Clover and Tazetta- Aftermath

(Nope no holograms - he's pretty much created various mechanized sparring partners. Not particularly shiny, I imagine, cause its all materials he has scavenged hahah. Feel free to improvise and make up as much as you like though ! hehehe))

"Just saying hit it as hard as you want and don't worry about it. They don't...uh... look pretty because they're functional and made with whatever I could scavenge or trade for. If they do break -- well great, I'll fix' em up."

He leaned into her kiss and felt the familiar thrill run through him, a fire in his belly at her next words.

"Gods when you say it like that..." he rasped, biting his lip as he watched her descend. His gaze lingered as she disposed of the hoody and readied herself, stretching and getting into position. This would be a wonderful way to test the limits of his creation, but he doubted he'd be taking many notes... just watching her have at.

"In 3 -2... 1..." he keyed in the sequence and leaned over the railing, watching her. The floor in front of her opened the trap door as the contraption came into view, a mechanical monstrosity about Clover's height. Pneumatic mechanisms pumped to get ready as it stretched out its arms - and began to whirr and test the many various weapons that came out of smaller compartments within it. For this scenario it began with large mechanical arms and what looked like an enormous rubber boulder that it swung around, testing both strength and balance of its opponent.

(( ahhh I l love it! Very clover! Okay! ))

She heard Clover’s voice abover her and over the railing counting down before a hole in the floor opened up in front of her. She took a step back, eyeing the contraption that appeared before her. She fired up her psionic limbs, orange light spiraling out from her shoulders like wings and wreathing themselves around her arms. Tazetta smirked, taking in the full height of the mechanical opponent. She was almost always used to taking on opponents taller than her, but at something close to Clover’s height it had over a foot on her. She smirked, letting it take the first move, she raised her arms in a defensive stance.

The whirring of the bot suddenly shifted into gear, taking its first steps in her direction setting Tazetta’s fins on edge. It lugged the large rubber weapon in her direction, keeping her stance she took the brunt of the attack wanting to feel out the power of the device for herself. Her feet slid backwards, her arms pushing back with some effort. Not being able to find any good footing, she gritted her teeth and spun out of the direct weight of the bot’s arms, letting the force of the swing drag it forward a step in her absence. She took a chance and swung at the machine’s open side with a forceful jab in its direction. Tazetta hit it hard enough that it had to take a knee, but within seconds it was back on its feet and honing in on her fast.

’Counterpuncher versus slugger fighting styles,’ she mentally took note. She couldn’t use techniques that would require the opposing boxer to make a mistake when her opponent wasn’t programmed for mistakes nor got tired or hurt. Psychological tactics wouldn’t entice the bot and make it fall into an exhausting aggressive style. ‘That makes this an even slugger versus slugger match, then.’ she decided, opting to use the fighting style that lacked in what little finesse she had learned up until this point.

She bobbed and crouched backing up into a wall as the machine swung at her. She jumped on the right moment, making a right hook at its scrap metal torso. It lunged at her in that exact moment as she threw the hook, pivoting on her foot, swinging 180 degrees around. Like a bull missing a matador she hit its arm with a left hook, ripping the metal from its socket, wires and gears exposed with a loud crack leaving the limb to hang uselessly at its side.

“Clover!” Tazetta called up, “Is that supposed to happen? Ahhh I’m sorry!” In the moment she took her eyes off of the machine she felt it hit her in the ribs with its only good arm, right on the bruise running along her side.

( Go go Battle Tazetta!! ))

He had the briefest hesitation as he watched his contraption rise up and tower over Tazetta. Maybe he should have set an easier pattern to start, but she was so determined... and then she watched as she fired up her psionics, carefully gaging her opponent and analyzing its attacks. Clover hissed as she let it hit her, knowing that she could've dodged it but hadn't; wanting to see it strength? He'd configured most of the settings for himself, to balance his relative weakness by making him test his reflexes and ability to dodge things rather than take them on in full. He hadn't accounted for a full frontal attack, and saw the contraption struggle to re-calibrate and counter-attack.

Tazetta moved with elegance and speed, and he held his breath as he watched her. It was a blur or motion and no holds barred hits that he could see being effective in actual contact - particularly in some of the situations they had already found themselves in. She packed power into her hits, and was able to damage it considerably...

... but at that moment second guessed herself and called to him it gave the mechanism an opening to connect and hit her.

"'Zetta, don't! Look--" And then it hit her, right where she had been injured and his stomach sank. "Wait, I'll..." he tried to disable it, but something in the damage was impeding his shut down commands.
"Fuck. TAz, get away from it until I can shut it down, its not responding!"

((xD hahaha))

She was on the ground in an instant. Tazetta hissed, clutching her side where the thing had connected. Trying to take a deep breath she shuddered in pain.

"That definitely hurts more the second time around," She admitted to the bot. Her head snapped up to the balcony the moment she heard Clover's voice calling out to her.

"What do you mean it's not -" She was cut off, forced to roll out of the way as a swing came for her head.

"Ow, ow, ow!" She pushed her self on to her feet to duck out of the way as the rubber ball came back at her from the other direction.

"What if I just break its' other gods-damned arm off?" She yelled, acid in her words, "Will that shut it off or make it worse?"

She swung a punch at one of its legs, hoping to at least knock it off balance. The thing toppled to one knee, but was up again and on her in an instant. She was trying to make her way back to the stairs, but it was difficult when the mechanism was programmed to stop her movements. Tazetta bobbed away from another one of the swings and hit the other leg. The same pattern happened, giving her slightly more ground towards the steps. One more time and she was able to grab onto her sweatshirt.

"I have an idea." Tazetta yelled out before having to block and duck again, waiting for the opportune moment.

((Dude Clover, you should really just let her break your toys if they don't work right... XD ))

"I don't know why -- if you can break it, do so ! I'll fix it later, but it'll be harder to fix YOU!"

He swore under his breath as he opened the panel and tried to reboot the entire circuit. As it shorted out it shocked him and he cursed anew, slamming his hand into the wall.

"Distract it, I'm coming..." But it'd be on here on an instant. He couldn't negotiate the stairs quickly, and he growled as he grabbed the railing and tried to make his way down without falling flat on his face. How long had it been since he'd done routine maintenance? Or was it Tazetta's attack that had damaged it so?

HE looked to see where she'd gone, watching as it came again and she managed to duck it and prepare. She had recovered quickly, and clearly had some sort of plan.

((lmao xD yeah man, tazetta smash!))

Tazetta heard noises and swearing from the balcony and knew that things were probably not going smoothly on Clover's end. The tell-tale sound of mis-matched feet made their way closer to her and down the stairs, but she wasn't going to take her eyes of the mechanism again if she could help it.

"Me distract it?" She ducked from a wide swing made from the bot, "I was going to ask you to distract it if you're done up there!" Tazetta's breathing was starting to get ragged. It was hard to keep up her stamina with the pounding ache in her side making it hard to concentrate. She put her hand on her ribs, trying to mentally ground the pain while clutching the hoodie in her other hand.

"If I can tie this around its feet I'm thinking it will be easier to knock it off balance." She announced, only turning her head slightly while keeping her eyes trained on the whirring gears. She bobbed backwards a few paces, grunting with the effort and almost loosing her footing, and dropping to one knee. She gritted her teeth.

"If we can knock it over... is there an override switch?"

"Yeah, I just need to get behind it..." he grunted, finally making his way down to the ground floor. "Its not use to two combatants, at least... I'll do what I can, and then if you can knock it down... I can get at the panel."

He ran closer then, wincing at the way his prosthetic braced, and released his psionic whips. His hands formed them slowly, and with a cackle of energy he slammed it into the back of the construct.

"Hey! get away from my girl!"

Tazetta's plan would -hopefully- work...

"Okay. I'm on it." She gave a brief nod before drawing herself up to her feet.

Bracing herself for another swipe from the beast she slid one foot back, her fists in a defensive position in front of her face. In a heartbeat, a flash of light and sparks from behind the construct lit up her face. The thing quavered, not sure of what target to hone in on. Tazetta took the moment to look at Clover in awe. If this fight didn't last long enough for her to get a full show she'd have to figure out something better to get him to pull out his psionic whips again. She didn't have the time to bathe in the moment, though, and ran out towards the legs of the bot hoping to get close enough. It re-calibrated back on her before she had a shot, however. It slammed its fist into the ground as she spun out of the way. She flashed Clover a quick glance, her eyebrows furrowed and nodded at him again. She was putting her trust in him. She was so close.

"Try hitting it again!"

 ((  *L* Has she ever seen him use them?  He's self conscious of them so I wonder... can't remember... XD ))

"Zetta!" he growled as the construct slammed the ground, tightening the whips as his heart rate spiked in a moment's worry. He should have known better, as a moment later he could spot her dodging away from it. She knew what she was doing, and this had a chance of working. Better than anything he could come up with anyway, unless he could get at that panel.

He growled and drew a deep breath before deploying both whips, sending the construct teetering towards him. He hissed out a low curse and whipped it again, trying to at least make him turn fully towards him to give her enough time to put her plan into action.