After seeing the smaller astral wisk off into the distance, she hissed under her breath in irritation...before the slightest twinge of loneliness struck her heart. Agh, nevermind that! She lost contact with one of her drones, meaning that her plan would most likely shoot straight down the gutter...that is-- unless she took a more stealthy approach this time around... Ah! Yes! That was it...she still had her second drone! 'Be...quiet...' She 'threw' her words out to the second robot as it swiftly crawled through the shrubbery, heading over to track down Wukong. This time around, however, her drone made no beeps...

She had to admit, the feedback imagery she was currently receiving from her drones was a little on the crappy quality side, but she just rolled with it, figuring that a blurry image was better than nothing. Indeed, due to the image being nothing but a shadow, she had no idea that a little crackling flame was beginning to kindle, as though it was ready to avenge the death of the drone...eventually.

"YAHH!" Alexa stiffened at at the unfamiliar voice, sharply turning on a heel to look up at the tiny astral standing atop the tree. Moments later, her 'cat on a hot tin roof' look subsided, being replaced with a pout of disapproval as she crossed her arms. "Great, this is the part where I die now, isn't it?" She raised a hand up partway to lower her forehead into her palm. "Look, give me a break, kid..." she muttered as the vents on her shell closed. She found it hard enough to see already, so she might as well not fog this up any further. With a flick of her antennae, she moved her gaze up to the portal boy once more. "I can't find where my weapons have spawned, I just threw away possibly my only defenses into the forest, and I can't stop thinkin' 'bout bloody scrap metal!"

"As far as I know, my only attacks are that I stomp my foot on the ground and it shoots rocks at people! What am I supposed to do with that?!" The blonde growled, swinging her arms out to the sides. though, as she did so, a trail of fire shot forth from her arms along their path of movement, then shooting forth like a short-ranged projectile and scorching the ground below her feet. "ok, so I split the ground, build robots, and do a fire thing... great...and I don't even know where the others a--"

Off in the distance, the first drone patrolled through the forest. It halted, tilting its body until it faced skywards, emitting a whistle.

A few moment of silence later, a blurry image pulsed into Alexa's mind, urging her to... look upwards... "...There..." She thoughtfully muttered as she pointed a hand skywards. Though, it moved about, as if unsure of the exact direction of the pulse. "But-- how the heck--?"

She had to admit, she was incredibly reluctant on stepping up to the screen, amber orbs eyeing the ready button as though it were the trigger to blowing up the world. Why did she always think everything would burst into an inferno of death? The world may never know. "pulling...on my...mind...?" she looked over to Aaron, repeating the phrase under her breath. To her, the first thing that came to mind was the gruesome hand of a zombie clawing at her cranium. With a slight shudder and a shaking of her head to rid herself of the thought, only now did she realize how paranoid she had become about the thousands of possible things that could happen in this very moment. Every inch of her body was quivering like a leaf in the wind. She didn't know what to expect, she didn't know what to do except for what she was told...

So, she decided that she might as well roll with it, what could possibly go wrong? Fear warping into the surge of excitement of starting anew in her life, her hand swooped forth to slam the ready button down. Drawing a deep breath in to clear her mind, she released it slowly, amber orbs sliding shut as she placed her palm over the seal. The crackling rage of a fiery blaze roared in her ears, a sound only heard by herself. She felt what seemed to be a surge of otherworldly energy rush through her body, leaving her feeling weightless like the drop of a rollercoaster. The roar grew louder, louder, the world felt like it was burning all around her, but yet-- it brought a sudden feeling of calm despite the deafening blare and heat that sounded like it was ready to consume her very being. With one last breath floating out of her mouth, her body went numb... and the sound was gone as though it was never there in the first place.

Eyes snapping open out of shock, she gazed about to find a familiar dreamscene unfolded all around her, blooming into existence out of the endless white void... yet, this time... there was no sound that reached her ears. The flowing of magma, the drones whizzing past her head, metal clashing together... the girl. Despite the piercing gaze of the golden-haired figure, she found herself walking closer... step by step, she walked, her body moving on its own. Eventually, she was a mere few feet away, her feet freezing in place upon the ground. The armored figure said nothing, rising up to her feet. With the silent groan of the metal that encased her arms, she reached out a massive clawed hand. Instinctively, Alexa found herself reaching out her own, her gaze snapping over to the glowing astral mark branded into the back on her hand... and then over to the symbol marked in gold upon the girl's jacket... they matched. 'You...?' Alexa barely managed to mouth a soundless word as her palm pressed against the gauntlet. Just like that, an electric twinge shot through her body as everything bloomed back into white once more, the roaring of flame ringing in her ears before everything went black.

She awoke with her back against a tree, the chirping melody of birdsong overhead being her only company. Shakily dragging herself to her feet, she realized that the ground was... a little bit further from her than she had expected. Everything around her was certainly much too advanced to be virtual reality as she looked down at her palms, which were now clad in neon orange gloves... She took a moment to pinch her arm, both to check to see if she was still alive and that she wasn't dreaming. Feeling the sting of pain, she hissed inwards... "Agh--" She suddenly halted... that voice didn't belong to her at all... "Wh-..wh--" No, no... Swiftly dashing over to the nearest lake, she gaze down at her reflection in the water... "...No...it...i-i-it...!!" She suddenly clutched at the sides of her head,only to meet with a pair of horns among her golden locks... Rubbing at her eyes frantically, she checked again... still, no matter how many times she checked, the girl from the flames was there...no...impossible...SHE was now the girl from the flames... "But it was just a stupid dream!!" She bellowed at the top of her lungs. Out of pure frustration, she stomped a metal boot down upon the ground, yelping when the ground itself split beneath it, a wave of rocks shooting up its wake. "Wh-...what do I do... what do I do?!" She shook her had violently.

Then, suddenly, without even thinking, she found her arm moving on its own, pressing in a switch on her shoulderplate. A small hiss of steam floated away from the vents of her blackplate armor as it slid open, a couple hunks of scrap metal rolling out. She felt-- oddly irritated at herself for some reason as she swiftly began to go to work, piecing the plates together as though it was a little kindergarten craft she had repeated for her entire life. Ok, sure, she had joined a robot club once, but she couldn't help but marvel the sight of the finished product... two freakin' balls. Brilliant... just what she needed in the midst of the forest. Frustration now forming into rage, she gave one of them a hard kick. With a series of whirrs, the ball split open to reveal what seemed to be the holy offspring of a spider and a set of gatling guns, releasing a short whistle before it trotted off into the forest. "...Okay...THAT was awesome..." She couldn't help but smirk a little as the bot disappeared into the trees. Moving over to the next sphere, she gave that one a little tap with her foot, giggling excitedly as it too popped open, making a beeline in the other direction. Wait-...Oh, god.. that had to be the girliest laugh she had ever done...eugh. Gross. Shrugging her shoulders a little, she found her other hand swooping up to press a button on her other shoulderplate, her shell clunking shut and now releasing a thick cloud of steam from the vents... However, after her memories rushed back to her... her eyes widened. "W-...Wait... battle...battle...Where the heck are my weapons?!" The Astral suddenly squeaked. Great, those two drones were probably her only method of protection and she just rolled them out into the forest like a bloody idiot. What other weapons did she have? Well, perhaps she could stomp her feet and do that fancy rock thing again... oh, yeah, perfect. With a sigh, she made her way over to a thicket of trees, rubbing at her temples as the cloud of mist surrounded her like a thick sheet. Maybe, with any luck, she'd find an axe, o-- scrap metal-- or a swor-- s c r a p  m e t a l-- or maybe a pair of twin pisto-- S  C   R  A  P  M E  T  A  L. Ugh! Great, now she had a crazy voice in her head... just where was she going to find metal in a freakin' forest?! Nothing made sense today...

Oh... Astrals! She got it now! ...well, uh- no, she didn't, really. Although it was certainly a shame that she didn't show up at the place she intended to be, and she wasn't a real big fan of sports, the way the wording was pieced together had her convinced that this whole area was some high-tech video game arena! Sweet! "Ah-ha... so it's just like Pokemon, then? A'ight... I'm certain I can handle a round of that..." she mumbled, a crooked grin making its way onto her face. "Sure thing! I suppose I can handle a wee lil' game or two before breakfast with you guys, you seem to know plenty more about this whole Astral thing then I do!" As if worried that the ground itself would explode beneath her feet, she took a wary step forward, reaching a trembling hand out for a shake. "Hey, uh-- the name's Alexa! I'm sorta new to this whole thing, so...uh-- thank you for helping me out of the basics of all this..."

Before receiving the handshake, she suddenly paused, taking a moment to remove her glove... something she had never dared do in front of anybody before. "Now, uh-- I hope this doesn't weird you out, but..." The golden, runic symbol of a four-legged cracked triangle with pointed arms was now in view on the back of her hand, shimmering and flickering wildly like a golden flame trying to escape from beneath her skin. "Since you appear to be a pretty smart guy, can you-- explain this thing for me and just how the heck it got here?" The glow intensified as it was held up to Aaron's face, the sound of a roaring flame mixed with an otherworldly hum ringing out from the mysterious runic seal.

With a groan, Alexa groggily dragged herself out of bed after hearing a knock-knock-knocking on her door. Still in her half-asleep state, she pulled her black hoodie over her pyjamas, yelling over to the door. "Coming!" She stumbled over her bags left and right, her palm swinging out to grasp ahold of something to stop her fall once she tripped on the edge of a suitcase... said object just to happening to be the doorknob, what unfortunate luck. With a twist of the knob, she began to swing along with the door, her free hand lurching forward to slam against the wall to her right. At this moment, she was rather glad that her look of panic and awkward Spiderman-esque pose was concealed behind her hotel room door. "Ugh-- hang on, hang on!" the blonde mumbled, trying to fix up her scruffy bedhead to the best of her ability with her fingers, or- atleast, a guesstimate of what might be a wee bit more presentable, since there were no mirrors nearby. Walking around the door so that she was visible to her visitor, she pried an amber orb open. "Now whaddya wan-" Oh, sweet Gundam... it was the guards... and why were they dressed like they came straight out of a comic book? Secondly... why were they so tall? With a barely audible nervous laugh, Alexa took a step back, allowing the man to read off the letter.

It's the dawn of a new day, and not just any day, folks. It's the start of the Galactic Tournament! Er...The day before the Galactic tournament! It's currently 8:00 AM, and it's the dawn of the day the tournament starts. The tournament, however, starts at 7:00 PM. You are free to do whatever you want in between this time, but you are not allowed to leave the city. We recommend you seize the day, and take advantage of the free Breakfast at the Galactic HOTEL! On each of your tables you'll find a map of the city, and some recommendations on where to go. Lastly, the HOTEL is equipped with a sparring room, so if you want to spar, either grab one of the guards, or grab a partner! Now then, have a nice day, and remember, battles at seven.


It had literally only been a few days ago. The dreams of fire, the weird scar on her hand that she kept concealed under a glove, and two crazy-looking men dragging her off to a hotel. Galactic tournaments? P'ah! Thusfar, the building certainly seemed less than stellar... like herself. Though, out of all of these darn things, what was an...as...tra...Astro...Astro Boy? Heck yeah! She loved that show! Though, the look of shock in the eyes of the guards that visited her apartment yesterday after mentioning she had one of those things... what was that about, anyway? Pushing that thought aside for now, she sighed. This would be her new home away from home for the time being, and she figured that she might as well get used to it.

Half-listening and half not to what the guard had to say, a particular term caught her interest like a new RPG game on a 70% off sale. Free...breakfast? She was sold! Ah-- wait... there was just one problem. Chances were, she probably wasn't the only little sprout in the building who was ready to snatch up a free meal, which meant... Oh, god... oh no... In exchange for food, she'd have to run the risk of... CONVERSATION! Maybe if she snuck down there as quick as a fox, scooped up her food and found a nice, quiet area of the building, she'd be able to chow down without socialization getting in the way... With the rumbling of her stomach roaring in her ears, she decided that it was a risk worth taking. With a shaky bow of her head in respect, "T-...t-t-....thank you for your time!" Alexa barely managed to squeak out before dashing her way down to the ground floor like a hoodie-clad knight in... fuzzy socks and pyjamas...