Knock!

Knock!

Knock!

Through the door, I hear Zak call out.

"Hey man, can I come in?"

"Yeah, it's open."

"Whatcha readin'?" Zak asks, stepping into my dorm.

"I put a large hole in the Arena floor. Cortex is threatening to suspend my registration and rank if I don't pay for repairs." I say, looking at the report.

Looking over my shoulder, Zak asks "How much?"

'Seven-hundred-thousand creds. They're also restricting my usage of WhipLash to outside the Arena dome. On top of that, WhipLash will be outta commission for awhile, 'cause Kisaragi doesn't want to release the repair specs. So I can't get her repaired."

"That sucks man. Watcha gonna do?" I can see just the tiniest bit of satisfaction with this in his eyes.

"I think I'll get some of the weapons and stuff from WhipLash, and stick'em on Oblivion."

"Should be cool! Hey! How bout a VR match?"

"Sure, loser buys lunch."

Ten minutes later, we walk into the rec. room. "Hey Ted," I call, "have our regulars ready when we get out of VR."

"I take it loser buys?" he asks, even though he knows the answer. I'm in a descent mood, so…

"Yeah, give Zak the bill ahead of time." I say as we walk over to the VR suites. I climb into the first, Zak takes the second. Booting the computer, I see that Kisaragi has updated the public parts database.

"Hey Zak," I call into the comm.

"Who is this!?" a strange voice asks.

"Sorry!" I say, a little humiliated, "Wrong channel!" I switch to circuit two and try again.

"Yeah man. What ya want?"

"All of WhipLashs parts are in the public database, if you still wanna try it." He'll be happy 'bout that.

"Thanks for the heads up, man! I owe ya."

I decide to access my private file. That's the one that contains my current AC configurations, plus some favorite virtual ACs. I decide to create a new virtual core by taking the blade, wings, gun, and generator from WhipLash, and placing them on Oblivion. Whoa! He looks sweet!

With my configuration set, I engage the VR. The system has actually advanced in the past couple of years. For one, there's no longer a goggle or headset system. Instead it's holographic-solid projections.

The virtual announcer does the standard ramble, you know, "Welcome to this heated Arena matchup…" and stuff like that. Then over the announcement…

"Ready… Fight!"

"I see you Did choose WhipLash! Well Zak, Learn Fast!" I'm already in flight mode and takin off to the left. I can see Zak still sittin' there… he just found the overboost! I gotta work fast!

"Engage Stealth Mode! Switch blade to flight mode, and prepare to launch!" Luckily the Stealth emits sort of a cloaking field, making it Damn near impossible to see me.

I hear the High pitched buzzing whine as I throw my bla…

"Stealth disengaged." The computer says.

"SHIT!" I shout, raising my rail-gun before Zak can turn to fire.

"Gotch… FUCK!" he screams.

I fire a round at his right shoulder. It hits its mark, and his arm falls limp. The rail-gun falls from his hand as my blade finally comes in to attack, slicing into the already useless right arm. I hear a loud clank of metal-on-metal, seeing the arm now on the floor.

"Recall Blade!" I yell, boosting back as Zak lunges with his own blade. I hear a clank, and know my blade's back. I boost back once more and call "Saw Mode!"

I swipe up and to my right, cutting Zaks blade and lower arm in two, leaving him with practically no arms left. Swinging my arm back down, I take a chunk off of the dome shaped front of Zaks AC. The only thing he has left is the inside part, but he'll only get three shots off with that. After all, I shot through his right shoulder.

But I'm safe. Zak doesn't even know what they are anyway. So, I raise my rail-gun and fire into the hole I left in his chest-armor. I hear the boom of the gun, then the word "Win" appears on my HUD.

"AC Oblivion is the winner." I hear the announcer say.

"Hey Zak, care for a rematch?" I ask sarcastically.

"No, man, ya beat me with only a fraction of WhipLashs parts."

"Okay, then you're buyin'." I tell him, "Simulator off." The hologram fades and I step out of the VR suite, and I'm suddenly assaulted by laughter and cheers.

"Ted," I shout over the crowd," what the hell's goin on!"

Venom Strike steps through the crowd and seductively says "Ted piped your VR match to the MegaMonitor." Licking her lips, she continues, "S had my creds on you all along." Damn! Is she gonna flash her tits at me next!

"Sorry Ven. It's not happenin! Where's Ted at?"

"Right here m'boy. Hey, that was the best match I've seen this month! Lunch is on the house."

"Good, 'cause I'm a little tight this week." Zak says, as he finally makes his way through the crowd. "I was hopin for a free meal at Jakes expense."

"Well Zak, let's eat!" I say as Ted leads us to the table with our food.