“Pretty impressive, huh?” Jolterix asked. His robe had vanished and his helmet was already up. He held his baton in both hands, ready to rip it apart.
“Oh, yes it is,” Luna replied suddenly. She grabbed Jolterix’s neck from behind and prepared for him to launch the light sail.
“I’m glad you’re not heavy,” Jolterix said as she hung onto him, forcing him to give her a piggy-back ride. He jumped forward and split the baton, and the light sail appeared. It blasted into the night sky carrying Jolterix and Luna gracefully.
“So you said you can make things like your bed and everything,” Luna began. Her voice was reverberated and distorted through the mic and speaker of the helmets, “But you also said they are based off your Grid. Does that mean your clothes will disappear and your machines won’t work if you go to another country?”
“No,” Jolterix explained, “The only things that run off The Grid are houses and buildings. Not vehicles or clothes; they’re all independent of it.”
“Oh, sounds like you’ve got this whole thing figured out,” Luna commented.
“We certainly do,” Jolterix said, “But what kind of race would we be if we were completely dependent on our home to use our technology?”
“You’re pretty dependent on it for your safety.”
“Because we can’t really afford to lose any members. Remember they’re not going to be replaced.”
“I know, but still, it’s not like you can’t make a cure, right?”
“Maybe we can, but then again perhaps not. It’s not really something we want to risk. Anyway, you never gave me a fair shot to destroy you in gaming last night. I think it would be good for you to see how we Florians live before attempting a treaty.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“Oh, just a game,” Jolterix replied. He pulled the throttle all the way back and glided the light sail in. They landed in what looked like a large park with a glass dome, where Jolterix dissolved the light sail. Inside the dome appeared to be many courts, but instead of the markers being painted, they were lights, much like the rest of the city.
“What are we doing here?” Luna wondered in awe of the cyberpunk city that surrounded her. She noticed Jolterix had replaced his robe but his helmet remained up. Luna commanded her robe as well, but had to concentrate to keep her helmet on since she was so new to this. She caught up with Jolterix who was walking calmly, but at a pace towards the dome. He approached a counter and put two coins on the table, where the door opened and he led Luna into an empty room.
“Now,” he said, “Just pretend you’re in a videogame, you can’t die in here.” The room changed and Luna and Jolterix’s robes were removed without their influence. They were each given a baton and appeared on opposite sides of a very large arena, but no other players or a crowd was present. The arena was only used during the professional games, the off season it was used by locals, and each city had its own.
Luna watched Jolterix take a running start then jump as he pulled his baton apart. A motored bicycle appeared beneath him and he took off. Luna copied his actions and beneath her, a similar bike appeared. She also noticed the lights on her clothes went from white to blue, while Jolterix’s were now green. She concentrated hard on the bike because she had never driven anything so fast, and she wasn't sure how well she could handle herself. Suddenly, Jolterix’s bike passed quickly in front of her, which forced her to look down in anticipation of getting hit, but she remained fine. As she looked down, she noticed the striking similarities between her console controller and the bike’s controls, giving her a confidence boost. She turned her bike around and was able to catch Jolterix.
“Pretty fun, huh?” he asked her when she caught up.
“Yes, this is amazing,” she said, “No wonder you Florians never leave here.”
“Haha, well it gets better,” Jolterix replied. “See that button to your left? That puts you in combat mode. The idea of this game is to knock the other player off their bike before you get knocked off yours.”
“Alright, sounds easy enough,” Luna said.
“I’ll go to the opposite side of the arena, and then we’ll really begin,” Jolterix said. He made a sharp turn and sped towards the opposite side of the arena. He stopped and turned around to eye his competition. “This will be easy,” he thought, “But I suppose I should let her win the first few times. Ah well,” he throttled up his bike and sped off towards Luna. He switched into combat mode and a ribbon of hard light appeared from behind his bike; a sort of tail. He sped past Luna by mere inches and turned off the light ribbon, which also dissolved the ribbon that he had created. He cut the throttle and applied the hand break, allowing him to skid to a stop. He allowed Luna to approach him on her bike where he expected her to engage the light ribbon. It took her longer to do so than he expected; maybe she had forgotten how to, but Jolterix purposefully slammed his bike into the ribbon. This gave Luna a victory, even though he made it look as much like an accident as he could.
“You let me win,” Luna said via the helmets’ radio.
“No, I tried on that one,” Jolterix replied.
“Nonsense, don’t hold back,” Luna told him.
“Alright,” Jolterix replied with some excitement in his voice. He picked up his baton and pulled it apart producing his bike, allowing him to speed towards Luna. He pulled up next to her and turned his head toward her and shook his head. He then sped up and made a sharp turn around her, while his light ribbon appeared; Luna couldn't react fast enough and her bike was returned to its baton state and she flew off and landed with a skid.
“Ouch,” she thought, “Maybe I shouldn't have asked him not to hold back.” Just then Jolterix approached with his bike, but he collapsed it back into the baton and challenged her in hand-to-hand combat. “Oh, this I can do,” she thought excitedly. In Equestria, she was always more militaristic, but nowhere near as tyrant-like to foreigners as Celestia, and hand-to-hand combat was her specialty.
Jolterix sprinted towards her where she put up both her hands, ready to fight him. The only problem was that Jolterix had produced another baton from his side, giving him a sword. Luna found an identical baton on her side and wondered how it got there. She soon gave up that thought and focused completely on Jolterix and the fight. She decided it would be a great opportunity to see just how good the Florians were in battle, and Luna had yet to find an opponent who could beat her in this style. With one quick swipe, she thought she had struck Jolterix’s chest, killing him, or in this case just making him lose this round.
As it turned out, however, Jolterix had moved out of the way and placed his blade into Luna’s arm. She couldn't feel it, but the lights on her arm turned red, probably indicating that area was struck, and she found she could not move it. “He’s fast,” Luna thought as she leapt away from him, “This will be fun.” She held her sword in front of her in a defensive position as Jolterix jumped and fell towards her. His sword met hers and she was kept safe behind it. She pushed his sword away, effectively staggering him, and began an all-out assault on the Florian. She swiped her sword in front of him, but he always remained a few inches out of reach. She finally struck his leg with the sword and watched the lights on his leg turn red. Like her arm, Jolterix’s leg was stuck in whatever position it was in when Luna hit it with her sword. She kept the onslaught up until Jolterix finally hit her leg with his sword, causing her to fall over. He took this opportunity to stab her chest, rendering him victor.
“Do you still want me to go all out?” he asked her as his helmet slid off his head.
“Yes,” she replied as she stood up when the new round started, “I’m still just getting warmed up.”
“Alright,” Jolterix replied. He turned around and his helmet rose over his head. Suddenly, they were both lifted high above the arena in a small transparent capsule and their batons were taken and replaced by discs: similar to the ones that produced clothing, only larger and heavier, obviously built for combat.
Luna threw her disc at Jolterix who was able to dodge it as it passed by him, then again as it made its way back to Luna. As she caught her disc, something caught her attention from the corner of her eye. She quickly fell to the ground as Jolterix’s disc passed over her, and kept low to make herself a smaller target. As she got up, she noticed Jolterix had jumped the gap between them, and was falling quickly towards her. She raised her disc in protection, like with the sword, but Jolterix surprised her. He landed and kneeled down, smashing the floor beneath Luna with his disc, causing her to fall out of the capsule. She only fell about twenty feet before somehow reappearing in the capsule again like nothing happened. Even the floor was back to normal.
“Still?” Jolterix asked her as he dropped his helmet to make eye contact.
“No,” Luna said frustrated that someone appearing so soft had beaten her, “I’m done.”
“Alright,” he said has he dropped his disc and his robes reappeared while the lights on his clothes changed back to white, “You've got skill. No foreigner I've fought was ever able to cut me with a sword.”
“Thanks,” Luna said with disappointment heavy in her voice, although she was happy that a single Florian would prove to be such an opponent in battle, and gave her hope that Auflorsung could crush Discoria so easily.
“Don’t beat yourself up,” he said, “Those thousand years on the moon just made you rusty. But now, I think it’s time we do something else.” The capsule lowered them to the floor of the arena, where they were taken to the exit, via the moving floor. Luna was dumbfounded by the seemingly solid floor twist and shape itself simply to save them a few minutes of walking.
“What do you have in mind?” she asked him when she drew her attention away from the floor.