There are no lines

[Jack Darby]

Ricky had been ordered by Warren Zimmer to come to this world,   Coruscant.  Apparently Warren had a problem with the existence of some of the clones on this planet,   but couldn't handle it himself.  His grand idea had been to have Ricky infiltrate the Empire and learn where the clones were produced so that he could strike them down then and there.   Why Warren wouldn't handle this himself,  he had no clue.  But Ricky did owe Warren for restoring the NFL-R he used to functionality as he wasn't the scientist type and thus couldn't have done that himself.   But the assignment was difficult as Ricky didn't know much about the world he was currently on. Sure he'd been briefed by Warren about Omni and all the other things.  This assignment was going to be a rather difficult one given it was something he'd never done before.  

Still as he walked about through the first level of Coruscant in his human form,   Ricky began to hatch a plan.  It seemed the Primes here were wanted for study.  Perhaps if he participated in being 'examined'  he could earn some influence with the Empire and maybe have them find a way to make his powers work without Warren's help. It was a long shot,  but one he was willing to take at the moment.   "This assignment Warren gave me will be a challenge. After all I never wanted it."    There had to be some way Ricky could gain the power he'd need in order to overcome his ties to Warren.  Coruscant was certainly a shining city,  and very advanced.... at least on the first level where he was presently. But it begged the question how was this world so ahead of his time?   Going around Ricky was looking for some work so that he could earn more of the substance Omnilium. There had to be some sort of employment that he could do that would earn him the required amounts in order to get strong enough to ensure his victory over that villain,  Wild Card. 

"Hmm. What work could I do?" 

Ricky was presently looking for anything he could do job wise as he actually could use the employment.

[Storyteller]

It wasn't long before Ricky was met by a member of the Verse-wide law enforcement and guided to a space where his presence and appearance would be put on record. While an ordinary human might not seem like that much of a threat, it had always been difficult to tell with Primes.

The building was made up of sparkling glass panes and had a strong metal infrastructure, a few veins of elevators shooting up towards the sky levels and others disappearing into what must have been the basement area— a strangely relaxing view, no matter the amount of constant surveillance it took to make it all possible. The streets were certainly clean in more ways than one.

Ricky stood still as a gridded scan was run over his body, then waited patiently as the trooper processing him began to explain something about citizenship and duty to the Emperor that nearly put him to sleep. It was only the sliding of glass doors and the sharp clacking of heels that snapped him out of it.

"Incredible! Amazing! Simply extraordinary!" The white-armored storm trooper was side-stepped around by a middle-aged woman with light brown hair, her white lab coat swaying jauntily about as she thrust her hand out to Ricky for him to shake. "My name is Doctor Cassidy Neufeld, with Empire Research and Development— you are a new arrival to Coruscant, Mr....?"

Dr. Neufeld's bright blue eyes shifted to the guard who had previously been scanning Ricky and his belongings. With little preamble, the storm trooper handed her the digital data pad that held the Prime's readings. The brown-haired woman eagerly took it, a flicker of impatience in her expression.

"Mr. Ricky Cervantes. Your physique is impeccable— surely you must be able to undergo extreme physical duress? If you would be willing, we would appreciate your participation in a— a study, if you will, which will help us unlock a greater understanding of the abilities of Primes in the Omniverse."

The doctor then tutted distractedly as she tapped a perfectly-manicured finger across the screen, swiping a few rectangles of glittering binary around until she had found whatever she needed to see. Her fingers jittered along the glass to the tune of Yankee Doodle.

After another brief scan of the screen, the supposed medical examiner glanced up at Ricky with a grin that was nearly blinding. "Your aid in such an experiment would be a wondrous contribution in the eyes of the Emperor!"

[Jack Darby]

"Well  Doctor Cassidy Neufeld you would pay well for my help yes? I'm currently on an assignment,  looking for a way into the Empire's ranks anyway.  So your study does seem interesting.  But at the same time it also seems concerning. What exactly would be done to me during the study if I were to agree to it?"   Ricky had plans to break free from the control of Wild Card. But in order to do that he needed to retain some of his health actually.  This was one of the reasons he was a bit wary of taking things at face value.   Ricky was curious about the situation,  he had to admit.  It was something worth investigating. A study such as this one might actually be worth participating in.  Even if he didn't fully understand,  perhaps some pay out had to happen as a result of the study right?  The pay out could allow him to cut his ties to Wild Card which is what he wanted right now,  actually. 
The study did seem well worth it.  But he couldn't help but think that something might actually be wrong. Still if Primes were as durable as the Doctor said they were then he could allow the study because it might actually push him to grow stronger yet.  And he needed to grow stronger to break free of Wild Card. 

"I'll aid you in your experiment,  I've decided.  "   This was so he could learn what kind of people the Imperials were.  After all he wanted to know who he was infiltrating for Warren even if he didn't particularly like doing jobs like this. Covert situations were not something the Guardians had ever had to participate in.   But for the sake of making sure his friends remained unharmed,  he would follow the orders of Wild Card to the letter.  "So how shall we begin?" 

[Storyteller]

"Yes, of course," Dr. Neufeld said, one eyebrow raised as she leveled him with a dubious look. "In any case, during this procedure you will be monitored very closely. Health concerns and the like, you understand. It will push you to your limits— but, it will also make you stronger."

Turning in a swish of clothing and the faint smell of disinfectant, the woman threw over her shoulder with a smile, "Anything else is classified information! But, since you've already agreed, let's examine the facilities, shall we?"

Her shoes clicked loudly against the white linoleum floors when she walked, only pausing once they had reached an elevator. The two boarded and, after Neufeld had selected a button inconspicuously left unmarked, began to descend slowly downwards as the contraption jolted into movement.

Lights and wide-spanning rooms filled with the hiss and clang of machinery rushed past, casting long shadows across the elevator floor. A plummeting sensation that never failed to make Neufeld nauseous came and went, careening up towards the ceiling and taking her stomach with it. Figuratively, of course.

After whisking them past an unknown amount of floors,— it had all passed them by in an inconceivable blur— the elevator doors slid open with a pleasant chime. Stepping out, Neufeld tugged her lab coat more tightly around her shoulders against a slight draft before motioning for Ricky to follow her once again, footsteps echoing down the long hallway.

There were dozens of completely identical doorways lining the hall, the doors curiously inlaid with sturdy metal bolts. Some even had observation windows, although if one were to look inside they would simply be met with the sight of an empty room, a blandly-colored cot and latrine making up the entirety of the furnishings inside. Not a spot of color was visible on anything; only whites, greys and vague metallic tones were present.

Arriving at one door that was slightly different from all the rest in that it already had Ricky's name labelling it, Neufeld turned towards him. She was still smiling, but it was a bit strange now. Almost forced.

"Now then," she said, shouldering the door open to reveal an empty room. "This is where you will be sleeping and eating during your stay here. Isn't it cozy? Mine are just the same! You don't have to concern yourself with that right now, though— there is plenty more for me to show you!" Retreating from the door a step, Neufeld let it swing shut with a loud clang! before continuing on down the hallway. After a moment of hesitation, Ricky followed.

It was only a minute or two of walking, but it felt like ages. Pausing to take a quick breather beside the large door at the end of the hall, Neufeld pressed a seemingly random pattern of buttons on its keypad before leaning in for a lightning-quick eye scan. The door hissed open, letting the chilly air from inside waft over them, voices and the loud shuffling of papers and feet flowing outward.

"This is the testing facility," Neufeld said, footsteps echoing as she strode over towards where over a dozen other scientists and researchers were bustling around, test tubes and computers and all sorts of advanced tech being examined and passed around. Lines and lines of desks and private cubicles snaked around the room in a wide circle. 

Originating from somewhere, a puff of vibrant green smoke jetted into the air, setting off more than a few angry shouts. Neufeld sighed. "It also happens to be where our main labs are situated."

The doctor walked over towards a specific area through all the chaos, rifling through a stack of forms before she came up with a slightly smaller stack of papers. Reaching over to pluck a pair of eyeglasses from atop the resplendent mess, Neufeld leaned her back against the desk. "Now, about your pay—"

"Ah, Neufeld! Who is your friend?" A boisterous shout cut in before she could finish, a bearded man who looked like a hobo version of Bill Nye the Science Guy making his way over. It was a massive undertaking: he had to dodge around at least four people laden down with steaming test tubes lest he risk chemical burns.

Dr. Neufeld's lips thinned into a perfect line, smile fading at once. She shot Ricky an exasperated glance. "Not now, Glotz. We're discussing payment."

"Oh?" the man, Glotz, asked. He grinned at Ricky, excitedly clasping his hand in a firm handshake. "It's so great to finally have a willing Prime on board! Criminals and rebels just won't cut it someti— oof!"

Glaring, Dr. Neufeld removed her elbow from the vicinity of Glotz's kidney. He only had just the one, after what had happened last time. "What he means to say is, Primes are usually so arrogant, not at all willing to put even an ounce of their immortality into benefitting the local populace. You're doing a great service to Coruscant simply by being here. Isn't he, Glotz?"

"Yeah," Glotz managed to wheeze, straightening up the best he could. "I just, uh, wanted to come over and suggest trying out this thing we built. It's a simulation program. You get to fight robot hordes that spit fire."

"Fire," Neufeld repeated. She didn't sound impressed.

"A-and other things!" Glotz defended. He gestured over towards where a few people in white lab coats were assembling the simulation chamber, a large cube the size of an entire room with a door on its side. "They can mimic memories, too— friends or even worst enemies seem to be attacking you, but they're really just the simbots. It's pretty rad, if I do say so myself."

"Hmm," the brown-haired doctor hummed, seeming unsure. She glanced at Ricky. "Well, how about it? We can always handle the paperwork later."

[Jack Darby]

Ricky was far from home and hadn’t wanted to even do this.  The mere fact that Warren was possessing his friends as hostages was the only reason that Ricky was siding with Warren. Otherwise he’d never have agreed to something like this.  Back on his world he hated appointments of any kind, especially medical and dental appointments.  Most likely this was going to entail some sort of experiments and changes to him that he didn’t want to take place.  But  in order to keep his friends safe from Wild Card,  he’d do anything he could in order to make sure they remained free. Yes,  Ricky was the kind of individual who would risk it all in order to ensure that his friends remained safe.   This appointment was likely going to be painful even if he agreed.  But if he did not agree there went any chance of eventually getting his freedom from Warren.  Yes,  his freedom was something he desperately wanted as Warren was a villain.  Of course he’d have to liberate his friends at some  point and that meant he’d need to learn a lot more about this world and how things worked.  Unenthused Ricky knew that he’d have to indulge the doctor and allow her to perform whatever experiment. 


Omnilium was Omnilium no matter how you earned such. Boy did he need to earn such in order to ensure his own survival.  It was after all the substance that made everything work here. Until Warren had approached him,    “So what’s first?”   Not that he was particularly eager to allow a doctor or anyone to run a battery of non-required medical tests on him,  mind you.  But he did know this,  he’d have to learn more about his own capabilities in this verse.  The testing as much as he despised it could actually prove to be an asset in that regard.  Sudden Death had been a dangerous enemy he’d barely defeated on their world,  Earth.  It had only been done because even Wild Card had pitched in. Sure he’d double crossed them in the end,  but Ricky had expected this.  What he hadn’t expected was ending up in a new world with little in the way of actual supplies.  Sure he had some weapons,  but they had been granted to him by Wild Card who wanted him to get stronger.

There had been many battles that the Guardians had participated in. But never before had any engaged in what he dubbed ‘cloak and dagger’ or espionage tactics.  Missions that required such were nonexistent in their world,  something that Ricky was envious of right now.  For what he’d been assigned by Warren if he ever wanted to see his friends alive again involved a lot of cloak and dagger stuff. First he’d have to get on good terms with the Empire.  He was working on that.  Once he had gotten on good terms with the Empire his next thing was to locate wherever they generated the clones that made the bulk of their forces.  From there he was to convey the location directly to Warren.  Not that he’d particularly enjoy the assignment.  But why would Warren assign him such? It was something that Ricky didn’t know.  Had the clones wronged Wild Card,  or was he just being a bastard like usual?  Not knowing this made Ricky doubtful about the mission.

As the efforts of the doctor’s tests began Ricky flexed his muscles when he was ordered. When the doctor took a sample of his blood he winced in pain. The blood sample was mostly human,  except it showed traces of an odd energy that was different from anything the Empire had ever seen. The energy was actually that of the Core,  the most powerful energy of his world.  The energy certainly provided him a lot of power as well as his friends. But that was not all the energy it did.  It benefitted both Football Teams and the Communities that held the ‘Megacores’ that were the vessels of the core’s energy within the Town.

When he was shown the room he was staying in,  Ricky was unimpressed for a moment. But he knew he had a lot of work to do here. This theory was proven when they led him to the testing room where one of the scientists wanted him to fight simu-bots that could mimic his friends and enemies. An easy enough challenge,  if he did say so himself.  Ricky smirked a cocky grin on his face.   But Ricky had heard their words. Still he wouldn’t say anything about it unless they brought it up again.  “So let me get this straight.  In order to get my pay,  all I have to do is wreck a few hundred of your robots, right? Well lead on. This should be a piece of cake.  Plus the advantages of NOT having Stormtroopers hassle me later are well worth the costs of assisting for now. Just tell me where to begin and I’ll have each and every last one of the robots in the scrap pile in about 3-4 hours.”

Ricky would pause for a moment.

“You were discussing my pay before I believe.  How much would it be,  to be exact?”

[Jack Darby]

The simulation bots were not going to be easy ones for him to defeat but Ricky knew that he could accomplish it. Well he didn’t know that he could, but that he had to.  Given the lives of his friends were on the line should he fail he didn’t want to take any chances that could anger Wild Card at this point. Obeying his orders to the letter was for the best in that regard because Warren likely held his friends hostage which meant that he was the only one who could keep them alive by obeying the villain’s orders.  Currently the villain had wanted him to infiltrate the Empire for one reason or another.  But Ricky was a bit unsure. Why would Warren assign him a duty he was unwilling to do himself?   

Entering the simulation Room as he was led in there by the Doctor and her assistant,  Ricky held out his hand. Normally he would not even do this,  but being armed from the get-go maximized his chances of victory in this situation.  When one of the drones appeared near him Ricky materialized a foot-ball made out of energy and set it near his foot. "Take this. Super Kick!"    With that he’d kick the football into one of the drones and it would explode with the power of a grenade,  taking out the drone rather easily. "Let’s see you get up from that!"   When a couple of the other drones came charging at him disguised as Ash,   Ricky didn’t mess around.   Using his wrist blasters he’d unleash beams at his opponent smashing it into rubble. Watching as the drones became rubble as they attacked him he smiled.  Perhaps he could do this after all. 

"Time to go to work."    No sooner were those words spoken than Ricky was faced by not one but twenty of the simulation drones more.  Ten of them disguised themselves as his missing friends that he believed Wild Card had as hostages. This irritated Ricky… more than anything that Wild Card had ever done in the past.  For Wild Card  previously wouldn’t have kidnapped his friends.  What had changed the villain to make him believe such a thing could potentially pay dividends?  Oh yes.  The fact both of them were on a world that they didn’t want to be in. Ash and smoke filled the air as he reduced the entire group of 20 robots to smithereens easily.  Sure this was beginning to get a bit tiring.  But for the sake of his friends he had to keep going… keep pushing… keep making hiimself get stronger.     

Using his enhanced physical attributes Ricky pushed himself to the absolute limit as more robots came out of where they had been concealed. Truth be told he was starting to tire out. But the doctor said that Primes possessed a sort of “Immortality”  and that would come in handy for him.  It as an advantage he’d use atop the other advantages he had.  For one thing the Robots were dumb as all get out because they couldn’t predict that he’d keep pushing himself to go.  Even though he needed to rest,  Ricky was not going to allow himself to surrender this time around.  No surrender would be given by him to the robots and he would force himself to become the champion. 


As some of the robots got the idea of dog piling on him Ricky punched one of them and sent it smashing into another.  The resounding clang of the metal as the robots collided in a destructive fashion was music to the ears of Ricky.  Who would have thought that he could actually have FUN smashing Tin Cans? Sure fighting the Blitz Bots back home was rather entertaining even if it did at times get to be dull and boring.   Still this was a matter of life and death. Well rather it was a matter of the lives of his friends versus their deaths if he didn’t comply with the orders of Wild Card. Since it seemed that this was the best way to earn his way into the Imperial Ranks he’d keep going. He’d keep pushing,  he’d keep progressing until he reached a new level of power. 

Panting for breath due to the sheer number of robots he had defeated,   Ricky knew that he’d need soon to give it a rest.  But he couldn’t allow himself to rest so soon. Images of his friends in pain shot into his mind like bullets and he steeled himself. No. His friends would NOT be in danger because of his accursed weakness.  It was something he would NOT allow.   Frowning he forced himself off of one knee and resumed the brawl with the bots.  Punches and kicks were shot by him at some of the robots as he didn’t even bother using weapons or techniques anymore. 
 
"Could you crank the difficulty up to the next level   Dr. Neufeld?  I’m beginning to get a little bored. These robots break far too easily."   In all honesty though he wasn’t bored,  but getting  exhausted.  The doctor could see that from looking at Ricky.   “No… you’re done for now Mr.Cervantes. You should head back to your quarters and get some rest…as for your pay,  we'll see what it will amount to when you finish up here.  After all you only reached level 3 of the 30 levels we have prepared for you. I want to see how far you can push yourself Mr.Cervantes.  It isn't every day we get a willing prime to submit to our tests after all.”   
 

[Jack Darby]

Before the sun even rose,   Ricky shot out of bed like a missile.  It was 4 am,  and it was time he got started doing what he needed to do.  The tests and trials assigned by the Empire were ones he needed to pass in order to prove his ‘loyalty’  to the Empire.  In truth he was not sure he was loyal but for the sake of his friends whom Wild Card held hostage he could play the part. Yes this was just a role that he was playing. It didn’t mean anything,  him going along with these tests. Sure it might improve the quality of life for the average joe but that wasn’t his real purpose for it.  His real purpose was the connection to the Empire that it would grant. A connection he could use to see if Warren actually held his friends hostage and if so he could arrange a rescue mission.  This was a suitable plan even if it did have a few holes. First  Ricky didn’t know what Wild Card was capable of in this world,  given he had never seen Wild Card fight here… at all.  Normally this would not be concerning,  but given that Ricky’s NFL-R had been fixed by Wild Card to work here it was more than a bit worrying.    The fact of the matter was that Wild Card possessed the ability to take Ricky down easily by shutting down his NFL-R or so Ricky believed anyway.  The real truth of the matter was that Ricky and Warren were about even in terms of power… Ricky actually surpassing him.

Deciding to skip breakfast that morning,  Ricky proceeded straight to the simulation room.  As it seemed the drones were TOO easy for him of an opponent. Perhaps the difficulty level could be amplified somehow. Maybe he could fight the drones one handed or something.  In any case he definitely needed more of a challenge from those buckets of bolts.  There should be other tests and perhaps he could do those today instead.  Either way Ricky knew that he had a long road ahead of him. Each of the tests was going to be difficult to say the least.  But through his courage and his determination to save the lives of his friends he would face the future fearlessly.  This almost reminded him of the time on Earth when one of the Guardians had been under the control of another,  much like he’d been originally on the wrong side,  that of Wild Card.

Given he had been brainwashed by the NFL-R he held,  and controlled by the modifications Warren had done to the device,  Ricky wasn’t sure why but he was more suspicious than ever of Wild Card. But Ishmael had been the leader of the Guardians.  Well up until the point he’d been forced to sacrifice the Core Energies within himself in order to stop Wild Card.  Only stopping Wild Card didn’t exactly last forever like Ricky had hoped.  Eventually in a game of  Virtual Football Ish was able to regain his powers and even gained new ones.  Of course after that Wild Card was brought back into the ‘game’ by Sudden Death with an Anticorian Cuff… the same technology he’d used to control and manipulate Ish into doing his bidding.

Examining the simulation room as he entered,  Ricky noticed one of the robots was a dragon. Seriously? A dragon. Where did they get the ideas for these things? Ah well. He’d take it out easily and move on with his life.  It shouldn’t be that hard,  if the drones from yesterday were any indication. Cartwheeling around the drone he’d blast it every now and then with his wrist blasters and hammer it with blasts. When it finally fell he sighed. “What’s next? I’ve fought drones yesterday and a mechanical dragon today. What will they bring my way now?” 

Glotz smiled at him. “We’re only getting started Ricky.  I’m going to send a horde of Storm Trooper based simulation bots into the room. Let’s see how you handle them,  alright?”   Inside the simulation room what appeared to be an armored personnel carrier would arrive and out of it would come about 10-15 storm troopers,  armed with blasters and light-sabers.   Scowling,  Ricky realized that he’d need to up the ante if he was going to survive this battle. What he needed to do was to summon the sword that Wild Card had given him so that he could fight. Sure the blade was not actually his first choice of weapon,  but now it might actually prove to be a life-saver.   His eyes lit with power and roughly 2 minutes later a particular sword appeared in his hands. This particular blade had been made by Warren for him.  The blade was a white and red hilted katana with a blade that appears to be made out of Obsidian.   It weighed about 50 pounds but to him was as light as a feather.   An epic clash began.  As the Storm Troopers charged him in groups of 2-3,  Ricky was quick to resort to performing acrobatic maneuvers and jumping to avoid their lasers,  or lightsabers.  But when they had an opening,  he'd relentlessly attack with the Sword of the Forsaken and pummel the simu drones.  Watching as the drones exploded into little more than ashes he smiled.  Glotz panicked though. "That's impossible. You can't take on 15 of them THAT easily. We had the danger setting up to 10." 

[Jack Darby]

While Glotz was having a panic attack due to the sheer carnage that Ricky had unleashed upon any and all of the robots,  the doctor was impressed. Dr. Neufeld smiled at Ricky. “You’re doing well. We’re gonna send in more powerful drones with a bit more firepower now.  Do you need a minute to catch your breath before we up the ante once more? You seem to be doing well at handling yourself so far.”   Ricky looked at her for a moment before shaking his head.  He didn’t need to be coddled.  After all he was not weak like Wild Card and didn’t need people to do work that he could easily do himself.  One of the Storm Trooper Simulation Bots he’d missed charged at him with the light-saber. A quick spin kick sent the Storm Trooper bot down and a swift swing of his sword terminated the robot with a brutal efficiency.  Ricky was done messing around with the robots this time around.  Given that that was the last of the Storm Trooper Simulation Robots he allowed himself to breath a sigh of relief.  In truth he hadn’t expected himself to make it this far.   Doctor Neufeld smiled once more. “Alright.  I’ll send in the units now.”    About six of the Droidekas with the Energy Shields,  the rolling ones were sent in by her… well Simulation Bots programmed to look like them and emulate their attack strategies.

These robots were going to be more difficult.  When Ricky attempted to blast one of them with his wrist blasters the attack didn’t even phase the damn thing.  Why wouldn’t they go down? Ricky had to admit he was beginning to feel a bit exhausted… but he’d keep pushing himself. He couldn’t afford to show weakness now.  Not when he was so close to his eventual goal of earning the release of his friends.  Anger boiled up inside him as Ricky started to hack away at the energy shield of one of them only to get shot in the back. Pain like a series of bullets lanced into his body due to getting shot in the back. His normal battle tactics wouldn’t even phase the robots and that left him with but one option. The shield protected them from above but it did not protect them from underneath. Attacking the environment could be a way he could handle the problem and with that he smiled wickedly before blasting the ground beneath them. This caused each one of the Simu Bots to fall to another level and become essentially scrap metal.

“Keep sending more of your toys my way.  I’ll just keep breaking them.  After all it’s what you paid me to do isn’t it?”  Glotz was calmer now but had witnessed what Ricky had done. Never in his years with the Empire had someone managed to take down the training bots that quickly. The kid had a bright future with the Empire if he decided to become an officer which he probably wouldn’t.  But it was still worth a shot.  He was quickly silenced by Doctor Neufeld though.  Sure enough more of the robots were sent in.  Some of these were a mix of Storm Troopers.  But there were also replicas of some of the Guardians...fellow heroes from his world.   There were ones that looked like Marty and Tua and Ash,  and Ish to be exact as well as Troy. Battling his friends was not normally something Ricky wanted to do,   but he had been informed that these were NOT his friends.  The mere fact that the drones had the gall to impersonate his friends... well it made Ricky boil over with anger.  Right at the moment he boiled over... all of that anger erupted. Ricky started to move quicker and relentlessly pummel the drones.  Ripping the arm off of a Tua Imprsonator he used it to beat one of the Marty Impersonators  into rubble.  Continuing his vicious assault,  Ricky savagely struck several of the Simulation Drones down.  When all of them were finished,  he breathed a hefty sigh of relief.  It was over... at least.  The testing should be completed or at least he thought so. "Am I done yet doc?" 

[Jack Darby]

Panting for breath Ricky was beginning to realize something.  Even Primes had their limitations and he couldn’t keep this going for much longer.  Sure he enjoyed wrecking the robots as who wouldn’t enjoy being able to cause damage without punishment?  But it was beginning to tax on his power and make him more than a little fatigued at present.  Of course that was to be expected given that he’d skipped breakfast. A fact that if his stomach could talk would make it be speaking obscenities at him at this very moment.  Since it couldn’t however it was doing the other thing it could and grumbling loudly.  Food sounded good right about now.  Well he had been really pushing himself so far to excel at this assignment of the Empire.  It hadn’t been the IDEAL assignment,  but it had been one way he could get closer to the Empire. 

“I’m beginning to get tired out…. Could we bring an end to the session Doctor Neufeld?”

The sound of a punch came from the control center.  Glotz smirked maliciously. “The doctor is asleep at her post… but the answer’s no Mr.Cervantes. We’re going to push you to your absolute limits. When you’re begging for mercy… and on your last legs we’ll stop.”   With that Glotz sent in more robots,  at least 50 Storm Troopers.  Marching in a line,  the Storm Troopers were just your regular every day ones. But that wasn’t what made them dangerous… it was the numbers of them.  Given there were fifty of the Simubots disguised as Storm Troopers Ricky knew this battle was going to be more difficult than his usual ones.

Two particular words came into mind to describe his situation. “Oh Shit.” 

Dozens of blasts of laser-fire went around him and missed.  But some of the Storm Troopers were actually accurate. Injured some by the laser fire Ricky forced himself up off of his knees and returned fire at the clones with his wrist blasters. There was no way he was going to make it so damnable easy for them to take him down.  Pain cascaded through his body like a million lances but he refused to surrender or to accept his humiliation.  

“I!”

The clones charged at him and Ricky leapt out of the way beginning to use his acrobatics once more to avoid the clones.  Sure he was in pain and injured. But he wasn’t about to let some tin can prove it’s superiority over him.  His friends would laugh at him if he was to allow such to occur when he could still fight… and was still conscious. 

“Will not…..” 

More of the clones charged at him and unleashed salvos of blaster fire at him.

“Surrender…”

The word surrender was punctuated by Ricky forming a protective shield which he used to block some of the blasts. Sure it was a small shield,  but it served it’s purpose.

Doctor Neufield began to come to and watched the scene. Ricky was outnumbered and outmatched but continued to fight on. She had to admit the Prime possessed a powerful spirit and could prove to be either a powerful ally or an enemy of the Empire.  But given the circumstances Glotz would probably turn him into an enemy if she allowed what was happening to continue. Grabbing a nearby heavy object,  she’d slam it into Glotz’s head and knock him out. As the concussed form of Glotz would fall to the ground unable to even think due to having his brain knocked in by Doctor Neufield,  Ricky was beginning to get a bit winded. 

“Damn it…”    Ricky was now only able to resort to evading the things because he was beginning to get a bit exhausted himself.  Not that anyone could blame him. After battling the drones like he had,  Ricky was bound to be more than a bit exhausted. “I can’t take much more of this…”  Doctor Neufield finally talked to him. “The Empire thanks you for your service Ricky Cervantes. We’ve gained a lot of valuable research data from you.  I’m turning off the simulation because we’re done testing you now. You certainly proved you have spirit.  Some Imperial medics will be sent into the room to treat any injuries you may have. Rest assured,  Glotz will be punished for his actions today quite severely.”

Ricky allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief as the simulation ended.  When it did imperial medics started to check him out.  Two of them worked tirelessly on his wounds.  Once he had been completely treated the doctors said to him. “You’re free to go. But I’d recommend avoiding any labor like what you just did. Any future testing should be put on hold for at least six weeks.”

Resting and relaxing were the orders that the Doctors had given him. Given how he felt right now Ricky was every bit certain he could fulfill the orders. There was no way he'd be doing something like this again for a while. No... he could stay at Fort Zimmer until he recovered some of his strength. But first he had the journey back there to make because he'd need to do so anyway.  Of course by that time,  Warren would probably be back from the Nexus or wherever he had headed.  In any case Ricky knew that he'd soon have to make a decision about Wild Card. With that in mind,  Ricky started to trot out of the facility at a much reduced pace so as not to make his injuries feel worse. "Wow,  this training was intense!"

[Jack Darby]

Limping back towards where the Nexus was,   Ricky knew that Wild Card would probably be angry.   This intensive testing had not brought him any closer to the Empire's ranks and had been a complete and total waste of time.  Every muscle of his body was complaining with aches and pains because it was sore on a level Ricky hadn't honestly expected to have for quite some time.  Of course given that the situation had mostly resulted because he had underestimated the amount of stupidity of the Glotz individual,  Ricky knew that he wouldn't repeat that mistake again.  He'd never go there for more training until he was more powerful and sure they didn't have Glotz behind the controls.  This limping back to the Nexus would take him about five hours because he didn't even have the focus to summon a ride out of Omnilium.