Elise and Eliana were excellent mecha pilots to begin with. As soon as their mechas started displaying a surge of incredible power and responsiveness to their tiniest will, the battle was as good as over.

CLANG!

Elise raised her shield at an angle and perfectly caused Jackie's greatsword to be violently deflected, causing her to lose her balance slightly.

That was all the opening Elise Wang needed.

STAB!!

Elise Wang's right hand snaked past Jackie's shield and pierced her belly, causing the mecha to instantly blacken.

Next to her, Eliana took the simpler but more violent approach of brute forcing her greatsword down upon Isabel's practice mecha and causing her legs to splinter due to the sheer power Eliana's hammer blows.

Crash!!

Isabel's mecha collapsed to the ground in a blackened heap.

As soon as they were done, the two Wang twins whirled around to surround Margaret.

But they were completely surprised to realize that Margaret's mecha was standing subserviently a single step behind me.

"What's going on there?" Eliana asked as she raised her greatsword and pointed at Margaret.

"She had a change of heart. She's now part of our gang. Let's continue." I replied very simply and pointed to the next cluster of mechas a couple kilometers away from us.

Of course Margaret didn't have a change of heart. But at that moment, her heart was not in charge.

I had implanted a wisp of my red energy into her mecha, and her mecha was completely mine to control!

Just like James, I could control Margaret's mecha as I could my own fingers at almost no noticeable increase in my mental burden.

"At this rate, I could probably very easily control a thousand or even two thousand mechas." I thought distractedly to myself as I led the three girls forward into a trot.

I was half analyzing my situation and half listening to the strange one sided conversation the two Wang girls were having with Margaret.

"... never too late to repent. Now that you have turned over a new leaf and have learnt your place as a physically inferior senior to us, you need to act your place." Eliana was saying rather ruthlessly to the silent Margaret following behind me.

"Yes, you have to show the highest amount of respect to us. Afterall, in war, bullets and our enemies do not care about our age. Skill is all that matters, and if our skills are above yours, then by that measure alone, you need to respect us." Elise added.

I understood what they were doing, of course. The two Wang girls were usually very sweet girls. They were purposely being extra venomous with their words to fish out a response from Margaret to find out what exactly was going on after realizing that I was a dead end of information.

But too bad for them, Margaret was officially out of the picture. At that very moment, she was silent processing the situation.

I did not bother to explain anything to her. I merely said "I am taking over your mecha. Let me know when you're ready to pledge yourself to me."

And straight after that, her mecha was completely unresponsive to her controls.

Margaret being Margaret, she had fallen completely silent after quickly exhausting her list of quick tests to figure out that she had absolutely no control over her mecha, not even the emergency controls.

Which suited me fine, of course.

"Justin you bastard! What the hell are you doing to my mecha!? Do not say that it isn't you! It must be you!! You're the only one that benefits from this bizarre haywire chain of events!" James' voice finally roared out from my comm device.

"It is me." I replied with a calm and cool voice. "I am in control of your mecha. And I am on my way to Blacken the damn hands that's trying to "Blacken the Rising Sun". Do you want in?"

There was a slight pause before James replied.historical

"So you must have captured another victim and got the information from him huh? If you have, then you must know that seventy five percent of our annual budget is at stake. The damned Instructors said that if we don't end the day with all the flags, our budget will be halved. The winner will get the other half. If the first graders got all seven flags, we will all lose seventy five percent of our budget to you. Tell me, if you were me, what would you do?" James demanded.

"Do you think I care? The school is out to get me with ridiculously unfair methods. I just want to even the playing field abit. So are you in or out? Tell me quick!" I pressed James.

"What's in it for me? Do you have useful things that you can give me to compensate for the loss in my educational budget? Things like... that strange ability of yours, perhaps?" James asked slyly.

"My abilities are mine. But I have access to a white mecha which you can use if we-"

"Done. Count me in. Whatever you want me to do, I'll do it! Just give me a white mecha!" James instantly agreed to join me without letting me finish my words.

"IF we can source out the materials." I finished firmly.

"Yes yes. Getting the white mecha won't be easy, but as long as we're making progress towards that, I don't mind. It would be much faster compared to getting it through the Whitefrost Clan! Now, what do you want me to do?" James said impatiently.

"Come and join me. Your classmates aren't chasing after you anymore. Where did they go?"

"They've been called to assist in the main battle. Okay! Give me back control to my mecha!"

And with that, James became the first person in my personal clique.

"Airborne mecha incoming." Elise Wang said and raised her shield.

"He's a friendly." I quickly said.

"Ah. That James dude from earlier. Another one that had a change of heart?" Eliana Wang chuckled.

BOOM.

James landed next to us with a bang.

"Yes. A complete change of heart." James said with a helpless voice.