Chapter Five: Reflections III

"YO!" Kid Cobra shouted to the camera his snake-friend held to his face. "IF WE CAN SM-SM-SM-SMASH TEN THOUSAND LIKES ON THIS! STREAM! I'M GONNA DO THE ONE MILLIE SPECIAL TO-TO-TO-whaaaat?-TO-TO-TONIGHT!"

"YOOOO SNAKE, WHAAAAT?" His cameraman bigged him up.

"YOU KNOW IT, BROTHA!"

"AND WHAT'S THE ONE-MILLIE SPECIAL AGAIN?"

"UHHHHHHHHHHHH..." He smirked beneath his mask with a short, sly laugh. "S'ONLY A MOTHER-SLITHERING CAR RUNNIN' OVER MY MOTHER-SLITHERING ARMSSSSS MY DUDE!"

"SIIIIIIIIIIICK, MAN, YOU CRAZYYYYYY!"

"CAN Y'ALL MAKE SOME NOISEEEEE?" He pleaded to the nearby group of other snake-men and snake-women, raising his ARMS in the air. He only had a small posse locally, but they cheered wildly for him all the same and the chatlog on his stream went crazy just as hard. "ALRIGHT BOIZ, WE SHREDDIN' THIS!"

With that, Kid Cobra backflipped right onto his snakeboard and began to grind around at a rapid pace. It was some pretty sick stuff, in all honesty. "GO COBRA, GO COBRA, GO COBRA, GO!" His posse chanted as they watched.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, just as he spun around the rim of the court, a small figure jumped from the sidelines and latched onto him hard. He gasped, but they held on tightly, not letting up.

"YO, WHAT THE FUCK?" The cameraman voiced aloud from the sidelines. "SOME LITTLE GIRL'S ON YA, DUDE!"

But Kid Cobra wasn't so easily restrained and slithered out form her grasp quite quickly. He spun around on his board and kicked her just as she slipped off, sending her crashing down to the court floor. He spun his board to a halt and looked at his assailant.

Mechanica propped herself up on the floor. "Gah..." She groaned, holding her side. " That actually kinda hurt. "

"M-Mechanica...?" Kid Cobra mumbled, stunned. "W-Wait, no, you're that-"

Mechanica smirked and flipped back through the air, a cloud of smoke streaming after her. By the time her feet hit the floor again a young woman had taken her place - one Kid Cobra had had described to him a few hours earlier in a rather long text message.

Kid Cobra glared at her. "WHAT BEEF YOU GOT WITH ME, GIRL?"

"Consider me a collector." She smiled. "You're next on my list."

Kid Cobra's cameraman, still streaming all of this to a chatlog full of question marks, zoomed in on the young woman who had suddenly appeared. "YOOO, WHAT THA FUCK IS GOIN' ONNN?!" He voiced.

The cloak she had bore the night before was gone now, and instead her outfit could be summed up as more... Young 2010 women's fashion, perhaps? A rather comfortable-casual look, if a little odd in places.

Her shoes were a deep purple with a short, thick heel. From there her legs went up in striped tights - interestingly, with one leg of the tights in a rather pale tone and the other in a rather dark tone. These came to a pair of high-waist shorts in a deep blue, which met with a tucked-in light cyan shirt (sleeveless, as was common for ARMS-havers) that had a small diamond-shaped window at the front. From her neck dangled a strange pendant with a shining surface and a unique design on it of two faces looking at one another. Or perhaps some sort of vase, depending on how you looked at it?

But most notable of all was her ARMS, which were now distinctly recognisable as being made of mirror. The cameraman could see his own reflection in them as he stood from afar, angling the camera her way.

"Look, I ain't gonna fight you!" Kid Cobra insisted from atop his snakeboard. "That wouldn't be much fair, I'm an ARMS fi-" And just like that, a shimmering mirror ARM swung forward and clobbered him off of his board. He fell back and scraped along the floor briefly, before regaining himself and flipping back to his feet.

"YOOO, WHAT THE HELL?!" His cameraman gasped as she transformed again. "YO, IS THAT MUMMY?"

Kid Cobra glared. "Seriously, dawg, I don't wanna have to fight you!"

"Shut up already." Mummy's grizzley voice came out. "Sit still or start swinging."

"YOOOOOOO! MAN! " The cameraman gasped as the viewer count skyrocketed . "THIS DUDE DOESN'T EVEN GOT HIS MASK ON, MAN!"

Mummy sent out an ARM, to which Kid Cobra slipped past and returned with one of his own. Mummy took the blow and did his best to strike back. After a few hits on him and a few too many misses on his own part, clearly she had realized he was a little too slow and large for an opponent like Kid Cobra.

"OHHH DAWGGGG, IT'S HAPPENING AGAIN!" The cameraman screamed as Mummy suddenly swapped out for Helix.

"Bluuuuuu boooo..." Helix seemed to... Groan? She didn't much like how he felt .

More ARMS started flying, but more and more it seemed like Helix was gaining the upper hand. Kid Cobra's strikes would be dodged rather easily as Helix stretched around them, or pooled down into a puddle to slip beneath them. The hits sent forth toward Kid Cobra began to connect more and more, as they were faster and less predictable.

Kid Cobra did his best to skate around on his snakeboard for a bit of added agility, but before too long it came to ahead with a single well-placed punch colliding right with his forehead.

"DAWGGG, NO!" His cameraman gasped as the rest of his posse watched on in horror.

Kid Cobra fell straight to the floor and groaned, as Helix blobbed over to him and grabbed onto him tightly. A short cloud of steam later and there were now two Kid Cobras.

"NO, DAWG, WHICH ONE IS REAL?! " Pleaded the cameraman, despite the two still being in the same placed they had been in before.

The Kid Cobra standing above him faded back into her natural form. "Well, that was fun." She smirked. "See you around, snake boy." And with that, she hurried off into the darkness.

The cameraman shook the camera hard as he hurried over to where Kid Cobra lay. "YOOO, KAY-CEE! YOU GOOD, MAN?"

He groaned, propping himself up on the floor. "Damn, she got me, dawg." The rest of his posse soon joined around him to make sure he was okay.

"DAWG, THAT WAS HARD TO WATCH!" He admitted. "BUT Y'KNOW WHAT? I WATCHED IT..." He sprung back, raising his ARMS in the air. "AND SO DID FOR-FOR-FOR- FORTY THOU' PEEPS, MY DAWG! "

"OHHHH DIP! " Kid Cobra yelped, getting right back to his feet with a flip. "FORTY THOU' FANS IN THE STREAM? HELL YEAH, DAWG! SMASH THAT LIKE, Y'ALL! "

The punching bag swayed back and forth as Spring Man, who stood a good distance away from it, pummeled it with strikes from afar. He hopped back and forth on his feet, working on his stance and his breathing, when he heard some quiet yet heavy footsteps on the other side of the gym.

Spring man stopped in place and stood tall, still facing the punching bag. The gym was closed after-hours and only he, as the Spring Stadium representative, was allowed in regardless. The tranquility of training alone was good for his ego, he thought. It's always about the fighting - not showing off.

So for someone to arrive now, well, there was little doubt in his mind as to who it could be. "Figured you'd turn up sooner or later." He mumbled, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Ah." Came Master Mummy's voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to intrude. I just wanted to get some late-night training done to unwind a bit, now that the kid's asleep."

"You can cut the act." Spring Man finally turned around to face him. "Coyle's filled us all in. I mean, the stained shirt gives it away pretty easily."

Master Mummy cocked a smile and began to be obscured by smoke, until the young woman was all that was left where he stood, that very same smile still on her face. "Bold of you to call me out like that."

"I just don't like to beat around the bush." He shrugged. "So, are we gonna do this?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You're just gonna let me copy you without a fight...?"

"Oh, good heavens, no! " He laughed. "No no, I think you misunderstand - I'm asking for the fight." He banged his gloves together a bit. "It's not in my nature to go down without one. And I think I can take you!"

"Hm." She smiled. "That's kinda what I hate about ARMS fighters. So loud and in-your-face." Her body became engulfed in mist and her voice changed as she spoke to one a bit higher and more... Fun. "If you want a fight, then let's fight."

Spring Man approached the ring at the center of the stage, and Lola - with a roll of her eyes - got in alongside him. He hopped on the spot for a moment, getting in the right mindset. "Ready when you are."

Lola equipped some Funchucks and took a long swing at him, which he dodged back and returned with a swing of his own Toaster.

ARMS flew back and forth, and Lola began to get progressively bouncier throughout - hopping up and down to confuse his accuracy as best she could.

It actually wasn't much similar at all to fighting the real Lola. Her form and abilities may have been copied, but the fighting style clearly wasn't. But if anything, this just made the fight harder, as every first expectation in Spring Man's mind seemed to pull from the real Lola, and he had to remind himself that this was the copycat.

But he still outshined her in the long run, with the majority of his hits going through and the majority of hers being blocked on his shield. All that training paid off, after all.

"Hm." She panted, noting Spring Man was keeping the upper hand quite easily. "Let's try something new, then."

Spring Man was now fighting against Kid Cobra, who was having a much easier time slipping under his swings. A couple solid punches began making their way toward him, and he couldn't help but feel somewhat surprised - this wasn't a professional ARMS fighter, after all, so why was he actually working up a sweat? Lucky he only got stronger the more roughed-up he got!

Kid Cobra spun a bit after a successful Toaster hit landed squarely to his jaw, setting him alight momentarily. By the time he had collided again with the floor, she was back to her usual self again.

She panted heavily, propping herself up as best she could. "Yikes, you're pretty strong..." She shook her head, trying to regain her composure.

"I don't appreciate having to fight my friends like this." Spring Man looked down at her. "There's no honor in that."

"Honor isn't something... I really wanna bother with right now..." She carefully got to her feet and looked back at him. "Especially not against you. You're wayyy tougher than you look!"

Spring Man smirked. "So are we done here? 'Cause I'm not going down without a fight and, uh," He laughed a little. "You don't seem much capable of beating me."

The woman laughed to herself in response, causing his smile to fade. She grew a smirk of her own, and then shrugged. "Who says I have to play fair, though?" Smoke began to raise all around her.

Mechanica started to approach Spring Man, who cautiously put his back hands up to continue to the fight.

Mechanica jumped a little, her eyes beginning to water. "W-Wait, are you gonna h-hit me?"

"W-Wha...?" He glared at her. "Y-You're not..."

She continued to approach, remaining rather meek and shaky as she did so. Spring Man backed up against the end of the ring, uncomfortable with the thought of hitting her out of her mech like this. Even though he knew it wasn't the real Mechanica.

At one point he drew back his ARM, telegraphing his move quite heavily as a warning. Mechanica jumped again, and shakily put her arms up to protect herself, making Spring Man feel awful. " Y-You can't just do this! "

"I-If I have to th-then I will...!" Mechanica quivered, now within arm's reach of Spring Man.

Okay, so, he didn't have to fight her, right? I mean, what's she gonna do, punch him? She didn't have ARMS in this form and Mechanica wasn't exactly the strongest person... He could wriggle out of any grab she tried, so she didn't really have the upper hand here. After all, he was-

Mechanica suddenly struck a fist forward and whacked Spring Man hard between the legs, causing him to drop to the floor immediately in aching pain. "Whoops!" She giggled. "Cardinal sin, I know. But you really left me no choice!"

Spring Man really hadn't seen that coming, and could do little else right now than cradle himself and try not to cry.

"You really gave me a run for my money, Spring Man." She admitted, grabbing him tightly and mimicking his appearance in a few short seconds. The new Spring Man looked over his body and prodded at his new, muscular chest. "I'm sorry it had to end up this way." With a flick of his new, spring-like hairdo, he began to head back to the entrance had came in from.

"It's been a really busy night... I think I need a rest."

"W-Wait...!" Spring Man pleaded, trying to at least kneel a bit through the aching.

His duplicate turned around, with a questioning look on his face.

He glared at him. "...What's your name?"

A smirk appeared on his face shortly before it became obscured by steam. The young woman retained that same smirk, looking him dead in the eyes. "Mimicutie. "