While Nika was preoccupied Neena retrieved her spear. She got fully to her feet and watched, unmoving, as Nika tried her best to avoid the water. She waited until she was within striking distance, then a few seconds longer. Fairly sure that this time she wouldn't miss, Neena swung her fist at the cat girl's stomach. Again, there was much, much more force behind the hit then Neena had previously displayed.

Dodging the water streams was getting increasingly more difficult. It was taking up alot of Nika's concentration. So much so that when Nika turned to doge another blast of water she was met with a strong blow to her stomach. The cat girl crumpled in half and slumped to the floor, but before she could do anything else she was nailed by three blasts of water wich sent her tumbling across the floor and into the wall.

Not only was she upset at letting herself get so distracted that she allowed herself to be punched, but she was really upset at the water cannons for soaking her. The pain from the force of the water felt like her skin was almost being peeled off. Nika winced until the water stopped.

She wasn't cold as her hidden mutation had kicked in. Nika pushed her upper body up so she could look back to Neena. Her eyes narrowed and in a flash she pushed herself up to a squating position and then bolted for Neena.

Nika was upon Neena faster than the woman could blink and using the surprise Nika grabbed the spear and snapped it in half. She then grabbed Neena and threw her to the ground. Nika let out a low growl as she looked at the woman.

Neena hit the ground, hard, and rolled with the fall. Mid-roll she tensed her muscles. Once her arms and legs were under her, she pushed off, launching herself forward. She darted toward Nika, in a tackle attempt. It was almost asking to get thrown again.

She heard the growl, and saw the narrowed eyes. If Nika's supercharge hadn't kicked in yet, no doubt it wouldn't be much longer. Even if it took a bit more 'coaxing' on Neena's part.

As she tackled, she pulled a pair of of silver marbles from her pocket. Even if the tackle failed, all she needed was some contact, even just a touch, and the marbles would explode into a thin, sticky, rubbery web, similar to spider silk, yet strong and elastic like a bungee cord.

Surprisingly Neena took the fall rather well and charged back at the cat girl. The woman had more to her than Nika had originally thought. Apparently Neena was in much better shape.

When Neena tackled Nika the cat girl rolled back with the blow and brought her legs up and placed them in Neena's stomach. The second she was on her back Nika kicked the woman off launching her in in a high angle arc.

Neena sailed up and over, then hit the ground hard enough to knock a normal person out for a few seconds. However, she didn't pass out, rather rolled to her feet again with a slight grunt of pain.

She held one arm out from her side. From out of the floor a silver discus appeared, about the size of a music CD, but about an inch thick in the center. It hovered just under her palm. With a sweep of her hand the disc flew forward at Nika's feet. Then she did the same with her other arm, and a second disc; this one she aimed at the girl's mid-drift. The discs followed Neena's hand movements as if they were attached, giving the appearance of being telekinetically moved.

Both discs dove and weaved, coming just short of actually hitting Nika, like a pair of annoying flies evading the fly swatter. While Nika was preoccupied with them, Neena moved closer for another tackle.

For some reason Neena seemed to be able to take more punishment that Nika had given her credit for. Then again Nika hadn’t really full out attacked Neena either.

She watched as a pair of floating discs came up from the floor. It looked like Neena was controlling them as she motioned towards the cat girl which in turned caused the discs to fly at her.

Nika jumped over the first disc as it was heading for her legs, but the moment she was in the air she saw the second disc aimed higher up. Without thinking about it Nika twisted herself sideways and managed to slip between the discs. That didn’t stop them though as they came back around and continued to keep Nika moving.

Out of the corner of her eye Nika saw Neena was charging her again, but this time Nika wasn’t going to play along with the woman’s plan. Instead she counter-attacked and charged back at Neena.

Just before collision, Neena aborted the game of chicken. She twisted and tucked herself into a fall and roll, basically turning herself into a bowling ball. Best case scenario, she'd trip Nika up. Next-to-best case scenario, she'd end up behind Nika.

She kicked backwards, aiming for the girl's tail.

Once on her feet again she moved out of striking again. The discs flew back to her and hovered at shoulder-level. From the floor appeared a loaded crossbow, complete with ten oddly shaped bolts, slightly bubbled at their ends.

Neena didn't waste time in loading, and proceeded to rapid-fire repeatedly at Nika. On impact each bolt exploded with water dyed green.

To add to the mix, the discs resumed their swoop-and-buzz attacks.

Nika pushed off the floor with her right foot and jumped up and away from Neena. The girl was getting even more pissed as Neena was apaprently a more formidible foe than Nika had originally given her credit for. Now the woman had a crossbow with some strange bolts.

Dodging the first bolt Nika saw it splatter on the wall in a green colored liquid. Her attention was quickly snapped back as the flying discs buzzed by her and she saw another bolt flying at her. Neena was really trying Nika's patience and she was going to get a response.

Dodging bolts, ducking under and leaping over flying discs all the while moving closer to Neena. Nika was finally in striking distance and she didn't hesitate as she swatted the crossbow; breaking it into pieces and spearing Neena in her stomach with her shoulder. Nika then commensed to striking Neena about the head and shoulders.

Again Neena took the hit with little more than a pained grunt. But the shattered weapon meant that things were about to get more intense.

She covered her head with one hand, then brought her fist up into the Nika's stomach with the other. From her position it was hard to put enough force into the hit, so she whipped upward with her defending elbow, then snapped out with her wrist at Nika's neck.

Her glasses were knocked away, and skidded across the floor, away from the fight.

The blow to her stomach didn't affect her much so Nika didn't pay it much attention. The Neena hit Nika in the neck with a wrist? It was a strange attack but it didn't do much either except make Nika's head sway to the side for a brief moment. It wasn't nearly enough of an attack to stop the multiple strikes Nika was providing, but since Neena wanted to fight back then Nika would step up the attack.

Grabbing Neena's wrist that she had jsut used as a weapon Nika hopped up to her feet and pulled Neena easily up to her feet. As she did this Nika spun around while still holding the wrist until she had spun full circle. The momentum was more than enough to send Neena flying off into the wall. However, Nika wasn't finished. The moment Neena hit the wall Nika was right there with a fist of her own burried deep in Neena's guts. The force of impact from hitting the wall and then being pounded by another super strong force should've exploded Neena's guts and shattered her rib cage.

There was an audible crack! from Neena's arm as she was swung around, then tossed. This time a pained exclamation left her throat as she hit the wall, but it was quickly cut short by the fist to her stomach.

She crumpled to the floor in a heap. But, as if in defiance of reality, she managed to push herself to one hand and lever a kick at Nika's knees. One arm hung limply at her side. Blood seeped out of the corners of her mouth, and flowed from numerous gashes on her head and arms. Her shirt was torn, and also spotted with crimson.

Still her expression remained all but blank.

-----------------

On the far side of the room, away from the fighting arena, cloaked from sight and soudproof, was a small enclosure, about ten feet square on all sides. The inside walls of the little booth were completely white, bathing the dark figure in its center with a soft light. When Neena hit the wall outside, the figure inside gasped painfully, before also getting to her feet and kicking outward at an unseen enemy.

<"Dang!"> Neena thought to herself. <"Glad I'm not fighting her after all...."> She flexed her right arm, still feeling the sting of the simulated break.

She couldn't believe that Neena was sitting up. Nika was amazed but she could she that she was doing damage. The hanging arm and the blood showing up fueled her to pour on the assault.

The woman kicked at Nika's knee but the feline reflexes within Nika allowed her enough time to turn her leg so that she could bend with the kick to an extent. It was time to end this once and for all.

Nika roared and sent a flurry of punches and knee striked to Neenas head before reaching down and grabbing the limp arm. Once again NIka spun Neena around and slammed her intot he wall as hard as she could. Next came the claws as they tore and shredded flesh and clothe. Two more powerful knee strikes to the woman's guts and finished with a claw strike to Neena's head with enough power to knock her head off.

"Gah!!"

In the Virtual Reality Room, Neena fell backwards onto her rear, breathing heavily. She grimaced and rubbed her shoulder. The program only let her feel a fraction of the pain she would have taken, had she been out there herself, but it was still more than enough. She pulled off the VR glasses, which pulled her out of the program. She watched on an overhead monitor as Nika shredded her look-a-like bot. The hologram generator portrayed what gore would have happened.

"Dang..." she remarked as the bot's head rolled across the floor. ".... and she's still going...." Neena shot a glance at the digital clock.

Since the bot was out of commission, but Nika wasn't, Neena decided to try another tactic.

"Alternate program," she announced aloud, and replaced the VR glasses.

--------------------------

A water cannon blasted toward Nika and the downed bot. When the mist cleared, two more bots had appeared. This time, however, both were mirror images of Nika herself. Both charged the girl; one leapt high to knock her over, while the second circled and came at her from behind, claws slashing.

Nika was breathing heavily as she thought everything was over. Unfortunately it wasn't as another water cannon fired and Nika jumped backwards as the stream hit Neena and made it disappear. The really sad part was now there were two mirrow images of Nika and they jumped into action.

Nika dropped and rolled away from the first look-a-like as it sailed over her. Quickly getting up to her feet Nika flipped backwards over the second look-a-like and punched it in the back of the head sending it tumbling forward.

The cat girl put up a valiant fight for another twelve minutes but she could slowly feel her power wearing off. The end came when the first look-a-like pounced Nika sending them both crashing to the ground. Then the second look-a-like ran up and kicked Nika across the floor as she let out a scream and crashed into the wall. That's when everything stopped and Nika lay motionless.

"End program"

The Nika bots halted, and backed away, eventually disappearing into the darkness. Neena walked out of the VR room, and made her way quickly across the floor.

"She lasted longer than you anticipated," a soft but deep voice announced out of the darkness.

Neena nodded to the figure coming from the opposite direction. "Yeah, glad it wasn't me fighting her. I'm still feeling that break...." She reached Nika just before the DocProf did. Very gently she rolled Nika onto her back.

"It would serve you right if she actually breaks your arm when she wakes up, what with all of those dirty tricks." The older man knelt by the catgirl's side. His hands began to glow, sending a soft light into the darkness as he systematically healed the girl's injuries, and restored a bit of her energy.

"I realize that. But I had to get her mad. I can handle a bit of a beating, on a normal level at least. I just hope she won't hold a grudge....."

The DocProf gave her an over-the-glasses reprimanding look. "One of these days that hard head of yours is going to get you in more trouble than you can handle."

Neena smirked. If he only knew.....

After a moment the glow faded, and he nodded. Neena patted the girl's cheek lightly.

"Nika? Nika. Wake up m'friend. Training's done for the day. Nika?"