The Training Sessions Chapter 2: The Basics II

After spending a week on training with Dynamo, Rico had mostly improved on his speed and battle knowledge. His movements and attacks had advanced thoroughly each day. Now, for the following week, he has to learn how to block and dodge. It shouldn't be that difficult for him, should it?

"DODGE THIS ONE!", Byrd shouted as he thrusted punches to Rico's chest.

Panicking, Rico hopped up three steps backwards. Byrd chased ahead by stretching both his arms out to grab Rico's neck, forcing him to hop back more. His nephew tries to carefully observe both hands, but accidentally twists an ankle and falls on his back. Rico yelps in surprise as he falls flat. The next thing he sees is a yellow trainer about to stamp on his head. He rolls over to his left, attempting to escape from his uncle's clutches.

"Don't forget I'm not the only one you're going against!", the blue man reminded Rico.

"What?", he asked before a confident Setuh is seen floating above him.

"Watch out for my rock, honey!", she exclaimed.

Using telekinesis, she throws a brick-red boulder at Rico's head. Rico screams. He points at the thrown rock with a shining finger. Just in time, a laser is shot out, and, thankfully, it obliterates the hell out of the boulder, taking it apart into tiny, rat-sized pieces. He breathed heavily before quickly getting up. He thought the lesson was going to be as easy as pie; it turned out all wrong for him. It's been 5 minutes in the session and he's having had himself avoiding dangerous attacks that had been thrown at him.

"Why did I agree to this?!", he frightenedly thought, as he gulped, knowing that he has to deal with all of this, "I should've just asked to control my lasers...".

"ACHTUNG, BABY!!!", Byrd's slimy voice appeared behind him.

Rico turned around to find his uncle carry a large tree in his hands. A grim face of joy appears on Byrd's face as he is about to whack the robot off. Once the tree is about to make contact, Rico immediately ducks down in a panic.

A close call...

"TIME OUT! TIME OUT!", exclaimed a ventilating Rico, "I call time out!".

"Oh bollocks! I didn't even hit you once!", Byrd shouted, still holding the tree.

"Byrd! He calls time-out!", Setuh shouted from miles away, scolding him.

Disappointed, Byrd drops the tree, and stomps away. Setuh walks to Rico, smiles, and hugs him.

"Good job, son!", she said, "You alright?".

"N-No...", he said, still scared, "You literally dropped a 100-ton rock on me!".

“Yeah… Sorry about that…”, Setuh said, “I’ll just spook you out in a safer way then. No harm needed for that right?”.

“Mum…”, quietly moaned Rico.

“Anyways! In the next fifteen minutes, we’ll be changing up our methods and act faster, so you better think fast with that body of yours!”.

“Oh seriously?!”.

“Hey! You said you wanted to ensure self-protection! After all, we’re only training you in the best way possible!”.

“I-I guess you’re right…”.

Rico tightly tugs his left arm with his right. He begins to feel a bit down, until his mother rubs his back and gives out a proud smile.

“Don’t worry about it at the moment.”, comforted his mother, “I know you may be slightly scared, but know this, sometimes you need to stand by yourself, and build that courage that’s been flowing inside of you.”

“Mm…”, shyly mumbled Rico.

“All I’m saying is that you need to be brave, and have a strong core.”

“…”

“Just believe in yourself. It’s what those who are close to you really want from you, okay?”.

“R-Right…”, stammered Rico.

“That’s my boy.”

Setuh kisses her son in the forehead, and softly says:

“Love you, Rico.”

“Love you too, mum…”

Exactly fifteen minutes later, the groups went back in action. Quick thinking was needed for each avoiding moment. Rico was fast on his feet, dodging each predictable attack, and blocking the unpredictable ones. Byrd - who put back his grimly joyful face - was giving out eve more leg whips and fist thrusts towards his nephew. He licks his lips as he tries out different moves that Rico hasn’t witnessed before. Seriously frowning, the robot blocks out the next attacks, and rapidly pushes Byrd away.

“Not too shabby, kid…”, he said to his nephew, “Let’s see how well you do with WEAPONS!”.

Out of the blue, a strange object in the form of a guitar axe hybrid in Byrd’s hand. He quickly spins the guitar around before striking a menacing pose. Flabbergasted, the metal child’s mouth widened, as he stepped a few steps back. He’s not going to do well in this, is he?

“Your mother is a really good engineer, despite how deliberately annoying she can be at times!”, Byrd shouted, “She made this one just for my 988th birthday, and I’ve been using this ever since that day!”.

Rico keeps his guard up.

“Ya see, Rico. There are two ways you can use this. The first way is… You can play music with it. The second way…”

Immediately, the blue man raised his axe and charged towards Rico in one long jump. He does an overhead chop, which was avoided.

“You can CHOP the ever living hell out objects with it!!!”, Byrd screamed in joy.

Rico gasped at the sight of Byrd, as his uncle continued his attempts of cutting some parts of Rico down. At this point, he needs to survive this session. One swipe after another, Byrd moves faster and chips again. He manages to cut the elbows off, only to expose another layer of metal that was hidden beneath them. Also, he cuts a scar near Rico’s left knee.

A chill is driven up Ricos wires as he sees Byrd lifting his axe to deal another sharp blow to him. However, just as he’s about to do that a foot kicks against Byrd’s face.

It was Setuh’s turn…

“Argh!”, shrieked Byrd, “What the hell sis-“.

As he was about to finish a sentence, Setuh elbows him hard in the stomach, leading to him groaning in agony.

“Sorry, Byrd!”, she chirped in a cheerful tone, “But it’s my turn!”.

As she said this, she equips a black umbrella with strangely spotted, yellow patterns imprinted on it.

"An umbrella?", thought Rico.

Thinking of using an umbrella as a weapon made him chuckle under his breath. However, that savoury laugh lasted until Setuh fiddled with the umbrella. It made a sound that was similar to a gun's as she cocked it. In an instant, the grin from Rico disappeared as she aimed the tip of the umbrella towards him.

A trigger was pulled. Out shot numerous bullets that were heading towards Rico's chest. Panicking again, Rico blocks the bullets with his arms, while jumping backwards in a hurry. The projectiles managed to tear off a few layers of his metal skin, but, thankfully, didn't cut off the wires. Setuh cocks the gun a few more times before moving and shooting more at her son. Rico dodges by sidestepping both ways, but some lucky bullets zoomed past and tore off small parts of his skin.

"Oh right!", she blurted as she shot more at the moving jumping robot, "Forgot to tell you this but you can fight-".

She was about to finish until a fist shoves into her face. Dropping her shotgun, Setuh gains a blurred vision, and stumbles backwards. As she slowly regains a clear sight, she spots Byrd, who was still holding onto his fat belly. His face breaks out a fiercely angry gaze. His breath is mostly heavy, and a little pint of blood could be seen leaving his mouth.

"Don't ever... Fuсking do that... Again!", he warned.

"Your fat ass was in the way, Byrd.", Setuh said, in a calm, cruel, serious tone, wiping some bruises on her face, "I didn't have a choice to punch you. Now, be a good man, and move over."

Byrd had a feeling he should lash back more, but he knows he shouldn't... Not in front of his nephew...

Setuh's brother pauses to calm down for a few seconds. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. The two siblings wouldn't really apologise and forgive each other for anything really. Despite being a family with their other brother Dynamo, they both struck out as rivals for a thousand years. They would do anything to annoy and hurt each other regardless of the situation. Seeing this, Rico realises that not everyone has to be friendly.

Setuh walks past her brother. Twin guns - both of which she created herself long ago - suddenly appear in her hands. Byrd turns around to wield his axe, and stands alongside her.

"You're not even gonna say sorry, huh sis?", Byrd said, slightly pissed off.

"Shut up and focus on the session.", she said, returning to her cheerful tone, "And Rico...".

"Y-Yes?", her son replied.

She throws a wrench in front of the robot. Looking at the wrench, Rico feels the same anxiety he's felt since his beginning. He looks back at them.

"This will be your weapon.", confidently explained Setuh, "I want you to hit us with it. At least, try."

"Are you... Sure?", the robot nervously asked.

"Yup. A hundred percent. I said this before, and I'll say it again. You're allowed to counter any move I throw at you if you want. This isn't a time for dodging anymore."

"B-But-".

"Don't worry about me or my brother. For now, until I call time-out, I need you to do fight us at the same time. Read our attacks, our defenses. Do everything you can until one of us can't fight any longer."

"..."

"We'll hold back, but I know you won't."

"..."

"So, come on. Let's fight."

To Be Continued...