Apples don't fall far (Dubloon)

Smiley peaked out from her cover as she heard slicing and stabbing sounds, followed by bodies hitting the floor. From where she was, she could see Isalia telepathically manipulating a sword through the air, it was surrounded by an odd red glow, which Smiley shrugged off as being a side effect of the telekinesis. *What a cheater* Smiley thought, as the last terrorist was brought down, and Isalia began to approach "That was still pretty lack luster, I mean come on, where are the giants, dragons, and power crazy baddies at, every day crooks and terrorists are hardly a challenge." she said arrogantly, completely ignoring the fact that she had taken several rounds to the upper body, and had just barley healed the wounds.

"Besides, I'm over here trying to add a degree of difficulty by using only CQC and you go off and blade waltz through them, where the fun in that?" Smiley was beginning to take this short exhibition in the training room as a friendly rivalry now. At this point she wanted another challenge, so she could one up Isalia, but, weather Isalia wanted to continue or not, was entirely up in the air, and Smiley did still have a few more spots around compound to check out.

Well, it seemed Smiley was asking for it, and Isalia was inclined to take this to the max. After all, that was pretty mild for her, she just killed them in an instant, they needed more of a challenge, and Isalia had just  the thing.

"Oh? You want a challenge, well, lets take this up a notch then." Isalia said. Honestly this was more of a tour, she didn't intend on doing full on training with this woman, but now she was taking it to a setting no one had yet.

"Hector, protocol Blood Red." Isalia stated, a smirk forming across her face. Suddenly the room would shift to that of a warehouse, one dark and with not many lights. It was silent, all but for the sound of footprints coming around one of the large racks. Finally a man would appear from around the corner, stopping in the center of a light which exposed exactly who it was. The man wore armor, and then over that a grey and red rope with the hood pulled up, his face hidden by a sleek metal mask. This man was Lucius.

"Hello ladies."

A giant grin crept on to Smiley's face, as the room warped into a dark and deserted warehouse. The sound of footsteps echoed around the large room, breaking up the initial silence, a few seconds later a hooded man emerged from the shadows, this man was covered from head to toe, concealing his identity. Smiley broke out into maniacal laughter, it seemed the AI had spawned in a super powered badie.

Smiley turned to Isalia with excitement "You mean to tell me, you had a challenge like this and kept it from me?! Honestly I'm a little hurt, I thought we were friends" She said with a chuckle, she then began to crack her knuckles and stretch, completely disregarding the hologram before them. She turned a few times, cracking her back, before hopping up and down a few times, she was pepped up with energy and ready for some fun. She assumed a fighting stance and awaited the hologram or Isalia to make the first move.

This hard light construct was an exact copy of Lucius, therefor he would be just as difficult to face as the real one. He started calculating his opponents and what he knew of them, only really knowing about Isalia but perhaps he could coax the other into showing off what she had. It seemed they were allowing him to make the first move, that was a mistake they would regret. This warehouse had also been trapped to give Lucius an advantage, not that he would need to resort to that but it was a plus. He would start things off rather simply, stepping forward and then raising his hand before firing off a wave of energy at Smiley. It shot out with terrifying quickness, that of light itself. The attack was both wide and tall, hissing at the air and looking for matter to cut into. Really, if the woman had no form of enhanced durability just touching the energy would corrode her flesh into dust instantly. Of course, this was only a simulation and it was all in their heads, but they would feel the bitter and harsh acid pain of the red energy.

Isalia drew her blade with a smile, it had been awhile since she went up against this sim and she lost last time, so she was eager to say the least. With masterful skill she used her telekinesis to charge in sword raised to hit Lucius in the face, but this was just an illusion, the real isalia had circled around. Antisipating this based on her fighting style, Lucius constructed a bubble of energy around himself, which shielded him from the attack from behind and allowed him to find out where the real isalia was, breaking free of the illusion quickly. He then used the energy he was shielding himself with to redirect it into a blast at Isalia, who used her teleportation device to dodge it and get herself some distance. This was about to erupt into a dance of counters and counter-counters.

Smiley watched as a burst of red energy was hurled her way, it was fast, and she barely had enough time to react. Thinking fast, and out of instinct, she raised her arm, as the generator on her left arm kicked in, forming a shield of solid energy, just mere milliseconds before impact.  The impact from the blast was enough to send Smiley's small body airborne, before she landed square on her behind, with an audible thump. She raised her arm as she could hear the sound of sparks, only to find that the blast had caused the small experimental generator to blow.

Smiley wrinkled her nose in anger "Oh hell no" she spouted, as she rose to her feet, watching the hooded figure form a barrier to protect them self against Isalia's attacks. Smiley drew a pistol from one of the holsters on her leg, and with her other hand grabbed one of her incendiary grenades. She popped the pin on the grenade and chucked it at the man, in mid air, she raised her gun up, and shot the grenade, creating a plume of fire in front of the figure. Smiley used the explosion to duck behind some nearby crates, giving her enough time to grab the second and last incendiary grenade she had, and rolled it at the hooded holograms feet.

A bomb? Really? Surely this woman didn't think a simple bomb would actually be able to have an effect. Well, she didn't exactly know who she was dealing with, so there was that. The sim Lucius activated his repulsive field with a simple thought, which tanked the explosion with ease. Of course, he didn't want to waste power, so as soon as the explosions faded he deactivated it for later use.

"Surely you two can do better then this, i was honestly expecting a little bit of strain." Lucius said tauntingly. He then drew his sword, Cora Zen, brandishing it with his left hand and taking a fencers stance. He usually didn't open with his sword, most times he used his energy before resorting to it, but he just wanted to have some fun. Isalia then decided illusions would be pretty useless against the simulation of her father, but perhaps she could beat him with skill.

She charged in, telekinetically jumping with great speed before unleashing a downward slash at Lucius. Lucius just took a step back and parried the sword to the side, then slid his sword along his opponents, shielding it away from him as he took a step forward before brutally elbowing Isalia in the face and then using the distance gained to follow it up with a heavy kick which knocked the girl down. It was clear who was the better combatant here, or at least the dirtier one. Honestly Isalia had the powers to beat him in skill, but Lucius was a cheater.

Smiley Scoffed at the holograms words, how dare some second rate software belittle her. She was already irritated that her incendiary grenades had no effect, but that was because the hologram had some sort of barrier *There's bound to be a weakness somewhere* she thought, before reaching for one of her cryo grenades, "If heat didn't work, then let's see how you like things cold." she shouted as Isalia and the hologram were engaged with one another. The second Isalia was knocked away, Smiley underhand tossed the grenade at the figure, before shooting it mid air just like she did with the incendiary one, this time a plume of frost filled the air, flash freezing everything in the cloud.

Using this to her advantage, Smiley slid across the slick floor, drawing her sword mid-slide, and slashing upward at the man's chest, and in one fluid motion drew her knife, and using her momentum from the sword slash, to follow through with a slash from her knife.

For some reason everyone thought they had to announce the fact they were going to attack before they actually attacked. Whether it was overconfidence or just plain stupidity Lucius didn't know, but he used it to his advantage none the less. As soon as he heard the woman shout and he knocked Isalia away, Lucius teleported out of the cryo grenades range and therefor away from the girls surprise charge, watching it all unfold from safety. Such primitive weapons being used against him, he couldn't even enjoy this bout it was so one sided. He started to slowly walk toward Isalia, who had gotten up by now and was also starting to approach Lucius. She then used her telekinesis to assist in a leap forward and started slashing at Lucius, brutal and aggressive swipes against Lucius' precise fencing style. She was strong, but he just redirected her attacks rather then trying to take them head on.

Even though her father seemed to outmatch her in skill, this was far from the truth. Lucius' style just looked more precise and sophisticated, in reality Isalia was the faster combatant, but Lucius' style was meant to defend against speedy opponents. She swung with great strength and speed, but was returned with a parry every time. Eventually she opened herself up to a quick stab to the chest, which she felt instantly, clutching the wound. Lucius was about to follow it up with a killing blow but Isalia utilized a telekinetic push in desperation. Lucius was thrown back into a wall, giving the pair of females a few seconds. Her regeneration quickly started to heal the wound, but it would take time for her to fully recover from that. She walked over to where smiley was taking cover and then waited.  

"He is extremely calculative, we can't keep using the same things because he will adapt to it and find out how to use it against us. Lets change it up, be a little less predictable." Isalia noted, she knew her fathers strengths, the only problem was she didn't know his weaknesses. At this point Lucius recovered and then started that slow, deliberate walk he always did.

"Wouldn't trying something new be to predictable though?" Smiley said grinning ear to ear at Isalia. The young woman's eyes scanned the dark warehouse, looking for anything that could give them some sort of advantage or at least make the fight a bit even. Smiley noticed an intricate sprinkler system lining the roof of the old building, weather they were still active or not remained to be seen, but this actually had an idea for once instead of recklessly charging in like an animal.

Smiley turned to Isalia "Hey did you notice how he tanked the first two grenades I threw at him, but he ran when I threw the cryonade at him? What if he really is afraid of the cold or something." She kept her tone hushed so that the hologram couldn't hear her, and then pointed up to the sprinklers and back down to her grenade. Perhaps they could lure the hologram under a busted pipe, then flash freeze him with the grenade once he was covered in water. Smiley remained silent, awaiting Isalia's response or maybe a different plan all together.

"Alright, that sounds as good a plan as any." Isalia noted, then got to work. She used her telekinesis to launch into the air, chopping pipes in half with her red energy infused blade in quick succession. Soon enough the room would be under a pouring rain, getting Lucius wet and quickly creating about a foot of water. Isalia made sure to fly back to where she was quickly, again standing next to the woman. "If your going to do it, DO IT NOW!" Isalia said, signalling for the female to throw her grenade. It was a good tactic sure, but what would stop Lucius from running from it or just blasting it away? She didn't know, but that wasn't really her problem, it was the other females idea anyway.

"Now, why go out of your way to do that? Hmm, not going to use those freeze pellets of yours to try to ice me over are you? It's really just so obvious." Lucius noted with a low chuckle. He had so many ways to not get frozen by that grenade it was hilarious. Though, even if he did get hit, it would only effect his powers for as long as the cold was effecting his body, so one cryo grenade wouldn't do much for them regardless.

Being a bit lazy at the moment, Lucius chucked a couple of his own grenades at the females, which had the power to blow up a convenient store, each. They immediately exploded once they hit the ground, but Isalia thought quickly and threw up a barrier, just around herself however as if she had done so with her ally it would have weakened it's overall strength and probably wouldn't have protected either of them much. The explosion was insanely hot, and Isalia could barely protect herself. In fact the explosion almost reached Lucius, who didn't move, he just stared at it as the light reflected off his optics.

The hologram seemed confident and calculating, it was already mocking Smiley for her idea, which caused her to grind her teeth in anger. She wanted so desperately to walk out from her cover and empty a clip into the hologram. She tried desperately to pull the pin on her cryogrenade, but she couldn’t, it felt like someone or something was holding her back, perhaps subconsciously, Sabrina was preventing Smiley from making a mistake. She began to run from her cover, and noticed a grenade flying through the air. Seeing Isalia put up a barrier, Smiley raised her remaining generator and formed an energy shield.

The grenade went off, sending out a massive blast and shockwave, luckily Smiley had enough smarts to not stand in one place for too long, but she still got knocked off her feet, and sent end over end, before slamming her back into one of the walls of the warehouse. Smiley let out an audible grunt as the air escaped her body from the impact, she rolled over and struggled to get to her feet. The young woman’s hand clenched around the grenade as she was getting impatient with their opponent. Smiley was getting close to her breaking point, it was uncharacteristic of her to have been this calm or collected, and it was only a matter of time before she would just let go.

Smiley pulled the pin to her grenade and threw it in the holograms direction, and then drew her sword, as she began to scan the room expecting the figure to teleport somewhere else within the room. If she was right, the hologram would have to use one of the corners as the grenade would flash freeze the center of the room they were in, making the corners the only places not caught in the grenades blast.

The female still went about her whole freezing thing, even though Lucius had pointed out he knew what she was doing. This meant he couldn't be on the ground, not with all the water around. He could tank the grenade and get frozen over, he honestly could, but unnecessary damages were just that, unnecessary. Thinking very quickly, to the point of watching the grenade in slow motion, Lucius sprang into action. With a thought, he teleported, not to one of the corners though, no, he went above the explosion, as far above as he could. It wasn't quite out of its radius, but with the activation of his repulsive field he was totally unaffected. He also activated his thrusters, bringing him into a hover above the females. His repulsive field was pretty damaged, so it would at least need a recharge before further use. Unfortunate sure, but it wasn't as if that were an essential item at the moment.

"Now, that's enough of that." Lucius said as he used his thrusters to guide him above Smiley. Once there he simply shut them off, landing about ten feet from the female sword drawn into a fencers stance. His left hand held out his blade, while his right was folded behind his back. It looked like a stance, but he was actually activating a device with his right hand hidden. This device was a sonic emitter. Clicking it, it unleashed a pulsing sonic wave over the room, shrieking to the point it was harming Isalia. In seconds her ears were bleeding and she was on the ground, covering them. It would likely have a similar effect on Smiley, so Lucius would use the opportunity to move forward and slash at the female several times, using his speed assisters to attack ten times faster then normal.

Smiley watched the hologram avoid the corners of the warehouse, and instead hovered high in the air above the blast. The young woman let out an audible sigh as a look of sheer disinterest at him, he had an answer f two girls had thrown at him, he had an answer f two girls had thrown at him, he had an answer for it all, but that wasn’t going to deter Smiley from going all out and trying to win this fight. The hologram positioned itself in front of Smiley, and assumed a fencing stance. Almost out of reflex and instinct, Smiley matched the man’s stance, though it seemed yet again, that the hologram had a contingency….. *Of Course* she thought, as a high pitched sonic pulse filled the warehouse.

Smiley cringed from the sound, though her helmet didn’t have any true soundproofing, it did dampen the effect of the sonic pulse to a degree. In that brief moment, the hologram tried to take advantage of the opening that the sonic pulse had emitted, but powering through the pain, Smiley postured back up in time. As the man’s speed increased, Smiley did her best to deflect and parry the blows, luckily for her, the armor on her suit withstood most of the blows she missed, but a few of them managed to scrape past her and cut her inner left forearm, and her shoulder and two slashes to the thigh. When the man’s offensive was done, Smiley retaliated, matching the man’s ferocity and speed, she threw a flurry of slashes and stabs as she advanced at the hologram, she could feel pain throughout her body, but she was pushing past that just to get this barrage of swings off. In the back of her mind, she was hoping her attacks would occupy the man enough for Isalia to do something.

So it seemed as if the female was hit a few times with Lucius' blade, that was good, for Lucius anyway. The female was skilled, but Lucius easily matched her with his own reaction time and martial knowledge, not to mention is cybernetic assisters, allowing him to throw his blade around at blinding speed. Elegantly and simply, he blocked the females assualt, redirecting strikes with economic but effective slices. Lucius' fighting style seemed to be an amped up fencing type, he had this calm confidence about him, perfect posture and a shield wall defense. The sword did hit him once on the shoulder, though it didn't do much but cut and burn his armor. With Isalia recovering, Lucius knew he would need to separate them. Sure he might be able to take them both on, but it wasn't tactically sound.

So, he pretended to be locked in a melee, using his sword to attempt a blade lock with the female. In that instant, he suddenly changed his course of action, allowing energy to pour from his entire body and shoot out with no warning. The blast was huge, sent out at wicked speed as it exploded with crimson energy, incinerating part of the floor and pretty much anything it came into contact with. Lucius would continue to produce the energy until it enveloped the whole room, which didn't take but a few seconds. A sonic weakened Isalia then put up a telekinetic barrier, but it just wasn't powerful enough to take the sheer firepower the energy put out. She was launched against the wal, her barrier broken, and she was enveloped in energy. She let out a shriek of pain as it corroded away at her gear and flesh, then she fell over, her healing factor getting to work as fast as it could.

Smiley’s strikes were matched blow for blow, she had only managed to land one hit on the hologram, and it didn’t really do much in the way of damage, especially with the armor that the figure was wearing. Smiley and the hologram had locked blades, but Smiley knew better than to attempt a struggle with this man. With a forceful push, Smiley kicked off the ground, and leapt backwards putting some space between her and the hologram, which was a good idea seeing as how some sort of red energy was flowing inward towards the man, before being released in a pulse throughout the room.

Smiley had barely enough time to raise her arm and shield, which popped instantly the moment the energy hit it. Sparks flew and the small generator on her right hand blew up, causing small damage to her forearm. The energy ate away at the fabric parts of her suit, and quickly got to work eating away at her flesh, causing her to wince and let out a groan of pain. The Energy ate away at the armor plating, ripping off a few layers of the lightweight metal as well.

Smiley Fought through the pain she was feeling, her healing factor frantically trying to repair the damage to her skin. She took slow steps towards the hologram, each one sending a wave of pain through her body, and her sword dragging across the ground.

His enemies were beaten, and that was great. Now he could take a moment to mock them, then finish the job. Unfortunately for the duo, this match up went how it always did when someone used that protocol.

"Still trying are you? Come on, you can't actually think you'll stand a chance against me in such a state." Lucius said, an amused twang to his voice. It was all quite simple now, finishing them off. With a quick flick of his wrist a red energy blade construct was sent flying at Isalia at great speed, hitting her directly in the heart. After that, she was knocked out and removed from the sim. Next he turned to the injured smiley and waved his hand, launching a wave of energy at her that would likely be to wide and tall for her to evade in the state she was in. If all went well, she would be incinerated, at least in the sim, which would end and she would wake up on the floor with a head pounding in pain.