Prototype: MN 10

Learning the art of violence

Eli was wandering around the house with nothing to do. Doctor Sanda was apparently staying around for a week which Eli had no problems with. The doctor was a nice man and a good person to be around. Beck didn't mind this arrangement either as it meant he could spend more time with Call. Though they couldn't share a room. Pyrogen passed that rule after Aviator made a joke about something. Eli didn't understand what the joke was about but it somehow turned Beck's face completely red. He also didn't hear the entire joke because Cryosphere had covered his ears. Not looking where he was going he bumped into someone's leg. Eli's heart froze. There were two people who could be that big, One of them was Seismic and the other was- "WATCH WHERE YOU ARE GOING MAGGOT!" Battalion shouted. Eli snapped upright, "My humblest apologies Sergent Battalion!" Eli stated in the monotone voice Battalion told him to use. It seemed to make him happier, that and Eli found that if he agreed with what Battalion was saying he wouldn't be as harsh. "Conditioning" Battalion had called it. Eli didn't know what it meant but if it stopped Battalion being angry at him then Eli didn't care. Battalion nodded at the response, "GOOD RESPONSE MAGGOT. NOW FOLLOW, EVERYONE IS HEADING TO THE TRAINING POD." Eli cocked his head, "Why General?" Battalion turned to look at the boy with an incredulous look, "DIDN'T NO ONE TELL YA? WE'RE TESTING YOUR BATTLE PROWESS. NOW COME! I AIN'T WAITING AROUND FOR NO SISSY." Eli saluted, "Right away General Battalion."

As Battalion said everyone was gathered in the VR training room in the sub basement. Seismic noticed Eli and Battalion coming and waved them over. "Hello there Bat. Hello Eli." Eli smiled his cute smile, "Hi mic! How are yo-OW!" Eli clutched the back of his head in pain where Battalion had hit him. "SHUT IT MAGGOT, EVEN BECK HAS HAD WORSE THAN THAT. AND STOP SMILING! WARRIORS DON'T SMILE!" Eli discreetly wiped a tear of pain from his eye, "I'll stop right away General Battalion." Seismic then roughly grabbed Battalion and pushed him to the other side of the room. Pyrogen walked over and gave Eli a pat on the back before crouching down and whispering to him, "We brought everyone here to kick Bat's ass. But you'll actually need to fight for a bit to throw him off our scent okay?" Eli felt his chest tighten in fear but nodded anyway. If this was how he'd have to stand up to Bat so be it. He felt like he could fight off an army.

Eli was hooked up to the training pod alone. He was nervous but he knew that he wouldn't be in any actual danger, it was all just simulated. Eli was still nervous though but he guessed that was just a natural reaction. The area around him changed into that of a wide, sprawling city. "Alright Eli, we're going to start with a single heavy militia bot okay?" Eli nodded and loosened his joints and tried to relax like Brandish had told him. The robot appeared as a mass of xels and began to take shape. It had a large body shield and a burst fire assault rifle. It was easily as tall as Battalion and it had an overall xel count of 20,000,000. Eli didn't know how he knew that but he wasn't going to question it. He activated his mask and transformed his hand into his gun (For reference on what it looks like just take the end of the plasma railgun from the titanfall franchise) and readied himself. The robot made the first move, shifting it's shield aside it fired of three shots in Eli's direction. Eli slid underneath all three and fired off two shots of his own, though sadly both of them were blocked by the shield. The bot changed tactics and let out a torrent of fully auto shots which spread in all manner of directions. Eli felt a bullet tear into the side of his leg and he gritted his teeth to stop himself from crying out in pain. Instead he leapt high into the air and fired a barrage of shots from his elevated position. It hit the robot square on the head and it began to glow red. Confused Eli looked up to the sky and spoke, "What's happening to it?" "It's losing it's structure." Beck's voice rang out. "Usually at this point I'd use my xel dash to absorb it. Then again if it's over 1,000,000 xels I can't absorb it anyway, I could only damage it. But you don't have the xel dash anyway so... keep shooting it until it disappears." Eli nodded and raised his arm to take the shot but then felt a sudden urge come over him. He glared at the militia robot and began to charge it.

"WHAT IN GOOD GOD IS THAT BOY DOING?" Battalion questioned when he saw Eli begin to run towards the robot. Beck shook his head in awe, "I can't believe you did that doc." Cryosphere groaned in annoyance, "So I'll be "Ice" and speak for everyone here, what exactly are we missing Beck?" Beck shook his head again. "Watch." And they did. And they were surprised.

Eli felt his speed increase drastically to the point where he had to jump just to slow down. However when he did he found himself encased in a bright white light as he sped towards the stationary military robot. Instead of crashing into it like he expected he passed straight through it feeling... Something come out the other side with him. Rotating himself in the air Eli firmly planted his feet into the ground and skidded to a halt. Looking around he saw no sign of the robot he had been fighting. But he did feel stronger, a LOT stronger but it also felt temporary. He could already feel the strength fading from his body and the sensation was not at all pleasant. Felling the need to discharge the energy he fired of a single shot but to his surprise his hand cannon crackled with energy and fired a HUGE shot of plasma. It tore through many buildings and eventually exploded into a large outward burst of energy. "Well... I wasn't expecting that." Eli breathed out. "I'll say!" The jolly voice of Doctor Sanda suddenly rung out through Eli's comlink, "I thought Will swore off giving his robots that ability." Eli shrugged and resolved to question Doctor White about it later.

"Right." Pyrogen said, "I think everyone can join in now. Doctor Sanda, could you please assist us in getting hooked up to the machine?" The only human present nodded and began the long, annoying process of fitting up everyone into their respective pods. Eventually everyone was hooked up and the simulation began.

Battalion knew something was off as soon as everyone turned to look at him with blank expressions. He knew he was fucked as soon as everyone got their weapons out.

Poor Bat XD. Oh well. Read in next time to see Battalion getting the crap beat out of him.