Chapter Six: Collection Conference
"So... Then she got in the car?" Ribbon Girl attempted to continue.
"No no, she just left on foot." Kid Cobra corrected.
"...So she had already run you over at this point?"
"Huh? Nah, that was my buddy Hiss-torian. He got me good, man." Kid Cobra laughed, despite the immense pain in his ARMS, which were tightly bound in casts.
Ribbon Girl sighed. "Coyle's gonna love this one..."
"I sent her the stream highlights after that whole copy-girl thing. I was super close to having her, man! If I'd known we had forty thou' viewers watchin' in I'd probably have fought harder."
Min Min sat on the other end of the room in a small chair for visitors with a laptop on her lap, chewing her lip as she reviewed the fight footage. "She swamped you, dude. Gotta say - I love that jump she did at the start. Latched right onto ya!"
"Yeah, I thought it was a big mosquito or something at first." He laughed. "Was like 'how you gonna bite me through scales, dawg?' but in honesty it felt like a biiiig one so it probably could have."
"...Right." Ribbon Girl sighed again from beside his hospital bed.
"Hey - y'know the worst thing 'bout getting your ARMS run over?" Kid Cobra chimed.
"The pain?" Ribbon Girl answered.
"The humiliation of doing something so stupid?" Min Min answered too.
"Naw dawg, the fact I gotta find somethin' else to top it when I get to two millie! Mannnnn, I'm gonna have to jump out a plane without a 'chute or something."
They both sighed at his remark, and Min Min continued to review the footage. "Y'know..." She paused the video on a clear shot of the woman. "She's pretty cute, honestly. She's like a young Twintelle or something."
"You think?" Ribbon Girl asked, puzzled.
"What, you don't think she's cute?" Min Min returned.
"Oh, no, I think she's cute! Yeah, she's really pretty. I just don't see the Twintelle angle."
"I think the outfit or something. I feel like it's something Twintelle would wear."
"Maybe. Though I'm sure if she were here she'd be pointing out every minor fashion flaw in it." Ribbon Girl leant back a bit in her chair, a little bored. "I guess I associate Twintelle more with her hair. This girl's super different in that regard."
"Mannnn, I wish Twintelle were here." Kid Cobra sighed. "How rad would it be if she came to see me after hearing 'bout my cool stunt? That'd be crazy for my stream views, too."
"Pffft, keep dreaming." Min Min laughed, stretching a bit. "So I guess, if she went after Kay-Cee, she's not done with copying ARMS League fighters?"
"I guess not." Ribbon Girl shrugged. "She must be working up to something else. It'd kinda help if we knew what she took from Coyle but..."
"Hey, do you think I'm gonna be all healed up by Friday?" Kid Cobra asked, a tinge of surprise worry in his voice as if he just remembered something.
Ribbon Girl stared at him. "You ran over your ARMS so... No? Probably not."
"Awwww mannnnnnnn! " He groaned. "I wanted to hit up ARMS League World on opening day. That woulda been hella good for a stream."
"Oh not this again..." Ribbon Girl muttered.
"Duuuuuuuuuude!" Min Min glead brightly. " Hell yeah, man! I wanna check that place so bad. The Mummy's Haunted Mansion ride is supposed to be, like, actually scary."
"I'm all about them coasters, man!" Kid Cobra happily returned. "Oh shoot, or the Spring Launcher! Hells yeah!"
"Do I dare ask what that is...?" Ribbon Girl cautiously added.
"Spring Man's ride." He replied.
"...And what is that like?" She repeated, having already figured out that the ride with 'spring' in the title was going to be related to Spring Man.
"It's a drop tower." Min Min grinned. "You shoot riiiiight up, then drop riiiiight down."
"Bleh!" Ribbon girl stuck her tongue out, a sour look on her face. "That sounds awful. "
Min Min laughed heartily. "You're such a babyyyyy!"
"Why can't we just have normal rides?"
"Because they're boringggggg!" Min Min yawned.
"Okay, well, what was that place before ARMS League World? That place was fun!"
"Aw, whaaaat?" Kid Cobra jolted his head to one side to look at her. " Distant Future Funland? That place was garbage! "
"Yeah, those rides were so boring. None of them had loops, or drops, or anything. "
"Exactly! That place was great! " Ribbon Girl insisted. "It was all, like, space-themed and metal and had cool lights and stuff..."
"It was boring and got shut down because - get this - it was boring." Min Min sighed. "If you had told me a couple years back that that dump was gonna get shut down and replaced with an ARMS League-based theme park with ACTUAL rides based on - I repeat! - US, I wouldn't have believed you." She took a big gulp from the bottle of Helix Juice she had beside her. "We're in the good timeline, hun."
Ribbon Girl pouted. "Well we're still not going there."
"There are slow rides for you if you want!" Min Min insisted.
"Yeah, Lola's Sweet Street and Mechanica's Choo Choo are both pretty tame." Kid Cobra continued. "Misango's Nature Safari ain't half bad either if you wanna pet some deer, and you'd prob be fine with Buster Lagoon."
"And Buster Lagoon is...?"
"Log flume."
"Yick!" Ribbon Girl shook her head. "There's no way that water is sanitary."
Min Min gave a great big sigh. "What's Helix got again?"
"Bungee jumping." Kid Cobra shrugged. "Kinda weak, honestly. Coulda come up with something more fun than that."
"That's a no from me." Ribbon Girl insisted. "How about Ninjara?"
"Ninja Swing. It's a swing ride."
"Like those pirate ship ones?"
"Yup."
"Pass."
Min Min looked to Kid Cobra, as if to say ' yeahhhh, this is what I have to deal with' and he returned a very thoughtful look. "I mean hey, Min..." He began. "Just don't tell her 'bout Coyle's ride." Min Min snorted.
Ribbon Girl glared between the both of them. " Why? What's Coyle's ride like...?"
"Good god, no, that's horrific. " Coyle gasped, shaking her head back and forth.
Mechanica approached the booth that she and Spring Man were sat in. "Sorry I'm late. No further news from the Lab, but Helix doesn't seem distressed at all. She must have just grabbed him and left, I doubt she roughed him up much."
"Darling, have you seen the ride they have for me at ARMS League World?" Coyle sighed. "Show us again, Spring."
Spring Man, munching on a hearty bite of pizza, extended his phone forward again and showed them a video of the ride - it was a contraption you'd strap yourself into alongside others that would then dangle you right over the edge of an incredible 900 foot drop and start to spin rapidly. The chairs would then rotate to an angle of about 70 degrees or so, causing its inhabitants to be looking straight down at the park below. The mechanical arm that held all this in place would then being to raise and drop, giving you a falling sensation.
"I hate it." Coyle stared blankly. "It's just too much. "
"Yeahhhhhhhhh." Mechanica mumbled as she watched in awe. "I think that's even a bit too much for me ."
"Nah, it's harmless." Spring Man pulled his phone back. "These things are built real well, I doubt there's any real risk."
"How you can still eat after watching that I just don't know." Coyle sighed as Spring Man took another big bite of his pizza. "Still, I guess it's nice they gave me something imposing as a ride. It's better than Mechanica's Choo Choo." Mechanica pouted angrily at the remark.
"Kinda shucks, tho-" Spring Man mumbled through his full mouth, before swallowing what he had. "-That they didn't put your name in the title. S'just called 'The Scientific Error'. Like that's cool, but they kinda robbed ya there. At least the Spring Launcher has 'Spring' in it."
"Ah well." Coyle shrugged. "Water under the bridge. Or... Sticky-river... Whatever Lola says. We should probably fill Mechanica in on last night."
Spring Man nodded as he offered a slice of pizza to Mechanica, who gracefully accepted it.
"Our friend Spring Man here has been a very good boy. You've seen the Kid Cobra footage, which gives us a good look at our mystery woman, but Spring Man here has gotten us something better!"
"Did you manage to fight her off?" Mechanica asked, covering her mouth as she chewed.
"Nah, she got me in the end. I put up a real fight, though!" He smiled brightly.
"He did his best and certainly held out better than Cobra, but more importantly, Spring Man actually thought to ask for her name. "
"Ohhh?"
"Apparently we're dealing with a young woman who calls herself 'Mimicutie'. Clearly a portmanteau of 'Mimic' and 'Cutie', which at least makes half sense - she is mimicking people, after all."
Spring Man raised his eyebrow. "You don't think she's cute?"
Coyle shrugged her shoulders. "I feel like she's lacking a little flair, but that's beside the point - she's been thieving from us. Stealing ARMS Lab equipment, stealing appearances... I'd say that sours my view of her a fair bit."
"So her name is Mimicutie , then?" Mechanica reiterated.
"Mm." Coyle sipped her coffee. "Or that's her nickname, at least. Or fighting alias? Part of me wonders if she's trying to present herself as a new ARMS League fighter or something. It'd explain that odd pendant around her neck. We all have our own insignias on our outfits somewhere, after all."
"I dunno..." Spring Man shrugged. "She didn't talk too highly of the ARMS League when she brought 'em up. Said we were all too 'loud' and 'in-your-face'. Is that how you'd speak of an organization you wanted to join?"
"I wouldn't think so, no." Coyle sighed. "I can't really piece this all together so well. Those first string of copies lined her up to steal from the ARMS Lab, sure, but now she's still going after League fighters. But why?"
"She did say Cobra was 'next on (her) list'. Maybe she's just collecting us?"
"Sure. But why? That's an awful lot of work just for some new faces to switch between. And it doesn't explain why she'd steal from the Lab either." Another long, drawn-out sigh. "Maybe she needs all our faces for something . Some sort of facial recognition database? Maybe scans of all of our faces are needed to unlock some sort of, like, bomb or something."
"...Is that a valid possibility?" Spring Man worried.
"Not that I know of, no. The ARMS League simply wouldn't be needed for anything like that - I mean, no one's come and scanned our faces to setup anything before, so I don't see how anything like that could be possible." She picked up her coffee mug again. "Honestly? I'm kinda lost here."
"I think we need to find out more about her as a person." Mechanica added. "Maybe if we know her history we can figure out what she's doing?"
Spring Man raised a finger. "Have you looked into her ARMS...? I mean, we all get ours from stuff we're close to or stuff with meaning to us. Why's she got mirror ARMS?"
Coyle bit her lip. "Maybe she's vain? That'd explain why she undisguised herself for the vault's cameras and when she came to see you and Kid Cobra. It'd also explain that whole 'cutie' part of her name. But I'm not really banking on that - she clearly doesn't put enough effort into her looks to warrant that assumption."
"Sometime less is more, y'know." Spring Man laughed, taking the last slice of pizza. "Thanks again for all this, Coyle. It was quite the surprise!"
"Ah, well, you did good. So few ARMS fighters ever seem to try when I needs them to, so calling me up with her name? Good on you, Spring." She downed the last of her coffee. "Funny in a way, seeing as I've always treated Springtron as the superior Spring, yet the stupid thing failed me in the vault. I guess I should go back to the drawing board again."
"Orrrr you could not make a robot version of me...?" Spring Man hoped.
"...Like I said - back to the drawing board ."