Awakening.

That is the closest word I could think of to describe the feeling I had at that moment.

Know the feeling you get every morning where your mind first kicks into gear and you start to navigate the fogs of sleep to get to consciousness?

That is relatively close to what I was feeling then.

I glanced at all the mechas which had received my power the way you would look at an additional pair of arms that had grown out of your ribcage overnight.

I knew I could control them with but a thought.

"Monkey pose." I thought as I caught sight of James who was howling wildly as he was unleashing a powerful overhead swing against a heavy mecha that was hiding behind its massive shield.

Instantly and absolutely effortlessly, the way your hand would respond to your thoughts, James dropped everything and got into a cute monkey king pose with his right mecha hand scratching his head, his left mecha hand scratching his left hip, and his left leg bent outwards with his left foot upon his right knee.

"Oo! Oo! Ee! Ee! Aa! Aa!" I made his mecha squeal.

"What the f*ck?" A particularly foul mouthed first grader fighting behind James shouted in shock.

"Haha!! What in all of the world did you eat just now? Are you nuts dude?" Elise Wang shouted with a laugh without losing a beat in her massacre of her own enemies.

"I knew it. I knew there was something wrong with him!" Eliana Wang shouted triumphantly.

Margaret merely glanced at me. Upon seeing my half frozen pose as I looked at James, she knew that I was at work.

What I just did to James did not seem very different compared to what I could already do and have done earlier.

But the difference was massive.

It was the difference between holding a remote control and flying a toy helicopter all over the place, and flapping your own wings to fly all over the place.

Controlling James' mecha was beyond easy for me at that moment.

"Hehehe." I grinned to myself and released control of his mecha back to him.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO TO ME YOU BASTARRDDD!!" James shouted at me with all of his heart.

His battlefury was overflowing earlier, and after being made to act like a real monkey, his overflowing emotions were instantly transformed into anger.

However, his enemy had taken the chance during his "insane" monkey pose mid fight to unleash his own series of debilitating skills.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

A chain of impressive looking spear attack sequence rained down upon James, with the final thrust slamming into his face powerfully right after he finished screaming out the word "Bastard".

"STOP DISTURBING ME WHILE I SHOUT AT MY BRO!" James turned his mecha head around and roared at his dumbfounded enemy.

BAM!!

James' right arm flicked out and crushed the poor heavy mecha's head with a simple jab.

"Quit whining and keep up the pressure!" Margaret snapped at James like the good older sister that she is.

Grumbling loudly and not at all under his breath, James stomped ahead and unleashed his wrath upon the enemy without a shred of mercy.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

There was no need for finesse.

Not for James, or any of the six of us.

Whoever heard of little kids unleashing their best moves while stomping at ants?

It had been a pretty long day, and though we still had more than enough juice in the tank, we were getting quite excited at the thought of finally finishing the event victoriously.

I was getting impatient at finally being able to smirk victoriously at the damned old man, and so I started to earnestly swing my shield and spear around, creating a scene of complete destruction around me.

My mood must have been quite infectious, because very soon, all five of my team members were doing as I did, and together we blazed five trails of carnage straight to the end of the five hundred mechas.

"Charge straight ahead to the main army!" I shouted in exhilaration as I burst out of the final line of mechas and thundered down the winding road around the piles of dead mechas.

"Charge!!"

"Chargee!!"

The six of us leapt ahead as fast as we could and left the rest of our hundred mechas to clean up the ravaged enemy who were so stunned by our violent attack that they were probably a minute or two away from completely breaking and routing.

Boom. Boom boom boom.

The other five closed ranks behind me and we formed a wedge formation once more with me at the lead.

As the seconds rolled by, we charged ahead faster and faster as our momentum increased to fearsome levels.

Very soon, the rear of the enemies came to view.

A squad was already turning around and getting ready to meet us in battle.

"What? Those first graders actually made it out of the first battalion's attack? But too bad for them, they escaped in the wrong direction!"

"Ha! They must be panicking so much that they had no idea where they are running to!"

"Hey, they are actually quite fast. Can practice mechas even get up to that speed?"

"Holy moley! They are still speeding up!! Get ready!!"

"Counter charge in three! Two! Charge!!"

KABOOOOMMMMM!!!!!

The following clash was so violent that it sounded like a massive explosion instead of two mecha squads meeting in battle.

We bulled our way into the squad, and flung them away like overpowered cavalry charging into infantry!

"Destroy them all! And let us claim the ultimate victory!" I shouted to encourage my team mates.

But at that moment, I heard her voice once more.

"So you're the secret trump card of the first graders? Good. I'll destroy you, along with the morale of you irritating bozos!" Emma's voice rang out loudly above the din of battle as an overeager mecha rose into the sky amid the bunch of mechas flying in every direction.

She leveled one of her twin swords at me in what was clearly a challenge for a one on one battle.

historical

"Hmph! You want to challenge Justin? Not so-" Eliana started to shout.

But Margaret quickly silenced her with a simple gesture.

"Let them fight!" Margaret said with a slight chuckle in her voice.

"Ha! Fight her! But if you're a man, fight her fairly!" James snickered at me.

"Hi Emma! So this is the bunch of dead mechas walking that you've been hiding yourself with? No wonder you can survive till this point. Not too shabby at all." I said brightly in our first reunion after a few long weeks.

"You're still as irritating as before. So school life has failed to still your tongue and teach you manners huh? Let this princess teach you a lesson and put you in your place then!!" Emma shouted and blasted her thrusters to shoot straight for me!

"Hey! I did not say I am accepting your challenge!" I protested loudly. "I still need to kill all these- damn it!"

Bam!!

Emma flung herself at me and sent her twin swords slashing down on both my shoulders in a vicious attack.

In a move which baffled even me, I actually DE-powered my mecha armor at that moment to the level of that of a normal practice mecha!

I guess it was the sense of chivalry within me. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems bullying girls. Being a victim of bullying by gangster girls in my old life as a junkyard scrapper, I had long lost the gentlemanly respect for girls.

But Emma was not just any other girl.

She was Emma.

So I got myself down to her level as soon as I could.

At the same time, I twisted my body with great agility and managed to avoid the two vicious swords.

Bam!!

I reflexively sent an uppercut into her head in what probably seemed like a highly skilled counter attack.

But it was just pure instinct for me at that moment.

I was able to fling her slightly back with that attack.

Bam!!

However, Emma was not one to eat an attack for free. She was able to unleash a powerful kick on my groin area as well right as her body blasted off backwards due to the strength and perfectly placed uppercut.

"Oof! Thank God it's a mecha fight!" I muttered even as I winced at the psychological impact of having my nuts kicked.

Emma righted herself in midair through a series of highly complex thruster explosions.

She was extremely skilled with flying mechas.

"Damn it. You've improved quite a bit." Emma was probably scowling at me at that point.

"You're actually pretty good at flying. Why don't you teach me?" I asked her and pointed my spear at her provocatively.

"Hmph. It's good that you know I am skilled in flying. But too bad for you, flying isn't the only thing I am good at. Take this!" Emma said before she shot forward towards me once more!