You walk through the halls, looking if there are pantheons on guard duty or otherwise not doing anything important.
After a short while, you get 3 units on patrol duty to follow you. They don't appear to be doing anything too important, but out of caution you decide to inform someone you took them for training.
You reach a transerver room, with the pantheons closely behind. You remember the proper transerver protocol, witch by now is routine to you. A quick peek at the code on the screen and you are ready to go.
"Master X speaking from station 53, requesting transfer to base" You say, all professional and serious. "I come with 3 pantheon units"
"Understood. Transfer will start in 10 seconds" The operator says, "Everybody, step together on the transerver"...What?
That last part catch you by surprise for all of a second, then the pantheons step together into the machine, unwittingly dragging you with them.
You have precious few seconds to regain your composure, before the four of you are teleported to the base.
After a brief moment of infinite vertical lines of light the room retain its proper dimensions, and you let the pantheons step out of the transerver first, before coming out yourself.
"Welcome, Master X" The blonde operator says respectfully, before continuing with her labor.
You walk towards another transerver, this one linked directly to Area X, and order all the pantheons to step inside before you.
After everybody is in the transerver you select the floor, press a button to confirm the other apparatus is empty, and once everything is ready you initiate the transfer.
It takes a few moments, but you manage to find an updated list with the link code of the Tower chief of security. Immediately you press your "ear" and initiate a call.
"Asura Basura speaking, how may I help you" The reploid answers, with a voice slightly coarse, but not grave.
"I wish to inform that I'm taking 3 pantheon guards from the ground floor for training purposes" You answer.
There is some sound you don't recognize on the other side of the line, and after that there is silence for 5 seconds.
"With whom am I speaking!" Basura says with a mixture of anger and surprise in his voice.
"With Master X" you lie, and the line goes silent for another 5 seconds.
"...Understood. I will have other pantheons sent to cover for the original 3."
"Thanks. I will let you know when I'm done with them. Another thing, there was an... incident with a pantheon unit 4 days ago"
"What? Nobody has reported any incident with them recently" Basura says, sounding a little worried.
"The incident in question happened when I asked the pantheon to search for some disks. It returned with a disk that appears to belong to somebody else" You explain, keeping your voice tone calm. "I need you to investigate the incident and to study the pantheon responsible, see if there is something wrong with him"
"As you wish, Master X. My men will begin to investigate as soon as they can"
"Appreciated" You say, closing the transmission. If there is a problem with the pantheons, you hope it gets solved fast. It doesn't hurt to check for bugs anyway.
Done with that, you walk towards the cargo bay, the three pantheons following you.
Once you are inside, you think for a moment how to start practice. On the one hand, you have never sparred before, but on the other hand, you are a copy of Master X, but on a hypothetically third hand, your performance the other day was rather lackluster...
So you settle for testing your battle capabilities against the pantheons, as you had planned. You order them to step a few meters behind, and to stand down after a shot or a good punch. Destroying a perfectly functional pantheon for mere practice seems incredibly wasteful.
You ready your body and mind, and iron your will for what you are about to try. The pantheons begin to look scarier to you, that with the big, unblinking, red cyclopean eye, and the fact that they are looking directly at you.
Then, you order them to attack you.
Immediately and without hesitation, the pantheons transform their right hand into busters, and begin to send burst of plasma balls towards your position.
You run towards them, in part because you wish to test how well you perform in close quarters, and in part to avoid the volleys of plasma.
You quickly close the distance to the group of pantheons. Some of the plasma balls hit you, but besides a sharp pain at impact they don't appear to hurt you that much.
You try to punch the pantheon closest to you, but he dodges and aims his buster at your face.
Quickly you grab his cannon with both hands, when a sudden pain on your back reminds you of the other combatants.
You struggle with the first pantheon, and try to use it as a cover from the second one. On the corner of your eye you see the third pantheon changing his buster for an electrified baton, and then lunging at you.
You immediately jump and release the pantheon's buster. The pantheon is immediately hit by the third one, and electric arcs envelop his body.
Landing behind the baton wielding one, you dodge most of the second pantheon's shots, and transform your hand into a buster.
You keep strafing the group of pantheons. One of them is smoking, but otherwise looks intact. All of them aim their busters towards you and keep firing, covering each other's back.
Then you run at them and shot. The first volleys miss all three, but then one of the pantheons raises both hands to cover his face and is hit by a ball of plasma.
The impact sends him reeling backwards. There's cracks on both hand's armor, and they look scorched.
You keep shooting, and the other two pantheons jump retreating, while they shoot at you.
Another shoot hits you in the leg before you reach the pantheons. You grab the one on your left, who uses his free hand to intercept yours.
The two struggle for a moment, but you see an opening and shoot him in the chest. The impact makes him lose his footing, and he falls on the floor, armor smoking.
Then, you feel electric current circulate all over your body. You try to move, but between the pain and the electricity your body only tenses more.
The discharge ends, and you swiftly turn and punch the last pantheon in the "eye".
He attempts to dodge your punch, but he clearly wasn't expecting you to recover that fast. The hit disorients him an instant, but he recovers quickly.
You aim your buster at his face, but the lack of reaction throws you off. Both of you stay in the same position for several moments, until you lower your buster and detransform your hand. The fight is over.
You check your body for injuries. There are little scorch marks in the zones you were hit, and it hurts all over, but otherwise you are fine.
Okay, you are perhaps holding some tears, and the parts of your body less armored (upper arms and legs, abdomen) are going to need new layers and polish, but besides
that you are fine.
You look at the pantheons, and that is another whole story.
There is the one you punched in the face, which appears to be intact.
Standing beside him is the one that blocked a buster shot with both arms. The forearm armor of both is cracked, scorched and the right arm is crackling at random.
The third one is closing in the other two, with the left hand grabbing his chest and a burn mark clearly visible even with his hand.
Despite their injuries, none of the pantheons shows any sign of distress, besides the chest-grabbing.
As a precaution, you ask them if they are seriously injured. The pantheons then proceed to look at each other, and both the intact one and the one with burnt hands point at the third.
There are several crackles, and the arm the pantheon was using to point falls limp, sparks running around it. He looks at it, and points at itself with the other.
...You decide to send them off to the closest medical bay.
...
You are currently in your room, learning to use the medical pod. It appears to increase the natural reploid regeneration, and the settings are not that hard to figure out. Given the triviality of your wounds, it shouldn't need more than that to heal.
Thinking of your wounds, it appears that you can handle 3 pantheons, but you fear more than that would put you at risk. You were shot and hit in the back twice during the fight, and your ability to dodge leaves much to be desired.
...
After 2 hours in the healing pod, you are mostly recovered. You already know where you are going to sleep tonight, but there are still some things to do.
You sit in front of one of the monitors and start investigating all about Master X's battles. Specifically, all instances of Master X acquiring new abilities.
The search is a short one. in nearly 200 years of wars, and despite all the information that was lost, one thing about Master X's abilities is clear: He acquires them against the strongest maverick lieutenants, generals and remarkable individuals.
There is also a rumor about him seldom being able to keep them, but it all consist on speculation about the causes and reasons, without any hard evidence.
After that, you take a moment to look at the recent news, to tailor a little more your discourse.
You are not the best person to read people, but if the history of Neo Arcadia means something, is the fight against extermination, and both humans and reploids working to keep everyone alive in this husk of a world.
After so many decades of peace, the last 2 years have been dominated by the fear that the one android that build all of this has abandoned it all, and mentions of the future sustainability of the city.
Your guess would be that both discourses would cheer people a lot, but the first one is more assuaging while the second one is more inclusive.
You like the second one more anyway.
Before sleeping, you notice the disk with the sticker. It only takes a moment to call the chief of security and inform him that he can take it as evidence. You also tell him to give something as compensation to the owner.
You send an apology to his office, to be sent with the compensation, and then you go to the healing pod to rest. Tomorrow you have an important session to preside, after all.
[X]Write in. Take into account that you have an important meeting in the afternoon.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sorry for updating late again. Apparently real life likes to interrupt on tuesdays and wednesdays. Ladies and gentlemen, that was Copy X's first fight, even if it was in a spar in a (semi)controlled enviroment. You should have an idea on what things CX needs practice, but don't expect him to become an expert in a day.
Also, this is my first combat scene. If you think is too fast, or too slow, or too confusing, please tell me so I can improve.
As always, comments are appreciated and
coveted valued.
