After she exited the cockpit pod, JoJo was shedding tears. The shields that she prided herself on had been broken. Her two friends, Mia and Kat, stood by her to comfort their disheartened captain. “Ha ha ha ha ha! I knew it. You really were no match for us.” Yolanda mocked JoJo and her team. “Do you get it now? The fact that all of you are talentless hacks.” JoJo angrily glared at Yolanda. Yolanda’s mocking caught the attention of the rest of her teammates. “Stop that right now, Yolanda,” said Mark. Yolanda kept on belittling JoJo, “You talk of big game, but the only thing I saw was the pathetic, futile struggle of a weakling. I’m actually disappointed that you couldn’t have put up more of a fight.” Vincent tightly pressed his nails in his hand, “That piece of scum!”

Yolanda ignored her captain’s warning and kept piling on the insults, “You three are just pathetic losers. You should really just quit WARFRAME all togeth…” Before she could finish, Bart slaps her face. “What the hell was that for?” said Yolanda as she held the red hot handprint on her face. Bart glares at her and spoke loud enough for Yolanda and JoJo to hear, “Don’t you dare look down on them. Do not mock people when they gave it their all. Doing so just diminishes your worth as a person. Do you understand?” Watching the scene, Mister Myers commented, “The words he just said. They hold true to everything about battles. Respect.” Vincent kept his eyes on Bart, “Bart Sands. He’s definitely the real deal. A true red-blooded fighter.”

A fifteen-minute break was given to Team Warmaster before they continued with the finals match. During this time, JoJo was sulking just outside of the participant’s waiting room. Anna found her and sat down not too far from her. Just far enough but JoJo could still hear her. “Sorry, JoJo. I know you were hoping that Vincent was the one that came looking for you. I tried to bring him along but he refused. He even said “I don’t want to talk to her right now. That’s not how fighters should be. But I do want to face her again in battle. But I’d rather meet her in battle than to comfort her with empty gestures.” Anna shakes her head, “He even said that he would be waiting for you on the battlefield.”

JoJo’s body was shaking. Anna notices this and turns to her, “JoJo?” She looks up with a smile on her face, “I just saw it. The new frame that I’m going to assemble.” Anna looks at her funny. She found it odd how a depressed and sulking girl made a complete 180 and immediately perked up, “Excuse me?” JoJo got back to her feet, “Today’s defeat is tomorrow’s victory. And I just came up with an idea for an all-new frame! I need to get back home and work on it right away. Then next time, I’ll make sure to kick those Warmasters’ butts. You can be sure of that!” JoJo then faced Anna and pointed at her. The sudden development surprised Anna. JoJo goes on to say, “I’m going to kick your butt too, Anna. Then I’ll do the same to Vincent. That’ll show him how strong I really am.” After saying what she needed to, JoJo left Anna. Anna smiles and shakes her head, “Man. You really don’t need to put up such a tough front. But, it’s kind of cool. And I really can’t hate you for it. You have my respect, JoJo.” After JoJo had her talk with Anna, she walks to Mia and Kat, who were also crying and disheartened, and the three gave each other a big hug.

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Inside one of the waiting rooms, Bart was looking in a mirror at the large red handprint on the side of his face. “Man, this thing hasn’t gone done yet. That Yolanda really did a number on me.” Mark shrugs as he looks at the frame in his base reader, “When Yolanda really gets pissed, she really goes all out. But for her to slap you that hard, it’s a first. Who knows, maybe she just likes you.” Bart turns to Mark, “Are you sure? She hasn’t come back since she slapped me in the face.” Mark quietly chuckles, “She’s just being shy, that’s all. Don’t think about it too much. She’ll be here when the battle starts. I know her that much. She won’t jeopardize the team’s chances for state just from a small thing like this.”

Bart sat down on a sofa and looked at Mark, “You guys got to nationals last year, right?” Mark nodded, “Yeah, we did. It was my first-ever national tournament.” Mark’s expression then turned serious, “It was also the first time the damage level was set to real. It was set to A. I took the national tournament too lightly. We breezed right through state. I thought nationals would be no different. But I was dead wrong. Our frames were easily destroyed in the early rounds. To think, the frame that I had prided myself on assembling was destroyed, just like that. After constant losses, we never even made it past the preliminaries.”

Mark then remembered the face of the person he met at nationals, “I felt the limits of my own skills that day. I knew that I wasn’t good enough at assembling a frame worthy enough to fight against those monsters. It was there that I met her, Alex West. She was the top frame artist of Team Big Apple. She didn’t fight that year because she was their reserve pilot. She saw how badly we performed and offered to give a few pointers. I asked her to prepare a frame for me. One that was good enough to fight the other national teams. And do you know what she said to me?” Bart shook his head. Mark closed his eyes as he recalled the events of that day, “Assemble it yourself, and fight for it yourself. But I was so desperate. Even though I was ignoring the very theory of WARFRAME assembly, I desperately wanted to win, that I kept pestering her until she eventually gave in. This is my final year before graduation. It’ll be my last chance to get to nationals. No matter what. Whatever it takes. I’m going to make it there again. I’m going to make it there and face those monsters again and beat them.” Bart sat there and just, “Don’t get all hot and bothered about it. We’ll make it there. I have a few things to settle there too.” Mark chuckles, “You’re probably right. We’ll get to nationals and face that team. We’ll show everyone that they can’t keep us down. We’ll just get back up and fight harder.”

While everyone was getting ready for the match Maya was in a car that was speedily driving to the arena, “Don’t worry, Maya. I’ll get you there in time for your brother’s match. It’s my fault that the photoshoot lasted this long.” “Don’t blame yourself. It was no one’s fault.” Anna sat in the back seat as she smiles at the driver that was trying to get her to the arena. Maya blushed. When they arrived, she immediately left the car. “Thanks for the ride, Shawn.” Shawn smiles back at Maya, “Don’t mention it. I used to play WARFRAME too. I know how big something like this is. Now go on, get in there. I need to get back and settle things with Miss Teresa.” The two parted ways and Maya made her way to the seat next to Mister Myers, “Sorry I’m late.” He shook his head, “On the contrary, you’re just in time. The match is about to start.” The two of them then turned their attention to the screen.