Tru Grit’s Fight Pits: First Tourney (Pt. 7): Floral Scans

--- Maya Williams ---

“Smart girl.” The smug magic user grinned, as the vines one Maya quickly began to retract before falling to the ground when the announcer declared The Urban Druidess the winner to the audience’s applause.

Part of her wanted to lash out at the other girl, but she was smart enough to both know how unfavorably lashing out after things were called would look as well as remember Anavi’s warning about how far she’d be able to go in this tournament. (And also smart enough to get as many scans as possible…)

Eyes quickly flicking through her headset’s UI, Maya quickly queued up a few concurrent runs of her Scan() program as her megalomania roared that, (We’ll learn her dark ways, dissect her magic, and then when we’re stronger crush her beneath our heel like the cabrona she is!)

(Dial it back a bit.) Her inner reason suggested.

(No. I’m feeling it.) She disagreed, as the first of her scans finished rather quickly. Her program having apparently gotten information much faster with so many instances of the small ‘Strangle Thorns’ that had pinned her in place moments prior.

“Careful with that glare, your face might get stuck like that.” Her opponent warned, more amused than threatened as she toyed with the cigar in her hands. “If you want I can offer you something to help take the edge off?”

A quick scan of it told her that the cigar was actually a weed joint. (Technically. It seems like she mutated to be a different species than the one more typically made and outlawed in our state.)

Tempted her inner id pointed out that, (You know medically speaking there’s nothing wrong with-)

(We’ve never done drugs and we will not be starting now.) Her inner logic interrupted.

(What about all of our M.A.D. serums? Those are all technically drugs?) Her inner child argued more for the sake of it than anything else.

And even if she only really had the healing serums, she had to admit that, (She’s got a point there.) Even if that ‘she’ was her own insanity speaking.

(True, but we made those with our science and know what’s in them.) Her inner reason reminded her, before purposely tacking on that, (Hers were made with magic.)

(Wait…) Her inner madness began with a slowly dawning sort of horro, (Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck! I almost put magic in our body! Gross, gross, gross, gro-o-oss!!! Of fuck, that’s so gross…)

(And this is why you’re not in charge.) Her inner logic smugly admitted.

Shaking her head clear of that bit of internal melodrama, the magic user mistook that as a response and shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

As the other girl turned back towards the arena exits, another one of Maya’s scans deemed itself complete as the druidess used her magic to collect all of the remnants of her plants. Not leaving a single physical sample for anyone else to collect for their own research. (Which is why it’s so good that I don’t need a sample to research…)

Feeling, not quite satisfied but at the very least accepting of her consolation prize, she started back towards her own break room as she started to go over the different scans she’d taken on her COMP.

The easiest one to understand were the ‘Stangle Thorns’, the plants capable of not actual movement but rather rapid growth movement that resulted in an extremely constrictive force as the plant grew larger. This hormone release causing the sudden growth of the plants while also removing their malleability, and… She wasn’t actually sure what was supposed to happen past that point.

While she had a basic understanding of Biology (by M.A.D. standards of course) her actual understanding wasn’t enough to tell her what was going on with the plant. At least not without actually growing some for herself.

Something that this scan -plus a few bits of plant matter still clinging beneath her armor- would allow her to do with pretty much any bio-pod. (At least with a few modifications to the bio-pod and its programming…)

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The larger plant was more of a mystery, in how it moved. The rapid growth and flexibility were both… plausible in a way but they also weren’t in any way a natural part of the plant’s biology. Whatsmore without any samples she actually couldn’t double check her scans like with the Strangle Thorns. (Meaning that this isn’t something I can understand without actually combing through the data and a metric-shit ton of research.)

Acknowledging that scan as a bust until she could actually go over the data with her Informant Network() for a couple hours, she moved onto what was arguably the most interesting scan of this set. Because despite just being a scan of a human, this was a scan of a human using magic and depending on what she could milk out of that could also be the key to figuring out the science behind magic.

(Realistically speaking, I don’t see a singular scan of a random magic user offering us the key to the mystery M.A.D.s have spent decades trying to crack.) Her inner reason pointed out.

(Yes, but that’s because none of them were as brilliant as us!) Her inner megalomania reminded herself.

“At the very least it’ll offer us a starting point to figuring out that secret.” She nodded, her finger slipping and- “Why is she naked?!”

She looked away, her heart pounding in her chest as she tried very hard not to click the UI function that would pull the image she’d just seen onto her headset.

(Uh, what were you expecting to see when you pulled up an image of someone you scanned with a ton of semi-invasive equipment?)

“Not tha- They were never naked before!” She tried to argue. “They were always these grey meshes wearing clothes. Like video game models without the colors!”

(Ah, yes… well, you’ve never actually gone over the data for anyone you’ve scanned before. With our current upgrades being rather recent.) Her inner reason explained. (As such you simply had the most surface of details, without any actual simulation points.)

(And technically, they’re still grey meshes… just without clothes.) Her inner madness added unhelpfully. (And we could fix that color thing with like a simple bool flip. More specifically the one right in the corner of-)

“Don’t tell me!” She interrupted. “I don’t want to know!”

(...) She could feel her inner madness staring at her. (Yes you do.)

She shook her head in denial.

(We have a scan of Anavi~) The devil on her shoulder tempted.

Her heart began to pound in her chest, as she glanced at the COMP, her hand blocking the screen as she resisted the temptation.

(No. Don’t be a creep Maya. Respect your friends.) The angel on her other shoulder told her.

(Even the hot ones?) The imaginary devil asked.

(Especially the hot ones.) The imaginary angel nodded.

With a grimace she cleared out the COMP screen before running a hand down her face. “Is there a way to turn off the… invasion of privacy?”

(Do you really want to?)

She took a deep breath before saying. “Yes. No matter how… hot they are I’m not going to perv on people like that. It’s not right. And… I don’t trust myself to be clinical about it.”

(A small censor should be easy enough to implement.) Her inner logic assured her. (Maybe five minutes with a laptop for us.)

“Right, right. That’s easy.” She took another calming breath. “Fuck… I was not expecting any major moral choices today…”

(Well, if you need a distraction it looks like it’s about time for your next fight.) Her inner reason offered.

She glanced at the screen on the tv before nodding to herself. “Yeah, hopefully that’ll get my mind off… whatever.” She shook her head before gathering her things and starting through the back halls on her way to her next fight.

As soon as she got to the doors they flashed on for her to step out into the fight pit, where she found the crowd size hadn’t diminished, even if it looked pretty close to the size of her previous fight. Which made her think about what she’d seen a few minutes prior, before shaking her head clear. (Not the time…)

Across from her she easily recognized her opponent as the elven girl she’d watched before her own fight. (Huh, didn’t think she’d be the first one I fight…)

(Perhaps it’s because we lost our fights so close together? We did all lose the quarter finals in a sense.) Her reason figured.

“Makes sense…” She mumbled to herself, glancing at her current status on her headset UI. (Physically I’m still doing good, but… seven power isn’t a whole lot to work with. Especially considering everything I saw her do in her last fight.)

If she was recalling correctly the elven maiden could throw around fire, create shields, turn invisible, and do whatever she did to freeze the gamer guild girl’s golem. Meaning that barring Decker this girl was arguably her most versatile opponent yet. (And I doubt she’ll tap out as easily as she did in the previous fight, since this is her last chance too.)

Low power, a complex enemy, and no second chances left. She’d have to be smart if she wanted to win this. (Good thing I’m always smart…)