At a prestige gathering, Karlie is taunted for her wasteland origins and accused of bullying Jaycee and insulting a woman's fiancé. Gael demands Karlie kneel and apologize; she refuses. Frustrated, Gael declares they will settle it "the mecha engineer way" and stages a neural-link demonstration. A top mecha engineer links and boosts left-mecha performance 32% and right-mecha performance 287%, shocking the crowd while rivals call it luck and outdated technique. As the dispute shifts to technical rivalry, someone reaches for a woman and a voice snaps, "Who gave you permission to touch her?"