Phoenix Industries

"Ah, crap." Victoria said, feeling the pain in her arm. She clicked the pen to a sword, getting ready to parry when necessary.

The robots stepped nearer to Victoria, before slumping over as they were turned off. "Apparently, Vlad wants you out of there," Dexter shrugged, jumping down into the arena and blasting the robots into oblivion. "You'll have time to heal up before you try again."

Victoria looked up, confused. "No! I wanted to finish them off! I could handle it!" she shouted.

"Sorry, Vlad's the one in control here. If he has them shut off, then you couldn't have done it. He may be an idiot, but he's usually a good judge of capability. Don't worry, you'll get another chance, unfortunately," Dexter answered, blowing her bangs futilely out of her eyes.

"I could have done it! I know I could have!" Victoria protested, standing up with a scowl plastered on her face. She was dripping with sweat from everything, and she was livid.

"Hey, take it up with Vlad, not me. But he's gonna be pissed if you get killed. We're running low on new recruits."

"I wouldn't have gotten killed." Victoria scoffed, angry.

"Yeah, whatever girlie," Dexter shrugged, sounding rather indifferent.

"How do I get back up there from here?" she asked, irritated.

"Oi, Vlad, take us up!" Dexter called up to the ceiling. A few seconds later, the floor of the arena rose up to match the initial flooring.

"You're a lucky girl. Guys are scared of me." Victoria said abruptly.

Dexter tilted her head slightly in confusion, before realizing, or at least thinking she realized, what Victoria meant. "What, you mean Vlad? He's too much of an idiot to be scared of me," she stated with a shrug.

"Doesn't change the fact that you're lucky." Victoria said, examining her wound. She tried sticking her finger in to fish the bullet out, and gasped in pain. "Ow."

"You seem to be a bit dense as well. Don't stick your finger in the bullet hole," Dexter frowned, brushing her white bangs out of her eyes and squinting at it. "C'mon, let's get you to the infirmary... Toni, you may begin, Vlad will monitor your session."

Toni nodded and plugged her keytar into a mini amp in her pocket. As she walked out into the arena, she pulled out some earplugs and stuffed them into her ears.

"I'm fine." Victoria said, rolling her eyes. "I'm just trying to get the damn thing out." she tried again, clenching her teeth at the pain.

Dexter twitched slightly, grabbing the girl roughly by the arm and dragging her out of the room to the infirmary.

As Toni walked into the arena, once again, five robots came out of a door, which quickly shut behind them, armed with guns. They waited for Toni to make the first move.

"Ow, that's where it hurts, dammit!" Victoria shouted.

"Can't hurt any less than you trying to dig the bullet out of your arm, so stop your whining," Dexter snapped in reply, pushing her through a door and into a mostly white room where Victoria was met face to face with a mousy looking young man.

"It still hurt!" she shouted at her, and looked at the man. "Hi." she said.

Toni began to play, but what came out sounded like an extremely loud and high-pitched scream. She didn't exactly know how strong the SN engine was, but maybe if she could play with a high enough frequency, maybe she could short out the robots.

Dexter gestured at Victoria, stating simply, "Bullet in her arm," before walking back out of the room, shutting the door behind her, and heading back to the arena.

"Uh, yes, ma...am..." the man trailed off as Dexter shut the door, letting out a sigh, before turning his attention to Victoria. "You want it out, right? The bullet?" he asked, looking at her arm.

---

The robots didn't seem too affected, at least not yet, and continued advancing, one firing a warning shot.

"No, I want to let it respawn in my body. Of course I want it out!" she said sarcastically.

"...Bullets don't respawn. The aren't living..." the doctor stated awkwardly, grabbing a pair of long tweezers and holding Victoria's arm still while he extracted the bullet as painlessly as he could.

"It was sarcasm." Victoria rolled her eyes, and gasped when the bullet slid its way out. "Ow..." she said quietly.