothing. His jacket showed him to have the Air Force rank of Squadron Leader.

Beside Adrian was an attractive young woman with short blond hair and brown eyes, but a rather passive expression on her face. "This here is Adrian's second, Ashley Bernitz," Rodeo continued.

"Hello," she greeted, waving at them.

"The big guy behind me is Leon Haas. He looks mean but he's just a big softie," Rodeo continued, earning himself a smack in the back of the head by the Flying Officer behind him. "Ow."

Next were a pair of twins--large twins. These two guys were just as big as Leon. They had their arms around each other's shoulders, and standing near them was Maria. "These two knuckleheads are the Dylandy brothers, Johann and Berenson. They’re not the brightest pair on the team, but they’re useful in a pinch.”

Hilariously enough, the two brothers actually flexed comically. R.D. was no longer sure Rodeo was joking when he called the two of them knuckleheads. Rodeo, however, continued on in the introductions. "This guy here's Chico Generico, or Gold Bit as we like to call him."

Chico, a lanky, black-haired man of South American heritage, made a salute. "Yo!"

"And then there's David," he finished, introducing the smaller, blond-haired man last. "He's the newest addition to the team. He's a rookie, but he's got some talent."

"Uh, hey," he said, making a small wave. This guy seemed like he wasn't used to being put on the spot.

"Ahoy hoy," Matt said. Ah, what a motley crew this was.

...wait, was that guy's last name Generico?

And with that, the introductions were out of the way, and Raven's squadron sat down at the two tables with their trays of food in hand. Before long, the various guys, the more talkative ones, at any rate, were trading war stories with Matt and R.D., while the girls, uninterested with their boasting, steered their conversation to a more mundane subject.

===Area K, Innerpeace===

Seril nodded at the Mother Unit's command and fell back down onto all fours. Coiling back, she jumped back down into the crater of the volcano, and spread her wings to slow her descent. Before long, she had reached the bottom, and her claws and talons clacked against the metal grating of the floor above the liquid magma. The cavern rumbled with each step she took backwards. She expanded her consciousness outwards, letting it touch upon that of the other dragon's.

There was silence for many long moments, but suddenly, the cavern shook as something large smashed into the grated floor at high speeds, bending it upwards with a sound of screaming, tortured metal. It came again, smashing harder, fracturing the floor further. Magma splashed up between the bars, sizzling as it came into contact with the rock walls of the crater. A third time, then a forth. And then finally, the entire grating ruptured, sending the destroyed floor piece upwards along with a great torrent of magma that drenched the walls as it burned through.

A terrible, black limb exploded out of the subsiding lava, looking like volcanic rock molded into a sharp claw, and smashed into the edge of the grating.

If there was anything Matt liked to do, it was boast.

"...then I went, 'bitch, you want some of this?' and I was like POW!" Matt gestured with his fist to indicate an uppercut. "Shut his ass up."

Laughter broke out among the men gathered, mostly with Rodeo, the Dylandy brothers, and Leon. As the conversation went on, Alasea could only shake her head after watching their antics for a moment.

"Men," Maria muttered, looking off to the side. "Looks like your guys are just as bad as ours."

"Well, they're guys," Helena said. "What else can we do about it?" She finally noticed Hugo lounging around on their side, quietly readjusting his pickaxe. "Hugo, what are you doing over here?"

"This side isn't as loud," the Mettaur said.

"Ain't that the truth," Maria quipped as another outburst broke out across the table, as Rodeo described some epic kill he made in an old battle using a partially damaged Nine-Ball.

"So, may I ask, what are you, anyway?" Ashley asked of the Mettaur. "I've never seen a small mechaniloid as functional as you."

"I'm a Mettaur," Hugo said. "Usually, Mettaurs are mining robots, but I was created to be a lab assistant for a roboticist. Mettaurs aren't real intelligent, but somehow I turned out different. I don't know how, but I knew I had something the others didn't have. Eventually my creator figured it out, and gave me more tools and the ability to speak."

He tipped his pickaxe, like a special Mettaur shrug. "But I got tired of living with him and his other creations, so I've been following Matt for a long while now."

"Really? Poor you," Maria commented, looking sympathetic.

"Matt's not that bad," Alasea defended.

"He's getting chummy with Rodeo, of all people," Maria countered. "That's more than enough warning bells."

"You sure you're not blowing this up a little?" Alasea asked, raising an eyebrow at the Latina woman.

"You don't know Rodeo," Ashley said.

"What's wrong with him?" Helena asked.

"You know the saying that idle hands are the devil's workshop?" Ashley asked. Alasea nodded.

"Meet the devil's workshop," Maria said matter-of-factly. "There's no limit to the amount of trouble that man can get into."

Another outburst of laughter, as Alasea contemplated that.

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh'."

Riul's eyes, strengthened with the draconic form that ensconced her now spotted the thin attack almost immediately and fleeting thoughts filled her head at once. How did he do that again? How had he moved so quickly. He'd teleported. Riul was one to quickly pick up techniques, often needing to see them only once before being able to conjure them herself, but this was risky.

The needles were imminent now, and there was only one hope for it. Focusing the light energy in her body, she attempted to push all the space around her fast enough to put herself behind Awai. As the attack struck her position, Riul vanished.

An entire minute passed and nothing happened, the attack missing her completely, but the world seemingly missing her as well. Finally, light flared behind where Awai had stood, the exit of her teleport. Riul landed harshly, her draconic form completely gone as she thudded into the ground, landing on her knees with her arms in front of her. Her eyes bulged with pain and she opened up her mouth as a hacking cough was released, spitting blood across the terrain beneath her.

She was empty.

"We get into a fair bit of trouble ourselves," Hugo said. "It follows Matt wherever he goes."

"R.D. says he's constantly apologizing for the trouble Matt brings," Alasea said wryly.

"See, men," Maria said, shaking her head. "Totally useless."

"Except for...well, sex," Helena said.

Ashley and Maria both began to snicker at that comment. Alasea, on the other hand, froze up for a briefest of moment. Sure, she wasn't bothered by the subject, but...

She leaned over to whisper to Helena. "Uh, let's not go down that road, okay?" she whipsered to the other teenager. "You do have a little girl next to you."

Said little girl was simply looking at Helena with a curious expression on her face. She cocked her head to the side, inevitably causing her beret to slip.

"Sorry," Helena muttered back, and clamped her hands together.

There was only even more snickering from the two female pilots at Helena's misfortune, and Ileyna only pouted. She had wanted to know what the older girl had been talking about; her curiosity had managed to overcome her shyness at the newcomers.