Privately, I'm wondering how the good Captain's going to handle this exhibition match. Gray's not wearing any sort of armor, so one good hit from me's liable to grievously injure her, if not kill her. On the flip side, whatever it is her gauntlets are made out of, I don't think it'll do me any damage that my auto-repair can't wipe out inside twenty minutes. This had better not be as one-sided as I feel it's going to be.
As if answering my concerns, Shining Armor's horn and Gray herself are both starting to glow. When the glow vanishes, Gray has a very faint green sheen surrounding her. If I tilt my head at a certain angle, I can't see it at all. "The shield I just gave her is standard issue for practice matches within the Guard," the Captain explains. "It possesses three layers that will each disperse whenever damage up to a certain point is dealt. Leviathan wins if she can destroy the shield inside five minutes. Gray wins if she can either disarm Leviathan of her weapon or fight her to the point that she feels she can't continue. If none of the conditions are met before the five minutes are up, the match is a draw. Do you understand?"
Good. This won't be as unfair as I thought. "Clear as crystal, Captain," I confirm.
"You sure you don't want to give her a shield too? She's going to need it."
Okay, that was uncalled for. "Gray..."
My opponent waves me off. "Not a word, Fairy. I'm just trying to make things fair."
And that was even more uncalled for. "Gray!"
Okay, pony faces really should not look that quizzical. The tilt just sells it. "What's wrong? Not fair enough? I can ask him to reduce mine to a one-hit shield, if you'd like."
There's pre-battle banter, and then there's this. "Gray, I'm saying this for your sake as well as mine: don't underestimate me."
"Have you even seen her fight before, Gray?" Cadance wonders. "Where's that self-confidence coming from all of a sudden?"
"Alright, alright. Sheesh," Gray mutters with a shrug, turning to fly over to the diving board. "You'd think that the opposition would be happy to fight with an advantage, but I guess winning doesn't really appeal to them..."
...Nice try, but I'm not going to rise to that bait. Anyway, Cadance has a point. In the wake of the conversation we just had about her capabilities, where is her self-confidence coming from?
Guess I'll be finding out.
I walk to the opposite end of the pool, summoning the Javelin as I go. Upon reaching my starting position, I level the weapon directly at Gray. The so-called "humble housewife" is hunkered down on the diving board, tail repeatedly whipping the air around her. I can't tell very well from my angle, but it almost looks like her Cutie Mark is glowing a little. I wonder what the significance of that is. "Last warning: don't you dare hold back!" I tell her one last time.
"Suit yourself, fish sticks!" Gray answers cheerfully, licking her lips. 'Disturbing' much?
"Let your skills do the talking!" Shining calls, raising a hoof into the air. I tense in anticipation, the warning sirens blaring in my mind once more.
The Captain drops his hoof. "LET'S GO!"
My intent had been to Double Jump across the pool to meet Gray halfway, but she has other ideas. With a bound off the diving board, she jets down as silently as her namesake straight at me. That's not hyperbole, either: her wings aren't making any sound. I raise the Javelin to block her path, trying to anticipate whether she'll go right, left, or above.
...! Or she'll go below; that works, too! Seriously, she just flew between my legs and kicked the back of one of my knees in passing to try and unbalance me! Thankfully I'm able to stay upright, and I pivot and swing the Javelin in an upwards arc--
--barely missing, as evidenced by the tiny specks of black hair that I managed to sheer off her tail. I shuffle backwards along the floor, trying to keep her in my sights as she makes another attack run--
--just in time as one of her gauntlets whips through the space where my face had been a split second before, coming within a hair's breadth of reaching my eyes. I'm forced to keep backpedaling as Gray's 'claws' furiously slash at me, and she manages three more not-quite-strikes before I'm able to block them with the Javelin's shaft. Her attack thwarted for the moment, she hovers over the pool and beckons me to follow her.
Far be it from me to turn down that invitation. I charge in her direction, channeling energy into the Javelin as I go. As I jump at her, she flies higher out of my reach in a vain attempt to taunt me--
I tap the air with a foot, and my Double Jump activates as planned. "Surprise!" I call, reaching her level. As her eyes widen, I swing the Javelin before me and release all of its stored energy--
Gray's wings stop flapping. The Charged Slash misses entirely as she lets gravity take over, and I only manage to graze the ceiling at best judging from the ice particles that gather there. Blast! She's going to---
And 'blast' is exactly what it looks like she intends to do: her wings reverse her fall, she turns, and a pair of back hooves fly at my---
...!
I blacked out there for a moment... I have to remind myself that bucks around here are capable of hurting me. My face feels like it's on fire without any actual heat, and judging from the pain in the middle of my back, she'd managed to aim me right at the edge of the pool. The impact wasn't hard enough to debilitate me, but I'll still be feeling that the rest of the morning.
Well, then. If she's not going to let me do any close-range dama---
SUDDENLY EYES! "Hi," Gray says to me, having gotten in my face in the time that passed between my being launched and my regaining awareness. One of her claw-covered hooves lashes out---
No, you are not going to damage my optics. I shift my Javelin to a one-handed grip and uppercut Gray away with my free hand, managing to hit her just below her neck before her claws make contact. "Ha!"
Gray does a few backward flips, re-orienting herself over the pool. As she does, I notice that the shield Shining had given her is shifting in coloration from green to yellow. It obviously absorbed the lion's share of the punch; Gray is a bit on edge, but she seems fine otherwise. I'm guessing that she's regretting her attempt to make things as fair as possible for me.
I'm not going to give her time to retaliate. The pool's depth should give me an adequate shield of my own. With as catlike as she behaves, chances are she's not going to want to get herself wet. And without a weapon as powerful as the Z-Saber, she's not going to stay in the air for long in the face of this.
I jet towards the bottom-center of the pool and level the Javelin at Gray, locking on to her hovering form. I deliver the appropriate signal, and the spearhead detaches and shoots up at her. In a miracle of engineering that leads me to thank whoever it was that created the weapon, two more spearheads rapidly materialize and arrow towards their target.
It's not a terribly useful attack if I'm dealing with targets above water, as the projectiles can keep themselves sustained much longer in aquatic battles. That's alright in this circumstance. They don't need to last forever; they just need to keep her occupied.
The fourth and final spearhead locks into place where it belongs. With a deft movement of my fingers I give the Javelin a spin, working to create one of the best techniques I can offer without going full Armed Phenomenon.
Unlike some I could name, I'm not in the habit of calling my attack names out loud. I don't know, it just doesn't feel very... 'majestic' to me, I guess is the right word. That's not to say that they don't have names of their own, and "Spirit of the Ocean" is one that I'm personally proud of.
I mean, please. It's basically a serpentine ice dragon with a head as big as I am. How could I not be proud of it?
Up above, Gray effortlessly deals with all three homing projectiles: the first by bucking it away and breaking it against a wall, the second by ripping it into five pieces with one of her gauntlets, and the third by grabbing it and letting it carry her around the room like a malfunctioning hover vehicle until it runs out of power. It's as the last one dissolves into nothingness--again, props to the engineers--that the Spirit of the Ocean erupts from the pool in all of its fury. I can hear Shining and Cadance's amazed cries (or at least I assume it's amazement) as I sic it on Gray.
Aside from a bit of wariness after I slugged her, she's been very laidback and confident about this whole thing. This time, she looks like she's taking it seriously; reading about something in the paper is one thing, but seeing it firsthand (firsthoof?) is another. She zips out of the dragon's flight path, then keeps flying with a cry of "You're kidding me!" when the dragon turns to pursue her. The Spirit's not overly fast compared to the average pegasus, but it works fine for what I typically need it to do.
I can tell right now that Gray's options are limited. She can't just scoot out of the way and let the dragon smash itself against the wall, as that would cause collateral damage to the building. And she just can't keep flying until the time limit runs out: by her own admission she's not a 'young' pegasus anymore, and her stamina isn't what it used to be. In addition, the Spirit can maintain its cohesion for a good while before it finally breaks apart. So tell me, clever kitty: do you have a plan for getting out of this one?
"Three minutes remain!" Shining calls out a reminder.
Gray's annoyed growl reaches me through the water. "You're going to sit down there for the rest of the duel and hope for a draw, aren't you? Get up here and fight!"
"The best generals are the ones who win without fighting!" I retort with a smile, not that she can see it through the water. "You'll have to come down here and get me if you want me to fight that badly!"
"...Good idea. Thanks for the tip!"
Wait, what is she---
Gray's eyes have closed. She has stopped dodging the Spirit altogether, and I can see it coming in for another charge. She's flying around in circles, faster and faster, her revolutions increasing rapidly and the air circulation reacting in kind...!
And I really should've kept my mouth shut. In complete defiance of natural laws and without any sort of tech aiding her, Gray has created a localized tornado indoors on her own power. The Spirit of the Ocean tries to break through, but crumples in the face of the wind speed and pressure---
The pool's water and everything in the room below the ceiling that isn't nailed down are getting rapidly sucked up into the tornado, and I can feel myself getting pulled along with it. My own fault for picking the wrong vantage point, but how was I supposed to know that she was going to try something like this?! I'm sure this breaks at least one law of physics!
I whirl and try to jet away, but the tornado's attempting to yank the Javelin out of my hand. Out the corner of my eye I spot a brief flash of light: a translucent magic shield several meters across has popped into existence in front of Shining and Cadance, protecting them from the buffeting winds. Both of these details serve to remind me of the conditions for this match, and I tighten my grip, not wanting to lose my weapon. My fingertips graze one of the pool's ladders...
"Whhaaa~!"
...but they can't find a definitive hold. Even at my fastest I can muster in these circumstances, Gray's tornado is too powerful for me to outrace... and this is a humble school swimming pool, not the open ocean, so it's not like I would be able to go anywhere. It still doesn't make losing control of my path any less embarrassing, though. Ditto for that shriek that just left my lips.
My eyes flick about as I try to keep track of Gray's twisting movements, even while I'm being thrown around against my will. Aside from the pool water, all of the toys I'd seen earlier and three dozen broken pieces of ice dragon are buffeting me every which way. If Gray wants to win this session, she's going to have to stop controlling the tornado and strike me directly, so---
No, wait... she's adjusting her course, slowing down... and the tornado's losing strength? Alright, I see what she's planning now. Prior experience from my practice bouts against Harpuia are suggesting to me that she's going to try to send it all crashing down outside of the pool, and me along with it. At that point, she's going to strike me while my guard is down.
It's all in the timing and how the tornado drops me. If I'm anywhere close to upright, I should still be in a position to block her attack, but if she drops me on my head, then that's going to leave me wide open while I'm stunned. Helmet or not, that's not going to do me any favors at these speeds---
...And of course the tornado's going to drop me head-first, I don't know what else I was expecting! Can't quite lift my hands to defend---!
...
...
Ooorgh, I'd almost forgotten the sheer dizziness that comes with being caught in one of those. My equilibrium's way off balance... I'm happy I haven't eaten any Heartbreakers in the past hour. My cranium's still intact, but I think there's cracks in my helmet... going to have to fix that later. My energy output's dropped by twenty percent to account for that hit. And why are all these tiny little pegasi that resemble Gray flying around my head?
Man alive, I've been in Equestria too long. I'm starting to see things.
Something's catching in my left hand as I stabilize myself. I pull myself upright, using the Javelin for support---
Slash.
"...!"
Did... did something just pass through me? What was that ghostly sensation? And... why am I feeling vaguely disconnected from the world...?
"Leviathan! Are you alright?" I can hear Cadance calling. "What did Gray just do?"
Gray did something? Was... was that her? Did she do something? Looking down, I'm not seeing any sort of damage from a direct hit, so---
WARNING: Ice Manipulation offline. Attempting to reconnect... ... Attempt failed. Connection severed.
Energy Output: 56%.
I woozily turn my head to look at Gray, still feeling disoriented from her washing machine's spin cycle. She has her back to me a few meters away, lowering one of her forelegs. Her Cutie Mark is pulsing as opposed to merely glowing. Her bedraggled mane's making her look like she's wearing a wet mop on her head, so I guess creating a tornado over water didn't do her much good either. She tilts her head to look back at me, deftly using one of her gauntlets to get her mane out of her eyes. "I am the cat that walks by herself," she says in a matter-of-fact tone, though her words are directed to Cadance. "And all places are alike to me."
...
And in a hundredth of a second, I realize what she did. That strange sensation I felt a moment ago was Gray's gauntlet phasing clear through my torso and endoskeleton, by complete chance shredding the connection between my ice generators and my CPU. My ceratanium frame did nothing to slow it down. I don't think she was targeting my generators specifically; she just wanted to do some sort of damage.
Gray shakes violently, scattering water in all directions. I ignore her for just a moment as I wonder how she did this to me. Was it a special property of the gauntlet? Couldn't be. I was able to block her earlier strikes just fine. As I stated, I noticed that her Cutie Mark was blinking... not in the sense that the eyes were behaving like the real deal, but that there were slight emanations from it. It wasn't doing that in the two minutes prior...
"Two minutes left!" Shining's voice interrupts me briefly.
Scratch that, three minutes prior. So however it was that she carried out that strike, it has to do with her own unique talents as a pony. I'd better think fast on this: I only have a few seconds at most before Gray goes back on the attack.
I've had a lot of time to talk to Drama whenever she wasn't busy, and along the way she's told me about the connection between a pony's Cutie Mark and their capabilities. According to her, Marks are representative of a number of different things, including their personality, desires, and/or whatever it is they're good at doing. Celestia's sun Cutie Mark, for example, is indicative of her connection with said star. Drama's flaming tragedy mask shows her love and passion for theater. The young colt Pure Energy has a spiral-shaped question mark that I'm told refers to his erratic tendencies and hyperactivity.
With that in mind, what does Gray's Mark symbolize?
As far as I know, Gray has always behaved like a cat. She sleeps wherever she wants; she's protective of her young to an almost uncanny degree; she's excellent at sneaking up on others; she treats ponies like Celestia, Shining Armor, Cadance, and her former boss with the Police like they're her equals instead of her superiors; she's not very good at telling the difference between glass and open air; she paws at the Pyre's front door instead of knocking; she lets next to nothing worry her for long; she tends to act before she thinks, almost on instinct; she has unerring confidence in her ability to defeat anypony she views as inferior to her...
"AAAGHHH! Gray, I'm the one who's supposed to do the scaring, not you! GET OUT OF MY CLOSET!"
A puzzled pegasus who had somehow managed to slip inside the janitorial closet while it was supposed to be closed answered Drama with uncertainty. "Is something wrong?"
Looking on a short ways away, Leviathan pinched the bridge of her nose. Then, realizing what happened, she mentally added another mark as she tracked how many times she ended up exasparated by her friend's behavior.
...and she turns up in places where she has no business being...! THAT'S IT!
That's why her Cutie Mark was blinking! That's how she's able to damage my hardware without my frame stopping her! Cats have a reputation for slipping into places where they shouldn't be and being difficult to locate if they don't want to be found! What she's doing is taking this behavior to its logical extreme by tapping into her special talent to its fullest, letting her bypass any and all obstacles between her and her destination!
If nothing else, this is shaping up to be an excellent matchup. And here I thought it was going to be one-sided. Just why did I think that again? Hah!
Gray's turned to face me again, and her motion brings me back to reality. I have your number now, I address her in my thoughts as I aim my Javelin at her one-handed.
She doesn't bother wondering why I'm able to stay steady on my feet after what had happened, or why I'm starting to giggle. Instead she shoots forward, and this time she has her claws pointed directly at where my power generators are. Not a problem.
Instead of swinging the Javelin to defend, I sling the object that had been caught on my left hand straight at her. Good aim, good velocity---
With an audible "THOUMP", the toy plastic ring flies into Gray's face with enough force to ensnare her muzzle. As planned, this surprises her sufficiently that she goes cross-eyed and slows down before she can reach me.
And this makes her a perfect target for the roundhouse kick that follows. The blow belts her out across the pool and over the balcony seating. She recovers her senses and corrects her flight path before she can crash into the wall. Her shield shifts again, this time from yellow to red. One hit to go.
After a few moments of awkwardly trying to remove the ring from her muzzle without accidentally scratching her face, Gray gives up and flies over to Shining and Cadance. The latter acquiesces and magicks the ring off of her, tossing it back where it's supposed to go. Gray nods appreciatively...
And I pick that moment to dash-jump over the pool, swinging the Javelin at her. No fool, Gray wastes no time saying 'thanks' and instead brings her gauntlets to bear, deflecting my slash to the side. In the same motion she pivots and bucks, but all it does is shove me back about a foot on account of me being too far out for her strike to have much power. I love having a weapon with a long reach.
"One minute to go," Shining tells us as I land. "Make it quick."
Gray yawns, a glint of light reflecting off her fangs. "Ah... guess there's no helping it," she decides. "Playtime's over. Time to tango." In another whip-like motion, she slashes out at me---wait, why am I reading an energy spike from her gauntlet---?
My own question is answered by four arcs of silver-shaded magical energy that fly out from the claws. I spin the Javelin in a circle, dispersing the waves before they reach me---
And in that instant Gray is in my face, driving me back. Every strike is aimed at either my chest or head, and each time she slashes I can see silvery trails in the claws' wake. Something is telling me that getting hit directly even once by those gauntlets is a terrible idea.
Wow. When they said they were going to test me, they weren't kidding. She's just abandoned all forms of subtlety at this point: she's honestly fighting like she wants to see me dead.
Most of the strikes I'm forced to block or parry with the Javelin, and sparks fly each time I do. One slash that I'm not able to deflect requires me to bend my head back all the way to keep my face from being carved apart. Another one slips past the Javelin and catches me on my left wrist, reducing my guard on that arm to fragments. Gray's claws are flying at me swiftly and furiously, and one slip-up on my account's liable to end my quest in a flash. Time and time again I'm forced to step back just to get a bit of breathing room, nimbly moving around large water puddles, toys, and at least one life preserver that the tornado had scattered around.
...
My metaphorical heart is beating fast. I can feel it...
This rush of a life-or-death fight...! I haven't felt like this since the Temple of Ice! This is the sort of battle that makes me feel alive!
Down, girl. I don't see any red helmets or energy swords around here, do you?
Then why am I smiling? Why do I feel so ecstatic? Why am I laughing?
Because you're never truly satisfied unless you're fighting for your survival?
Stow that noise! I'm having fun here! This is recreation to me! This is my idea of a good time! And this is a match that I'm going to win!
Ha. That shut it up.
Seriously, though: I am going to win this. Gray's rapid-fire strikes have slowed down a little. She's starting to get tired, and I'm beginning to see opportunities to counterattack. I aim the Javelin at her and fire off another spearhead. She neatly evades the projectile and slashes at me again. I duck beneath the swipe, my hand brushing against something on the floor...
I seize both the opportunity and the net, flinging it at Gray one-handed. Her eyes widen, but she doesn't try to cut through it... guessing that's because damaging her alma mater's property doesn't sit right with her. Instead, a single flap of her wings takes her over the net's flight path. She raises one gauntlet to let fly with another projectile slash---
The spearhead curves back around, catches the net and yanks it back the way it came. Just as Gray's claws descend, the net flies into her from behind and snares her back legs, interrupting her attack and evoking a surprised yelp from her. Propelled by the spearhead, the net drags her around every which way until the projectile's power supply runs dry, at which point it plummets to the ground and leaves her entrapped.
Gray struggles for a bit to extract herself, finally pulling free...
"Poke."
...and flinches when I reach down and flick her in the forehead, having strolled up to her while she was floundering about (heh, "floundering", nice). The red shield flickers a few times, then fades away for good. The power readings I'm registering from Gray's weapons are dwindling down to nothing.
MISSION - 100 - 20p
CLEAR TIME - 4'55 - 1p
ENEMY - 1 - 20p
DAMAGE - 46 - 11p
RETRY - 0 - 20p
TOTAL: 72p
AVERAGE: 72p
LEVEL: C
CODENAME: EDGE
Okay, where did that come from? Either I'm going crazy, or my CPU's developed a sense of humor. Maybe some defragging and debugging are both in order tonight.
"And Leviathan's the winner with five seconds left," Shining announces, bringing an official end to the match. I go through the motions of deep breathing, bringing myself down from my high as he continues to speak. "Cut it pretty close walking up to her like that."
"How much of that could you see?" Cadance asks, blinking. "That last minute or so was a blur. It looked like Gray honestly wanted to destroy her."
I put the Javelin away and look down at the cat-like pegasus who had been my opponent. Sustaining that attack barrage for that long has her pretty winded, so I suppose I should speak for her until she catches her breath. "That was intentional," I explain. "From the start, this was meant to be a 'real test', in Princess Celestia's words. It was supposed to be an exhibition of my combat ability, a means of showing that I was everything I said I was in the newspaper. I suspect this is because she wanted to know how to counter my race if any malevolent Reploids ever followed me here." I shrug. "And I did tell Gray a few times not to underestimate me or hold back. Keep that in mind."
Cadance doesn't seem convinced. "Are you sure? You looked like you were enjoying yourself entirely too much for somepony who was almost ripped apart a dozen times over."
"Don't misunderstand, Princess," I start to say.
Said Princess interrupts me before I continue. "Please, just call me 'Cadance'. I'm supposed to be on vacation."
"Cadance, then." Really informal for royalty, isn't she? "I don't enjoy violence for the sake of violence. I don't go out of my way to pick fights with others, and I'm happy just living and letting live." I smile down at Gray. "What I do enjoy is a challenge. I like being put to the test against someone capable of winning against me. Sure, any of her attacks could have seriously damaged me, but I was able to overcome that. I'm okay with the fact that she was willing to try."
I can feel a bit of pressure on my arm: Gray is nuzzling my wrist where my arm guard used to be. She meets my gaze, concerned. "Are you okay, Fairy?" (Cadance settles down at this, trading smiles with Shining Armor.) "I went all out like you asked, but..."
To better answer Gray, I run a cursory scan of my systems while I pick up my armor fragments off the floor. Don't want to leave those where ponies can find them. "Tired yet functioning, obviously, but you dealt some substantial damage. My helmet's cracked from being tornado-driven into the floor, my Javelin's battered and chipped, your Phantom Slicer cut off my Ice Manipulation---"
"Wait. 'Phantom Slicer'?"
"The attack that phased through me."
Confused ponies are cute. "You actually name attacks where you're from?"
And I imagine confused Reploids are cute too, from their perspective. "You don't?"
Shining Armor starts chuckling, and I can hear a quiet snort that suggests Cadance isn't too far behind. I'd better get back on track. "Erm... anyway, I can't control ice anymore because of that, my left arm guard is scrap, and there's some lingering pain in both my face and back. It's going to take about three or four days to fix everything." I set my auto-repair to work on fixing my internal connections as I finish my report.
"Actually... you might not need to do that yourself."
My head jerks up at the balcony. ...What? "Mind speaking up? I'm not sure if I heard you right, Captain."
"I said that you might not need to do that yourself," Shining repeats, flipping open his saddlebag and pulling something out of it. He chucks it at me with a call of "Catch!"
The object that lands in my free hand is... a misshapen rock, of all things. If I had to describe its shape, I'd equate it to something like an eight-pointed star. It feels a bit hot to the touch, like it had spent a few hours just sitting out in the sun. The coloration is a mix of red, orange and yellow hues that blend together seamlessly.
Gray lifts off the floor, hovering up to my hand to get a better view. "Oooh. Reddocite. Pretty."
"You recognize this, Gray?"
"Well, you've probably guessed by now that since Celestia chose me as her proxy, that means I've done some work for her in the past, right?" I nod, having figured as much. "Reddocite's rare enough that there's only one known deposit in Equestria, and mining of it is strictly regulated to prevent misuse. When pulverized, it can fix and repair any damaged substance in close proximity to it." She shakes her head. "It has no effect on living beings like ponies, so it's useless as a medicine. It's just for inorganic stuff. I've had to use it once or twice to keep any structural damage from being linked to me, and from there back to my squad mates."
Shining takes over. "What Gray didn't say is that it's also very expensive. Just one sample of Reddocite costs as much as any upper-class residence in Canterlot, so it's not widely circulated. Still, Princess Celestia anticipated that you would probably end up needing this, so she told me to bring it along. Technically you're not a biological being, so it should work on you."
'Magic rocks restore health'. Four words, and another entry in the list of 'Strange Sentences I've Uttered Since I Got Here'. Well... no harm in trying, I guess. "Does it just work on what it touches, or does it have some kind of radius?"
"It's the latter," Gray confirms. "Everything within about four meters around it. Short ranged, but thorough."
"Good." I walk to where she had slammed me into the floor with that tornado. "This will make cleanup a little easier."
I hadn't brought this up during the fight because I was too focused on overcoming my dizziness and dealing with Gray, but that impact had done more than just crack my helmet. It had also severely damaged the floor, cratering it and splintering most of the tiles. Leaving it as it was would result in the school administration and the R.P. breathing down our necks. It's best to fix this now so that we don't have to deal with any repercussions later.
Upon getting there, I give the Reddocite a light toss before spiking it into the ground. The ore shatters on impact, dissolving into nothingness. For a moment nothing happens---
Ooh. I never thought I'd say that being subjected to high heat was soothing, but here I am.
As I watch, the floor is actively fixing itself: the tiles are reforming and replacing themselves, the crater is gradually disappearing, and any debris are vanishing. Within ten seconds, the floor looks the same as it did ten minutes ago. Even any water within the radius is being shunted back into the pool.
As for me personally, I can see my arm guard's fragments flying out of my hand and piecing themselves together where they belong, becoming whole. In my inventory, the Frost Javelin's damage is reversing itself. Little nicks and scratches in my jumpsuit and synthskin that I hadn't noticed before are disappearing. A message is flashing in my HUD, telling me that the connection with my Ice Manipulation has been repaired. My face and back aren't hurting anymore. The minute amount of Energen I'd expended during the fight returns to where it had been at the beginning, my power output boosts itself back to 100%, and that energetic feeling I had when I left this morning returns. "Wow, that feels wonderful... Gray, is my helmet still cracked?"
"Not seeing anything wrong with it," she confirms.
My mind racks itself for comparisons to anything I'd seen before. Almost immediately, I find one in the form of Cyber-Elves. There were certain Elves that could sacrifice themselves to restore or add to a Reploid's vitality, or turn themselves into Reserve Tanks for the Reploid to use later for the same purpose. There were even some that could impact the world around them, though I don't recall any that could directly repair their surroundings on this scale. It might be a bit too soon to refer to Reddocite as the Elves' counterpart since this is the only sample I've encountered, but nothing else is coming to mind. Might as well stick with it until I can dredge up some other memory, provided one exists.
(Side note: the sacrificial part isn't strictly true anymore. The report on the 'Ciel System' wasn't the only thing the good doctor shared with Harpuia. She'd also offered a means for certain Cyber-Elves to be upgraded into 'Satellite' forms and be prevented from dying while still letting Reploids benefit from their abilities. Judging from the two that I saw orbiting Zero when we arrived to assist him, I'd say it worked out fine.)
Still, if there's anything that this bout succeeded in hammering home, it's this: Never. Underestimate. Magic. If there's only one mineral deposit with an exorbitantly high cost per shipment, then Reddocite can't be counted on to fix me every time I get in a scrap. I'll take it in this instance, but I have to be extra careful not to sustain damage like this again. And that means acquiring knowledge about magic that Drama Heart doesn't have the time to offer me, if only to minimize the chances of being caught off guard.
"The Reddocite works. That's good to see, and it's something else to add to the report," Shining notes. "If you don't mind, I've got some things I'd like to ask you about that I'd witnessed during the fight. Do you have some time?"
"Depends," I say, enjoying the sensation of the energy circulating through me. Desired caution or not, this still feels good. "Does anypony know how late the Manehattan Public Library is open?"
"10am to 8pm on weekdays, 9am to 3pm on weekends," Gray recites from memory.
"Then sure. I've got time." This will doubtlessly be the most informal debriefing I've ever been involved in, and Shining seems like the type of officer who saves the no-nonsense attitude for when it's needed the most. Part of me's curious as to what it's like to directly work for him...
But my thoughts are swayed from that as I take in the room's condition. There's large puddles of water everywhere, the pool toys are all over the place, and everything that had been hanging on the walls aside from the signs are much the same. "...Though I think I'll need to clean this up first."
"You do that." Gray turns and trots back towards the locker room. "I've got to grab a shower and get this chlorine off of---WHOA WHOA WHOA WHAAA~!"
Predictably, moving at a quick clip on wet tiles has consequences: Gray slips, flails about as she tried to find purchase but fails, and ultimately ends her struggle with her face pressed against the wall.
"'The Cat That Walks By Herself', ladies and gentlecolts," Shining mutters, smiling bemusedly.
"Gray, that sign said not to gallop in here!" Cadance calls out, somewhere between annoyed and amused. Closer to the latter; she's clearly suppressing a chuckle.
"I was trotting, not galloping!" Gray protests. "There's a difference!"
And my reaction?
"Kyahahahaha~!"
...Draw your own conclusions.