David wasn't sure where he heard it originally, maybe one of Becca's old flatvid cartoons or something, but it's been said that you could tell a lot about someone by the way they fight. Not their fighting style or something (or maybe that too?) but the way they approach a fight and the strategies they usually fall back on. Now he wasn't sure that he had it all right yet, but he's come to find some truth in that idea.

This might apply to everything someone does, thinking about it.

With that framework in mind, reviewing how he used to fight was pretty telling. His approach was 'hit first, activate sandy to dodge and reposition, then hit again, then keep hitting as they try to find where he moved to.' It was an aggressive and unrelenting 'style', open and bold, and entirely reliant on him having enough 'gun' to kill everything around him by the time his sandy expired. It was usually more than enough for anything he ran up against on the streets, but required him to chrome up more and more to carry enough firepower in order to keep up, and the moment he ran up against someone who was as fast as him, but had bigger 'guns', he lost hard.

Smasher described it once, he was ready to rock but had never been rolled before. It was the style of a brash kid with a chip on his shoulder and aptitude for chrome. A style that let him roll over everyone he came across until, all of a sudden, it didn't anymore. He crashed, going right off the metaphorical edge with it.

Might as well call it 'chrome junkie' the style.

Smasher though… he took a bit longer for David to figure out. Because Smasher didn't have one fighting style, he had something like three completely different styles that he used in different situations. So maybe that was actually just one bigger style with a lot of nuance? The specifics didn't really matter, because he wasn't actually writing this down anywhere so organization was pointless.

Take that school, he didn't have to remember any of your formatting shit! He hasn't used calculus in months now, and he's rich!

Where was he? Right Smasher's fighting style(s). The first one was the most common, used against people that Smasher didn't think could actually hurt him, and in situations where he didn't need to hurry anywhere. It was easily the laziest one, with Smasher letting bullets bounce off his curved armor while taunting and lining up the most flashy kills he could think of at the time. It wasn't really a style, more like him just trying to entertain himself. His routine consisted of trying to kill in the ways that splatter people across the biggest square footage possible, and really nothing else, using his chrome as he saw fit because nothing was going to get through his armor anyways.

But it had an undercurrent of awareness, of constant paranoia at everything within a few city blocks of him, keeping track of anything that might crease his armor. The moment something like that shows up, playtime is paused, and Smasher kills it as fast as possible. Then, once the dangerous guns are rendered scrap, the taunts and flash comes out again and carries on like usual.

The second style came out when he didn't see anything that was a threat to him, and he had somewhere to be. It was really just Smasher running as fast as he could to where he needed to be, and killing anyone and everyone in his way during it. If someone pointed a gun at him, he blew their heads off. If someone raised their fists, he punched through their torso, things like that. If there was a big gun, he killed it. Trying to get as many along the way as he could, but not slowing his pace for anything.

People stopped being people, and started being obstacles. Or, knowing Smasher, they were always obstacles, just now he was on a ticking clock.

The third style came in when he saw something that was a threat, a definite threat, and one that he couldn't kill in a burst of speedware. The lightning-paced murderous aggression was reigned in. Smasher went quiet and methodical, reactive and watching. He focused entirely on defense, on blocks and counter attacks, or dodges and parries if he thought the attack would hurt him. His own attacks became safe and probing, assessing the danger in front of him. If he had ranged weapons, he peppered the target at a distance and stayed out of their effective ranges.

Speedware became a defensive tool, only aggressive if Smasher thought he could get away with it or he could cripple the target. And crippling or killing the target was always worth breaking his armor or losing a limb over, because a dead opponent wasn't one that might get lucky later.

Then, once he's analyzed the target to his satisfaction. After harassing with ranged weapons and getting their armor damaged. After crippling the target to where it wasn't a threat anymore, he moved in.

If there were no pressing matters, he started his taunting then. Barbs of insults and mockery given to a foe that could no longer challenge him. But barbs with an undercurrent of respect for forcing Smasher to try in the first place.

It was something of a revelation to David once he realized that's how Smasher took him down in the cyberskeleton.

A facedown to size up the target, followed by a cheap shot while the target was distracted, then a harassing missile, then long ranged shots cutting controlling wires, then another missile to further throw him around. Then David linked up with his allies, and Smasher paused again to assess them.

Then a falling impact to stagger all of them, followed by quick shots and missiles to destroy their means of escape and ability to move. At this point, Smasher knows he's won, already having assessed everything they had as not a threat to him. The taunts start coming out. Then being surprised by a single gravity pulse-thing…

Then removing those immediately, causing David to collapse into a pile of scrap. Smasher wins, undamaged, and offers them a chance of a lifetime.

It was a heady realization that, for just a minute or two, he was strong enough to force Smasher to try. It put a stupid grin on his face every time he thought about it.

It was starting to annoy Lucy. He's been hiding his grins since.

The issue with Smasher's fighting style is that you couldn't be human and do it. You couldn't even be close to human and do it. In order to fight like Smasher, you have to be firmly superhuman in just about every way that matters.

You have to be stronger than just about everyone you meet. You have to react quicker. You have to move faster. You have to carry enough armor to shrug off all but the biggest weapons. You have to carry a bigger gun. You have to have better sensors. You have to have disposable, easy-to-replace or repair body parts. You have to be immune or resistant to emps and microwaves and acid and fire and anything else. And you had to have a whole lot of experience in knowing exactly what to focus on killing first, and what the sound of things that could kill you were.

It was a style that required being better than human. Panzerfaust was just the most superficial layer on top of all that. Well no, not superficial, panzerfaust was really fucking good. It was more like… a focusing lens? Eh, something like that. Everything Smasher was already doing, made even better by panzerfaust slotting right into his methodology.

David, if he wanted to still look human, couldn't replicate it. He could get most of it down pat, but he just wasn't as durable or easy to repair as Smasher was. He couldn't take hits the same way he could, or ignore almost every weapon like Smasher could. He could if he was willing to put on some heavy armor, but that would affect his mobility and range of motion.

And when combat starts getting fast enough, mobility becomes everything. It was kinda annoying, if he was being honest. He wanted to shrug off assault rifles too damnit!

"Alright what about these? They look good right?" Becca's voice brought him out of his musings. They were sitting in Doc Vik's office, looking through that wide desktop catalog he apparently had for new chrome. He, Becca, Smasher, and Doc Vik over to the side entertaining himself with a… boxing video? Huh, didn't know the guy was into that.

"No. That elbow armor covers the joint too much. Limits your range of motion." Smasher rejected yet another model of Mantis Arms from the list, to which Becca grunted unhappily. She quickly recovered to start scrolling through options again, before presenting yet another model to him.

"...No, that uses proprietary batteries, locking you into buying their shitty batteries to use it." And another model that was subsequently rejected. Of the ten or so they've reviewed so far, about two of them went into the 'maybe' pile so far, those being the Arasaka and Dynalar models. Both of them came with synthskin and the titular mantis blades, but had different qualities after that.

The Arasaka model was very good apparently, with top-quality blades, easy to purchase batteries for and repair, and hardened shielding. The issue with it was its lack of customizability. It did one thing and it did it very well, while being hard to damage and easy to fix.

The Dynalar model was the opposite approach. Lots of modularity, but not many inherent features, low durability, and only average quality blades. On the flip side, it was also easy to repair if you were willing to buy new parts. It did it's job as a set of mantis blades, but the real draw was that you could put other things in there with the generous internal spacing.

The most amusing part was how annoyed Smasher was getting with all the options available. He was pretty used to having fancy techies on hand to make custom after custom for him it seemed.

"This one? It's good right?" Becca asked. Smasher was quiet for a while, staring at the hologram. A small hopeful expression began to grow on her face before finally…

"Put it in maybe." He grunted out, to which Becca gave an exaggerated cheer and almost fell backwards off her chair. Smasher ignored her and listed off its features in a rumbling monotone. "High durability, hardened shielding, radiation shielding, heat-sinks, acidic resistant armor, mediocre blade, self-repair, and flashy chrome paneling. Typical of MoorE Tech."

"Woot Woot." Becca said in amusement before attempting to go to the next option. The screen shook slightly, indicating that they had gone through all arms that the ripperdoc group had in stock. "Huh. That's it then."

Smasher nodded and spoke. "Choose which one you want, blueberry." Turning his gaze to David, he continued. "Brat, what were you thinking for loadout?" This was another test from Smasher then. It almost always was when it came to deciding things related to combat.

Smasher didn't have much to talk about most of the time, not unless it was about violence. David appreciated all the little tests, at least, he was here to learn after all. He ignored Becca muttering 'not a blueberry, chromedome.' and replied.

"Ranged option with lots of punch, then extra ammo for it. I'm already strong enough to manhandle most things I come across, and extra protection can come from armor. What I need is some tank-busters when I run across things I can't take out with normal weapons or brawlin'. I'm thinking of a pop-up 'nade launcher."

Smasher gave him a moment to revise his answer if needed, but David didn't take it. He was pretty confident of this. After the moment passed, Smasher nodded approvingly. "Good, correct. A pop-up grenade launcher will also allow you to load exotic ammunition and adapt as the mission needs."

That's the thing about learning from Smasher. It was really hard to not get a big head when you kept getting things right. Good thing he had the others to keep his ego in check. He grinned and leaned forwards, raising a finger. "Already have a few model in mind too. There's the 'Saka one, not the newest but the one from a year or so back, easier to fit a new ammo chamber in that one."

He leaned back in his own chair and shrugged. "Was also looking at MoorE, but it was too bulky for my tastes. I'm thinking a Rostovic revolving inner-cylinder for the ammo storage. Affordable and easy to modify to fit."

Smasher huffed in satisfaction, and leaned back in his own chair. He raised his voice to command the doc off to the side. "Oi, hear that doc? Add a Odzutsu-70 and a Rostovic G-Rick to the cart."

Without a pause, Doc tapped a few buttons, and at the corner of the holographic display a small cart icon with the items listed under it appeared. He pulled away from his vid and turned, ready to chat if they needed him.

Becca grunted, drawing their gazes to her. "I want the Arasaka model with the mono-upgrade." Smasher nodded as if it was expected, and Doc, hearing this, typed another few buttons to make it appear in the cart.

There was a moment, David smiled in amusement and leaned back, sharing a glance with Vik.

Because Becca was staring at Smasher with a deadpan expression. Smasher, for his part, was oblivious for a few moments. After a second or so, he glanced over to see her almost-glare, and raised a disdainful brow.

"What?"

Becca replied "You know I'm not as good at this as Davey is over there, but I could use some compliments too, dad." She drew out the last word sarcastically.

Smasher snorted in surprise, and raised the second eyebrow. "...Don't call me that." He commanded with his usual rumbling manner.

"Pops."

"No."

"Daddy."

"No."

"Father."

"Stop."

"Papa."

Smasher leaned forwards until his face was right in front of Becca's, glaring into her eyes. A staredown of biblical proportions ensued. Neither side was willing to bend! It would be a test to see who broke first!

It was David who broke first. "Yo pops, let's buy our chrome and get a move on."

Smasher slowly turned his head to glare at David, matching his shit-eating grin with red eyes.

"...I will beat you little shits bloody." He promised.

Laughter broke out, followed soon by rumbling growls.