The boy eventually gets back to his feet with only one arm, but his other is still overheated and deadweight. “No for real, I can-”
Peppa gives him a shove, sending the boy off balance really easily. “Your arm’s off.”
The boy grits his teeth, and the servos in his arm whir futilely. He raises a finger, “Just needs some cooling off, one moment please!”
He then runs over to the stream, and hops in. After a few seconds, he hops out of the water, does some flips, and lands, a perfect repeat performance! He puffs air and water out of his nose, and triumphantly says, “See? Good as new-”
He looks around the clearing, and sees no one. “Hey! Where’d you go!?”
Birds fly off at the shout, making the tree branches above jostle the teeniest bit.
Water splooshes down on him from above.
https://youtu.be/aIOFT5kAaGMSputtering, he looks up, and sees Peppa reclining on a tree branch above, grooming her tail.
“So slow~!” she taunts. She waves the card, “You want me to pick you up something, you know, since you can’t keep up?”
He shoots his hand up to grab her, only for her to flip off the branch his robotic hand grips and crushes. She then lands her feet on the arm’s cable and starts sliding down it. His first thought is to retract his arm, but that would just bring her closer faster! So instead he waves his arm around to shake her off.
The unsteady ground going round and round sends Peppa spiraling! …with her descent down the rail uninterrupted. Whooping and laughing, she’d have to say that all in all, it’s better than any of the rides at Dreamland.
With that not working either, he settles on a third thing (which really should be his go to): he disperses his arm and aims his megabuster at Peppa.
But way too late! Peppa kicks his megabuster away, and brings her hands up to her face.
It is a gesture the boy recognizes, having seen The Old Man do it once (and then nothing for a whole day!) so he squeezes his eyes shut. He then notes, with alarms blaring throughout his head, that his robot eye cannot close. He can only bring his hand up to shield his vision, the rest of his body one big opening. Now she'll say something like "Solar Flare!" or "Taiyouken!" or-
“Nghuuuuuuu! Rerorerorerorerorero~!”
...lowering his guard, he takes in the sight of a cross-eyed Peppa sticking her tongue out and waving her fingers at him.
“Why you, you!” he raises his megabuster, and sprouts a fist, which he shakes at her. “Why ya tryin' so hard to make a fool of me!?”
Peppa scratches her cheek, and looks away. “Not <span class="mu-i">that</span> hard."
He grabs at the card in her other hand, but she reflexively backhands his fingers. He winces, blowing on his fingers, then hisses out, “Thief!”
“The assassin is calling me a thief,” Peppa notes dryly. She shakes her head, then responds, “Don’t worry, I’ll give this back after we get some grub.”
