"...And that's the situation, Commandant Ace sir," the soldier on the monitor announced.

"Very good, soldier. Keep us up to date on anything new, and inform the captain that he will be in charge of managing the repairs," Trey responded.

"Roger that, sir."

With a slight static crack, the monitor's screen returned to its default setting, a revolving S.T.O.R.M. symbol. Jon Ace turned around to the ten teenagers standing in a line behind him. Except...

"Chase, what are you doing?"

A teen with dreadlocks wearing a set of blue pyjamas covered in teddy bears shifted forward slightly from the centre of Team Core-Tech. "Ain't it obvious, Commandant Ace? He's eating."

Another pyjama-clad teenager stood in place, half of her freckles obscured by her hand as she rubbed her eyes. "You woke us up at this time. You could at least have the decency to let us power up. Hey, Bren!"

"...Hmm...Quickforce, use dispersion blast..."

A sharp pink rabbit-covered kick to the butt sent Bren flopping onto the floor like a wet flannel, drool dripping from his mouth.

"Well, he's not going to be moving for a while," Dr. Suno said, leaning against the wall at the far right of Jon Ace and Trey, wearing a long white lab coat.

"Oh my, that amount of drool is quite something! I think a puddle may form," a strangely fascinated boy with white hair chimed.

"Beyal, how come you aren't in nightclothes?" Jinja asked.

"I was up skimming over the ancient texts my master gave me, though I'm not good enough to read all of them yet."

"Aww, you're so cute when you work hard!"

"Ah, Jinja, stop it-pinching-my cheeks, my cheeks-ah!"

"Team Core-Tech, that's enough!" Trey said sternly. "Just look at the Strike Squad! They've been standing here silently for the past ten minutes!"

As hard as they tried to, there was no hiding the smug expressions on the faces of the four boys clad in specialist battle uniforms. The only female member, however, stood silently on the far right.

With one last motion, Chase drank up the last of his pot ramen in one go and, demonstrating precise aim, threw the plastic container into the bin next to where his father was standing.

"Well, now that we're all accounted for," Trey said, "Let's begin the briefing."

"Sir, Bren is still passed out," Chase said, smiling and pointing to the floor where his friend was lying. Jinja knelt down and raised him by the collar, shaking him.

"Come on, Bren!"

"No... stop it, Quickforce...I'll play with you later..."

Dax knelt down next to Jinja and whispered in his ear, "Glasses, if you get up, Tango'll give you one kiss!"

"K-Kiss?!" Bren jolted awake. "What kind of kiss?! Are you serious-"

Jon Ace's loud clearing of the throat halted Bren's speech in his tracks. Sitting up properly, he looked around.

A few moments later, he was standing up in line with the rest of Team Core-Tech, looking incredibly embarrassed.

"Right, now that that's sorted..." Jon turned to Trey. "Please begin the briefing, if you will."

"Affirmative, Commandant Ace sir." Trey walked over to a large monitor, which immediately shifted its display to an aerial view of the detention centre, smoke billowing from various places.

"In the early hours of this morning, the most heavily defended prison S.T.O.R.M. has jurisdiction over, known only as 'FANG ' to us for encryption reasons, was attacked by the mercenary group, Dark Spin."

"'The most heavily guarded prison', huh? Seems pretty weak to me, losing to a group as pathetic as Dark Spin," Bren said confidently.

"Bren, there's still drool going down your face. But he has a point," Jinja added. "Weren't there elites stationed there? Could it have been an inside job?"

"That's a good question, Jinja. However, from the surveillance camera footage we received, that doesn't seem to be the case. Although, there was one other thing we did find out. Something worse than an inside job." Jon Ace said solemnly.

Responding from a glance in his direction, Dr Suno walked to the monitor as Trey shifted out of the way as the display changed to a portion of footage.

Three figures were depicted on the screen, clearly monsunos.

Even without pointing it out, the ten teenagers could tell that these ones were unusual. Their figures were mere silhouettes blending in with their darkened surroundings. At least, they would've been, if it weren't for the bands of neon colour wrapped around various parts of the creatures' bodies, like flexible glowsticks, enabling their position to be immediately recognised otherwise. Monsunos usually pulsated with illumination whilst charging for attacks, but these ones were constantly emitting a constant fluorescent light from their bands.

"These are what wiped out the elites' monsunos. All twelve of them."

Ignoring the shocked expressions of the ten teenagers, now a lot more alert, Dr Suno decided to continue while he still had their full attention. "Their energy outputs are phenomenal. I've never seen anything like this before."

He turned to face the line of teenagers. "I'm telling this to you all now. Do not engage these monsunos one on one, or even one on three."

"But-"

"No, Chase. Not even Lock."

Chase began to argue but was subsequently stopped after making direct eye contact with his father.

"Chase, I've almost always had rough data on every monsuno you've faced. That's why I've always felt that I could leave it to you and Lock, and of course, the other members of Team Core-Tech."

The other members all looked in the doctor's direction and grinned.

"But now, I need more time. These monsunos are of the most advanced strain I've ever seen. The technology behind them is incredibly advanced. It'll take a while to think up a countermeasure for them. In the meantime, all I want you to do is collect data."

"But who could've created such technology?" A quiet voice murmured.

All heads turned to Tango, at the far left end. Bren blushed.

"Could you repeat that, Tango?" Jon Ace said.

Tango raised her head, startled. "Oh, I mean, it was Dr Suno that created the monsunos, right? So he should know the most about him. Plus, it is Team Core-Tech with the strongest tech. Who else but him could've created them?"

A silence drifted across the room.

"The mysteries only increase in number," Beyal said.

Chase finally exhaled and a smile returned to his face. "Well, we're just going to have to solve all of them. Right, Dad?"

"Yes, that's absolutely right, son."

"Still, the idea of Dr Klipse being on the run again really makes my blood boil!" Dax snarled. "Mark my words, I'm going to find the rock that bleezin' worm is under and crush it with my foot!"

"Six, too," Beyal said, a little downheartedly.

"Yeah, it's sad how confused that boy is, especially since his Dad is such a jerk," Bren said, sighing. "Think we'll get it into his head this time?"

"Probably not. Six has chosen his own path," Chase responded.

Team Core-Tech turned to the left upon hearing a snicker. Bravo and Kilo were silently laughing, their shoulders shaking.

"Hey. what's so funny?" Chase said with a threatening tone.

"They're laughing at you amateurs," Alpha said, turning to them. "What kind of pathetic team feels sympathy for their enemies?"

"The kind of team that beat your butts thrice." Now it was Team Core-Tech's turn to start laughing.

Alpha, Kilo and Bravo all reached for their cores. "How about we break that streak right now?" Alpha snarled.

"Bring it on, second-rates. We'll pummel you again."

Trey got in-between the two leaders and pushed them further apart from each other.

"That's enough. Infighting will bring us nowhere. What I want to know is the strength of your resolve," Jon Ace said, walking towards the Strike Squad.

"Our...resolve?" Kilo asked.

"You'll be going after your former Commandant. Are you prepared to treat a former ally as an objective for capture?"

Dr Suno noticed Trey flinch very slightly.

"Absolutely, sir." Alpha and the rest of the Strike Squad pressed their cores to their chest as a sign of loyalty. "Charlemagne may've been the former Commandant, but she's our enemy now. We'll take her in without a moment's hesitation."

"Very well." Commandant Ace turned to the entire group. "At this point, we can only speculate why holders of such advanced technology would want Dr Klipse and the other imprisoned criminals. For now, you are all on standby. You must be ready to depart at a moment's notice. That goes especially for Team Core-Tech."

The five teenagers all gave clumsy salutes and smiles, which only made Jon more uneasy.

"Dr Suno will give you devices to collect data should you encounter what we have decided to call 'plasma' monsunos, due to the extremely high energy density contained within them, and we will be stationing soldiers throughout 'red' zones. They will report any suspicious activity they observe. Until then, you are all dismissed."

"Wait a second, Jon. What about what Beyal told you earlier?" Dr Suno said, as the teams filtered out of the room.

"I understand that they're very important, but we don't have the resources to search for a couple of missing scrolls at this time. We'll have to wait until this matter calms down. I'm sorry." Jon Ace turned around and left the room with Trey close behind him, not looking at Dr Suno, who had closed his eyes in reluctant agreement.