The bearded man in charge of producing the documentary of the Daedlus mission used the display on his camera remote to make sure he had the shot framed right. He did a test run walking towards Ryoko Jeagan to make sure it would look okay. There were plenty of men and women in the sparring room today. Everyone was wearing their provided fitness outfits. Everyone except the super soldiers who had custom outfits. Raddy Volcane had a red and white shirt, that he had already taken off, and blue shorts. Samal Hectorese had on a desert camouflage type sleeveless shirt and pants. Ryoko Jeagan was wearing black spandex that left her legs and arms bare. Even Felina Golumbine was in an exercise outfit even though she never made use of the ship’s gym but it was all about the image.
The recording began. It went great. Samal as usual just stood there and waited for it to be over with. Raddy and Ryoko were not camera shy and were eager to get their images out there. Felina could already tell her chemistry with Raddy was going to look perfect for the broadcast. But overall Ryoko dominated the presentation.
This was the first time Janessa had worn the provided fitness attire. She tried to blend in with the other pilots in her red sports bra and little red shorts. But enough of them knew who Janessa was and she noticed their glances at her. This was the first time she had occasion to really interact with the rest of the crew. So far the only people she had spent time with was the rest of prime squad during fighter training and she spent her lunch and free time either alone or around Junitha, Anyantha and Suchin. Now here she was ordered to take part in this event for the documentary Felina Golumbine was hosting. Janessa found herself wondering what all of these people would think if they knew about Zai. What if he were to show up in the middle of this? The whole thing was being broadcast throughout the ship as it was being filmed.
“You look good,” said Junitha as she snuck up on Janessa.
Junitha was not in the provided fitness attire. She was wearing gray sweatpants and a gray t-shirt that said ‘magical liopleurodon’ on it in orange letters. Janessa read it aloud then asked, “What does that even mean?”
“It means we’re going to candy mountain,” replied Junitha.
“What?”
“Hey look our squad commander is showing off again.”
Ryoko had challenged the three women from another fighter squad to all attack her at once. They were a bit nervous but after a moment they got into it and tried to hit Ryoko. Ryoko had knocked them all to the ground in seconds.
“Who else wants to try their skill against a super soldier?” said Ryoko with a smile.
Junitha smirked and said, “Oh I am so taking this action. I’ll do it.”
Ryoko was glad to hear that someone was not afraid to face her until she saw Junitha then all she could ask was, “what are you wearing?”
“I don’t do spandex,” said Junitha, “or whatever. I prefer a certain level of comfortable movement.”
Ryoko asked Junitha if she wanted any assistance in the match. Junitha declined. Junitha made the first strike and Ryoko blocked. When Ryoko tried to strike back, she missed. Junitha was fast, too fast for Ryoko. Janessa knew Junitha was a gene mod soldier but she had never really thought of her as one because Junitha simply did not act like most other enhanciles. Now she was seeing Junitha go up against the greatest gene mod soldier of her generation and she was holding her own.
Ryoko was not used to losing. In fact her whole life she could not remember losing at anything. She always won and there was never any doubt it would happen. Junitha was not something she had been expecting. She did not know what Junitha would do next. Then she realized why she was having so much trouble. Yes Junitha was fast, her reflexes were incredible. But there was something else.
Ryoko held her position and said, “You know how I was trained to fight don’t you.”
“What?” said Junitha feigning ignorance, “oh wait are you talking about how you were taught to observe an opponents muscle movements and predict their moves. Yeah I think I read something about that on you once. There is a lot of skin on display in here. Everyone is in their tight little gym outfits. And everyone here is nice and fit so you can almost see the muscles under their skin. But I’m wearing a loose t-shirt and baggy sweatpants. You can’t see enough of me to predict my movements.”
Junitha then leaped in the air and tried to kick Ryoko in the face. Ryoko blocked it. Junitha took a moment to shoot a thumb up to Janessa. Ryoko punched Junitha in the face.
“Never look away from your opponent in battle,” said Ryoko smugly.
Junitha rubbed her cheek and smiled. Then she turned back to Ryoko and laughed and renewed her attack.
No comments:
Post a Comment