♪

You get on with life as an engineer

You're a logical kind of person

♪

Ellowyn leaned back, so much so that a normal human body would have already yielded its balance to the unforgiving pull of gravity. Her right knee bent at a 45 angle while her other leg stretched straight, like a ballet dancer held in place by an invisible partner.

She could feel sweat dripping down her back as the four thrusters on her shoulder and arms overworked themselves.

Stretching her hand towards the ground, she lifted her straight left leg up and does a 360 upper kick in the air, her body supported only by her arms and the thrusters on her belt and legs.

♫

You like to contemplate logic.

But when you start to daydream,

Your mind turns straight to dance.

Boom boom shake da boom-boom-boom!

♫

The music pace changed the moment her foot touched the ground. Her graceful ballet like movements became faster and more energetic. She spun her foot forward, swype kicking an invisible target in front of her before breaking into a backward run.

Holding two handguns, she fired at the non-existing threat chasing after her.

Without stopping, She pressed her right foot hard and began a no handed cartwheel to the side while still firing at the invisible threat.

Even with the upward push of thrusters, inertia still pulled her body backward and kept her a good distance away from the imagined threat.

♫

You like to talk about physics.

You like to talk about math.

You like to talk about science.

But when you start to daydream,

Your mind turns straight to dance.

Boom boom shake da boom-boom-boom!

♫

She put one hand on the ground to change direction and continued cartwheeling around the target, continuously pelting it with bullets.

♪

Do you love to dance more than you love to science?

♪

Slowing down with the beat, she performed the ballet like movements once again while catching her breath.

♫

You're not too fond of socializing,

You really hate misspelled formulas,

But you just think back to dance,

And you're happy once again.

Boom boom shake da boom-boom-boom!

♫

She picked up the pace once again. As she was in the middle of a cartwheel, however.

Bonus Recovery Action - Simulating Thruster failure

The notice came too sudden for her to react. Two thrusters on her right arm and one on her leg went offline, breaking her mid air balance. Despite seeing the clear instructions to recover from the fall, the lack of experience forced her to simply abandon the movement and roll on the ground.

Overall Score: 85/100

Movement Accuracy: 8/10

Movement Timing: 9/10

Pace Consistency: 10/10

Bonus Recovery Action: 0/10

Ellowyn groaned, had she succeeded in the bonus action, she would have broken her previous record from six hours ago. It was morning, one full day after her decision to practice the dance like close combat style.

'I need a break.' She exited the soul room and woke up to find a thick layer of sweat covering her body. She had system put her body into a hyperactive mode to increase reflex and encourage blood flow. The method was inferior to intensive exercise, but it would at least make her body more responsive should an emergency arise.

She closed her eyes, letting the refreshing cool water caress her sweat soaked skin and taking in the sweet minty scent of the soap. She could simulate those comforting feelings well within the soul room, but nothing felt better than experiencing it in reality.

"Good morning Ellowyn."

She almost dropped the tower cover her body at the sight of Jane sitting on her bed.

"Good morning to you too, Jane. As you can see, I've just taken a shower. Would you mind waiting a bit until I get dressed?" 'Why couldn't she learn to knock?'

However, as Ellowyn walked to the closet to pic her clothes, she saw Jane still sitting on the bed, not moving an inch. She could only stand awkwardly in front of the closet door, resisting the urge to give herself a face palm.

"Umm, would you mind giving me some privacy, so I can change?"

It was Jane's turn to open her eyes wide. "Ah, sorry about that." She quickly stood up and left the room.

'Has she no common sense?' She shook her head.

"My coworkers often told me I lack sensibility." Jane laughed playfully and plopped herself on the bed. "Sit next to me."

"Wah!" Ellowyn sat down, only to have Jane lift up her shirt and place a scanner on her belly.

"Hmm, no firmware changes."

"Can't you at least respect my privacy?" Ellowyn pouted, knowing well Jane had read the chat log. She was glad to have returned the monitor back to its default state when there was no need to connect to the internet with the system.

"Normally, I'd simply stay silent. But the monitor is vital to check your health condition. You couldn't just mess around with it." She sighed.

"Sorry." Ellowyn lowered her head.

"Its fine. I know you liked techy things, I just didn't know you like them that much." Jane gave an amusing smirk, "Don't be so down. I've got something that you might like, but I'm still busy with renovating the security system so you'll have to figure them out yourself."

"What things?" Ellowyn asked.

"You'll see." Jane stopped at the door and showed her a taunting smirk, "If you want privacy, you're going to have to earn it."

"Is that a challenge?"

There was no answer.

Ellowyn shrugged and started working on various methods to make her connection as private as she can, from tunneling through various proxies to encrypting the upload data. She doubted the crude methods would work against someone as experienced as Jane, but she needed to start somewhere.

Before she could make any notable progress, two men carrying a large box arrived at her door. She stared at the big label 'Tarkon's General Robotics Kit' and opened it.

A wide stretched grin appeared on her face as she stared at the components. It was all she needed to create a working robot, from thrusters to flexible mechanical joints and a 3D printer for making custom components. It took her no time to flip through the e-manual and started working on her very first robot.

"And I'll name you RB-1" She said to a small metallic cube in her hand, attached to its sides were four thrusters.

She knew the soul room had more than enough processing resources for her to design and simulate any electronic contraptions with a push of a button, but there was much pleasure in assembling the parts herself.

The cube's edges glowed a soft blue and its thrusters came to life, flying around her in circles.

"Wah!" She had to duck as it flew past where her face was previously.

"And I'll name you RB-2"

The blue sphere seemed to respond to her naming by rolling around her feet. It fired off its thrusters and hovered at her chest level. She flipped through the schematics and debug information the system showed her as it connected to RB-2 wirelessly.

Her goal was to create a cyber assistant to aid should a close combat battle happen. They'd be her eyes and ears of the surrounding environment and also perhaps for scouting.

There was much progress to make, from establishing a concrete enough connection to last even in jamming environments to giving it enough protection to withstand some bashing. She also wanted to make it small enough to keep it inside her clothes.

She spent almost all night tinkering with various designs and part combinations.

Even the morning sunlight couldn't stir her awake. Ding. Her weary eyes pried themselves open at the doorbell.

"Morning Alice."

"Morning Ellowyn. Sorry I intruded on your sleep, but there is something urgent." Alice sat on the bed and stared into her eyes.

"What is it?" Ellowyn asked in her sleepy voice.

"Would you mind changing into something formal and come with me for a visit at the Lyon's place?"

It took all she had not to open her eyes wide and gape. "L-Lyon?" 'Did they find out who I am?'

"You know about Lyon Corp right? They're the biggest weapon manufacturer in Liona. Me and Tom has a really good relationship with them. And just this morning, they requested that I come to visit. Seeing as you have been cooped up inside for almost a week, I figure you might want to see some change in scenery?" A gentle smile lined her face.

Ellowyn could only nod, trying her best to hide the tension rising in her chest.

I hope you enjoyed the short chapter. I was planning to write 2k words describing how Ellowyn designed the bots, but I figured everyone would fall asleep before the chapter ended >.

We're entering the next arc, the ride will get a little bumpy from now on.

Song lyric is inspired by http://www.song-lyrics-generator.org.uk/

Gdoc link, please comment if you find any errors or have better phrasing suggestions!