Inside the rec room, William hung upside down. His legs were wrapped around a bar while he pulled himself up. His shirt was off, revealing the cybernetic attachments for his arms and the plates that lined his spine. His body was beaded in sweat as he did another crunch.
The room's doors quietly hissed open and shut to announce the arrival of the ship's very own copper-haired minkan as he otherwise silently floated in, coming to land near a row of treadmills as the exercise-uniform clad marksman took a second to look the Nepleslian over with his amber eyes.
"Those implants," Wyatt spoke to make his presence known, pressing a few buttons on his own machine. "I heard about them - I must say it's not something I've seen up close before," he admitted.
William stopped and looked to the new arrival. "Yeah. No one in Yamatai has need for augmentations. You guys can just transfer to a new body." He said, as he hung from the ceiling.
He released his hold and landed on the palm of his hand. "I think that they put me almost on par with your strength though."
One treadmill had begun spinning up but the press of another button cut that short as Wyatt gave William a sideways glace, an ever so slight smirk curling the sides of his mouth and tightening the muscles around his eyes.
"You seem rather sure of that suspicion, do you have anything to back it up with?" he asked the younger man in that semi-baritone voice Wyatt seemed so fond of using.
William looked back at Wyatt. He held out an arm. In his cybernetic eye he activated his strength augmentation. It caused his arms and legs to swell, making them look much thicker. Almost as if he grew muscles in mere seconds.
"I believe so." He replied with a simple smile.
Now that got the knife-eared man's attention, he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting but it sure wasn't that. Wyatt turned fully to face the Nepleslian, eyes resting on the enhanced limbs a few short moments before they dragged their way up to his face.
"Well there is always the old fashioned way of testing that..." Wyatt offered, his voice trailing off somewhat toward the end.
In rare form, William smirked at the challenge. "Sure, Wyatt-san. What do you have in mind?" He asked, flexing his fingers individually.
His face didn't give it away but Wyatt was weighing the options, on one hand he knew Eden would rain hell down upon him if anything too serious happened, on the other he was fairly certain he knew his own limits...
The decision was made as the Minkan used his thumbs to crack each one of his fingers individually, giving a small nod that gestured over to a section of padded flooring in the room and then to the door.. "Either we could 'spar' here as it were - or there is always the option of going to VR and truely cutting loose... I'll leave that up to you."
William nodded. He weighed out the options in his head, then asked. "What are the terms for using the VR room?" He asked, crossing his arms.
Wyatt rested his exposed arms behind the small of his back as he went to speak, "Well I suppose that depends on how far a civillian like yourself is willing to go, no offence intended," he replied - knowing full well that he might've poked something but he only saw a bit of friendly rivalry.
If William had was angered by the statement, he didn't show it. His face remained blank as he replied. "I will go as far as you will." he replied. He rolled his neck and heard several pops. "I haven't had a good fight in awhile."
The Minkan gave a small nod of approval before he began moving toward the door he had only recently entered through, looking back over his muscled shoulder to speak. "Nor I," was all he said, simple and concise.
"Weapons?" he asked. "Training swords and stun ammunition?" He suggested.
"I won't object to that, I have a scene in-mind for us - you're not opposed to a bit of virtual sand are you?" Wyatt shot back in response as they continued through the halls.
William pulled on his clothes and jacket as he followed behind. "Yeah, I don't mind fighting in in some sand." He replied as he fixed his collar.
"I'm glad - I was Rikugun once and a decent bit of grit against the skin never did much harm," the minkan continued speaking, taking somewhat of a liking to the younger man's lack of complaint.
William shrugged. "I can turn off my receptors if it becomes bothersome. I wont though. I will just need to make sure I clean my joints good."
"I don't quite think you'll need to worry about that," Wyatt spoke as he raised a finger up to tap against his temple. "I'm not trying to sound cheesy - believe me, but it is quite literally all up here."
The nepleslian smiled and nodded. One of his fingers tapped the hexagonal port on his own temple. "Right. All mental." He replied. "So, where are you taking us?" He asked.
Wyatt stopped walking and turned on his heel until he was looking at the Nepleslian with a hint of concern. "The Virtual Reality deck... are you feeling okay?"
William head turned to the side and stared at Wyatt for a second, and then he bust out into laughter. "I meant where, in the VR room? Like a beach or a desert? On a certain planet?" He clarified.
Social cues never had been the Marksman's strong suite - sure he was usually able to read people well enough but there were a few outlying moments of embarassment...
"Apologies," Wyatt half-grunted out before continuing their walk that would soon be drawing to an end. "It is nowhere in particular - more a concept than anything but I it's not anything too special either, just a flat plane of sand with a scorching sun overhead."
As Wyatt turned, William moved a hand to his mouth and stiffled a chuckle. He nodded to Wyatt as he spoke. "I see, might I suggest some dunes as well?" He added. It was a good thing he had his jacket. The hood would keep the sun from blinding him.
The Minkan's eyes could be seen glassing over for a second as he added in instructions for that detail - they quickly returned to their natural state as the duo approached their final corner before the VR deck. "Done, anything else you want?" Wyatt queried.
"Nope. There is one thing I want to add to my loadout, but I will do that." He closed his left eye and quickly sent the design to the VR deck. Two of the training swords inside morphed to William's specifications. He then oppened his eye and smiled. "Done."
Wyatt stood beside the door and opened it politely to reveal a wave of artificial heat across sandy dunes, taking a second to both check over the kid's handiwork for any hidden surprises and observe the weapons - it seemed they had a similar train of thought then. "Alright, ready when you are."
He stepped inside and placed the two swords into sheathes on his belt. "Understood." He pulled his collar up tight so that it covered his nose. He then pulled his hood down low. "I'm ready."
Wyatt stepped over the threshold as what was virtual seemingly bled into what was real, both he and the door blinked into nothingness as the appeared a dune or two over from William - picking up the small wooden box that held his adored yet underused gun-fists alongside a bandoleer of ammunition and a very basic face-mask to keep the sun and dust out of his eyes.
He wasted no time to don the few basic pieces of equipment, the gauntlets automatically tightening around his forearms like an old friend returning from a long voyage despite him having only performed routine maintenance on them an hour or two ago. He began to trudge up the sand dune, hidden eyes scanning around for the obscured 'friendly'.
On the opposite side of the field, William reactivated his power augmentation. What Wyatt didn't know was the capabilities of his clothing. He covered his face and activated the optical camouflage. William then disappeared from view. He looked over the field and began to circle around the left side of the dunes.
His swords were drawn and held low as he searched for his target. Sure enough the unaware Minkan peaked a nearby dune, keeping himself low as only his head and part of the man's neck could be seen.
Wyatt's breath was slowly brough in through the mask's filter before he let it slowly trickle out, crouching as his head swivelled much like an owl's.
William spotted Wyatt, but kept his slow pace around Wyatt's hiding spot. The Nepleslian own breath was being held as he moved. He kept his eyes locked on the Minkan as he circled him.
After he passed the side of the dune, he began creeping up the back of the slope.
Something caught Wyatt's attention, a glitchy shimmer of artificial light, a slightly off whisp of sand that blew past him - he wasn't quite sure but it was enough to make him wary. If you knew something was off then chances often leant towards something being off so it was always better to take precautions and be a fool than to be a fool and not be around to learn from it.
The Minkan raised up on one leg and dug the heel of his other foot into the ground, quickly bringing his body around in almost a complete 180 degree spin that kicked up a cloud of sand as he stood there in a defensive and expecting stance.
William stopped as Wyatt turned on him. No matter, he was close enough now. He planted his back foot and kicked off with enough force to send a geyser of sand airborn, sending him flying at Wyatt. As he took off, William's camo dropped and he could fully see the Nepleslian charging at him with swords in hand.
Almost anyone else would have most likely been grinning behind the mask as their educated guess paid off, but what laid behind the mask was as calm and serene as the blank surface it hid behind. Wyatt raised one metal-clad forearm up to catch the blade that flew toward him whilst also rising up from the crouch and carrying his spin's momentum into a kick at the Nepleslian's gut.
William saw his mistake as the hand rose to catch his sword. "Damn." he thought simply, He spun and held his sword directly at the ground and pulled a trigger on the hilt. The gun inside the blade fired with a loud bang. It gave William a few more inches to let him avoid the coming attack. He then moved his other sword up to catch the coming foot.
Wyatt felt the gunshot reverberate down his arm as William skillfully yet narrowly avoided his retalliation - it sounded loud, he'd have to ask the kid what caliber afterwards - but for now the Minkan was glad his foot remained intact after coming in to contact with the surprisingly blunt sword. He swung the free fist, it was an intentionally sloppy throw that he didn't imagine would hit it's mark but that wasn't the intention - it just would have been a nice coincidence.
William couldn't manuever. He gritted his teeth and took the hit, letting it impact against his leg. The hit caused him to do a flip in the air. As he soon as his foot touched the ground he planted his foot and launched himself sideways, sending up yet another geyser. He then planted again and flew at Wyatt.
Wyatt let out a small, surprised huff as the blow hit - this moment was enough for William to get a hit on him as the Minkan's brain percieved a blade ripping into his side, but the man had a plan and Wyatt was not one for giving up half way through. The hand he had initially blocked with gripped around the fingers of his intentionally sloppy punch, the wrist-mounted revolver kicking back with enough firepower to crack a mindy as his hard elbow rocketed back under the recoil.
William expected the blow this time. He spun and kicked down with an augmented foot, smacking his elbow straight down. The Minkan went with it as his arm was forced down - tumbling for a second before aiming both fists into the ground and firing again to get his inertia moving upwards, using his genetic interial control to finish righting himself. Two more pillars of sand were flung up as Wyatt now stood face-to-face with William, ramming both fists toward his gut.
The Nepleslian smirked. He let go of his swords as Wyatt's fists came toward him. He grabbed hold of his opponet's wrists and rolled backwards with him. He then planted both feet onto his chest and pushed off with all his might.
By the time Wyatt had come to terms with what was happening, he was already grappled and being pushed up to the heavens - he was okay with this though as he left the sand for a moment, pushing against the motion with all his inertial control to rocket back down with a vertical drop-kick towards William.
William watched as Wyatt turned the throw around. He gritted his teeth. Time to show him what else he had up his sleeve. Quite literally in this case. The moves his arm and held it across his face as Wyatt came down. In a flash of light, a blue tower sheild made of pure energy appeared. Ready to catch him.
The Minkan felt his legs creak under the force he put on them that was halted so suddenly by such a solid object - this was all fake though so he could live with it, hell even if it was for real he could wait a short while for it to heal. Wyatt bent his knees and sping-boarded off backwards, execulting a tight loop and beginning to unload his plasma revolvers into the shield as he allowed himself to fall down eight meters away.
The Nepleslian rolled backwards and held out his hands. The swords lying in the sands flew from the sands. William began to preform evasive manuevers, kicking off of the ground and sending himself flying across the ground, changing direction every few seconds.
Wyatt ceased firing one of his guns as he began to dash around counter-clockwise to continue his super-heated assault, only swapping to the second wrist-cannon one the first one's hot barrel ceased slinging plasma. It was a somewhat awkward-looking affair to replace the plasma-cartridge but one the Minkan had made sure he had down to muscle memory.
The old dropped out, the gun was dragged against his belt and he shut it again with the mind-link just in time for his second one to run dry - he ceased firing and repeated the awkward motions, standing there with one arm across his chest to stabilise the other one as it lined up in-front of William's feet and fired a few times. Chunks of sand only just ahead of the Nepleslian were thrown aside and replaced with globs of plasma.
William kept dodging as best he could as the plasma fire flew all around him. He cursed as he raised his swords and attempeted to fire back with the heavy hitting revolver rounds. Unfortunately, William couldn't dodge forever.
A salvo of plasma fire struck William in the chest and sent him corkscrewing backwards and down the back of the dune. He let out a soft cry as he disappeared from Wyatt's view.
A pained grunt finally escaped Wyatt's mask as one of William's training rounds burned a decent mark in to his shoulder - he supposed it served him right for standing still, there is a reason why some ocean-dweilling predators never ceased motion.
He threw all that aside thought and nursed his stunned limb as the Minkan flew over the dune to check on William, tearing off that mask and leaving it to be lost to the sand, "William, you okay?" he called out to the lad.
William layed on his back and took in several deep breaths as he preformed a quick diagnostic. He was struck several times center mass. He cursed again as he laid in the sand.
As Wyatt flew over the dune William raised an arm and flashed a thumbs up. "I'm fine..." He replied, pulling down his collar and hood.
Wyatt knelt down in the 'sand' next to the stubborn Nepleslian , offering his good hand to William as he gazed down and admitted out loud, "Well I must say, you gave me a run for my money - you're one hell of a fighter."
William looked up at the offered hand. After a second of hesitation he took it. "Thanks. You weren't bad yourself." He replied as he pulled himself to his feet.
The Minkan let out a small grunt as he helped William up, the sandy scene around them beginning to fade back to the VR room's visage as the program slowly shut down. "Are you good to stand or do I need to carry you again?" Wyatt half-joked, recalling the odd way they met on Ayenee.
He smirked. "I can walk and by the way that wasn't my fault." He replied as he stood under his own power. He deactivated his power augmentations and his arms and legs returned to normal size.
"Good to hear, I wasn't sure if some of the wrong wires might've crossed," Wyatt gave as a response, making sure the lad was steady enough as his own pain began to fade away into nothing but a distant memory - the room's doors hissing open once more.
"I hope to see you use that skill in the field, you're a fine soldier regardless of politics or official titles," Wyatt added rather stiffly, raising his previously stunned arm to give William a salute.
William turned to Wyatt and gave him a proper salute. "I always do, my comrade."
The room's doors quietly hissed open and shut to announce the arrival of the ship's very own copper-haired minkan as he otherwise silently floated in, coming to land near a row of treadmills as the exercise-uniform clad marksman took a second to look the Nepleslian over with his amber eyes.
"Those implants," Wyatt spoke to make his presence known, pressing a few buttons on his own machine. "I heard about them - I must say it's not something I've seen up close before," he admitted.
William stopped and looked to the new arrival. "Yeah. No one in Yamatai has need for augmentations. You guys can just transfer to a new body." He said, as he hung from the ceiling.
He released his hold and landed on the palm of his hand. "I think that they put me almost on par with your strength though."
One treadmill had begun spinning up but the press of another button cut that short as Wyatt gave William a sideways glace, an ever so slight smirk curling the sides of his mouth and tightening the muscles around his eyes.
"You seem rather sure of that suspicion, do you have anything to back it up with?" he asked the younger man in that semi-baritone voice Wyatt seemed so fond of using.
William looked back at Wyatt. He held out an arm. In his cybernetic eye he activated his strength augmentation. It caused his arms and legs to swell, making them look much thicker. Almost as if he grew muscles in mere seconds.
"I believe so." He replied with a simple smile.
Now that got the knife-eared man's attention, he wasn't quite sure what he was expecting but it sure wasn't that. Wyatt turned fully to face the Nepleslian, eyes resting on the enhanced limbs a few short moments before they dragged their way up to his face.
"Well there is always the old fashioned way of testing that..." Wyatt offered, his voice trailing off somewhat toward the end.
In rare form, William smirked at the challenge. "Sure, Wyatt-san. What do you have in mind?" He asked, flexing his fingers individually.
His face didn't give it away but Wyatt was weighing the options, on one hand he knew Eden would rain hell down upon him if anything too serious happened, on the other he was fairly certain he knew his own limits...
The decision was made as the Minkan used his thumbs to crack each one of his fingers individually, giving a small nod that gestured over to a section of padded flooring in the room and then to the door.. "Either we could 'spar' here as it were - or there is always the option of going to VR and truely cutting loose... I'll leave that up to you."
William nodded. He weighed out the options in his head, then asked. "What are the terms for using the VR room?" He asked, crossing his arms.
Wyatt rested his exposed arms behind the small of his back as he went to speak, "Well I suppose that depends on how far a civillian like yourself is willing to go, no offence intended," he replied - knowing full well that he might've poked something but he only saw a bit of friendly rivalry.
If William had was angered by the statement, he didn't show it. His face remained blank as he replied. "I will go as far as you will." he replied. He rolled his neck and heard several pops. "I haven't had a good fight in awhile."
The Minkan gave a small nod of approval before he began moving toward the door he had only recently entered through, looking back over his muscled shoulder to speak. "Nor I," was all he said, simple and concise.
"Weapons?" he asked. "Training swords and stun ammunition?" He suggested.
"I won't object to that, I have a scene in-mind for us - you're not opposed to a bit of virtual sand are you?" Wyatt shot back in response as they continued through the halls.
William pulled on his clothes and jacket as he followed behind. "Yeah, I don't mind fighting in in some sand." He replied as he fixed his collar.
"I'm glad - I was Rikugun once and a decent bit of grit against the skin never did much harm," the minkan continued speaking, taking somewhat of a liking to the younger man's lack of complaint.
William shrugged. "I can turn off my receptors if it becomes bothersome. I wont though. I will just need to make sure I clean my joints good."
"I don't quite think you'll need to worry about that," Wyatt spoke as he raised a finger up to tap against his temple. "I'm not trying to sound cheesy - believe me, but it is quite literally all up here."
The nepleslian smiled and nodded. One of his fingers tapped the hexagonal port on his own temple. "Right. All mental." He replied. "So, where are you taking us?" He asked.
Wyatt stopped walking and turned on his heel until he was looking at the Nepleslian with a hint of concern. "The Virtual Reality deck... are you feeling okay?"
William head turned to the side and stared at Wyatt for a second, and then he bust out into laughter. "I meant where, in the VR room? Like a beach or a desert? On a certain planet?" He clarified.
Social cues never had been the Marksman's strong suite - sure he was usually able to read people well enough but there were a few outlying moments of embarassment...
"Apologies," Wyatt half-grunted out before continuing their walk that would soon be drawing to an end. "It is nowhere in particular - more a concept than anything but I it's not anything too special either, just a flat plane of sand with a scorching sun overhead."
As Wyatt turned, William moved a hand to his mouth and stiffled a chuckle. He nodded to Wyatt as he spoke. "I see, might I suggest some dunes as well?" He added. It was a good thing he had his jacket. The hood would keep the sun from blinding him.
The Minkan's eyes could be seen glassing over for a second as he added in instructions for that detail - they quickly returned to their natural state as the duo approached their final corner before the VR deck. "Done, anything else you want?" Wyatt queried.
"Nope. There is one thing I want to add to my loadout, but I will do that." He closed his left eye and quickly sent the design to the VR deck. Two of the training swords inside morphed to William's specifications. He then oppened his eye and smiled. "Done."
Wyatt stood beside the door and opened it politely to reveal a wave of artificial heat across sandy dunes, taking a second to both check over the kid's handiwork for any hidden surprises and observe the weapons - it seemed they had a similar train of thought then. "Alright, ready when you are."
He stepped inside and placed the two swords into sheathes on his belt. "Understood." He pulled his collar up tight so that it covered his nose. He then pulled his hood down low. "I'm ready."
Wyatt stepped over the threshold as what was virtual seemingly bled into what was real, both he and the door blinked into nothingness as the appeared a dune or two over from William - picking up the small wooden box that held his adored yet underused gun-fists alongside a bandoleer of ammunition and a very basic face-mask to keep the sun and dust out of his eyes.
He wasted no time to don the few basic pieces of equipment, the gauntlets automatically tightening around his forearms like an old friend returning from a long voyage despite him having only performed routine maintenance on them an hour or two ago. He began to trudge up the sand dune, hidden eyes scanning around for the obscured 'friendly'.
On the opposite side of the field, William reactivated his power augmentation. What Wyatt didn't know was the capabilities of his clothing. He covered his face and activated the optical camouflage. William then disappeared from view. He looked over the field and began to circle around the left side of the dunes.
His swords were drawn and held low as he searched for his target. Sure enough the unaware Minkan peaked a nearby dune, keeping himself low as only his head and part of the man's neck could be seen.
Wyatt's breath was slowly brough in through the mask's filter before he let it slowly trickle out, crouching as his head swivelled much like an owl's.
William spotted Wyatt, but kept his slow pace around Wyatt's hiding spot. The Nepleslian own breath was being held as he moved. He kept his eyes locked on the Minkan as he circled him.
After he passed the side of the dune, he began creeping up the back of the slope.
Something caught Wyatt's attention, a glitchy shimmer of artificial light, a slightly off whisp of sand that blew past him - he wasn't quite sure but it was enough to make him wary. If you knew something was off then chances often leant towards something being off so it was always better to take precautions and be a fool than to be a fool and not be around to learn from it.
The Minkan raised up on one leg and dug the heel of his other foot into the ground, quickly bringing his body around in almost a complete 180 degree spin that kicked up a cloud of sand as he stood there in a defensive and expecting stance.
William stopped as Wyatt turned on him. No matter, he was close enough now. He planted his back foot and kicked off with enough force to send a geyser of sand airborn, sending him flying at Wyatt. As he took off, William's camo dropped and he could fully see the Nepleslian charging at him with swords in hand.
Almost anyone else would have most likely been grinning behind the mask as their educated guess paid off, but what laid behind the mask was as calm and serene as the blank surface it hid behind. Wyatt raised one metal-clad forearm up to catch the blade that flew toward him whilst also rising up from the crouch and carrying his spin's momentum into a kick at the Nepleslian's gut.
William saw his mistake as the hand rose to catch his sword. "Damn." he thought simply, He spun and held his sword directly at the ground and pulled a trigger on the hilt. The gun inside the blade fired with a loud bang. It gave William a few more inches to let him avoid the coming attack. He then moved his other sword up to catch the coming foot.
Wyatt felt the gunshot reverberate down his arm as William skillfully yet narrowly avoided his retalliation - it sounded loud, he'd have to ask the kid what caliber afterwards - but for now the Minkan was glad his foot remained intact after coming in to contact with the surprisingly blunt sword. He swung the free fist, it was an intentionally sloppy throw that he didn't imagine would hit it's mark but that wasn't the intention - it just would have been a nice coincidence.
William couldn't manuever. He gritted his teeth and took the hit, letting it impact against his leg. The hit caused him to do a flip in the air. As he soon as his foot touched the ground he planted his foot and launched himself sideways, sending up yet another geyser. He then planted again and flew at Wyatt.
Wyatt let out a small, surprised huff as the blow hit - this moment was enough for William to get a hit on him as the Minkan's brain percieved a blade ripping into his side, but the man had a plan and Wyatt was not one for giving up half way through. The hand he had initially blocked with gripped around the fingers of his intentionally sloppy punch, the wrist-mounted revolver kicking back with enough firepower to crack a mindy as his hard elbow rocketed back under the recoil.
William expected the blow this time. He spun and kicked down with an augmented foot, smacking his elbow straight down. The Minkan went with it as his arm was forced down - tumbling for a second before aiming both fists into the ground and firing again to get his inertia moving upwards, using his genetic interial control to finish righting himself. Two more pillars of sand were flung up as Wyatt now stood face-to-face with William, ramming both fists toward his gut.
The Nepleslian smirked. He let go of his swords as Wyatt's fists came toward him. He grabbed hold of his opponet's wrists and rolled backwards with him. He then planted both feet onto his chest and pushed off with all his might.
By the time Wyatt had come to terms with what was happening, he was already grappled and being pushed up to the heavens - he was okay with this though as he left the sand for a moment, pushing against the motion with all his inertial control to rocket back down with a vertical drop-kick towards William.
William watched as Wyatt turned the throw around. He gritted his teeth. Time to show him what else he had up his sleeve. Quite literally in this case. The moves his arm and held it across his face as Wyatt came down. In a flash of light, a blue tower sheild made of pure energy appeared. Ready to catch him.
The Minkan felt his legs creak under the force he put on them that was halted so suddenly by such a solid object - this was all fake though so he could live with it, hell even if it was for real he could wait a short while for it to heal. Wyatt bent his knees and sping-boarded off backwards, execulting a tight loop and beginning to unload his plasma revolvers into the shield as he allowed himself to fall down eight meters away.
The Nepleslian rolled backwards and held out his hands. The swords lying in the sands flew from the sands. William began to preform evasive manuevers, kicking off of the ground and sending himself flying across the ground, changing direction every few seconds.
Wyatt ceased firing one of his guns as he began to dash around counter-clockwise to continue his super-heated assault, only swapping to the second wrist-cannon one the first one's hot barrel ceased slinging plasma. It was a somewhat awkward-looking affair to replace the plasma-cartridge but one the Minkan had made sure he had down to muscle memory.
The old dropped out, the gun was dragged against his belt and he shut it again with the mind-link just in time for his second one to run dry - he ceased firing and repeated the awkward motions, standing there with one arm across his chest to stabilise the other one as it lined up in-front of William's feet and fired a few times. Chunks of sand only just ahead of the Nepleslian were thrown aside and replaced with globs of plasma.
William kept dodging as best he could as the plasma fire flew all around him. He cursed as he raised his swords and attempeted to fire back with the heavy hitting revolver rounds. Unfortunately, William couldn't dodge forever.
A salvo of plasma fire struck William in the chest and sent him corkscrewing backwards and down the back of the dune. He let out a soft cry as he disappeared from Wyatt's view.
A pained grunt finally escaped Wyatt's mask as one of William's training rounds burned a decent mark in to his shoulder - he supposed it served him right for standing still, there is a reason why some ocean-dweilling predators never ceased motion.
He threw all that aside thought and nursed his stunned limb as the Minkan flew over the dune to check on William, tearing off that mask and leaving it to be lost to the sand, "William, you okay?" he called out to the lad.
William layed on his back and took in several deep breaths as he preformed a quick diagnostic. He was struck several times center mass. He cursed again as he laid in the sand.
As Wyatt flew over the dune William raised an arm and flashed a thumbs up. "I'm fine..." He replied, pulling down his collar and hood.
Wyatt knelt down in the 'sand' next to the stubborn Nepleslian , offering his good hand to William as he gazed down and admitted out loud, "Well I must say, you gave me a run for my money - you're one hell of a fighter."
William looked up at the offered hand. After a second of hesitation he took it. "Thanks. You weren't bad yourself." He replied as he pulled himself to his feet.
The Minkan let out a small grunt as he helped William up, the sandy scene around them beginning to fade back to the VR room's visage as the program slowly shut down. "Are you good to stand or do I need to carry you again?" Wyatt half-joked, recalling the odd way they met on Ayenee.
He smirked. "I can walk and by the way that wasn't my fault." He replied as he stood under his own power. He deactivated his power augmentations and his arms and legs returned to normal size.
"Good to hear, I wasn't sure if some of the wrong wires might've crossed," Wyatt gave as a response, making sure the lad was steady enough as his own pain began to fade away into nothing but a distant memory - the room's doors hissing open once more.
"I hope to see you use that skill in the field, you're a fine soldier regardless of politics or official titles," Wyatt added rather stiffly, raising his previously stunned arm to give William a salute.
William turned to Wyatt and gave him a proper salute. "I always do, my comrade."
