Dodgeball

Skyler held her hand like she wanted to pull her toward the sofa. Roxanne’s deadpan face stayed so as her other hand pressed a button inside her hoodie pocket. Across the room, a silent launcher unveiled itself from a recess within the wall.

“What’s up?” asked Skyler.

Roxanne watched as Skyler followed her eyes toward the perfectly calibrated launcher. It fired, and a heavy ball flew out at ridiculous speeds. The ball careened into Skyler’s jaw, knocking her down with the ease of a Mike Tyson power punch.

With Skyler seeing stars, this was the perfect opportunity for a little initial test of the Roxy Cutter in the field.

Roxanne unveiled her invention and went straight to work with the smallest of tests. She seized the sleeve of her business blazer and cut the arm from the shoulder. The slicer moved through the fabric like a hot knife through butter. Then, it was child’s play to remove the sleeve entirely intact, leaving the arm of Skyler’s white shirt on show.

Wow, that’s pretty awesome.

“Owww…” Skyler started to come to as she held her smarting jaw.

“Hey, Skyler,” Roxanne said sweetly as she threw the cut sleeve at Skyler’s prone body. Then, her voice turned into a screech. “Don’t ever try to grab me again!”

Roxanne walked, ran through the kitchen, and switched the light on in the garage. From here, she could retreat back to her workshop, or technically her daddy’s workshop, not that he had ever used it.

The next stage of her plan would proceed from here.