RoT: Part 3 "The Fight" (John vs. Victoria)

As they walked to the warehouse, Victoria's mind found itself unable to stop focusing on the young boy in the car she had seen earlier. Context made it clear that it was that young man who was depriving this one of his freedom just as a country had used her. There was a single profound difference however. Victoria was designed to be a tool first and foremost, her personality had been an accident. Something of a glitch. This John had been born human, with free will, and deprived of it. If now, after Victoria had gained a self, someone came to take it away from her she would do whatever it necessary to prevent that. Despite the fact that the same scenario was happening to someone else, Victoria felt almost as if it was happening to her. Before she knew it she was unwittingly gritting her teeth, and several of the largely unnecessary calculations she was constantly taking ceased to be measured as more of her mind dedicated itself to this odd emotion. She found it overwhelming, and soon so much of her mind focused on it that it ceased to focus on more important things, like walking. Near the warehouse door, Victoria was jarred from her thoughts as she stumbled towards the ground. She caught herself with her hands, though rather than the soft sound of leather hitting concrete the heavy one of metal making contact resonated. She looked to her right hand to find her revolver in it, she hadn't even realized she'd had her hand on it. If that boy were in front of her now, would she have taken his life? Was this anger, this strange emotion that overrode her? She had not understood how powerful emotions could be. If she fully realized emotions, would it demand so much of her mind that she would cease to be able to function as a combat robot? Would that be okay? Victoria tossed the question around in her mind. Though she was only on the ground a second before getting up, she was able to think many thoughts in the space of a second.

Of course, even if that did happen she couldn't simply fade into society and become a normal person. She would still be unable to smell, to taste, to feel touch. It mattered not though, at this moment. She was something more than what she was created to be and that was enough. For now she must focus on what's at hand. She quickly got up and dusted herself off. "some sort of malfunction...." Victoria muttered to herself, not sure if her partner had even witnessed it. She followed him into the warehouse, and read the piece of paper he handed her. She hadn't actually been aware she was going to fight John, but she wasn't surprised. To let her know before hand would have hardly been fair. John Anxiously tapped on a safe. He seemed to be waiting for some sort of official notice the fight had begun. Victoria supposed she should oblige him. "Defend yourself." Was all she said plain-spokenly.

By the time she opened her mouth, she was already speeding towards John. Bullets flew rapidly out of Victoria's coat, though she wasn't actually aiming at John. Rather she aimed all around him, cutting off his avenues of escape to the sides and above him as she ran toward him gaining momentum for her strike. She had every intention of making this a fair fight, but she wasn't going to give John an easy win. As she got close to John with her frightening speed, she cocked an arm back with her right hand's fingers stretched out straight and aimed slightly downwards as if to strike below his chest. Her arm shot forward slightly, but before connection Victorian sprang spinning into the air above John. She released a kick aimed for his head using the full momentum she had gained, preparing to land behind him to continue her attack.

John failed to block even the initial attack, though she didn't seem to do any lasting damage. Victoria wagered he, like her, was much sturdier than he appeared. A simple hand-to-hand duel between them was likely to be little more than a standstill of traded blows. Victoria was kind of fine with that though, at least for the time being. For a reason she couldn't explain, she felt a kindred spirit with this man...or whatever he might be. She wasn't generally one to enjoy combat, but she wanted to see what he was truly capable of. Certainly, in her information gathering on possible recruits and just moments early she had seen his displays of power, but in this world anyone could have power. If power was enough to free him from his bonds he would have already done it. More importantly, Victoria wanted to see what his mind was capable of. Of course, she wasn't even sure how much of his mind was there.

John used his quick recovery to launch a counterattack. It wasn't a bad attempt, since it left him pretty safe, but it was a futile one. Victoria saw his muscles the moment they began to move, and seemingly effortlessly moved just out of his reach as he swung around. After dodging, Victoria jumped back to put a few feet of space between them. "Come on now John, you already know I'm much to quick to be hit by that. You have the advantage, but you have to adapt your strategy." As she spoke, she had already pulled the pin on a grenade in her coat, and like the period to her sentence it fell out of her coat and she kicked it across the floor a bit behind John. It wasn't one of the fragmentation grenades they had found earlier, but a smaller sleek concussion grenade, and it only had a about a second before it went off. Victoria jumped forward, rearing her left arm back with her fingers stretched out straight to strike at John's throat as the grenade detonated. Not normally the smartest way to hit someone, but given Victoria's hard metal body such focused strikes dealt out pain pretty efficiently. Victoria hoped to catch him in between her strike and the blast of the grenade, so that he'd be caught between both and the concussive blast would add to the power of her strike.

John defended himself pretty well against Victoria's attack, countering with a knee to the face. The knee made a solid connect, although with Victoria's metal body it was like kneeing a wall. John chose not to press the advantage, instead freezing a portion of the floor to try and gain a new one. Fighting defensively probably wasn't the best option for him, but at least he was doing it well. As he rolled away Victoria jumped backwards, putting even more space between the two.

Her face didn't seem any worse for the wear, her artificial skin didn't actually have any blood so it wasn't able to bruise. Victoria drew two guns from her coat. In her rand hand she bore one of the ivory-handled revolvers John had seen several times today. In her left she had a new surprise, a small submachine gun bearing the symbol for knight on the side. It had been crafted the first time she had joined Thrones. She would have to have it modified to reflect her rank of princess now, she supposed. She began firing both, once again not actually aiming at John. Some bullets landed around John, while most went up into the ceiling, shattering much of the florescent lights at the top. Light quickly faded and sparks and glass rained down from the ceiling around them both. All of this was a mere distraction from her true attack however. Two of the seemingly random shots from her revolver were actually well calculated, ricocheting off the wall and floor to head straight for the back of John's calves. After placing these shots, she ran forward. As she approached the ice, rather than reduce speed to maintain stability she dropped to the ground and slid to keep momentum, aiming a sharp kick with her right leg at John's lower legs hoping to trip him after her bullets found their mark. She hoped to get him on the ground and end the standstill that had proceeded so far.

Victoria had expected to ground John and end this little duel, but she was pleasantly surprised. Her bullets found their mark, but he wasn't giving up. He still managed to dodge her kick, and quickly made an ice labyrinth inside the warehouse. Victoria smirked. "Bravo! You are doing better than I expected now." As she spoke, she tossed two fragmentation grenades up onto the top of a nearby wall. In a few seconds, the new silence in the area was replaced by a large explosion, followed by the sound of ice shards falling to the concrete floor. She fired a burst of bullets from her machine gun into the area she had weakened, creating a groove in the ice wall. She jumped into it, and scrambled up it to the top of the wall. She now walked along the top of the maze, slowly for even with Victoria's abilities she could only go so fast on the slippery surface without risking her balance.

She paced slowly across the top of the wall, one hand hidden inside her coat and the other openly brandishing one of her ivory-handled revolvers. "Now where have you gotten of to my Minotaur? not far I imagine." The near-silence of the room was painful, letting the sounds of her boots on the hard ice slowly move out and fill the inside of the warehouse. She shot a few more lights out as she walked, bright sparks lazily fell above the now dim room. "You must be commended for refusing to give up, but you should consider it before you're injured too badly. I'd hate to see you end up like one of the men from earlier today, wouldn't you?" She continued to pace down the length of the wall, her eagle-sharp eyes scanning down into the labyrinth for a sign of her partner. "Human fingers grow back don't they?" She said in a sing-song voice with a slight giggle. It was another one of her attempts at humor, though a dark one. She cautiously made her way around the maze, gun ready at every turn.

Victoria had decided his most likely next move would be to freeze her solid, so she had a grenade ready to go in her off hand. A self-destructive way to free herself for sure, but it's not like she had a toaster built in. John surprised her one more time though, destroying all her ice and rushing her down. She saw the attack coming from a mile away, but in midair even she couldn't do much more than raise an arm in defense. The hammer connected with a loud thud into Victoria's left arm, causing her to drop the grenade she had her hand on as she flew without a sound horizontally and slid into the wall of the warehouse. Even through her thick coat the ice hammer burned her artificial skin. After hitting the wall she moved the fingers of her left hand idly. They moved stiffly as the her gears grinded against her arm, which had been bashed in by John's hammer. This was turning into a rather expensive fight. She stood up as if nothing had happened, no sense in letting John know she could actually be hurt.

As she stood up the grenade harmlessly detonated between the two, tossing up a cloud of smoke. As it cleared, Victoria fired a shot at John. Still not intended to hit, but to go close enough by his head that he could hear it wizz by and feel the air move. "Nice shot, but you have to think at least two steps ahead. Now you've put distance between us, and I'd say distance suits me better than you." Victoria aimed her gun as if to fire, and tossed a small silver cylinder in the air. It burst with a flash of blinding light, and as soon as it did Victoria was on the move again. She quickly closed the gap between the two duelists, jumping in the air over the ice and arcing down at John. She held her revolver barrel down, attempting to bear it down on his head as she fell atop him. She wouldn't actually fire it of course, she hoped the threat would be enough. Although, Victoria had expected the fight to be over several times already and been surprised.