"They fell for it! Quickly get into range and kite the ones that can still move!" Gray ordered.
"What about us?" Stacia asked.
"You and Yurika can engage at will as well, stay out of range of their heavy battle rifles, they pack a mean punch but are not very effective at range."
"Affirmative!" Yurika said excitedly.
Unable to turn around, it would only take a few good shots to hit the engine of the mech and disable it, the remaining 3 mechs that could still move on Kelly's team were able to be kited until they finally succumbed to Gray, Geoff, Paul, and Jono.
Kelly smacked the arm in her simulator pod's seat after their defeat and met with Gray's team in the lobby again.
"Good job Gray! Never expected you to break out of your comfort zone and go all in without taking time to think about it." Kelly said to Gray with a smile.
"I know, I am amazing." Gray said proudly.
Kelly rolled her eyes but continued to smile, "Glad to see that part of you hasn't changed, the idiotic fake arrogance."
"Well, you got the idiotic part right." Yurika suddenly said while appearing next to Gray. She took Gray's hand in her own and gave it a squeeze.
Kelly didn't miss the subtle hint that Yurika was giving and said, "You two look cute together, and I'm guessing it took a lot to get him to admit his feelings?"
"Yes, he is my wife after all!" Yurika said proudly while smiling up at Gray.
Kelly looked curiously at Gray; Gray knew she was confused about why he was the wife and said, "I don't get it either, but I just go with it."
"It's probably because she can kick his butt in and out of a mech." Paul said jokingly.
"Hey, out of a mech has yet to be proven!"
"She gave you a black eye while you were in a simulator, how much of a beating did you take that you could get a black eye from a simulator!" Geoff said with a big grin on his face.
"Shut up! That's because I hit myself!"
"You're not helping your case." Stacia whispered to Gray.
Kelly leaned in to Yurika and whispered, "I see you guys have already figured out how to keep him in check."
Gray shook his head in defeat and said, "Can we get on with the important matters?"
"Of course, so beating us in a team match really didn't matter I'm guessing and what you really intended was to get the rest of my team to at least be a little willing to let you take command, yes?" Kelly said sincerely.
"Guilty." Gray said admittedly while holding his hands up.
"And what would you have done if you had lost to us?"
"Probably resorted to begging, pleading, and puppy dog eyes."
"… I don't even know what to say to that because I have a feeling you're telling the truth."
"Maybe I am, maybe I'm not, but we'll never know. Ok, so if you don't mind, could you and all of your teammates send me a message with details about which mech they like the most, which position they like the most, and which position they're strongest playing."
Kelly tilted her head and asked, "What for?"
"I can't tell all of that information from just one match where I didn't even know who was who and that you all had the same mechs."
"Well, we can save the match recording and go over it. I will be able to tell you who is who."
"Sounds good to me, um, just us?" Gray said nervously as he was pretty sure Yurika was trying to crush his hand right now.
"Well of course, we can't talk bad about everyone with them their!" Kelly said with a grin.
"Well, we're short on time so the sooner that your team gets me that info the better, do you need anything from my team?"
Kelly thought about it for a second, "Nope, nothing I can think of yet, we'll be trusting you to lead us so what I would recommend is breaking up our group of 16 into 4 teams of 4, assigning a leader, and then giving just that leader orders instead of trying to micromanage 15 other teammates on the fly."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, 7 was hard enough, ok, my team, free time until Kelly and I finish collaborating. We won't be too long, oh, um, Jono, you wanted to talk about something?"
"Yeah, I'd like to talk before we get much deeper into this…"
Jono seemed surprisingly straight-forward for once and didn't have his usual batch of insults trying to make himself look better in front of Kelly. This was actually a small concern for Gray since it was outside of Jono's usual behavior.
"Yeah, not a problem, Kelly, can you get a small private virtual room setup for us so we can go over footage and make fun of… I mean talk about our teammates?"
"Sure thing, I'll send you the link to once it is setup and wait for you there."
"Thanks, Ok Jono, let's go outside and talk. Meet me near the entrance of the simulators and we can talk wherever you want."
Jono nodded his head and left the simulators with Gray for the moment.
The 7 women on Kelly's team had a quick huddle among themselves.
"So, are we on board with having Gray lead us?" Rita asked.
"He hasn't acted like a pervert like most men do around us so I don't mind." Heather said with a smile
"Yeah, honestly I get tired of every single boys team hitting on us." Rita said tiredly
Caitlyn became excited when she thought of Gray asking them for their favorite mech and asked, "Maybe by him asking for our favorite mech he intends to let us use what we enjoy most?"
"Does that mean I could pilot the Juniper SE?" Alice said with a whimsical expression on her face.
"Is it because that is the smallest mech that you like it?" Felisa said with a grin.
"@$#%& you and your height, it's the cutest mech!" Alice said glaring at Felisa.
"Smallest height, biggest mouth when angry, we think your height is perfect, just relax a little!" Christine said trying to comfort Alice.
"Whatever! Tia, any thoughts? You've been quiet."
Tia seemed to come back out of her daze for a moment and said, "Oh, um, I'm for it, they seem like fun… and Gray seems nice… and Xyra and Yurika are cute!"
None of the women were sure what Tia meant as whenever they asked her about it she would usually dodge the question by saying something like "I wonder…" or "What do you think?" so by now they've just ignored it.
"Ok, so we're all onboard then with letting Gray lead us for this tournament?" Rita asked one more time.
"I'd say so!" Heather said while nodding her head.
Rita saw that everyone else was either nodding or shrugging their shoulders saying they didn't mind either way so she then exclaimed, "Ok! Then let's do exactly what he said no matter what Kelly thinks we're best at!"
The women then went about to send Kelly their lists about mech preferences, role preference, and role strengths.
__________
Gray and Jono walked around behind the building with the simulators where nobody else was hanging around.
"So, what's up Jono?"
"Gray, what is it you all keep hiding from me? I know you're hiding something. I'm not an idiot and know when you're dodging the question."
"How to put it, it's not that we won't say it, but more like we can't."
"Why can't you?"
"We had to…" Gray stopped himself from continuing, he might have even said too much already. The secret was big, but Gray was confident it was only a matter of time before someone spilled it. He just didn't want to be the one to spill it.
"Jono, honestly I'd rather not know what I know. It will change your entire perspective on life and honestly ruin certain parts of it, but it isn't bad as the responsibility of carrying that knowledge means others don't have to."
"Well, it must be pretty big for you to say that, but I'd rather know what it is despite the consequences, I mean it can't be that bad! What do I need to do to get in on the secret so I can feel like I'm part of the team instead of just an extra member?"
Gray was impressed, Jono's reason was a good one, but he also knew he had a big mouth and wasn't sure if a NDA would even stop him. Gray thought to himself, "Maybe I should just see if I can offer him the information and see if Major Valen can get a NDA for him."
"Well?" Jono said impatiently as he watched Gray consider what to say next.
"As much as I want to, I can't tell you, but I'll send Major Valen a message and see what he can do for you. I know it is frustrating but it honestly is bigger than just your or myself."
"Seriously Gray? I thought we were bros!"
"We are, but this really is too big for me to decide on my own!"
"Whatever, I don't know. You might have to find an 8th man if this is how it's going to be."
Gray didn't know what to do. He only hoped Major Valen could let Jono be an exception, if Major Valen was even capable of making that kind of decision.
"Listen, give me a little more time and I'll see what I can do, if it ends up that you'll leave if we can't tell you, I… I'll think about telling you."
Jono nodded his head. This seemed to satisfy him for the time being, "Ok, I'll leave it to you… and I got dibs on Kelly by the way."
Gray rolled his eyes and said "Go for it, I'm happy with Yurika" then thought to himself, "That and I can't wait to see you get shot down again like in high school!"