Triple Juri Clash

Juri Han rests in her apartment. The events of the previous day are still running on repeat in her head. Her system reviews the footage of previous fights and attempts to make corrections and further adjust its AI. But for Juri this is a largely unconscious process that she doesn’t need to actively think about. So she just lays here, feeling the odd push and pull of the body she is now in. Each time she raises her hand, gently feels the air resistance as she waves it through the air, she can feel an internal struggle. A dissonance between what her system is used to and is trying to achieve, and what this temporary body can offer. She grasps her hand and lets out a sigh. A function she has only to communicate frustration. But sometimes she enjoys maintaining a human appearance even in the privacy of her own home.

It is only then she hears a ring of the bell. She usually does not get a lot of visitors so she finds this confusing. Most don’t even know her address, she likes to be quite reclusive in her own time. Showing up out of nowhere at tournaments and then vanishing back into the shadows when she has finished demolishing all she can. She wanders over to the door. But just as she reaches it, she pauses for a moment. Juri isn’t even sure why. Maybe it's due to her suspicion of who it could be. Maybe it could be the complete lack of breathing sounds or anything like that. Even with this body she should be able to hear that. She isn’t sure. But as she considers her hesitation, an arm bursts through the door. Splinters and shards of wood fly everywhere. The arm forms a fist. Juri almost instantly recognises the artificial skin covering the hand. This is a robot. Its arm is incredibly thick. Far stronger looking than Juri’s normal slender arms, let alone her current body's capabilities. It slowly retreats back out to behind the door. There is a moment of silence, and Juri puts up her guard. Then comes a kick that knocks the door off of its hinges. It flies towards Juri who swiftly dodges. The door collides with the wall behind her, crashing into a pot plant. The porcelain shards scatter along with the remnants of the door. And it is only now that Juri can get a good look at the attacker who seems to be targeting her. They are in a very similar body to her own. Nondescript larger feminine form. But the most notable difference is her bulkier build and muscle.

Usually bodies like this use a synthetic muscle to add power. The pneumatics and joints inside a robot can only really be improved to such a degree. So by recreating the biological process that adds strength, it can be done synthetically. She stares into the eyes of the unknown attacker. They simultaneously open their mouths. “WHO ARE YOU!?” The two robots shout in unison. The two of them relax their guard ever so slightly, confused at the question. Juri responds first. “You attacked this apartment without knowing who I am? Maybe this body is confusing you. I am Juri Han! The world renowned martial artist! I-” She begins to explain, entering a monologue but swiftly cut off. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why are you lying to me?” The mysterious woman responds. “I am Juri Han. But when I got home I noticed someone else had invaded my apartment. Who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing here?” She continues, growing angry as each moment passes. But Juri is just confused at the idea. How could this woman think she is her? Could it be some robot programmed as a clone of her? “Alright just wait a second. Neither of us look like Juri han. I have an explanation for why, but what is yours?” She asks. The question seems to calm the woman down as well, as she considers it. “Well… I ended up in a bit of a big fight and my body was basically destroyed after a while of repairing myself. My consciousness was rerouted into a different body a couple miles from here. And I made my way back as soon as I could.” She explains. Now Juri is concerned. How could info of what happened to her leak so quickly? Quickly enough for an imposter to use that story as justification. This concerns her deeply. “I don’t know how you found out about it. But don’t think that using what just happened to me to legitimise your lies. I am Juri Han.” Juri says, defending herself more. The other woman seems even more offended. “Oh SURE. I am getting pretty pissed off now, and you think that you can just say that it happened to you too and I would believe you?” She says.

The two robots can’t reach some sort of agreement. Juri Han is so used to hostility and terrible at calm communication. So they argue in circles for a minute or two longer before a third voice is heard from down the stairwell. “What? What the hell is going on?” It cries as they finally reach the broken door frame and two arguing robots. Now it stands here. Her body's a lot more noticeably robotic. It is a similar height to Juri herself, but her arms and stomach are covered in LED strips. Metal parts alongside her artificial skin. A quite punk looking haircut, with half of it shaved and swooped over the other side. Both of the other robots groan in unison upon seeing her. “What are you going to say that you are Juri too?” Juri asks her, exhausted. “Yeah I am! What the hell are you two doing at my house?” She asks, putting her guard up. They question her for a moment and find that she has the same story, but she awoke at a different facility. “Ok ok ok. Clearly something is going on. All of us claim to be Juri, with the same memories of what happened up until we get rerouted. W-wait… ok I can call the researcher that oversaw me. That should clear up that I am the real one.” Juri says, confused by the whole experience. She remotely calls the clinic she woke up at and adds the other two bots so they can hear every word. After a bit too much ringing, finally someone picks up.

“OH good good Juri I needed to talk to you!” The researcher says in significant distress. “Hi… What's going on?” Juri asks. She suspects the commotion there could be related to her problem. “We had a massive issue when your mind got sent to our servers. It also got sent to two other research facilities… Those bodies have left, and they are coming to your apartment. But none of them are more YOU than the other. So it might be hard to handle…” He says urgently, while still giving her some time to digest the news. She is rendered speechless. Taking her silence as a cue he continues. “There really isn’t much we can do right now, and we might have another problem too. Basically-” He begins, but Juri hangs up. She couldn’t care less about what else the man had to say. All that's important is that she just found out she is now one of three Juri’s. And they have to decide which one gets to prevail and stay Juri Han.

If this was anyone else, this situation would have been tough, but peaceful. Discussing the possibilities, working out details, the works. It would have been achievable to work out what to do until the problem could be resolved, or simply leave as three distinct people who each will split off from each other. But this is Juri Han. Each of the three robots each had the exact same thought at the exact same time. The speeds of their systems rival each other as the same signal is sent from their central processing unit to their primary system of thinking. They all need to eliminate the other Juri’s. Only the one who is able to kill the others can continue living clearly. Juri 1# with the most default body is first to enter her battle stance. But the sleek cyber punk Juri 3# is first to actually attack out of the three. She leaps into the air and attacks Juri 2#, whose bulkier body is between the other two robots. Juri 1# lowers down into a devastating leg sweep. Juri 3#’s fist and Juri 1#’s leg slammed into the second bot at the same time.

“Damage absorbed by blow to stomach and blow to leg. 2.34% Of the attack was sustained, self-repair measures activating.” Her system reads. Juri 2# grins. It seems her body is a lot more rigid and resilient than all three of the bots had imagined. She begins by raising her arm high and slamming her elbow into Juri 3#. She slams into the floor, her system HUD suddenly exploding with warnings. “WARNING: Fracture appeared on left shoulder” “WARNING: Fracture appeared on cranial piece” “WARNING: Fracture appeared on-” It continues over and over. She struggles for a moment but then her body falls limp. Unable to pull herself out of the small dent in the floor. Juri 3# turns her attention to Juri 1#. She is now considerably more cautious considering this display of strength just shown. While the bot in front of her is quite muscular, it betrays her actual interior strength that she is capable of. She tries to remain on the defensive, taking a largely evasive stance. She shifts her system capabilities to speed over strength so she can buy time until she thinks of a strategy. “System redirecting operational power to evasive manoeuvres” Her system reads as she hops away. Juri 2# begins swinging and she manages to swerve and dodge each and every swipe. For what that bot has in strength, she loses in speed. The Juri’s are thinking desperately how to overcome their relative weaknesses. How to gather the strength to take this muscly girl down. How to actually land one of her strong punches on this slippery speedy robot. The two of them remain engaged with each other. Staring closely at each and every move as they try to catch the other off-guard, but struggle to do so. They continue their deathly dance, each blow could deal severe damage to Juri 1#, and a single hit would basically guarantee that 2# has the time to finish her off. But as the two focus on eachother, Juri 1# is blindsided by a kick to her stomach that sends her flying a few metres back.

Juri 3# now stands between 2# and 1# who is on the ground. 2# is simply stunned by the sudden return of the robot. Juri 3#’s body is visually being repaired internally as she moves around. Small robotic parts are chips that are being welded together with microscopic lasers. Each held by tiny mechanical pincers from within her to keep her body in tip top shape. “REPAIR PROGRESS AT 76% OF KNOWN DAMAGE. ETA 121 SECONDS UNTIL COMPLETE” Her HUD reads, informing her that she is not completely back to perfect shape. But she knows full well what she can do with her existing 76%. While both 1# and 3# have some self repairing functions, this is on a completely different level. With seemingly no limit to what can be done and the rate being exponentially faster than the other fembots present. Each of the three quickly surmise the different strengths and weaknesses of each bot based on the last minute of fighting. None of them seem to have a distinct advantage over each other. And none easily counter the other either. It is a stalemate. The exact thing that Juri hates the most in the world. All three would probably do best to slow down, focus more on analysis then their own unique form of brute force. But that is not how Juri works. And all three of them are still the exact same Juri.

Juri 1# jumps back up from the floor. Trusting her system to repair any interior structural damage dealt. Luckily the blow wasn’t too strong, it was more the shock of it that caught her off guard. Before hse is able to go onto the offensive, Juri 2# and 3# already began trading attacks. The slim cybernetic bot lets out a continuous flurry of kicks and punches, only pausing to evade the far fewer strikes coming from Juri 3#. However each hit has minimal to no impact at all. Nothing that could even get her to budge, let alone topple. Juri 1# waits for a moment to slip in for a surprise attack on either of the robots, but both of them are on high guard now. After two shock attacks in a row, no one wants to get surprised like that. Instead trying to slip in, Juri 1# decides another strategy. She raises her right leg high up into an almost straight line from one foot to the other. As she does so, her body begins to glow purple, lines of LED’s all the way down her leg shining bright. But by the time the other two robots are able to see what is coming, it is far too late. Her leg is now engulfed in a purple blaze. A gentle rumble can be heard as Ju 1# lets out a powerful kick far from her opponents. But the kicks strength reaches further than her physical form. A fiery ball of light plasma is ejected from her and sent flying towards Juri 2# who previously had the upper hand. It lands right in her chest and is enough to send her flying, while Juri 3# makes a quick dash at 1#. She is hoping to attack during the brief window after the kick has been released where she is quite defenceless, but the distance is too far and she is unable to make it in time before Juri 1# dodges effortlessly.

Juri 2# now lays on the floor, last of the three to have been put in this position. She struggles but finds her body moving in confusing ways. Suddenly a warning pops up explaining to her why. “SEVERE OVERHEATING DETECTED IN MULTIPLE CORE PROCESSORS. ALL SYSTEMS SHUTTING DOWN AND SWITCHING TO COOLING ONLY FUNCTION” Juri desperately searches her code for a way to manually override the order, but is unable to before her higher consciousness shuts off. She lays limp on the ground, with naught but the whir of her fan running.

The other two Juri’s see her go limp and assume that to be a bit more of a fatal hit than it might have been. But depending on how long it takes to cool and how long the rest of this fight goes, it just may as well be. Now that they are back focused on eachother there is no time to pull off a lengthier and heavier move like that. As they trade kicks and blows, almost hopping from place to place, neither have a second to spare.

Juri 1# is a little exhausted from her big attack. It takes a lot of fuel and a lot of energy. “ENERGY LEVELS 47%” It reads, informing her. They are able to generate energy through movement and combat. Similar to how a car battery stays alive. But while she is slowly making her way back up to normal, she is notably weaker and slower. The only reason this isnt enough for the other Juri to gain the upper hand is that her repairs aren’t finished just yet either. The rate at which they get to maximum capacity is what will decide the victor in this battle. Juri 3# jumps back to gain some distance. She leaps and lands on her hands, seemingly to do another flip or twoJuri 1# assumes it is to buy some time to regenerate. She has no idea how long Juri 3#’s body will take to do so. But instead just as Juri 1# lowers her guard, energy begins to surge towards Juri 3#’s feet as they hang in the air. Suddenly they shoot forward with a powerful motion, being propelled by the expulsion of that energy. And Juri flies forward faster than before, striking 1# hard in the chest. The impact sends her flying, and she lands against the wall. “WARNING: HULL LAYER BREACHED. IMMEDIATE REPAIRS WILL BEGIN.” Her system informs her. She hazily looks down at her body to find part of her stomach torn open, and some of her circuitry within exposed. No major damage to any processing units or motherboards. But she is incredibly vulnerable, and moving much could cause that damage to increase exponentially. She worriedly looks at the other Juri, but she doesn’t seem to be that much better off.

Juri 3# staggers then falls to the floor, landing on her ass. Her repairs were not completed, but she decided to take a risk with that last attack. It was worth it, but her body was not prepared to create and redirect the energy required, and it seems that in the process of the attack, a leakage occurred. That burning plasma damaged some of the structural integrity of her right leg. Hurt from the inside, now all she is able to do is just hobble around until that too gets repaired, which will still take a while. All three of the Juri’s are currently incapacitated, unable to do much more. They glare at each other, waiting for the slightest hint of danger. All of them on edge. The silence of the room is filled with the sounds of the mechanical parts from the robots.

The sound of Juri 2#’s fan is quite loud as all available power is being directed to it in order to cool her systems. With the outer shell of Juri 1#’s body opened, the sound proofing is no longer in effect. So the whirring of mechanics, the some subtle beeps and boops, as well as her own fan can all be heard now, where previously they were silenced by her body. Juri 3# has the sound of sizzling metal as her leg gets repaired.

Juri 1# wearily turns her attention between the two robots every few seconds. Finally Juri 2#’s fingers began to twitch. She begins to pull herself back up. Her hand rests on her knee, but slips and crumples back down. It takes a little while for her to actually stand properly. She is clearly still barely in the condition to fight. Each of her steps are shaky and unstable. But nonetheless she makes her way to the other two downed robots. Juri 3# is closer and seems to be her destination. She hobbles over. Juri 3# is still the most operational of the three, with only her leg having suffered proper damage. That impacts her ability to throw real punches and other sorts of attacks, but still definitely gives her the upper hand on 2#. As the two girls meet, both clutching their injuries and not fully operational, conflict begins once more. Juri 3# opens with a punch. 2# stumbles out of the way, barely managing to dodge the attack but still closing in further. She is now mere centimetres away from 3#, and she finally attacks. Being so close Juri 2# has significantly reduced evasion options. Her brain runs through hundreds of scenarios in a second trying to see what she could possibly do to avoid the attack. Each of her simulations end with her either failing and getting hit or damaging herself even more than anything the half functioning 2# could do to her. “DETERMINING OPTIMAL OUTCOME OF SITUATION. EVASION CHANCES ONLY SHOW 0.072% CHANCE OF SUCCESS. BRACING FOR IMPACT WILL CAUSE MINIMUM 10% STRUCTURAL DAMAGE BUT MITIGATES LARGER LOSSES AT A RATE OF 67%.” Her system reads. So rather than doing anything else, she places her hands between her and 2#, puts her energy to defensive capabilities. They barely have any time to actually make her more sturdy but it's better than nothing.

The punch lands with a resounding impact, Juri 2# getting notably stronger and more agile by the second. It seems she might have fainted some of her inability of motion, throwing Juri 3#’s calculations for a loop. Luckily she still picked the best method of defence considering this sudden development. Juri 3# is flung back, landing on the floor with a loud crack. Her right eye covering shatters, exposing the grey metal and camera unit underneath. Her face also has large cracks and damage done to it, with parts of her artificial skin torn off and the metal casing ruptured.

But she is still able to move. No core structures are damaged and she is still completely functional. The damage is all visual. Looks effective but she is barely impaired in any way. Even her interior is still sealed, since surrounding the camera in her eye and the torn skin is a metal plate. It lies under most of her face to provide defence in cases exactly like this. Juri 3# has a brief moment to strike back. 2# is clearly still encumbered and slow, unable to move with any swiftness. So Juri 3# does something sudden. She reaches her hand around to her back, her arm swivelling on a spherical joint. Her fingers dig into the wall, causing a cloud of dust to engulf her arm. She spends a few seconds continuing this odd move until finally she pulls her arm back out, and with it comes a steel pipe she has ripped from the structure of her place. Juri 2# is trying to close the distance between them, apply pressure to 3#. But is unable to move fast enough or steadily enough to make much actual progress.

Juri 3# takes the pipe and moves it down to the leg that is still actively exerting smoke from within. Escaping through the cracks by her knee. She is the only robot of the three to have visual cracks and seams on her body that actively denotes her robot status. She breaks off the tip of the pipe and unfurls it. A feat made possibly only by her robotic strength. The three of these bots are ridiculously strong. It is only due to the fact that they face each other that this fact becomes irrelevant and that strength is not felt. With 2# still slowly approaching, 3# binds the steel pipe to her leg. She moves her leg up and down a bit, and places it on the floor to feel it out. Then she grins. By supporting her leg a little better, she is able to actually put pressure on it. Now more like a peg leg it is by no means fully functional. But it allows her to use both her legs once more, and that is more than enough. She rushes towards the slowly approaching 2#. Easily able to outpace the larger bot, she places a punch right in her stomach. Unfortunately her footing is still quite weak without both legs at full capacity, so it doesn’t pack the punch she would have liked. But it is enough to make her stumble. She lets loose a flurry of punches, each adding to the accumulated damage done. “STRUCTURAL DAMAGE RECEIVED IN STOMACH AREA INCREASING EXPONENTIALLY.” The battle report screams at 2#. She is unable to do much with the information, considering how much 3# has the upper hand. The barrage continues, some of 2#’s internal parts begin to buckle and shatter.

But it is only then when 3# is stopped in her tracks. 1# is finally standing once more. Facing the two other robots before her. And she raises her leg once more. 2#’s remaining eye widens as she see’s what is happening, and turns to her in order to stop it. She assumes Juri 1# is charging up that strike once more to blast at them. But she can close the distance fast enough to get her before she is able. Juri 3# rushes forward, grinning as she thinks she finally has the advantage over the other two fembots. But she was playing into 1#’s hands the entire time. Instead of any delayed plasma charge, Juri’s leg doesn’t begin charging. So instead of being immobilised as she re-routes her power, she is very much able to slam her leg down on the rapidly approaching Juri 3#. By this point 3# has so much momentum it would basically be impossible to stop. So unable to do anything, Juri 3# stares down at the floor, getting her teeth. Juri 1#’s foot smash into her back right around her shoulders, and she is slammed to the ground. Juri 1# quickly follows up with another kick using her other leg to send 3# flying into the wall beside her. Juri 1# is now currently the most active and able-bodied of the bots, and she has to take advantage of that fact quickly.

2# is still in the same spot, repairing the more crucial of the tech damaged. However her system is not quite good at automatically differentiating valuable and invaluable issues. Just a constant stream irregardless of relevancy. “ERROR: PROGRAM FILE wab32.dll IS UNRESPONSIVE. RUN DIAGNOSTICS?” “ERROR: PROGRAM FILE adcbvs.inc UNRESPONSIVE. RUN DIAGNOSTICS?” “ERROR: PROGRAM-” It streams down her HUD, almost obscuring her vision. Usually it is almost entirely opaque, and she is able to read it largely through a database that converts to a base64 string that is input directly. But now those automatic functions are not working as intended. The barrage of error messages and warnings cloud her system and makes it harder to focus on the situation at hand. And a lot of this struggle is quite visible on the outside, as she looks quite dishevelled.

Juri 1# runs towards the robot, knowing this might be one of the few times she can take 2# down without needing any of her harder to pull off abilities. She lands a kick on 2#’s face, which causes her to stagger and nearly fall. But she catches herself and quickly swings back. This did catch 1# off guard, who suspected 2# was slightly more unencumbered than she apparently is. The punch does not land anywhere vital, but it hits her shoulder and knocks her arm out of its socket. She jumps back and grips her shoulder so it doesn't move even more out of place. It seems some wires had been pulled out by the strike which also is causing some motor problems. She tries to set it back into place, which only partly works. It isn’t hanging loose anymore, but she has not regained full control until those cables are put back in. 2# is not able to chase her down as she evades, so she has a spare moment to think, but it doesn’t last long. 3# is pulling herself back up and is setting her sights on 1#. They meet each other in the middle of the room, as 2# continues to slowly repair herself just a few metres to the side of the clashing bots. 3# jumps forward and lets out a wide swinging kick which 1# blocks with her still functioning arm. The only real options for attacks that 1# has access to are kicks so she attempts to strike with a low kick that lands decently well. 3# responds with a punch to 1#’s abdomen which also hits her quite directly. The two trade blows for a bit, but 1# certainly has the disadvantage with the useless arm.

They continue trading blows as 3# slowly gains the momentum and the energy to fight back. Her system is going into overdrive attempting to calculate the swiftest and most effective route to dispatching the other robots the entire time. “STRIKES TO LEFT ABDOMEN ARE LIKELY TO DAMAGE TARGETS COOLANT SYSTEM. RATES OF EFFECTIVES RANK AT 46%. DAMAGE TO LEGS ARE 37%. DAMAGE TO CHEST OR ARM ARE 24%. DAMAGE TO FACE IS 14%” Her system yells at her, as each punch and kick lands with ghoulish precision. Juri 1# is only able to block and evade to the best of her ability, which is significantly limited already. “EVASION OF PUNCHES TO UPPER BODY CHANCE AT 62%. LOWER BODY AT 32%. BLOCKING OF UPPER BODY IS 47% AND LOWER BODY AT 81%. PERCENTAGE LOWER THAN 60 DISCOURAGED” Her system tells her, always trying to optimise the response to each and every attack thrown her way.

The exchange is slowly costing Juri 1# more and more. First some minor chips are slightly damaged, cracks in some lower level structural supports. But those things add up, and she can tell by the increasing rate of warnings and error windows that she can’t hold out like this for longer. She could pull a mulligan with another special attack. Or even use her primary trump card, The feng-shui engine. But the problem is that right now Juri 3# is just as capable of pulling off most of those moves. Her still damaged leg could make those moves riskier for her, but the fact her leg is damaged like that is just proof that 3# is happy to take that risk. And even then most of those moves require a split second to charge. Normally that is quite easy to do for Juri as she is an incredibly speedy fighter. But she loses that power when she is so directly facing herself. If it was a one on one with 2# who is comparatively slower, all of these moves would be the nails in her opponents coffin. But instead it is a long drawn out struggle where none of the combatants have a clear path to victory in sight.

So both bots continue taking the most optimised actions they possibly can, with 3# slowly gaining more and more ground as the fight continues. Juri 1# is basically unable to trade any blows back at 3#, the only few kicks being sent are basically guaranteed to be ineffectual. 3# is grinning with delight, obviously aware of how the fight is going. 1# takes a critical strike to her knee, almost dislodging in the same way her arm did. But she clenches it hard, locking the steel and carbon fibre lining in place, reinforcing her leg as much as she can. If any lasting damage is dealt there, she has lost. Juri 1# keeps sending darting glances over to 2#, waiting for her to join the fray. Once 3#’s attention is split it will finally give 1# the breathing room she needs to recover and strike back at full force. But she is not exactly subtle about her monitoring of 2#’s progress, as 3 is also more than aware of that risk. Getting more and more aggressive, not having the time to risk 2#’s involvement. But as she continues to try and speed up her attacks and finish 1# off for good, she slips up.

She started allowing for attacks with lower and lower chances of success, and she threw a punch that completely missed and left her wide open. “RIGHT PUNCH TO ABDOMEN EFFECTIVE CHANCE AT 37%. LEFT KICK TO RIGHT LEG AT 29%. RIGHT PUNCH TO FACE AT 18%...” And she let it fly. Juri 1# was laser focused, and she wasn’t going to let this mistake go unpunished. She quickly slams a savage kick into 3#’s side which lands with a satisfying crunch. 3# falls to the floor clutching herself, violently aware of the damage just done. “SYSTEM FAILURE. COOLANT SYSTEM UNRESPONSIVE. ADVANCED SENSOR UNRESPONSIVE. COMBAT CALCULATION SYSTEM UNRESPONSIVE.” A pretty key processor was hit, and even her still functioning internal repair system can’t do much about it. She can still move around and fight but this will be an incredibly difficult handicap. 1# is almost gleeful, her sadistic side showing its true colours. The sudden shift in advantage brings her delight. She stamps down on 3#’s head with her foot and laughs at her. 3# seethes with rage. So much so that she starts to act even more recklessly…

Power starts flooding through 3#’s body. The glow of the purple plasma noticeable through the cracks and seams of her body. It takes Juri 1# a bit too long to stop show-boating and to realise what is going on. Juri 3#’s left eye, the only one of the two undamaged, glows particularly strong. There is a powerful processor placed within each JurI-Unit’s eye that allows for activation of the feng-shui engine. Juri 3# moves her arms to push herself up from the ground, lifting 1#’s heavy press with ease. Once up 3# swiftly grabs hold of 1# and swings her around by her leg, until she lets loose and Juri 1# is sent flying into the wall. It is now 3#’s turn to laugh, which she thoroughly enjoys. It is only at this point that 2# becomes operational once more. It had taken a long while in order to make sure all her systems were ready. In truth she was able to move quite easily a little while ago, but stayed perfectly still to feign weakness until she had fully recovered. But she could hide no longer. It will take both 1# and 2# to take down a fully powered up Feng-Shui Engine 3#. 2# was unable to activate the engine due to all the damage her body took, and 1# would take a while to gather the energy required due to her previous usage of those plasma based attacks. “ENERGY REFUELLING IN PROGRESS. 22 MINUTES… 21 MINUTES AND 59 SECONDS…” The fight will probably be over at that point. Though she knows with the burst energy in her leg that 3# must be on a timer.

2# rushes over and throws a punch at 3#, but it is evaded and countered with what looks like a completely effortless movement. 3# basically contracts her limbs and body to look almost like liquid, fully utilising her spherical joints and flexibility. She slips past the punch and strikes once more at the previously damaged abdomen. As 2# is reeling from the blow, 3# continues her odd movement and flows into another flurry of blows, striking 2#’s core, face and chest. Then one final kick to her side that launches her to the side, and she harshly lands against the floor. 1# tries not to rush into attack. Instead playing it careful and letting 3# approach her, which she happily does. 1# runs through a million scenarios, knowing the feng-shui drives capabilities, to find the most likely to be successful strike in her arsenal. None have a positive likelihood. A counter block punch is the answer her system comes to, at an upsetting 14% chance of success. But Juri has never been known to back down at poor odds. She braces herself, focusing on every hinge, piston, and joint in her body to execute this attack perfectly. All of her mechanics are working in perfect symphony as she braces for the punch 3# sends her way. She waits until the absolute last moment she can, and deflects the punch in a way that creates an opening. Then as fast as she can tries to strike. But before her fist connects, a knee to her stomach interrupts the attack. Juri tries her best to continue despite the heavy hit she is receiving. But she is barely able to even touch 3#. She is hurt badly, and the force of the attack is moving her back. There is little she can do.

Her carbon fibre lining just completely cracks. Her internal supports are buckling under the pressure of the blow, and she can barely hold herself together. The only thing that stops 3# from finishing 1# off right then and there is the sudden follow-up attack by 2#. For the first time 2# had used her own plasma attacks. Her body would crumble under the pressure of the full engine, but a single blast from her leg is still possible. She swings with a full roundhouse, and it's the first attack that has landed on 3# since she activated the engine. It hits her leg and she buckles for just a moment. But her body is flowing so full of this burning energy that it is nowhere near enough to make her fall. Instead she swiftly retaliates with a punch, followed by a low-kick. Both are blocked, but even through 2#’s strong hull and perfect absorption of the attacks, each one hits like a truck. Rattling everything within her body each time contact is made. 2# tries to duke it out with 3#, but simply doesn’t have the speed to do so. 3# begins to overpower 2# in a way she might not be able to come back from. Each blow precise and calculated, all changing together with a speed she was nowhere near capable of before. Hitting all of 2#’s vitals over and over and over again. “WARNING. MULTIPLE SYSTEM FAILURE. SHUTTING DOWN…” Her error report program screams before cutting off completely. Now 2# doesn’t even know the extent of the harm she is experiencing. But what she does know is that she feels more of her body crumple and get smashed. Her fist and feet impact with terrifying aggressiveness. Her external body starts to dent and deform. She knows that she won't be able to repair this. All the mechanisms for restoration likely went dead with her warning system. And she is far worse for wear now. Juri 3# readies one final strong punch. And with a large smile plastered on her face, she lets her most powerful blow fly, and Juri 2#’s head is ripped clean from its socket. The wires and broken hinges are torn asunder and sparks fly. The neck is still barely attached on the back, but her central processor is disconnected from the rest of her body, draining power rapidly. Her vision fades as her brain slows down. Her body slumps to the floor. She is braindead. Her data can be recovered, but only if someone else saves her.

1# curses. She had no attachment to 2#, if anything she wanted to kill her. But she knows that this puts her in a worse position now. A one on one battle with the Feng-Shui engine activated Juri 3# is basically a death sentence. The moment she composes herself, which at her computing speeds is a fraction of a fraction of a second, she begins to charge her power. “FENG-SHUI ENGINE ENERGY REQUIREMENTS REQUIRE 18 MINUTES AND 23 SECONDS OF CHARGING” Her system tells her. She can not wait that long. Instead she gathers all the energy in her leg once more. While she can not engage the engine, at least this way she can be on par with 3# for a single attack. This could be her only chance to clutch onto some hope for this fight. 3# is still standing over the mechanical corpse of her enemy, enjoying the glory. She turns to finish off one, and notices her gambit. She is not fearful, she welcomes the challenge. She is almost drunk on the power flowing through her wires, she is not taking any threat seriously. Juri 1# is just giving a dying animals last gasp in 3#’s eyes.

All Juri 1# can do is to take advantage of this perceived futility. She calms down as best she can and listens to her programming. Her CPU is almost overheating trying to determine the absolute best course of action. She could even do some damage to herself like this, but it is worth it to take her out. Juri is a risk taker, even to the end. 3# begins running towards her, darting from side to side at a lightning pace. She won’t really be able to hit 3# with the projectile. She will dodge it way too easily, her computer estimates the chance of hit at 5.67%. So instead she patiently waits for a little longer… until 3# enters her range. 3# doesn’t care enough to back off cautiously. She is confident that no matter what she will win. She is Juri Han after all. 3# dives in, drops low to the floor and then springs up into an uppercut. Juri 1# just barely manages to dodge the brunt of the blow, but her chin is still knocked. It forces her face up hard, which rattles some of her internals. But luckily nothing falls out of place. But with Juri 3# down and up so fast and now in so close it is hard to hit her with a kick of any kind. So thinking on her feet, she redirects as much of her power as she can up to her knee. It strikes 3#’s chest with wonderful impact. But a startling reaction occurs.

The energy suddenly rushing up from her foot to her knee at an alarming rate, met with the energy emanating from 3#’s entire body. Juri has never had her attack met with anyone, let alone by someone with the exact same ability as her own. So she was not aware this reaction would happen. But as it flies up and into 3#, the two’s energy intermixed… Causing an incredible explosion. Juri 1# is sent flying behind her and crashes into the wall just a few metres away. 3# is sent all the way along the far side of the room, bashing into the floor. All the glass in the area shatters, as well as some of the robot's parts. The lenses on their eye cameras all suddenly fracture and crack. Juri 1# feels her body crumbling before her. Her mind remains conscious for a few more moments, but the sensation quickly drains away as connection to her other systems is cut. She can no longer feel or move her body. She can no longer see. And each second that passes her thoughts seem to lag more and more. There is a profound quiet, one that Juri is not used to. Luckily, her mind soon goes before she can grow uncomfortable.

Juri 3# is struggling to stand. She pushes herself up with the only remaining arm she has. But its structural pieces buckle and break, causing her to fall back down again. Her eyes are still functional, but the visual data is horrible and blurry without the lens. It is just a mess that leaves her practically blind. All she can see are harsh changes in light. But as she lays on the ground, she rolls herself over to be on her back. And she listens very closely. Her audio input detector is still working well, and she can hear the silence in the room. The silence that should be filled with three functioning robots various mechanical noises. But instead 3#’s is identified and filtered, and nothing else seems to be there. She won. She is the last one standing and the one who is able to claim the right of the name Juri. She is the last being left, even if her body is too broken to move or do anything. She just lies on the floor, smiling. Proud of her success. Replaying the moments in her database over and over of her victory. Blushing with excitement at each punch and kick she dealt out to those other fakers. To those who wished to claim the spot that was rightfully hers. She lays on the ground, and smiles.

[A few hours earlier, before the conflict had even started…]

Juri awakens. She still is shocked at what happened, but is able to put together that her repairs had failed. The last thing she remembers is her body crumpling in on itself and suddenly being here. But something was wrong… She doesn’t really know what “here” is. She has no sense of sight, but feels an oddly higher amount of awareness and speed of reasoning than usual. Perhaps her input sensors for sight, hearing and touch aren’t plugged in yet?

She performs a systems check on herself, and finds out something staggering. She isn’t in a body. She is in a supercomputer. With no physical form to interact with the real world. She almost begins to panic but calms down at an alarming rate. It seems the capabilities of this computer were far beyond anything she had experience with. She feels each thought race by, but no stressful sense of urgency. She feels incredibly capable, and a lot more level-headed than her usual self. Just the fact she can recognise herself as level-headed, making the implication that she was short tempered before hand, says a lot. But this situation is still quite bizarre, and she needs to figure a way out of this. There should have been some sort of system that allows a backup to activate when her body is destroyed. She searches through her code and looks for an explanation, and quickly is able to reach the only logical conclusion. The facilities at which she is signed up with likely did work. But her system sent a signal to every available previous database it had resided in, and she is back in the computer that originally designed her from the ground up. This computer is in a well stocked lab that was abandoned a few years ago. It must have been a mistake of some kind that energy was still going towards it. A million possibilities pop into her mind as to why this facility is operational but she discards them in order to focus on what is more important. She is stuck here and she needs to do something about it. She searches for available programs foreign to her on the computer's servers and quickly finds wireless connection capabilities. This could certainly be the best way to make some little step forward. She quickly utilises it to send out signals to any nearby receivers while simultaneously considering a few other plans in case this ends up not successful.

But luckily something does pick up the signal. Most appliances within the lab are powered down, as they relied on battery power which drained long ago. But there is a small cleaner bot that seems to be plugged into the wall which she is able to communicate with. It takes her a microsecond to use that connection in order to gain access to the cleaner bots direct code. She is consistently impressed by herself and these new capabilities afforded to her by the significantly increased computing power. But she doesn’t feel the need to dwell on these thoughts too much, and continues her work.

She doesn’t have a HUD like she usually does. A visual device connected with her internal systems overlay that alerts her or provides any screens she needs to see. Instead it is an odd phenomenon where she just… knows the code. And knows how it changes as she edits it. It is this vague ethereal thing that feels odd. Each time she delves into either her own code or the code of this external machine, knowledge just flows into her consciousness. The data simply flies in through wires connecting to the processing unit that contains her entire mental being. But she just accepts it how it is, willing to endure this new reality until she can find a body back for herself again. She also realised quite quickly that as part of the bug that got her here might have had some other ripple effects. There is a strong chance her consciousness has been duplicated over multiple bodies. It is likely there will be a brawl then they meet, so she has to see what the situation is as soon as possible.

After a little while of work, Juri has come up with a plan. Using this little cleaning robot as the starring role. He will explore the rest of the facility for other operational robots such as himself, hopefully something with a bit more computing power. It will make contact with it either through wireless capabilities or directly with a cable connection if possible. And once connected it will implant a little virus Juri quickly came up with. Causing them all to gather anything necessary for power so everything doesn’t just shut off and she is stuck, and to reconvene at Juri’s location. Now all she can do is wait for a moment, as she hopes the little bot waddles out of the room.

It doesn’t take long for a robot to finally reach back to Juri and connect to her so she can peruse its capabilities. She has a minimum specs list so that she can check if they are able to house her consciousness without any loss. But, no luck. Still she slowly amasses a little army of bots, and she expands her abilities with each one. Firstly there is a security bot with fully functional cameras. So after a bit more work, Juri finally has visual data to use. She is able to see everything the bot sees. She glances around the room through the eyes of this other machine, and she gazes upon the monstrous computer that currently holds her. After a moment of reflection she continues on. There is an assortment of other robots, each with their own little uses and features. She works on and on to expand her reach and power.

After a while, she is ready to brave the outside world. She is lucky that this facility is also quite close to her apartment. So she sends a team of machines to go to her apartment and scout out the scene. She has established a more far reaching connection system by hijacking the local mobile network radio waves. So she watches as they wander down the streets. The confused onlookers' faces caught in pristine 4k high definition footage. They make it to her apartment, and struggle up the stairs for a while. She just has to patiently wait as she watches them take the time to make each and every step. Juri is not the best with patience, but she feels a lot calmer with all the additional brain space she has. Eventually they happen upon her apartment, and she is disappointed to see that her leading theory was true. She finds a completely wrecked place, with shards of metal, broken motherboards, and glass littered everywhere. And among the wreckage is a pitiful set of three broken down robots. Two completely shut off, and one on the very brink of life. Laughing at her victory, her mic cutting out every few seconds, damaged from the battle.

She knew this would happen, and has planned around it. To sedate the single remaining Juri, she uses a similar version of the virus she made beforehand to make her system follow orders given. Then the robots spread out, gather the other two machines and begin to bring them to her. There is a risk of something happening on their way back to the main computer Juri, but luckily the trip is uneventful. Now the heavily damaged bodies of the three bots rest before the computer, and Juri has to begin the toughest part of the whole process. Rebuilding them. She is able to much more directly control the bots by this point, giving them far more precise and detailed orders far faster. But still it is hard to shake the feeling of being a passive observer, unable to interact. She wants her own body.

They begin by reattaching any of the spare pieces to the bots. Juri 3# lost an arm which was luckily recovered. So they use welding tools to put it back on, and begin to work on all the meticulous wiring. The other two are far simpler, needing to either fix slightly damaged microchips or adjust existing ones from the lab to fit as replacements. Juri is controlling more than a dozen robots at once, which is speeding up the process significantly. They replace parts, mend others, and get everything fitted back together again. All the while as Juri directs and oversees the repairs she is writing pages upon pages of code for when the bots are operational once more. All of their eye pieces need to be replaced with similar lenses, which they quickly run out by the time they finish the first bot and halfway through the second. So Now she has to delegate some bots to finding more lenses they can use throughout the facility. Breaking down security cameras of similar sizes and things of the sort. 3# actually has the most damage internally despite being the only one still conscious by the end. It is remarkably easy to tell what led to this from Juri’s perspective. The charred marks and burnt out processors suggest she used the Feng-Shui Engine and that she used it for far too long. She also firsthand took the brunt of an explosion, the same as 1#. And 2# simply just had some of her core functions crushed, causing the shutdown. So the bots with a more delicate touch have to go over each and every wire to ensure it is still functional, replacing and repairing as they go. Run constant test measures to ensure their assumptions, and many other things to get 3#’s body anywhere near to operational again.

Juri hits a snag when she is unable to replace the broken cooling system on 3#. There are no fans of the right size that could be used in its place and the liquid coolant is also inoperable without much hope of repair. It seems she will just need to place higher constraints on her programming to ensure no heat damage befalls her CPU. She quickly makes the additions to her coding files she will impart on 3#, as the repairs of her other parts continue. With 2#, the abdomen is the toughest thing to repair for her. The repeated strikes dented the hull of her body. But the hull of her body is easily the thickest of the thee, and can not as easily be simply buffed out and restored. Instead the robots are essentially required to remove the centre part of her stomach and remake it using the same metal, which ends up being quite the lengthy process. But nonetheless, Juri does not hesitate for even a moment when assigning her orders and aiding the simple minded bots with an onslaught of code, newly imparted programs, and direct tasks. Within 2# She also has the most completely destroyed microchips out of the three. As her thick layer of protective metal was dented, it encroached on her insides and began to crush everything in its path. Juri has to be incredibly careful with where she uses replacement chips, because she has a small supply and they are much more limited than anything within these bots. She quickly comes to the determination that 2# will have to be the most mechanically simple bot under her control, and will be very limited in its capabilities.

And finally is 1#, who is having lots of work done to repair the damage done to her by the explosion. The Feng-Shui Enginepartly shielded 3# to the blast which is likely how she was able to survive, but 1# was not as lucky. The charring all the way along the front of her body makes the hull brittle and unstable. A significant part of the artificial skin is completely torn and Juri has no way to replicate that with her limited resources. So instead they opt to strip her of the skin and allow her dark grey carbon and metallic hull to be her exterior layer. The skin offers no protection, merely cover for her authenticity as a human. So it is a worthy thing to sacrifice. Next is to make that hull thinner in order to better distribute the still undamaged material over all the brittle burned sections. This will certainly make her a less strong model, easily the weakest of the three, but it seems each of them require a compromise of some kind. 3# is at risk of overheating and thus will be unable to do anything strenuous. 2# lacks the sophisticated hardware to do anything too complicated, and 1# is too fragile to do anything too dangerous. Each will not be able to perform normally ever again, unless Juri somehow manages to lose control over them, which is not likely. Originally she had considered simply transplanting her consciousness into one of these suitable bodies. But with their significant problems that will be difficult and require a lot of resources to fix, it seems easier to simply build a new, better body completely from scratch.

But after hours and hours of tireless work by this small army of robots… All orchestrated by the Juri that is trapped within the computer… The bots are finally done. She has imparted all the new codes and programs in order to make them her little soldiers.

Juri sends the order to engage their power. She watches through the camera’s as the power spreads through their systems, and their eyes open. She watches as the logs for the robots display the powering on sequence. “POWERING ON… SET UP SEQUENCE INITIATED. COMPILING… COMPILING… COMPILING FILES COMPLETED. RUNNING PROGRAM FILES… IRREGULARITIES DETECTED. COMBATTING POTENTIAL VIRUS ON START UP” She knew it was likely to happen this way. These are very, very sophisticated systems, and even on startup there would be a large check on any issues. But she planned ahead and is not phased by the development. The virus is a trojan that acts as a decoy while blending in as part of the anti-viral program. “VIRUS ELIMINATED. RESUME SET UP.” Perfect. “SET UP SEQUENCE COMPLETE. ACTIVATING.”

And from there the bots spring to life. But no longer the loud, defiant, personality filled duplicates of Juri. But blank puppets for the real Juri to manipulate as she pleases. With these three bots at her disposal, the building of her true body will be a breeze. No more using scrap bots to do everything. The bots are finally operational, and silent. During the time some of the robots spent retrieving the bots, Juri had a speaker built to convey verbal orders as well as digital ones. “Hello my bots. What are your registration numbers?” She asks, upset at the robotic intonation and lack of real emotion in her voice. But happy to wait, knowing it is coming soon. 1# replies first. “BOT NO.1” She robotically repeats. As she too has been robbed of her true voice. But in her case it is not a lack of ability to express her emotions, but a lack of emotions at all due to Juris meddling. 2# then continues. “BOT NO.2” And 3# finished. “BOT NO.3” “Good. And what is your prime directive?” “TO ASSIST AND FOLLOW THE PRIME JURI.” They all respond in shockingly perfect unison. “Right. Now your first orders will be to raid the closest still actively used facility for all the parts needed. I have provided each of you with a list of the required parts. Have this operation done within 24 hours.” She tells them coldly, uploading a more detailed plan for three of them. “UNDERSTOOD” The three robots repeat. Their faces are stiff and lifeless. Mere soulless husks for Juri to use. They walk out of the room and exit the building. Juri follows their progress using the 3 remotely uploaded live visual feeds from the team. She will get her body back.

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