The Underground (Cyberpunk Au)

Nice Try Hacker.

Italics is Invis

Normal is Connor

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Another night, another fight. Invis took a seat somewhere at the top, as usual. Many tend to try and get the closest seats to the action but Invis preferred the high view.

He waited patiently for the next fight, a little bored to be honest. The first few fights weren't very exciting. Hopefully, this next one will lighten things up.

Connor geared up in the changing room. He stuck to the little corner he'd been shown to on his first night. A few other people nodded at him but mostly he was left alone which suited him just fine. While his fights so far had been against androids only, there was no telling at what point Barstow wanted a fully red blooded bout.

Soon it was his turn. Connor bounced lightly on his toes by the red door and as soon as the buzzer sounded he was stepping out.

The crowd's attention quickly turned back to the arena, people already cheering at Gavin's appearance. Invis craned his neck to try and get a better view and pulled up a screen, trying another scan. Yet again, like most other nights, it only resulted with an error. He tried again and decided to just use a longer procedure. A tedious scan but it goes through any firewall over time.

On the other side of the arena, the doors opened and an unexpected robot leaped out and bounced around excitedly, four sharp legs scuttling around the place.

He eyed his opponent with an edge of wariness. Taking in its strange shape, knowing he shouldn't judge his opponents before seeing what they can do. He knew that one blow from those sharp legs could easily impale him.

There was no time to worry anymore though, the klaxon sounded and the android loomed over him. Quick thinking saved Connor from having the needle arms be the last in what could have been a very short fight. He dove between robot's legs, scraped his palm over the sand and it burned. Where he'd been moments before was a small hole in the ground. A revision of his assessment from earlier was needed, if the arms touched him, it wouldn't just end his fight, but probably also his life.

"Oh my fucking god it's a spider that lost half its legs," Invis said with a chuckle as he noticed the robotic opponent, lifting up another screen to give the metal pest a scan. It was such an easy thing to hack- many robots that appeared here was easy to hack, really- and it made Invis wonder if anybody actually decided to hack one and take control of the fight.

His eyes shifted to the other screen, still waiting for any results.

The Scuttler bounced up high in the air, all four legs pointing down at Gavin in an attack ready to pierce his heart.

Speed and agility were Connor's saving grace. He darted around the ring, looking for an opening when the pest attacked. Finally, he saw one. The floating head seemed to be the center point of where that whole robot was controlled, if he destroyed it the fight would be over in no time. Connor waited for the next attack, let himself be cornered. The audience screamed, sure his end was mere moments away. The robot scuttles up to him, an arm came out and Connor grabbed hold, letting himself be lifted into the air. From there it was a simple matter of sliding down the raised arm and wrapping legs around the floating head.

The robot seemed to kind of "freak out" when it was grabbed and began to furiously spin his arms around rapidly like a fan, wanting to get Gavin off. It bounced around as it's arms- legs? Whatever they were- spun as if it was panicked.

Invis' screen had one result pop up. It was a name, or more so a lack of it.

Name: ¿¿¿ 

"... really?" This caught the hacker's interest. He doubled the screen, leaving one to scan and typed into the other.

Name: Gavin |

And it replied with:

Incorrect Name.

"... I know everyone here uses a fake name," Invis started as he dismissed the second screen. "But I would know their real name already with one scan. At least I know Gavin isn't his real name."

Connor grips onto the floating head for dear life as the robot freaked out and the crowd bursts out in laughter. Connor keeps an eye on the arms as one went sailing towards him. It collided with Scuttler's head, Connor ducked out of the way. Another punch from the other side, this one Connor barely avoided and it skimmed his rips with a scrape. Still, he couldn't let go. One more jab was all that was needed. Connor sat up around Scuttler's head and patter the baldness of his head. 

"That's all you got, fella?" he asked teasingly.

The robot let out a high pitched shriek as it continued spinning and wobbling around until it came to a very abrupt stop, raising all four legs to try and stab Gavin again.

Invis' screen came up with another result.

Occupation: Fighter.

"Yeah, kinda figured," he deadpanned. The only fighters he knew who would have such a difficult identity to uncover were the top 10 ranked fighters. Ezra was already off the list since he already talked to him, but that still left 6 other fighters to his knowledge.

The sharp legs whistled through the air as they tried to impale Connor but he was prepared. As lightly as he could, he sprung off the head of the robot and landed with a stumble as all breath was knocked from him. He watched from where he lay on his back in the sand as Scuttler's legs landed in his head, plastic and metal crumpled and the android collapsed.

Around him, the crowd went wild. Connor picked himself up, clutched at his ribs and shuffled out of the ring.

Invis' screen soon began to glitch before a simple message appeared

Nice try hacker.

Before the identification file went on lockdown.

Invis indignantly scoffed. "Wow, alright then mate." He dismissed the screen with a roll of his eyes. Whatever, the battle was over anyway.

Still, Invis couldn't help but wonder who that was. Well, he narrowed it down to a group of people...