Machines
The cold pit in his chest made his entire body tense, the drone was knocked free taking the foam and Ray's shoe with it. In a blink Ray went from laying on his back to standing, just as quick his feet separated, body twisted sideways offering the drone a smaller target as his arms went up in a boxer's stance but his elbows raised up pointing towards the bot.
"Interesting strategy", Arkady mused.
Karin cringed at the loss of the boy's shoe to the sticky foam behind the robot, "Ehhh, what's interesting exactly?"
"Ray here is aware after his kick he cannot do much damage to the machine so his fighting posture is more defensive in nature. Should the Dragon Drone charge him for physical contact he can deflect the blow with the harder bone of his elbows rather than the smaller, softer selections in his fists."
"Ahh, I see. Well I've texted Bunny and Miser, they'll be meeting us in a minute or two. They're just getting here from the parking garage."
The arena was dotted with expanding foam and Ray remained untouched except for expanding traces from a load of foam at the end of each elbow. He diffused to his streak form and passed through the drone again. Ray solidified behind the bot, slammed his elbows on the back of the drone then leapt over the drone using his weight and the hovering capability of the bot to flip the drone over. Using his momentum to promptly slam the machine into an errant pile of containment foam, and a quick shudder of his entire body freed Ray of the foam.
"Ahh, the readouts from the Drone it calls out Uncle, it seems." Arkady chimed in.
Karin clapped as Ray inspected the drone and stared longingly at his once new shoe.
"It seriously stole my shoe. I don't know why I feel so betrayed by a piece of equipment but I don't have much of anything and it stole from me."
"Sorry, Ray, I should have known things would get out of hand by not following proper procedure." Karin stared daggers at the Senior Technician.
"Stupid punk ass robot", Ray spat.
"I'm going to let that A-word slide, chalking it up to post fight stress but we'll get you new clothes after this, okay?"
Arkady piped up, "We've got a few pairs of the new Armsmasters high top shoes, they have not been released to public yet but I'm sure we can find some in your size, eh?"
Karin beckoned at a door farthest from the testing arena. From the reinforced double doors stepped a tall bunny eared woman covered head to toe in a white with black leopard style spots morph suit with a pearlescent sheen. The suit clung snugly enough Ray knew she was smiling through the mask with the two black prominent spots on the face seemed to serve as her eyes, and additionally he couldn't help but notice it was rather colder in the hallway she stepped in from than the testing arena.
One of the ceiling lights was not working properly in the corner nearest the door, during one of it's random flickering it cast a shadow briefly and when the light next showed a man in an equally tight but matte black morph suit style costume appeared. He strode forward silently and the pair of costumed figures approached Ms Normandy.
"Hey there K, long time no see!" The bunny eared woman spoke and wrapped the much smaller woman in a big hug, almost picking her off the floor in the process.
"Apologies, Karin, my distaff counterpart here was still in her deprivation tank sound asleep when I came to pick her up this morning", the black clad figure half bowed at the waist as he explained.
"It's fine, it's fine. Ray here was sparring with one of the robots but it was rather messy and frustrating it seems."
Ray stood off in the arena, his back to the foam pile. For a moment he started to wave hello then stopped, remembering how he looked, and he dropped his arm and his head hung with a quiet sigh.
"Hmm, seems the testing dojo is a bit too bright for Shadow Miser here to do his shadow-fu so maybe I can evaluate the kiddo?" The white and black spotted woman made her way into the fighting area.
"Names Sea Bunny, by the by." She said to Ray as she began to stretch her arms and popped her neck, the display extremely distracting to the seventeen year old.
"Uhh, I'm Ray".
"Alright, Sunshine, make your move and don't you worry about being too rough, this ol gal seen it all and ain't miss a trick yet."
Sea Bunny hunkered down with her feet wide apart, knees bent and her arms open ready to catch whatever Ray was going to throw her way.
Ray diffused once again and zipped past his opponent, in the same instant she performed a somersault, spun on her heels, hunkered down and thin black spines pushed through her white and black shiny suit all across her body with all the fluidity of years of experience.
The ghostly streak murmured 'the fuck?' in whisper.
"I heard that, Sunshine. I'ma humbly turn that offer down", she chuckled to herself.
"Do be careful, Ray. Bunny is a close quarters combatant, her spines are tipped with whatever toxins and chemicals from her most recent drinks and meals. She imbibed a sedative chaser with her breakfast smoothie, I might add," Shadow Miser warned as he stood next to Arkady at the monitor bank.
"Whoa, whoa, try not to overdo it. That - that would be really bad for everyone, especially Ray", Karin begged.
"He's a big fella, I'm sure he can handle a couple li'l pricks."
Bunny lunged at Ray's streak form and he made sure to keep several feet from the long eared woman. It seemed effortless to travel long distances to locations he could picture in his head but moving just two or three yards while avoiding containment foam piles yet still remaining in the confines of the testing arena required alot of focus while tracking his opponent.
Her long limbs kicked and flailed at him like a marionette with tourettes. Several times she was able to have the back of a fist or her shin pass through him as he reoriented his form, had he been solid he'd most likely be moving slower and taking more and more strikes as the chase continued.
'Alright' he murmured to himself, he solidified, touched two different piles of foam with his hands and diffused in time to let a jump kick happy Bunny pass through him.
He reoriented himself as Bunny landed in front of him in a crouch, her back exposed. Ray went solid and brought both his foam fists down on the woman's neck and back. The spines entered the foam but didn't scratch his fists as he put his considerable weight into the gorilla style blow. Her body sagged a moment but her body rolled forward, her movement pulled him forward but his fists shook fast enough to tear free as Bunny rolled herself into more piles of foam.
"Two for two, young Ray," Arkady clapped and gave the teen another unsettling smile.
"Shadow, get me some foam release, pretty please?" Sea Bunny begged from the arena floor.
Her partner sighed then pulled a thin cell phone from his waistband and dialed.
Karin opened the arena door and motioned for Ray to come out. The young man gathered his hoodie off the floor and slipped it back on before exiting.
~~x