“HRRRAAAGGGHHH!!!!!” The Boy tugs, and his hand, each finger firmly grasped into the ground, lifts and breaks the ground from beneath Peppa’s feet.
“Whoa!” Having lost her balance for just a moment, Peppa adjusts and flips back in the air a few times. She lands, and curses. She thought about it too hard and got the rug pulled out from under her with simple brute strength. “Hoo… okay, guess I should take off the kid gloves?”
The kid holds some remainder of stone in his hand, and with a flex it’s pebbles and dust no longer occupying the space his fist inhabits. He walks toward Peppa, silent but thrumming.
Peppa nods to herself as the kid draws near. Still, can’t rightly bring herself to any lethal options, her opponent being a kid, so she brings up the Power Pole. “Power Pole Extend!”
She swings it down, but is surprised again when he drops low, her extending staff whiffing down to the ground uninterrupted, and then extending back to poke the tree behind her, pinning her in place for a precious instant. “Ah phooey.”
Anticipating the punishment coming her way, Peppa’s body reflexively forces itself to relax, muscles going loose, but still able to adapt with fluid motions in response to the oncoming assault. But despite all her martial arts knowhow, her head still squeezes her eyes shut and grits her teeth.
“PUFF, WHEEZE!”
…she pries an eye open to peer down at her foe, prostrated on the ground in front of her.
The cyborg can’t do anything but pant for air as superheated exhaust vents out of his machinery… and from the seams where it is joined to his flesh.
“Ohmygoodness,” Peppa hisses, kneeling down by him. She’s no healer like Izzy or her mom, but she can at least spare him some energy to give his body a fighting chance before it tires out.
https://youtu.be/SY0DtL9oBrgFrantic, Peppa mutters, “C’mon, you can’t die yet, This Mercenary is still a Youngster, there’s still a ways to go to be a Great one, huh? Don’t even know your name!”
After a minute of helping him out, his breathing slows. Peppa feels a slight pulse, and breathes out a sigh of relief.
A human hand grips her wrist.
She smacks the boy’s hand off on reflex and gets in a defensive stance, but again the boy grabs her, and gets ahold of her boot.
Peppa grouses, “Kid, c’mon! Don’t you know when to quit-”
He hits his head to the ground, and politely asks,
“PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE-”
Peppa lifts the boy up by his jacket, “'Please please please' What?!”
“Please lead me to her,” the boy says, his pupils pinpricks, both the robotic and the organic. “I’ll pay you. I need to find her, then I will crush her. This Great Mercenary gives his word, and his coin.” He holds the card up.
Peppa takes the card.
The boy smiles.
Peppa smiles back.
“Nah, she’d win.”The smile on his face twitches, then he snarls. “Nuh uh!”
Peppa’s retort is to drop him, and he drops.
