Zeliska, back at the bar...

The first scan passed when several flares appeared on the holographic screens projecting the match. Zeliska, the Uncrowned Queen of GGO and third in command of Crimson Squad, wasn't bothered by their presence in general but by their presence in Squad Jam.

What use would a flare have in a team battle royal? Intentionally signaling other teams where they are is suicide or foolishly prideful, but that doesn't seem the case to Zeliska. No, something else is amiss. The scan pointed out each team's position anyway. The real question is why flares were used after the scan.

She glances over at Itsuki, seated at the right edge of the booth with Lievre and Daisy seated on his right, who stares back just as silently. Her eyes go left to Sinon, Rei seated between them. Not a clue in her gaze. Bazalt Joe, alone at the adjacent table, doesn't make eye contact.

Then someone speaks up. "Ahh, at last, I can tell you!" Zeliska's ruby irises hone in on a man wearing green camo and a red beret. He stands ups and faces the crowd, his hands stretching out like a villain unveiling his grand scheme. "You see, that is the signal to converge upon a powerhouse team - to wipe them out!"

"Huh..." Zeliska murmurs under her breath. The signal shown on several screens was red, and anyone worth their salt knows the team corresponding with that color. Based on how SJ2 worked, LPFM was placed in a corner as they were one of the top teams last time. If a flare went up for them, it is correct to assume SHINC, Memento Mori, and T-S also had flares for them.

"SJ2 taught us the importance of cooperation to eliminate powerful foes, didn't it? And there's no rule that says you can't make contact with other teams before the event starts! So over the course of the morning, a number of participating squads gathered for a meeting and made a pact to work together to eliminate the toughest teams! Of course, there was no guarantee that they would all be within range of one of those teams at the start. You'd need a way of getting in contact, but there's no way to use the comms to talk to other teams right away. So…"

"So the other teams just so happened to rally together to take out the top teams," Itsuki says out loud, remaining in his seat. He has the annoying piercing gleam in his eyes and a passive smirk that not even Zeliska can read. "Not impossible, given what we've seen of past SJs and even the recent BoB. It's brilliant. But how is it you know of it?"

"Because I told them! I went through all the folks who looked like participating teams and secretly gave them a letter and signal flares. I told them that if they wanted in on the plan, they should memorize the colors and take part. Red is for LPFM, blue for MMTM, yellow for SHINC, and purple for T-S!"

"I see," Itsuki says, pleased with the explanation. "I hope your plan succeeds...though it's unlikely it will." That last part is audible only to the members of Crimson Squad, all eyes back on the big screen. "For, as I've learned, the heroes always overcome adversity..."

Kureha, minutes later...

"Hyaaa! I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die! I'm dying! Dying! Dying! Eeek, I'm dead!"

Kureha almost feels sorry for Llenn as she races around the switchyard, running for dear life as red bullet lines and bullets swarm her. The fact she's still alive is due to her size and speed, an advantage anyone who has fought Llenn knows of - and an advantage M seeks to exploit.

"Oh, you're fine," Pitohui says through the earpiece without a shred of concern for her friend. "Smaller body means smaller target."

"Yes. And if it should come to it, I will collect your bones to bury back home, Llenn!" says Fukaziroh through the earpiece without a shred of concern for her longtime real-life friend from home.

"Hang in there," says M with a single shred of concern for the person he sent to the wolves.

"Captain! Kureha! Please help!"

"Sorry, Llenn, but M's in charge," says Jaymes with some concern for the person he could help.

"I'm really sorry, Llenn," says Kureha with a lot of concern for the friend scurrying like a roach around the switchyard.

"Ugh... If I die because of this, I'll curse you! I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you!"

"If you die in a game, can you really come back as a ghost?"

"I think I'm skeptical on that one, Pito."

"Well... Yuna's a 'ghost' of a friend from SAO. And...I've met more ghosts from my past in SAO."

"Really, Jaymes? So it's possible."

"You're terrible! I'll curse you whether I die or not! If you weren't on my team, I'd shoot you right on the spot! Aieeeee!"

"Doing good," M says with a hint of consideration in his monotonous voice. "You're completely drawing all of their attention. We're carrying out our actions in the meantime. Just hang in there a bit longer."

"I knew I shouldn't have entered!"

M's plan, while more wordy, is simple: Llenn will be the decoy while the rest of the team thinks of a plan. Kureha felt sympathy for Llenn, once again hoping Jaymes would say something else, but the leader of Crimson Squad just nodded his head to the leader of LPFM(JK). She should've expected nothing from the boy in red and black.

Meanwhile, Kureha sticks to Jaymes as they creep up on the switchyard. The yard reminds her of American train yards, with a system of parallel tracks over a gravel-concrete ground. On the tracks are worn locomotives painted yellow, container cars with English letters, big black tanker cars, some cars with enormous trucks, and others filled with logs. A fallen concrete tower made up the yard's center.

Of course, Zaskar is an American-based company, so the area looking like Kureha and Jaymes' homeland is appropriate.

Laying prone, Kureha watches in mild distress as three teams of gunners hail bullets upon Llenn, the Pink Devil herself zipping left and right around the yard for the past three or four minutes. She caught a glimpse of another red signal, alerting the arrival of new teams to come to them. As for the present teams, she can see the bullet lines, but the opportunity to take advantage depended on whether Llenn could maintain attention long enough to Jaymes and the others to flank the enemy...and avoid incoming teams.

Frustrated, she turns off her comms device and turns to Jaymes, who maintains a frown on his face. "Joshua, we need to act."

"I agree." She hoped calling him by his real name would spur him to further action than those two words. Before she can voice that, he turns to her. "I know you're unhappy about me being passive with M's plans. I can see it on your face. But I'm not going to break the chain of command. Trust M and his plan first." He says that with a deep, commanding tone that he rarely takes with her, meaning he's talking to Momiji, not Kureha. It says to not argue with him, and given the situation, she quietly acquiesces to his desire.

But while his words say one thing, his right hand tightly grips the hilt of the Ameno Murakumo G9 Plus. He looks back at the battlefield, the grip increasing as Llenn's voice -heard through Jaymes' earpiece as they're shoulder to shoulder - sounds like she's been hit. She looks at Llenn's HP bar, which takes a slight dive.

It doesn't sit well with her, but she made a single commandment since they fought for their lives last winter - to follow his lead and watch over him. She turns back to the battlefield, where Llenn resumes her decoy mission. Something is wrong now. Something is different; some shots do not produce noise, and the associated bullet lines disappear quickly.

"She's under sniper fire now... Okay, I understand. I'll trust M, but I trust you to act as usual."

"Don't worry. If there's a need to act, I will. He knows that too. I plan on winning this with our team intact."

Accepting those words, Kureha turns her comms back on just as M orders Llenn to retreat. Kureha's stress dials down as M tells Llenn to look for a signal. That signal ends up being a blue orb sailing up the atmosphere, then it disappears. Seconds later, a bang rocks the virtual air. That blue light was one of Fukaziroh's plasma grenades, so either it went off in the air, or the sniper of the group shot it to create the explosion. Without hesitation, Llenn makes her way toward the "flare."

"They're two ticks away," Kureha says, using the logic of lightning and thunder to calculate, in time, how far M, Fuka, and Pito are away from the yard. When lightning flashes, thunder follows; when one sees lightning and hears thunder may not be immediate. Kureha learned as a child that if one counts the time between a flash of lightning and the resulting drums of thunder, she can determine how close the storm is. One second equals 1,125 feet, a fifth of a mile, so the others are about 2,250 feet away.

The gunfire ceased after the blast, and furthermore, no one gave chase to Llenn. Jaymes and Kureha stayed put. Sighing, she reaches for her trusty SMG. "What's the plan for us?"

"Wait. We got a minute until the next scan. But first, lay on your side. I want to look at the map." Following his orders, in her ears, she can hear that Llenn reunited with the rest of the team.

"Nice Llenn-ding," says Fukaziroh.

"You did great out there," chants Pito.

"Let's transition to the next plan," M cooly remarks.

"What's this?"

"We're inside an empty freight car. M found a nice one for us to use, and we snuck in here. We were able to do it because you were distracting all the other teams."

"Speaking of which, where's Jaymes and Kureha?"

"Well, M sent them to get a lay of the switchyard from a safe spot, so they watched you get shot and all. But knowing Kureha, she probably got all antsy being alone with her looover. Right, Kureha?"

She can't hide the blush, but Kureha bites her tongue hard enough to suppress the urge to scream, then remarks, "When I see your face again, Fuka, I'm going to eliminate you myself!"

"Llenn, you heard that? She's threatening me!"

"So what will hiding in here help us do next?" says Llenn, dodging her friend's plea. "Do we hide until they give up?"

"Oh, that won't work. We've only got seconds until the scan."

"Huh? Then they're going to find out right away! They're going to close in on us! Oh... I got it! This car moves, doesn't it? We can get away inside it, chunka-chunka-chunka-chunka!"

"Llenn," Jaymes, projecting the map between the side-lying bodies of him and Kureha, calls, "I'm sure you've noticed, but the locomotives are not connected to any cars. And I believe I can see the car you're in. If it's the loading type, there's no way to move it, right M?"

"We can't. The car alone has no engine. It won't move, and it's flat, so we can't push it over."

"Huh?"

"There are more teams within a half-mile of us now - five of them. Four more are approaching from farther out. We'll ignore any other teams for now, but SHINC is still alive." Everything M announced is confirmed on the map. With nine teams directly in the vicinity of Kureha's, she's not sure if getting to Llenn's target is possible anytime soon. Furthermore, Kureha raises an eyebrow as she sees several familiar team abbreviations closing in on them.

"So if we can't move, and there are lots of enemies closing in... Huh? Then what do we do?"

"No worries! We're preparing now!" Pitohui's excitement is conveyed well over the mic that Kureha pictures the lunatic's face. She ignores the other side's conversations as Jaymes puts away his scanner, then reveals her findings.

"Two of those teams... I know them from the previous match."

"Really?"

"Mhm. I think we encountered at least one of them in the dome, maybe Clarence's team or affliated with it. The others might be from SJ2 that Pito took out... So what are we going to do?"

For the first time in a while, Jaymes smugly grins. His (troublesome) desire for a good challenge has kicked in. "Great... M, everyone, get ready. Kureha and I will tail the other teams."

"Got it."

12:22 pm is the time on her watch.

Kureha knows first-hand how a single member of Crimson Squad fairs against a combined might. Look no further than SJ2; Jaymes took out seventeen players in the dome with his photon sword. Pitohui massacred thirty-six players in the mountain region of the map. Granted, the latter had a topographical advantage; the former had a smokescreen and a teammate who could direct him with special visual techniques. But both are impressive single feats.

Hiding in one of the cars behind the mass gathering, Kureha estimates that each team has six players, a full group. She counts seven different patterns of matching attire, meaning that a maximum of forty-two players have assembled (so far) to take out her team. By her estimates, they were within nine hundred yards from M and the others, within the M14's range. They weren't hiding either, instead sweeping the area and checking for the six members of LPFM around and within the scattered cars. Because there was no inter-team communication, they had to shout to talk to each other.

For the two-man team of Jaymes and Kureha, that made things easy to follow the enemy. With no eyes checking behind them, all the Crimson Warrior and Crimson Princess had to do was slip behind the cars and watch. They were vigilant and aware, as they should be. As Kureha noted earlier, she recognized some of the teams from Jaymes' dominance in the dome and Pitohui's rampage in the mountains.

Eventually, the forty-two enemies came within two hundred yards of Llenn, Fukaziroh, M, and Pitohui, unaware of the fact. So unaware that when Jaymes gave the signal to start, it made for a comical series of events that countered the enemies' vigilance. She bets they were expecting gunfire to start the assault.

"Go ahead, good-looking," was the Crimson Squad leader's message to his favorite crazy chick. Her head immediately pops up from the wall of the topless car, her face cheerful. Kureha half expected someone to start shooting in that instance, but no one reacted that quick. That allows Pitohui to speak.

"Well, well, well, hello! How is everyone?"

No one shoots. One guy greeted her with a nod. "Oh, hi."

"I'm doing great. So long!" Pitohui dips her head back behind the car's wall, leading to confusion amongst the group that even Kureha feels sorry for them. It takes a moment, but then someone realizes who the woman is.

"It's that damn woman! Fiiiiiiire!"

"Hey, Pito, why are you sticking your face over - Aaah!"

Forty-two bodies drop prone on the ground, and forty-two guns of various types fire aimlessly at the black car Pito's head popped up from. If this is what war sounds like, Kureha prefers never to join the military. The poor black car is showered with red sparks as bullets contact it, like a match scrapped against a matchbox. The contact of metal to metal is as loud as the gunfire itself that it mixes in Kureha's ear.

As the enemy starts to surround the car while shooting, Jaymes, casually leaning against the distal car he and Kureha are not really hiding behind, raises his finger to his earpiece. "Looks like the car is holding up. How you guys doing?"

"I cannot believe we're still alive!" hisses Llenn. It's the only reason no one of LPFM acted: the car's walls were thick enough to take on the bullets. Not even high-caliber sniper rounds punctured the iron slabs. While M may have been confident in the car's durability, it couldn't have been a great experience. What if someone was smart enough to throw a grenade? That would have blown LPFM's goal to shreds.

"All units, cease fire!" Someone gives those orders, and they resonate throughout the group. Curious, Kureha grabs her monocular, scanning the encircling group of men for said leader. From the car, the enemy is between three to five hundred yards; Kureha and Jaymes are behind them by another three hundred yards. Some enemies go prone or crouch, while others remain on their feet. One of those men is wearing brunt-red camo and holding a small AC-556F assault rifle. It looks like he's in charge.

"Pito! Why did you stick your face out like that!"

"Huh? What, didn't I tell you?"

"No, you didn't!"

"When you shoot first, every human being gets that dopamine rush of knowing 'I have the initiative,' which fills them with happiness and elation."

"Huh? Happiness and elation are the same thing! And?"

"Nobody shoot until you see their heads! We can't puncture the freight car! And they can't shoot us, either! So we're going to approach slowly! Once we're as close as we can be, I want everyone to throw grenades! Then we'll climb up the sides together and blast the interior!"

"So they get carried away and keep firing, and they completely forget about the trap they witnessed last time. As evidence of that, I present to you the fact that they're still approaching. See?"

"…Ah. I see."

"That guy right there," Kureha points out the leader in red to her companion, "he and his team were in the dome."

"I remember now. Poor sons of a gun... Do you guys hear them? They're coming in."

"Affirmative," M says. "Let's do it. Captain, Vice Captain, make your approach. The signal will be when Llenn shoots..."

Zeliska

Back at the bar, the screen showed the onslaught against the train car. For most of the audience, it looked like LPFM was doomed. Sure, the freight car saved them from gunfire, but if the enemy thought of using grenades, only M's shield would be enough to protect them...and proven last match, it was not invincible. So to the audience, it made perfect sense Llenn, Pitohui, Jaymes, M, Fukaziroh, and Kureha had sealed their demise against the surrounding, encroaching enemy.

But then the camera angle changed to an overhead view of the car, and Zeliska, a twenty-five-year-old woman, grinned like a ten-year-old girl receiving a birthday surprise. Yes, LPFM was trapped, and to anyone not paying attention, it looked like a terrible situation. But two things told her that it was terrible - but not for Crimson Squad's representatives.

"Damn... You think they dug their own graves?"

"Did they think they could hide well enough for it all to blow over?"

"No, no, wait. That doesn't make sense! If they thought they were going to hide and wait, why did she pop her head out earlier?"

"That's a good point...but maybe the nerves and fear are going to their heads? I've heard people crack in battle all the time in real life."

"The chick who slaughtered all those people barehanded in SJ2? Suffering from nerves and fear? You saw that battle in the log house, right? She's not the kind of person who freaks out and panics... Log house..."

"Bingo." The first sign is that Pitohui, knowing damn well the enemy was closing upon them, intentionally showed her face. The second sign is visible to all: LPFM, despite the four-letter abbreviation, is a six-person team.

"I-I got it... It's...it's a trap. She...she popped her head out on purpose, to let them know where she was and force them to shoot... And wasn't there six of them?" The man, who slowly realizes everything, turns his hed to the table the nonparticipating members of Crimson Squad sit at. Itsuki, Sinon, Rei, Daisy, Bazalt Joe, and Lievre watch the match without revealing much of their emotions, but Zeliska looks back at the man. She, too, remembers what Pitohui did at the log house, how she began her one-woman assault on MMTM.

"What did you figure out? Tell us!"

"...I could, but I bet we're about to see the slaughter happen much sooner than I could actually explain it."

Zeliska, who might be the most beautiful woman in the bar, bears a villainous smirk as the counterattack begins.

On M's words, Kureha and Jaymes race forward, the enemy unaware of them still. At the same time, Kureha could see two men drop so quick that if they blinked, they'd miss it. More men began to drop, and chaos ensued just as Kureha and her partner made it two hundred yards to the enemy. Kureha finds a car to take a hiding spot in, and Jaymes finally turns on the Ameno Murakumo.

As GGO's best swordsman continues onward, Kureha's Draque L Shamal roars the life with gunfire. The first target it takes out is a man who, fearing for his avatar's life, tries to retreat and spots Jaymes. Kureha's bullets cut him down before the man can warn the out of cover, she continues spraying more bullets with her cohorts inside the cart and the lightsword wielder. Kureha's bullet circle hone in on each target, and when the circle is smallest, she unleashed a quick burst of bullets, peppering her enemies from behind in rapid succession.

Inside the car, the "trapped" members of LPFM were firing from small holes created by Pitohui's lightsword, the same trick she did in the log house to attack Memento Mori. While bullets cannot penetrate thick surfaces, photon swords have no barriers. Kureha has seen Jaymes leave marks on the thickest of armor plating on NPC enemies like he's a space wizard from a faraway galaxy, so Pitohui's trick is the tip of the iceberg. Furthermore, GGO's bullet circle mechanic doesn't consider gun positioning, so as long as the circle is smaller than the hole, the bullet will travel through the hole.

It's the only reason why Llenn, Pito, and M can shoot as unexpectedly as they are without the enemy noticing their barrels poking through the sides of the car. Knowing their fight is futile, the men begin to withdraw - only to fall victim to gunfire from behind or the merciless blue blade Jaymes wield. For his part, Hyper Awareness is activated, so he's free to fight without fear. One guy that realizes he's avoiding gunfire tries to back away, but the Crimson Warrior shoots out a glowing pale blue-green rope toward the poor sod - the tether line of the Ultra Fiber Gun. Jaymes yanks his left arm back, reeling the trapped man in, and with the momentum created, spins on his left heel and obliquely cuts the victim down on arrival.

Kureha's attention is gained by a man from the red camo guy's group starting to climb the freight car, grenade in hand. She raises her weapon to shoot, but he's immediately fell by a single shot to the head and the arm. The live explosive goes off as it and the body drop to the car's side, doing minimal damage.

"They're withdrawing. Shoot as many as you can."

"Like I needed your instruction!"

"Ugh, I kinda feel bad about doing this. Sorry about that."

"You got this, guys. Good job..."

"Don't be, Llenn. I kinda enjoy watching them run from me."

"Ooh, I like it when you show your devilish side!"

"Thanks, Pito. And M, excellent plan."

"Thank you." Kureha rolls her eyes at the lack of pride in M's voice but has to admit that M's plan was so solid she had to really believe it wouldn't work. As a matter of fact, it worked too well.

Unbeknownst to Llenn, who was sent to go away as a decoy, everyone else knew the details. While Llenn held the enemy's attention, Pitohui, Fukaziroh, and M would safely explore the switchyard from a safe distance. In case Llenn got into trouble, Jaymes and Kureha would divert some of the attention away from her until the signal to assemble went off.

While that occurred, M tested the toughness of the cars and locomotives. As a habit, he tested the defensive capabilities of things found in the environment. Could a bullet pierce it? Can he hide behind it without taking damage? His assessment in the switchyard yielded varying results: Container cars and unloaded tank cars were no good, loaded tank cars did okay, locomotives were great, and the freight cars were highly perfect for the plan. Once everyone but Jaymes and Kureha were together, Pitohui used her blade to cut holes in the car while waiting for the enemy.

At 12:26 pm, just two minutes after Llenn fired her first shot, thirty players of the forty-two-man alliance had DEAD indicators over their corpses, with zero casualties against LPFM.

But the assault wasn't over.