Leaving my bay, no girl this time, I turn to my right, towards the hub. I know how to get to the garage from the barracks, so to get there from here, I just need to 'back track'.

The journey to the barracks is uneventful, unless you think that passing a hundred other fighters per minute is eventful. Now that I'm on my own, I feel like I'm out of place, despite being an official fighter. I mean, all of the other fighters are wearing
/fancy armour, holding fancy weapons, doing fancy things. And what do I have?

A helmet, and a gun. It's like a newbie surrounded by veterans. (Although that is literally the case.)

But I shouldn't be like this, I'm not an enemy to them, I'm in home turf, I'm among allies, and I will eventually get access to all of the weapons and other equipment.

It took a while, until I made it to the barracks.

Last time, when I came here with Cray, he used a computer to put me into one of the training rooms. So if I use that same computer, I could get into one again.

This place is pretty busy, but I found a computer, and tapped on it. A list of different names appeared. They seem like the names of the training rooms currently in use.

Names include: "Rolling with tanks", "The leader's sparkle", "Games against the sky"... And quite a few other interesting names.

But there are two more buttons to the left of the list. One has that "+" symbol on it with the word "CREATE" on the bottom of it. The other has a picture of a magnifying glass on it with the word "SEARCH" on it.

I had a training room to myself last time. So I assume that Cray created one for me.

Tapping on the "create" button, a text box comes up for me to name it. In grey, there's already "Training_room_08". Underneath, there're two buttons next to each other. One with "CANCEL" on it, the other with "CREATE" on it.

Tapping on the "create" button, a new list appears with my name in it. I guess I can now enter my training room?

I tap on my name, and yet another button appeared. This one says "ENTER". So I tap on that.

I suddenly found myself in the same training room as last time. Well, at least one that's identical to last time.

But now that I'm here, properly alone, what do I do now? I want to learn how to be a scout. But what do I do here? How did-

"Hi, Ozone!"

"GAH!" I leaped forwards while doing a 180. As I feared: that g-girl I met just outside my bay. "D-don't sneak up on me like that!" I angrily shouted.

"Woah, woah there, Ozone." She holds both of her hands in front of her, while leaning back a bit. "I didn't really intend to scare you like that. But, that is actually what a scout commonly does."

"Scaring people half to death!?"

"What? No! I meant sneaking. Sneaking is what scouts commonly do." I guess that makes more sense. But wait, is she actually...

"I-is this why you're here? To t-teach me?" She can't be, she must be just visiting or something.

"You bet! I told you last chapter that I'll be teaching you." She poses with her right thumb up, right eye closed, but the other open, and doing a smile, exposing her white teeth.

Great. Just g-great...

"Out of all fighters, scouts are usually the fastest, and most agile. Because of that, they usually go ahead of the force to get information on the enemies. Such as their positions, styles, movement, etc." So we're standing t-t-together on one end of
/the room.

The training room, or rather, the area in front of us, has morphed into a somewhat dense campsite. There are loads of walls, boxes, rocks, hills, more boxes.

"A lot of the scouts, if not all of them, equip Radar Jammers on them. They do help the scouts big time. Radars can easily spot a hidden scout if they don't have a Jammer." S-so they're like ninjas?

"S-so...wh-what am I s-seeing in front of u-us?"

"A simulation of an enemy base. A camp, more like. I thought it'd be a good place to start training as a scout."

"O-ok then..." I said uneasily. "What do I have t-to do?"

"Simple: Get to the other end of the camp without getting seen by any enemies. If they see you, they will fire at you with little mercy, if any." Sh-she lowered her pitch at the end there.

Ok, I'm scared now.

"At least that is what would happen in a real mission. Luckily for you, if the simulation of enemies here see you, they'll just point you out. And you'll have to start again." Back at her 'normal' pitch.

"Oh, o-ok then..." That's the second time I'm repeating myself.

"Meanwhile, I'll be standing back, watching you."

...Ok, that quote creeped me out. I don't know who she is and she literally told me that she'll be 'watching me'!

"Why will you be w-watching me?"

"Duh, I'm your teacher, and you're my only student. What else could a teacher do while their only student works?" Practice themselves or something?

Well, here goes nothing. There seems to be more cover to the right side, so I'll sneak over there. There's a small stack of crates, a great place to hide behind.

I doubt that I'm allowed to shoot at any enemies, but I see my 'teacher' literally sitting back, watching me...

Don't think about that girl, she creeps me out. Focus on the task at hand.

Peeking around, there's an enemy with its back towards me. Perfect, I can get past it with no problem...but where to? Aha, a rock. One that's big enough to hide behind.

Looking back at the enemy, it still has its back to me. I swiftly sneak past it towards the rock, I now put my back on it. I'm still hidden from the enemies, that's good.

I carefully make my way to the end of the rock so I can plan my next move. There's a campfire, a tent, another tent, a third one...I think I can hide behind the tents, there are enemies in front of them, but none behind them.

The distance is fairly long, I might need to time it so that no enemy is looking in my direction when I move. There are three enemies standing around the fire, one of them facing my general direction.

I can't move right now.

Soon, that enemy looks somewhere else, something caught its attention? Nevermind, now's my chance. Quickly, but quietly, I dash towards the back of the tents. Success.

Now, let's see what's next. It looks like the last part of the camp. There's a larger tent with a couple of enemies on front of the entrance. There's also a few enemies walking around, presumably patrolling.

I find another rock to hide behind, I don't want them patrollers spotting me. The distance to the back of the large tent is fairly large, too large to cross in one go without getting caught.

But there are several boxes in stacks along the side of this area. Perfect. I can hide behind them and finish this quickly.

I got behind the first stack, no enemy saw me. Immediately jumping to the second stack, then the third, and finally...

BEEP BEEP BEEP

What was that?

"Ooooh, you were so close!" I heard the girl call out. I turn towards where that beeping sound came from.

One of the enemies is looking directly at me...

Damn.

"S-so now what?" Honestly, I don't think this is a good way to train as a scout.

"You're spotted. Now you just have to try again."

"Again? How is this going to make me a better scout?"

"Well, there are a few ways to train as one. That was just the first thing that I thought of. Heh heh heh." She puts her right hand behind her neck, looking away.

I just stare at her with a blank expression.

"Being fast is a good alternative. Maybe you should try that instead."

Stealth? No.

Speed? Self explanatory.

"Let me guess: Training on speed requires me to get from one point to another as fast as possible, correct?" What else could speed be about?

She hesitated briefly. "Correct."

"Thought so."

She paused for a moment."Hey, I kinda noticed something about you." She's changing the subject just like that?

"Huh? Wh-what are you talking about?"

"You're not stuttering as much as before." Why is she talking about how I'm talking?

"Uh...why is this a topic now?"

"Did you think I'm stupid? And that I wouldn't notice? I noticed how much you stuttered when we met. And right now, you pretty much aren't stuttering at all."

"Um...why does this matter to you?"

"I just want to know why. That's all." Really?

I'll just tell her my honest thought. "*sigh*...I...I guess it's because you're not as disrespectful as I thought you'd be." What could go wrong with telling the truth?

"'Disrespectful'!? Pfffft ha ha ha!" She bursted out laughing. Literally rolling on the floor, laughing.

I just stay silent.

Finally calming down after a solid minute, (I did time it, and it lasted 68 seconds. No joke.) which must be a record for the 'world's longest laugh' or something, she gets back up.

"Wow, that's the best joke I've heard in years."

"I'm not joking." If I was playing Poker, a gambling card game, I'd catch everyone off guard with my straight face.

"Wait, you're not?"

"No."

"Oh...well, I do intend to respect all of my allies. Newcomers, or veterans. We're not enemies, so why should we treat each other like that?" I suppose, I did make that point on the way here.

"Allies, friends, and even teammates do bicker with each other."

That got her to pause again. "Touché."

Grinning a little. "Now, you're returning the favour."

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I gave you some information about myself, now I want some information about you."

"What information have I got from you?"

"You tell me."

"...Ok, ok, you got me. So what do you want from me?"

Now's my chance. "Your name."

"My name?" She seems confused.

"Yes, you never told meyour name." I saidmildly sternly. "Is it Gene, Tianhe, Annabell, Jesse, what?"

"W-well..."

"Well?"

"My name is...ugh...S-Sky R-Royalton." I don't know why she was hesitating, and stuttering for that matter, just to say her own name.

But Sky Royalton. I didn't expect that name.

Auther's note: Well, the name is revealed! Sky Royalton. And it looks like the'scout' style is off the list of what Ozone would prefer. (If you remember what Lava was talking about in chapter 3"The tour".)

I got 5 reviews, but only 2 of them are worth responding to:

Guest (Chapter 8): "Well, this chapter was pretty fun. Thank you for the spiritual support! I hope every time that the next chapter will be as good or even better than previous chapters, and for now, it is so. Keep up the good work!"

Rynowm: "Thank you so much, sir/ma'am. I thought this story needed another character or two, so I added one in. Though I (totally) didn't expect Ozone's reaction to it.

And I will 'Keep up the good work!'."

Guest (Chapter 3): "Also, you now need distinguish between Aeroflak Sentinel and Aeroflak Guardian (or just round them as "Aeroflak Cannons") and add Chain Shredder to the "huge weapons" list. I'm experiencing the pretty similar problems with "Megabot,
/I choose you!" of mine now - a lot of big updates coming pretty fast, and it's slightly difficult to keep up with them."

Rynowm: "I bypass that 'problem' with a strategy that I use: Write your chapter as normal, while ignoring any updates that add new content. Leave the new content for the next chapter(s) until the time is right. That is what I'll be doing for the new weapons, and cubes in general. Like the new struts.

Judging from the title of your story, you are using content that has been removed and will most likely be outdated. But don't let me stop you, just take your time, and plan your story. You're likely going to find it a lot easier if you have a plan to follow."