ZetaRESP

<You won't get any continues here, so make sure to play safe.> Touch looked at Kokoro's explanation, nodding at this. He was aware this may be the case here, as it did seem like his body was still acting like his. Still, it give him a bit of thrills. A true life adventure... "Then stay behind me, I know my way around a fight a bit more than I'd like to admit, and worst-case, Minamizawa and I are the only ones with these creatures. And I'm pretty sure Hackmon here would be a better fighter than... Whatever that is." He smiled and remained behind her as she went forward, ready to fight what came his way. Frimon, on the other hand, was a bit upset about the way she wrote him off. After all, he was not just a defenseless in-training Digimon. As they went deeper, Touch braced himself. Yes, it could be the exit, but it may also mean that the next level of danger was upon them.

As soon as the news of the pilot reached her ears due to gossip, Erica could only sigh '<At least the confusion of others helped to ease some of my fears.>' She remained in her room in the last hours of the trip to the planet, accustomed already to the incenses of her partner, Xa'tok. Still, the pressing issue that plagued her since that time... '<Am I... ready for this?>' She sighed heavily, as she was clearly overthinking stuff. She listened to the advice to board the landing vessels and simply took her rather small luggage and went to the vessel. She thought her kimono, her pilot suit and some other stuff would help. Of course, she was clad in the uniform of her former school, as she was certain she didn't got the one for the Cademy. "Iku wa yo..." With that determination, she went to the landing vessel. The first thing Eriica noticed when they landed was the congratulation on not crashing. Of course, it was somewhat hard to read the casual language, even though she had enough time to try and read and practice her standard language. She still had some issues and some leftovers of Asarian language in her speech, but she could still get what was said. "Congratulations for... nani?!" This last part was Asarian, but it was clear by her face that she was pretty flabbergasted. '<Does this mean that they expected the ship to crash?>' She kept the question to herself as soon as the stern looking woman came and called all the students to follow her up, introducing herself as the Vice-Principal of the Cademy. It quickly reminded her she was here for something and she needed to get into it. She was sent to the academy to learn tactics and the ways of the war. Her country had become pacific after the Kuma Ring War several years ago, but the rumors of an enemy beyond the system put the whole ring in alert. Asari needed to get back in the machine of war for the sake of the entire system and she was granted the chance to be part of that machine, an important piece even. She needed to step up her game. And with that in mind, she went forward, admiring the place she was going to live in for the time being. It was intimidating a bit, which didn't help with her inner fear, but she refused to show it. Erica was accustomed to drills, but the Vice-Principal was really stern, in a way that only the oldest on the Asarian military were. It did keep her attention on the matter in front of her, specially after the smack. '<So this is the true elite of the galaxy...>' Asari had lost the ways of war mainly due to how they ended after the Kuma Ring War. Erica herself had never even seen a war mecha until she got given the Diyulong and started modifying it with the help of the war engineers. It did give her a bit of fear. Then came the houses, which reminded her than, after all, it was still a school. First came Kris and she looked as the kind of people that should be in the military and, for the way she spoke, her house was pretty much militaristic in its way of going. Erica paid special attention to her speech as she considered getting into that house. After all, tactics is probably the part she lacks the most and she will need to learn from the best if she wants to actually do what she was entrusted to. Merlin reminded her of some guy she met in the Grand Asarian Library. The guy wasn't into robots, but more into general science and knowledge. He was complicated, while Merlin seemed more straightforward. Still, not her cup of tea. She was surprised that a robot was a student in here... mostly because she didn't think a robot needed study. She was surprised also that there was a house for explosives, but it made sense: Tactics, Investigation and Demolition are the three gross specializations a pilot could have. And that actually got her in a bit of a pain: She came for tactics, but demolition sounded closer to what she was doing in her battles... She shook that off when the last name was announced. As a Roborawrer herself, she knew the name of the "Metal Crusher". Everyone in the Kuma Ring with any connection to robots heard about him. '<I guess if anyone had to be the principal here, it had to be him...>' She was surprised by his demeanor and his lax... but she was not gonna take him lightly if he was the principal. As soon as the dance floor came into action, much to her surprise, she found herself a bit... out of her element. She was not a dancing girl. At all. At least, not on party music. She preferred slow dances... maybe with someone she could share her feelings... She shook herself off and accepted one of the drinks of the waiters while tried to scan with her eyes the place, trying to move from the center of the dance floor. She tried to approach the house heads, as she felt about talking with miss Ward.

Storm Siren saw the makeshift shield and got into it... as in inside of it. She melded with it in her steam form as a steamy aura on the shield and began to crackle with electricity against the attacks of the outlets and stuff. She would even hit said outlets with her shots... though one of her bolts actually hit nearby Elijah. "Oh, I am deeply sorry, but we have a situation here. May you please come under this cover?" She kept trying to attack the outlets until it all stopped. Once that was dealt with, she abandoned her current position and rematerialized next to Diviner. "Just what was this spectacle about?!" She then looked at Elijah. "Oh... Nano, you are awake. We have a pretty severe situation here. Apparently something is controlling out electric network and attacking us We need to find out who and why."

Touch felt the tug on his shoulder, looking over his shoulder, noticing it was Kokoro, which was good for him as he slipped into his more comfortable Japanese "<He unlocked the next level, so we're heading there, senpai.>" He tried to pull himself off her grasp. "<The wall was as solid as it could be and he opened it.>" He pointed at Conner, who was the other person she stopped. "<It's a plot barrier! It exists only to stop you from going forward without having solved a story element>" He pointed to the curious and eager Frimon who waved at her with his tail. "Hi, Senpaimon! I'm Frimon, and this my friend Touchmon, but he preferes to be called Touch." Touch sighed at the little mon's remark. It seems Frimon haven't gotten off the name termination tick.

As Erica descended from the mech she began to eye the damage. She made mental notes to thank whoever raised the shields back then, while also looking at the damage itself. It wasn't looking really good on her eyes, but at least nothing really broke the plasma generator's chamber. She, of course, had one of the most damaged mechs, so it was still a loss in her book. She was angry with herself, but she held it. She didn't want to be seen as unable to handle her emotions, as that would be another trouble. She looked at them. "I think the force of the shield must get the victory. Where is they?"

Touch saw Conner leave in a pretty depressed mood. "Are all humans just as serious as him?" "No, he just feels bad for the situation we're trapped in." "You are trapped too?" Touch nods. "I tried to get out by going to the upper floors, but those champion Digimon are pretty tough." "Champion? Champions of what?" "That's how the adults are called. For example, I'm an In-Training Digimon, meaning I'm two stages below Champion." Touch listened to him. "The next stage is Rookie, then comes Champion and finally comes Ultimate. And I will be one of those, I'm sure of it!" "I see. That's very-" He cut it when he heard the rumble in the gym. "That came from the gym! Let's go!" Touch ran off without pause to reach the gym, while Frimon was holding tight onto his scarf. He soon stopped at the door and saw Kokoro in there, with Conner heading towards the tunnel that just opened. "Huh... it seems the next stage is afoot." He simply followed Conner, keeping a distance from him in case a jumpscare would hit him. "Be wary, Frimon..."

Touch was carrying Frimon on his arms as he went back to the library. "So you said you're a "Digimon", right?" Frimon nodded. "As in "Digital Monster"?" "I guess so." "Anyway, I guess it's training time." "Huh?" "Well, if you will help us get to the next stage, we need to level you up and such. So, let's get some random encounter and see what we can do, okay?" Frimon nodded enthusiastic about the new exploration. He haven't got much ever since he got inside this weird building. "Anyway, let's get to meet the rest first." And now the duo was back in the cafeteria. "Hai, minna! Look what I got!" He showed everyone in there his new partner, though he realized there were a lot of people getting in troubles as well. "Uh... hello?"

Erica didn't join in the celebration. She screwed it up big time and it was only the fact she changed gears in her strategy that she was able to make it up to the end. She was pretty bummed by her errors and she seriously needed to think on her strategies in the future. She realized her problem soon: She was not prepared for multiple mechs or mechs that were both more advanced and had natural advantages over her own mech, such as flying. Her model was a hastily made refitting of a decommissioned series robot that was already in its last legs and she was a Robrawler trying to handle said mech the same way she does with nimbler and more human scaled artifacts. If whatever MechA was gonna prepare her was even slightly more advanced than these guys, she was toast. "I do not think so." Her voice sounded colder because of her own shame. "This was not war yet. We would had made it not had war been." She used her thrusters to wheel her damaged mech back to the hangar. '<That was such a pathetic showing of skills! Uncle Tenma would had scolded me harshly for being so reckless...>' She fought against the tear that was trying to form, if only because she didn't want to explain that once she was out of her mech, as she entered and docked it in, then unstrapped herself from the driving harness and descended from the mech.

Storm Siren could hear the sound of a door being shot down as she tried to find out the source. She was quickly feeling her body being sucked, as a nearby vacuum pump from the nearby mill was starting up and taking her body. She knew this was gonna spread her up in the air very thin, making her unable to get together easily. "AAAAAAHH!!" She tried to get back to her normal form but the pump increased its power. She only had one chance and changed into a storm cloud, generating as much electricity as she could. It worked, as it shorted out the pump long enough for her to try and use humidity of the air to recompose herself and tack back her human form. "This... is not good by any means..."

I hope so. But first, the latest Secret Santa must be finished... and that's my actual cue to start working, because I'm the one that's missing.

Erica was not liking this at all and she was growing tired of this. They all seemed to be attacking her from the distance. It only left her one choice: She grabbed the sword with both hands and pulled on the handle to make it diagonal, into a blaster grip. This caused the blade to open and reveal the plasma nozzle and the guard to extend the sight, turning the sword into a plasma blaster. "<Now...>" She turned around as quick as possible and aimed at the enemy mech, while her boosters once more went off, shooting her towards the bandito at the same time as she pulled on the trigger of her plasma laser blaster, which she had aimed right onto the center of the mech. "Checkmate."

Erica saw the new protection also started to fail and she was really not getting close to fight... but once she saw one of the mechs surrounding her being struck by another mech, she decided to get serious: Brawling methods were not working and these banditos are really good on ganging up but are likely to fade away when it inverts. With Xa'Tok's mech next to her, she decided to change gears and go for a proper attack. "If we going starboard, will drag them with us all. Must engage sharpshooter." She decided to boost herself towards the farthest mech attacking her (9), leaving her "savior" to deal with the other one. She tried to use her sword as a way to block fire, as she realized quickly that her thick armor was still not a proper defense against heavy fire and she really had troubles with that "sniper". Her idea was to get close enough to try and slash the sphere with her large sword. The strange shields will drop by the time she makes it there, but they only need to hold enough for her to get in melee range. Also, once that's done, she can switch to her weapon's other use...

The noise made by the people around him was not enough to wake Touch up. The eating sounds coming from the sit next too him are not enough to wake him up either. The words of the small creature that seemed a mix of a lion and a dande... lion... well, those were not enough to wake him up either. The feeling of the creature nibbling on his right hand as it seems to try and savor the food scent left on his gloves? Yeah, that is enough to wake him up. "Huh?" He pulled his hand up, seeing the happy nibbling creature shaking its tail, which causes him to get a tail slap on his face. He shakes the feeling off and simply taps on the creature's head, causing it to look at his glare. The creature simply smiled nervously and let go of his hand. "Ow... sorry, I didn't want to-" "You're my partner now, boy." The little creature was confused. "Huh?" "You read my card, you eat my food, we're now partners. Help me level up and you'll get more food. Deal?" The creature looked at him confused, then sees his tail moving and begins to chase it, much to Touch's chagrin. "My name is Tatewaki Minamizawa, but you can call me Touch. I'm a human from outside of this world." "Oh, I'm Frimon! Pleased to meet you!" Frimon bounced around him. "Wow, you look tall!" Touch sighed a bit. "Look, we need to get in the adventure-" "YAY! ADVENTURE!" Frimon jumped onto Touch's arms with a very eager grin. "When do we begin?!" Touch smirks, petting Frimon. "Right now." He exits the classroom, ready to get to the "next checkpoint."

Amane looked at the other gunplas placed on the table. Riku's gunpla was a pirate, at least in her mind. She wondered if it came with a galleon of its own as a back up. She did notice the weaponry on it, though it seemed a bit complicated, yet somewhat traditional in a way. She would have to see it in action to know. Ichigo's gunpla, on the other hand, was all the opposite. It was pretty simple and absolutely non traditional. She looked at its arms and the little pilot in there. She imagined it being like a mermaid or a lamia even. She could see it smashing stuff with its arms and maybe doing something with its tail. Also, probably slithering on the ground, ready to pounce on other gunplas. She didn't need to see it in action, but she wanted to. She looked at Ichigo, her smirk growing more devious (or trying to, she's too juvenile to pull off the "devious rival" smirk, so it comes out as really weird) as she approaches her. "Interesting model you have in there, Shimada-senpai. I would gladly like to see it in action... if you accept my invitation." Her voice tone does manage to come out as deviously atractive... but really, that face is not matching it at all and may be a bit creepy even.

Erica was not glad with this turn of events. She should had opened fire with her approach instead. However, she had no time to curse, she had to attack. Luckily, she could do some damage to her nearby attackers. "I'm gonna request backlog. I have three about me." She started the plasma generator and directed it to the dragon head, opening the head up, then she began to spray fire over the banditos, trying to take them down, while also making them move from her. As she's doing that, she grabs the large sword with the other arm, swinging it around in tandem with the fire-spewing arm to try and hit on the pirates. She hopes this makes her a harder target to hit.

Storm Siren saw this and sighed severely. "I guess it can't be helped... Let's go, Diviner. We shouldn't keep delaying this encounter." She became half gaseous and began to go down stairs towards the workshop, hoping for Diviner to follow. Her entire being told her to get for Cherry Blade instead, but she had her orders and she really wanted to follow them. And technically Cherry blade was doing as she was told, even if, in the end, she was doing her own thing. Her main plan was to find out what was causing this mess. Likely something attacked the generators at the same time it attacked the main supply. It did seem like something her father would do, but she didn't believe there was any earning in attacking them in their home.

Touch heard the words and thought for a moment, finishing his half ration and taking the other one with him as he stands up from the corner. "Well, can't advance without some input." He looks at them as they are probably looking at him weirdly. "I'll go fulfill the quest, just... don't get game over while I'm out, ne?" He leaves the cafeteria. He heads towards the classrooms near the library and places the food on one of the desks, sitting in the desk next to it. Then he pulls out a piece of paper and scribbles some words on it, while he yawns a bit as he slowly feels like starting to get asleep. The paper was placed on top of the food and it read, in Japanese, of course: "<Do you want to be friends?>"

Touch glances to his shoulder as Romy touches it, then notices her giving her part of her ration. "Uh... sure..." He saw her trying to express her gratitude at the meal. He simply sat down, food on his lap, and joined his hands. "Itadakimasu." He began to eat his half ration, while he expected for his plan to work. He had a vague idea of what to expect, but he was sure of something: Those creatures are key in this travel. So, his plan is that he needs to find a friendly one that can help him actually advance to the next part of the map. He's sure that's how this 'game' works.

Erica looks at the mecha. '<So he uses a shield to attack... "best defense is a good offense" seems to be the idea...' She seemed interested in the shield, as well as the it's symmetry. I just... didn't click with her. Something was odd. "Armor. The main weapon is a shield, so it may not armor as much as not shield weapon and shelling may..." She feels a bit irritated by her failings at language. "More armor on the other side of the shield is what I mean." She didn't wait a response as the alarms went on. "Enemy mecha detected. Military response required." Erica heard this and went quickly to her mecha. "<This is not the best moment for a 'birth of fire'!>" As she got in and strapped herself into the driving harness, she saw both Chase and another girl that came from the doors enter their mechs and take off. She quickly enabled the reactor and it heated up quickly. "Shouryuu, kidou!" She presses with her legs to make the mecha walk... or rather skate, as she enables the wheels and pushes with the legs to move forward. Faster than running and not having to use the boosters yet. As she reaches the hangar gate, she takes advantage of the lower gravity to leap with the boosters up, then tries to switch to the claws and climb up the mecha. It was not the fastest method, but it was the best method. As she reached the ceiling, she got the message in her headset, which was an actual helmet. "Time to scrap these stooges!" Erica was behind Chase and saw Kelsey starting to engage, as well as Chase opening fire. She saw two distant targets (3 and 4) and she decided to go forward. "Let them not gang up. I will crash the far away." She tried to ram into them as fast as possible with her mech, switching on the wheels and turning on the boosters, aiming to either get close enough to use her dragon head blasts or ram into one of them.

Amane smiled at Noboru and then waltzed to the nearest table. "Hi, everyone~! I'm Amane Souto and I'm a girl fresh out of junior high ready to get in the game~!" She placed her boxed gunpla on the table, standing it straight and facing the gross of the people. The logo of the red box looked like a helmet with a moon-like design on the "forehead". "I'm mainly a modder, I like to make unique changes to my gunpla~. And this is one of my BEST ONES EVER~!" She waltzed a bit around the table as she then goes to the box. "I hope you like this~... my ultimate kit-bash~" She takes the lid from top, the padded walls falling to the sides to reveal the strange red machine standing uptight. The decals it has in the shield reveals the name and the serial number. "Ladies and gentlemen~..." Her voice lowers a couple tones as she takes a more serious pose... or tries to, it seems off for some reason. Specially her smirk, which would probably fit a more mature looking woman rather than the young girl. "I introduce to you to the ASMS-010WS Solid Imagine Gundam. Custom Transformable Multipurpose Mobile Suit. Master Grade 1-100 model. The making time was around 200 hours, spread over several months. The source parts were mainly from the Ver. Ka MGs ZZ Gundam and Wing Gundam EW, plus several custom parts made by myself." She steps back for everyone to see the model itself.

Touch was up early... well, that's what he thought. He looked at the vines and the stones. He had tried cutting the vines, which would make the stones less wedged, but it was not a good idea to do bare handed and the multiple cuts he's getting under his gloves are a proof of it. He tried finding something to cut it, but those creatures kept stealing them... though he's kind of surprised to find smaller ones doing so. He also tried to go upstairs, but he had been reprimanded for that after the attacks the other got upstairs... and the first creature he found actually tried to choke him, the brands now hidden by the high collar of his shirt. Something was missing... "I'm gonna get this puzzle solved somehow. I'm not gonna remain stuck at the first level!" He chuckled to himself: everything was a game for him, all his life... and now it seemed even more of a game. He stopped after feeling her stomach rumble. He went to the cafeteria to get his ration of food, pondering all the things he had tried so far. "Kon'nichiwa, min'na." He was there just in time to see Mr. Henderson deal with the imp like creature. He took his food and went to wards the table, ready to sit next to Chris, as they all talked about those creatures... the creatures... the creatures! He quickly hit himself in the head. "Baka! I forgot the chance encounters..." He took his food ration with him and walked off... but not to get a specific place where to eat. He actually went to a corner, left the food in there and waited. He had the feeling he had to do this.

"Honestly, if that was the case, we'd probably been under a different ship that didn't have any of our mechs onboard and wasn't on it's way to the academy. If anything, the normal route might've had a few issues with it so they went with this route. After all, things happen, so it wouldn't be surprising if that was the case, ya know?" "<Alternate route? Maybe the Heliosians were spotted near the main route and the ship was taken to a shortcut to avoid the cademy to be found...>" She thought about this. It seems there may not be a reason for her to worry about her current route... except, of course, worrying her about the normal route. "Road-slices and alternate routes are always an origin of preoccupation, specially in impending times of general battle. We have no reason to not be not worried." She tried to think back at how bad she botched that one as she began to walk to her mecha, stopping just past Chase before glancing at him. "You seem to be taking notes of the mechs here. What about yours?"

Storm Siren was asleep, as usually happens when it's 3 a.m. She didn't feel the lack of light and, in fact, short of her being in the bed, dreaming of making paces with her father, it was all well... then fragments of memory from her past suddenly appeared in her mind, a kinda recurrent nightmare, and she woke up. She looked at the room and noticed it was totally dark... which was bad, she quickly went into storm form, phasing from her clothes and her bed and reforming in her uniform at the feet of the bed, while she tried to see if she could light the way with a candle, a small lightning storm strike turning it on, then she tried to see if the door or a window would open. If not, she would try to see if she could get into storm form and phase through the door.

"Not shooting stars. Asteroids. Small ones." Erica thinks for a moment realizing that yes, the word she wanted to say was asteroids. She did notice her muttering to herself and wondered what may she be saying. "If one was big enough to do damage a hit from it it would cause the ship to explode. The force would be more than a mech could handle." "It's just a few small asteroids, like she said. Shouldn't be too much of a problem or worry. Plus, I'm fairly certain the pilots of this ship can navigate through something like this, after all...they should be experts on this." Erica does not share their lack of worry, mainly because of how much it's actually hitting the front of the ship compared with the back. "Chase Weller." Erica looked at his extended hand and then at her mech, then back at the two of them, this time her tone is more stern as he does not reply the handshake. "Rika Sahira, owner of probably the only mecha with combustible load for ammunition and knowledgeable in the fact that the pilot is not avoiding the increasing number of 'asteroids'..." The word feels hard on her tongue a bit. "... meaning we're traveling into an asteroid field, which may not be the correct route."

I'm sure I now fixed it.