DAH. I updated. WOOH!
Anyways... yeah. Haha. Some of the stuff here (the fight scenes and the way they went) might be wrong, so correct me, please :D
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING
Wing watched Otto quite carefully after what had happened the night before. Strangely enough, it seemed as if nothing had happened at all. Sure, his friend was tired, but that could have been from trouble sleeping. Maybe it had been a dream after all.
'But it seemed so real.' Wing thought, as he mindlessly followed his friends to one of the training areas.
"A… racing track? Seriously?"
Wing finally snapped out of his reverie to realize that they were on the edge of a racing track.
"What… what would we need a racing track for?" asked Laura, as she leaned over the metal fence separating them and the tack itself.
Big mistake.
Suddenly, a bright red racecar zoomed past, almost hitting Laura. She shifted back in surprise, and shouted in annoyance as she realized who had almost killed her.
"SHELBY! WHAT THE HELL!" She shouted, and said girl saluted her. Suddenly, she went shotgun on the racecar. As it turned out, it was computer controlled. They saw their friend jump onto the nearby car, and kick the dummy on it.
"So she's training… strange way of doing it though." Said Otto. Laura stared at him, then at Wing. Said Asian just shrugged, and smiled.
After a few minutes, Shelby jumped off the track, and to her friends. She was greeted by a hit on the head.
"What was that for?!" she exclaimed, rubbing her head. "That, my dear, was for almost KILLING me!" Laura shouted. She readied her hand for another hit, but Wing pointed out that they should be training. Laura put her hand down, and everyone followed.
As they were about to train, they saw Billie taking a water break. They noticed that her eyes kept flitting across the room, and that she kept her mouth on the mouth of the bottle for a long time. She was probably getting information on her sister's competitors. Best to stay out of her sight.
Luckily enough, all the things they needed to train with were behind Billie. The shooting range and the multiple electronic test dummies were all there. They separated, and trained on their own.
Wing grabbed his naginatas from his sheaths and jumped. Two dummies came from above, acting like actual humans. They looked the part too. Except for the distinct lack of hair, clothes, and a few body parts, they looked like actual people. The synthetic skin bled when slashed deeply. If the red light in the middle of the torso lit up, it meant that the dummy was 'dead', and that you were to try again. There were supposed to be no deaths in Battala de Paz.
The artificial people started attacking Wing. They worked independently. Puppets with no strings.
"No visible strings, anyway." Wing muttered, as he 'knocked out' one of the dummies. Another one of them started throwing phony knives at Wing. He wouldn't have minded the fake knives, except for the fact that looked pretty sharp. He dodged every one of them, letting fall to the ground beside him. He gained his ground again, and another group of mannequins attacked, this time armed with different weapons. Wing noticed another one perched on a high point nearby. The thing had a bow and arrow at hand, already readied.
This may be challenging. Wing thought. As the three dummies on the ground attacked, Wing ducked down as two of them hit each other. The third stopped before it hurt itself. He attacked Wing, who used his naginata to fling the rattan stick out of the thing's hand. He head butted the dummy, knocking it out. Wing noticed something fly by his left side. It was an arrow. He looked back to the dummy that was perched high, as it fired another arrow. Wing was nearly hit, only dodging it when he raised the stick to protect himself. He threw said stick at the dummy, making it fall onto the cushioned floor below. It wasn't a big fall, so the thing wasn't 'dead'.
He sighed, and walked to one of the drink tables. He watched his friends do their thing, as he sipped some random energy drink from the many that were set on a large table.
"Nice one."
Wing almost choked on his drink, when Billie walked to him.
"Don't worry. I won't say a word on your skills and things. But you may want to train the left side of your body. It's fairly vulnerable to attack, as you don't guard it as well as your right." She advised. Wing put his drink down.
"You… you won't tell that to Maya, will you." Wing stated. She shook her head.
"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't have. Maya has a strange code of ethics. One of the things on her 'code' is "Only take cheat codes against enemies. Never friends." Since she considers you as a friend, she wouldn't take your weakness against you."
"How about you?" Wing asked. "There is a chance that you will fight again. If you fight me, will you not find your conclusions helpful?"
"That's a very slight chance. Either way, I wouldn't." she said.
"Why?" Wing asked. Billie grinned.
"You remind me of an old friend. That's all I can say." She said. She walked off, leaving Wing to watch his friends.
Laura grinned. She had a challenge. She was going to use her guns, but all her shots had to be non-lethal. She needn't kill anyone there. It would have been easy, except for the fact that the dummies wouldn't stop moving.
"Hah. This'll be fun." she said to herself. She jumped up to dodge one of the dummies that were charging at her with headhunting axe. She flipped in midair, confusing the dummies as she shot at the handle of the axe. It was no easy feat, as the hand could have moved at any time, probably allowing the bullet to hit. But her shot hit home. The axe flew out of the dummy's hand, giving Laura ample time to knock the dummy out.
She concentrated on the rest of the targets. They were coming at her from different directions. From her direct right, from the northeast side of the area she was in, from her direct left, and from right in front of her. She had to choose the best technique that would knock all of them out.
Reflect Shot! (1) Her mind screamed, and Laura shot at the dummy on the northeast side of the room.
The bullet hit the handle of the spear that the dummy was holding, and the weapon flew out of the thing's hand. The bullet ricocheted off the thick spear handle, and hit the bow and arrow of the dummy on the direct left of Laura. It ricocheted again, this time making Laura duck down as it passed over her and hit the boomerangs of the dummy on her right. The bullet reflected a final time, and hit the handle of the whip of the target in front of her. The thing embedded itself in the weapon.
Before the mannequins could react, Laura grabbed the two boomerangs one of the dummies had dropped, and threw them in different directions. They knocked out all her opponents. She grinned.
"A job well done." She told herself, and skipped off to hand out with Wing, who began watching Shelby's training.
Shelby grinned. Five of the dummies charged at her, three of them unarmed, the other two wielding weapons like brass knuckles and nunchaku. She took up a formal posture, and grinned quite annoyingly.
"Her grins could annoy her opponent." Laura commented. "I agree. Her smirk could distract anyone." Wing replied.
Shelby ducked down, as two of the weaponless dummies hit each other. As they were dazed, she sent hits to some of their pressure points, 'knocking' the dummies out. The third unarmed dummy attacked her, and she delivered a roundhouse kick to it. The thing fell back, falling on the dummy armed with the brass knuckles.
She faced her other opponent, and delivered an axe kick. It dodged, moving back. Shelby dropped down, and hit the dummy with a palm heel attack. The dummy was hit, and was knocked out. Shelby made sure that the hit was only lethal enough to knock the thing out.
Before she could go to her friends, however, something jumped down from above, and landed on her shoulders.
Yet another mannequin, holding a pair of pakal knives, rode on her back. It was going to strike her when, expectedly, she grinned.
She grabbed the legs of the dummy, and threw them off her shoulders. Instead of standing straight, she followed the falling target, squeezing the air out of its lungs in the process. The dummy fell unconscious, and Shelby headed towards her friends.
"Now let's see what Whitey's got for us." She said, and they watched.
Otto stood still. Seven dummies, all handling different weapons, surrounded him. With daggers. Whips. Sticks. One even held a small axe.
Otto inwardly grinned. This would be easier than he thought.
They all charged at the same time, weapons unsheathed. He jumped up, doing a flip in midair, and landed outside the circle of mannequins. They came in twos. Luckily enough for Otto, that was easy enough.
The first one sent a straight lunge to the chest with its knife. Otto crouched down, sweeping his foot smoothly. The thing fell down, and before it landed on Otto's leg, he cartwheeled back up, hitting the other dummy's head in the process. The thing was knocked out, and its partner was dazed.
The next two charged simultaneously, hoping to take Otto down in a swift strike. Otto back flipped onto the two dummies, landing on the two backs. He knocked them out, jumping off them before they fell down.
Another two of them attacked from two directions. One of them jumped upwards, attacking from the top, and the other tried to sweep Otto off his feet. Otto jumped slightly, only to dodge the sliding body of the dummy. As the thing slid off, the dummy from the top was dodged when Otto moved to the right. Before it could land properly, Otto did the Chun Lee kick, hitting it, as it was airborne. The dummy fell unconscious.
The last two (the one that slid across the floor joined the other dummy) attacked Otto from two sides again, this time from the left and the right. Otto simply ducked down, and the two dummies kicked each other.
Applause automatically came from the three onlookers on the side, as Otto approached them.
"Ve-ery impressive." Said Shelby, throwing him a towel. Otto rubbed his face with it.
"Your fight looked like some crazy dance. It was amazing!" Laura added. Otto nodded in thanks.
Wing just handed him a bottle of water. Otto thanked him, and they watched the other participants practice.
"Look over there! It's Maya." Said Wing, pointing to the far end of the training center. They went over, wanting to see what Maya was doing.
She was grinning, like Shelby and Laura had been.
She was currently being attacked from all sides. Left, right, above and below. All of the dummies were armed. She jumped, somehow dodging all the attacks. She rolled away from them. Wing, Otto, Laura and Shelby noticed that she had no weapons.
Maya looked to them, and waved. One of the clones was coming her way, when she suddenly struck it with her elbow. Assuming that she hit a vital point, the four of them knew the dummy was unconscious.
Maya quickly grabbed the two wooden staffs in the dummy's hands, and pressed onwards to her other three opponents.
Suddenly, the four of them noticed a glint between Maya's fingers, and saw three claw-like blades hidden between her fingers. She drew them out, muttering something unheard.
What she muttered were different types of strikes.
"Cinco Teros." She whispered to herself, beating one of the dummies unconscious with her five-strike move. She walked on to the next opponent.
"Abaniko." She said next, whipping one of her staffs in a fanning motion. She hit the head of the dummy, only knocking it out cold. She was about to bring down the last one, when another dummy almost kicked her in the head from above.
Almost.
She dodged it, and the two dummies decided to attack her together. She dropped all her weapons, almost shouting her last attack.
"Gunting." She said, striking the nerves in the arms. The dummies' arms fell limp, and she swooped them onto the floor. They fell with an encouraging 'thump'.
"Nice one!" said Laura, giving Maya a thumbs up. The other girl grinned, and headed to the group of four.
"I've received the information you sent me a few hours ago."
Otto was in the bathroom, letting the water run into a large bucket to sound as if he were taking a bath. His laptop had the silhouetted face of his master.
"Very substantial. I commend you for all the information you sent me. This could help us find the weak points of the guard staff in the Island." He said. Otto nodded.
"Is that all, sir?" Otto asked.
"Actually… no." the way his master said those words sent shivers down Otto's spine.
"From a few… insiders, I've heard that you've taken a habit to mingling. Is that true?" he asked. There was a steely edge to his voice. Otto straightened up. He'd been expecting this.
"Yes sir, but only to single out those who can become a valuable asset to our organization. The people I have been speaking with seem very capable of our organization's standards." Otto replied, hoping that his master would not see through his ruse.
"Also sir, I have taken observation of Nero's angel, the one you told me of before." Said Otto. When Nero had flinched during his speech, when they had their first breakfast, and when Kent and Billie had first fought, he noticed a shadow flicker in the background. In Nero's shadow. He had to admit, Raven was very impressive.
"Report to me next time." Number One said. "I have to speak to someone else. But you did a good job retrieving that information." And with that, he disappeared.
Otto sighed, and changed out of his clothes. It was going to be a very long six months.
(1) Yep. You guessed right. This was based off that thingy in Black Cat
So....
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