Stay Safe

*Shhhht*

The sound of velcro crackling sounded through the room as I slipped on a pair of sparring gloves. As a programmer, I have to protect my fingers. Mark was also pulling on a pair of gloves. While he might be covered with artificial flesh and muscle, he still has a titanium skeleton underneath. He could easily break bones bare handed.

Mark and I also took off our socks. Aside from MMA usually being done barefooted, he, my wife, and I don't wear shoes in the house. It allows Mark to spend less time cleaning.

I turned to look at Arthur while I approached the ring. "Any requests on the discipline we use?"

Arthur shrugged as he finished sipping his tea. "Freestyle."

I chuckled as I swung open the gate to the ring. "Alright. Mark, you heard him, right?"

Mark nodded as he followed me into the ring. "I did hear him. What strength level and protocol shall I use?"

I thought for a moment and shook my head. While I wanted to show off, there was no reason to risk injury. "Let's just keep it easy. Sparring for both."

Mark pulled the ring door shut as his eyes flashed. "Sparring mode activated. Ready for combat."

I smiled. "Hold up for a sec, I need to stretch."

Mark chuckled. "Indeed you do, James. I've had to treat your strained muscles due to improper stretching 23 times. I insist that you do not neglect stretching your groin. I know how you like to go for high kicks."

Arthur immediately cleared his throat, grabbing my attention. "James, please don't hurt yourself."

I rolled my eyes as I pulled my right foot up behind my body, stretching my quad. "Don't worry. I'll be fine."

After stretching for about a minute, I felt that I was limber enough for a light spar. There was no need to overdo it. "Alright, I'm ready."

Mark nodded, falling into a fighting stance. Both fists were held right even with his nose, his left fist slightly forward compared to his right. "Here I come."

I smiled and fell into my own fighting stance. Over the years of learning various disciplines to properly program Mark, I found this stance. I keep my legs loose and my shoulders tight, flexed back using my upper back muscles. My hands lie around chest level. I discovered that this was most comfortable not only due to the relaxed stance, but also my high reaction time allowed me to quickly block my face in the event of an unexpected strike towards my head.

I held my ground as Mark slowly approached, slightly moving his torso side to side in an effort to bait out a reaction from me. A less experienced fighter would get anxious and take the bait, leaving themselves open to a quick finisher.

A couple seconds went by until Mark was within my range. I would never know until we actually fight what approach he will take. He has a longer reach than me, with him being 6'7 and me being only 6'2. Ah, how I wish I had a few more inches.

Evidently, since he was within my range, he was going for a reactive opener rather than proactive. I've fallen for his quick openers that are more like finishers more times than I could count. I was proud of my creation.

Taking the invitation, I decided to go in hot. I quickly threw forward a left jab, this is usually the fastest punch a person can let loose if they are a righty and in a proper stance. Mark quickly reacted and moved his right hand to catch my left fist.

In response, I pulled back my left fist, torquing my upper body and letting loose a chest level kick with my right foot. Feints were a huge part of my fighting style.

Mark saw this and smirked. "How predictable."

His left hand shot out to catch my foot as he also stepped towards the incoming kick to stabilize his body and put his weight against it.

I knew he was waiting for this so I stopped the kick, leaving my leg hanging inches away from his approaching grip. Using my right leg that was already in the air as a counter weight, I hopped up. The muscles on my left leg rippled as it shot into the air.

My upper body spun as I ascended, providing some momentum to complete the double feint. I was now parallel to the ground, almost six feet in the air.

Flying in, true to its target, my left foot made a clean hit on the side of Mark's head. Since he already was moving in the direction I had just kicked him towards, he stumbled, almost falling down. Unfortunately, it wouldn't be that easy. He tucked his head and rolled, quickly getting back to his feet. Mark turned back towards me, tilting his head left and right as if testing for damage.

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, dude. I didn't hit you THAT hard."

Mark shrugged. "That was a new one."

I smirked. "Yes it was. You like it?"

Mark nodded, his eyes flashing slightly. "It was quite… enlightening. I am ready to continue."

I nodded in response, getting ready for his approach. Unfortunately, I would make a fatal mistake. I blinked.

By the time my eyes opened back up, he was mere inches from me. Even with my reaction speed, there was nothing I could do to counter it. He quickly grabbed my wrist, pressing down on a pressure point that made my arm freeze up. I couldn't move it even if I wanted to.

All I could do was watch as he pulled on my arm, flinging me over his shoulder as he turned his back to me. The world seemed to slow down as I flew through the air, guided by this bear of an android. I got a great view of Arthur with his eyes peeled open, about to drop his tea cup as he watched what was happening.

As I approached the ground, my eyes naturally turned towards my destination below. My body slammed the ground with a dull thud and I bounced off of the mats a few inches into the air.

Mark kept hold of my wrist, seemingly no intention of letting go. "Yield."

I smacked the mat a few times with my free hand, not speaking yet due to the pain I was in. He quickly released my wrist, taking a few steps back. The instant he released my wrist, it felt like most of the pain disappeared.

Turning slightly, I laid flat on the mats, catching my breath. I hadn't even exerted myself much. This experience was just a bit too… exhilarating. "Dude, what the FUCK?"

*Shhht*

The sound of velcro peeling sounded out as I said this. Mark tilted his head in confusion. "Did I do something wrong?"

I smacked the mat in frustration, not knowing how to respond. "No, you didn't do anything wrong. How did you even do that though?"

Mark nodded in understanding. "I shall update my speech recognition patterns with that meaning of the phrase. For your question, I propelled myself forward the instant I noticed the muscles around your eyes contract. It is a sure sign that someone is going to blink."

I didn't even know how to react at that point. What was this monster I had created?

Suddenly, Arthur interjected. "HOLY SHIT! THAT WAS BRILLIANT!"

I scoffed, tilting my head to the side to look at Mark. By now, his gloves were off and he was walking over to me to do a medical check. Part of sparring mode is to ensure that the sparring partner hasn't sustained any injuries during the sparring session.

Mark placed his right hand on my left forearm, clamping it in place. "Please lie still."

I complied as per usual. He was merely scanning my wrist. "You've been going easy on me, haven't you?"

Mark tilted his head. "This was a demonstration, not calibration like usual, right? I presumed that you wanted to impress Arthur."

I groaned with displeasure, my pride and manhood were scarred. "And I really thought I was getting good."

Mark's eyes flashed as he scanned my wrist. "Well, James, I'd say you are coming along quite well. According to my research, the amount of progress you've made across only 5 years, 3 months, and 22 days is well above what most others could accomplish. In addition, this is across multiple disciplines which there are few records of."

I rolled my eyes. Somehow it felt that he was sucking up to me. "Oh cut it out. At this point, you should be teaching me."

Mark's eyes stopped flashing as he finished his scan, releasing my forearm. "I'd actually say the opposite. While my physical parameters may be far superior to yours, the creativity and adaptability you show in our sparring sessions is well above my abilities. For example, in our last 25 sparring sessions, you have completed between 38 and 62 feints. The exact number is uncertain to me due to my incomplete definition of a feint."

I sat up, gently holding my wrist since there was a throbbing pain in the joint. "So, is my wrist alright?"

Mark nodded. "It is just a light sprain. I will give you an injection and a brace now. You should complete a full recovery sometime this evening with full immobilization. I chose to grab your left wrist since an injury on your right would be quite inconvenient."

I smiled, appreciating how considerate he was. Even though I programmed him to be this way, it still felt nice how caring he was. "So, Arthur, I take it you're impressed?" I used my right hand to push off the mat and stand up, walking over to the gate of the ring with Mark. He opened it for me and allowed me to exit first.

Arthur had, at this point, placed his cup of tea on the table. He was excitedly typing on his tablet. "That would be an understatement. If his hand to hand combat is this good, I can only imagine what would happen with a gun in his hand."

I shrugged in response, allowing Mark to walk by me towards the cabinet where we stored the medical supplies. Since we spar in here almost every morning, I decided to stock up on medical equipment and consumables to avoid having to visit a doctor every other day. "As I said, ballistics calibration is not yet complete. I expect the last few percentage points to bring his capabilities to a whole new level."

Arthur nodded while wearing a huge smile. "That's fantastic. Would you mind if we set up a formal demonstration with some professional fighters? The board members and investors would quite literally throw money at this. Let alone his combat abilities, his hospitality and medical capabilities are well above anything we have sold, period. Can he cook?"

I chuckled. "Yes, of course he can cook. He has a bartending certification too. I took a course with him last week."

Arthur sighed. "Mark is really like a brother to you, huh?"

I smiled and nodded. "I guess that's true. I never had a sibling so it gives me a little extra motivation. He might only be almost human, but he's a part of my family at this point."

Arthur nodded in understanding. "I'm sure he'll do great with the baby. It should be an interesting experience for him. Does he have any childcare protocols?"

I laughed. "Not yet. I didn't want to waste any space on his memory drive for now. He knows my wife is pregnant though and is overtly curious about the baby."

Arthur finished typing on his tablet and looked up, making eye contact with me. "Are you sure that you're fine with a demonstration? You know very well the type of requests that can come through from those simpletons."

I sighed. "It will be trouble but it's nothing I can't handle. I can push them off to my team. They never seem to have enough work to do."

Arthur rolled his eyes as he pressed one last button on the keyboard, presumably sending an email to the board regarding the demonstration. "Yeah, no shit they never have work to do. You do it all."

I coughed, trying to figure out a good topic change. "Nice weather we're having."

Arthur shook his head. "You'll never change, you damned workaholic."

I scoffed. "Oh, that's right coming from you."

After a moment of silence, we both laughed heartily. It seemed I had really lightened his mood a bit. Arthur might not smile often, but when he does, it lights up a room and just makes his happiness contagious.

Mark then walked back up to me, holding an injector and a wrist brace. "James, please give me your wrist."

Arthur spoke up while Mark applied the treatment. "You know, this demonstration could bring in a huge amount of funding."

I shook my head immediately, not needing to think about it at all. "I don't need more funding. I just need more time and to not be interrupted."

Arthur shrugged. "Well, I'm sure your team would happily accept the funding in your place. The investors need to at least see on paper that their money is going towards the intended project."

I nodded but then winced slightly as Mark pierced my skin with the injector. "Very well. When are we shooting to have this thing?"

Arther chuckled. "Considering that anytime your name or team is mentioned, the entire board responds at the speed of light, I expect it to be Monday or Tuesday."

I sighed. "So soon… just make sure they know that ballistics is not ready."

Arthur raised his brow, giving off his signature scheming look. "Can he hit a target?"

I scoffed. "Who do you think I am?"

Arthur nodded. "That's more than enough. Anyways, I shall get going. Lana is going to be home soon and I hear you have lunch plans."

I tilted my head, slightly confused. "Are you keeping tabs on my wife?"

Arthur laughed. "Of course not. That would just be crossing the line. There is someone shadowing her, a female operative mind you, that only reports a status, not a location. On the contrary, your friend here was quite loose-lipped while I waited for you to come downstairs."

I glanced at Mark, not thinking too much of it. He knows how close I am with Arthur. We have dinner with our wives every so often. "Makes sense. I'll walk you out then."

About a minute later, we were at the front door. As usual, I shook his hand before opening the door. "See you on Monday."

As he walked through the doorway, he turned around, looking me straight in the eye. "You know I do all of this to keep you safe, right?"

I nodded. "Of course I do, and I really appreciate it."

Arthur smiled. "I just don't want you to forget. I'll be seeing you, James."