Sorry for the delay, but I have finally regained my motivation to type. For anyone wondering, my computer crashed again, but now I'm borrowing my grandma's computer. Before the computer crash, I typed in exquisite detail the experience of diving and fighting in the holoseum. I put so much effort into it that when I lost my data, I lost my drive. To Aquatic-Idealist (if he's still reading this) I'm holding off the Fire Emblem fanfic because of this in case you were wondering. I meant to get back to the story, as with my FF4 fanfic, but I just didn't want to retype so much. I took a year off and I'm ready to resume. So without further ado, let's resurrect the hilarious hijinks of Ray and his tan (actually, to respond to RedemptionOfMyOwnLife, I think he's black too, but the way his hair grows led me to believe otherwise, Mira's another story) amigo. One last thing, I don't own Custom Robo, and I haven't played the game in months, so I don't know if the damage done is accurate.

Ray once again allowed the aura of blue light to surround him. Not that he wanted to. He should be allowed to punch the sodding criminal and be done with it.

Everything went black. Ray found himself stuck, he couldn't see anything, couldn't breathe. He actually had to hold back the urge to scream. In his head he could hear a timer go off.

3...2...1...

Go

Ray was launched in the air. It was the first time he could take in his surroundings. The area was bland, mostly black, with a holographic grid serving as the ground, with slightly more detail starting to pool into the arena. Soon shapes and colors filled the arena. Ray was awestruck at the sight, but the first thing he noticed was his lack of mobility. Try as he might, Ray couldn't move.

Taking things one step at a time Ray remembered that Harry warned him about this prior to diving. Apparently, once deployed he would still be stuck in his current state as a robo cube, not that Ray would be able to notice the difference, to him, he would just be sitting down. Now it was a race to see who could break out of his cube first. As Harry had intelligently put it, fighting with robos was as easy as "Turn, tappity-zoom zoom, jumpity jump, bang bang, boom boom, blam, craaaaash!".

...Whatever the hell that meant. Ray realized that he could see the other robo cube and noticed that the countdown timer that determined the time left before the player would be permitted to fight was at was at 4 seconds left for his rival, while he was already down to one.

Damn, this game is easy! Ray thought to himself. Guess who's about to get their ass handed to them?

Upon deploying, Ray launched a bomb from the gun on his left arm, the bomb flew in an arc towards coordinates he had set. Coordinates that just so happened to be where his enemy lay.

Ray took a greater look at the details in his visor. The information displayed his health and stamina, and the enemy health as well as his DOWN status (which Ray assumed happened once you took down enough of the enemy's stamina). His enemy's HP read 890, while he was still at a perfect 1000.

Ray proceeded to charge into the other robo, but missed, and he noted that the enemy's status now said REBIRTH. Using deductive reasoning, Ray figured this what happens shortly following the DOWN phase.

Ray quickly managed to avoid the enemy's counterattack, and followed up with an attack from the pods Ray found were implanted in his back. Ray noted how the pods moved slowly, and the enemy's evasion told him that pods suck and should not be used. Ever.

Then again, they could prove to be useful in cornering the enemy. Making sure the enemy had landed in the corner, Ray unleashed his pods from both sides with him to fill the hole in the offensive wall.

Before his opponent could decide, Ray decided to shoot him with his gun, rendering him to 810 health points. At this point the robber was hit by one of the offending pods, bringing about another down status.

Ray noted the robber's HP, now at 750. Having fully acquired knowledge of the way the custom robo worked, Ray proceeded to whittle down his enemy's HP.

Eventually, Ray won his first battle with a perfect HP count.

As Ray returned to reality, Harry was awestruck. No matter how bad the commander, no one's ever been able to acquire a perfect on the first try. In most cases the person would screw up at one point and get hit at least once. But this random guy, simply looking for work had managed to take out the guy without a scratch.

Ray opened his eyes to find Harry staring at him like he was an alien. "Um, hi?" Ray said sheepishly as he emerged from the holoseum, metaphorically of course. Harry conveyed his message in a well thought out and organized manner. "HOLY CRAPMAN! I knew you had potential, but how'd you manage to pull a perfect out of your ass on the first try?

Before Ray could explain to Harry how some people just weren't born with talent, the next policeman fell to the ground. Harry noticed this and spoke up. "Uh oh, looks like another copper blew it!" He said with disdain. "Why don't you cover for him?"

All Ray could say was a simple, "You're shitting me, right?", to which Harry responded with "Of course not, do I look like I'm joking?! They might steal something else if you're not careful!".

Cursing under his breath, Ray walked up to the robber. It couldn't be too bad. What's one more battle?

THREE BATTLES LATER

(THAT"S RIGHT, THREE BATTLES)

"Geez, this is what they call law enforcement?" Ray sighed, gasping for breath, "I always thought the government blew our taxes out the ass". Harry shook his head. "Yeah, the police department has always been infamous for throwing over the top parties. I've actually heard a conspiracy theory stating that half of the money we spend on taxes actually go to shady deals featuring technological research. Hey, I'm pretty sure we'll never have to get THAT caught up in the goings on of our government!"

They both laughed at Harry's miserable excuse for a joke and went on their merry way to Linda. "Hey Linda, the police suck, bounty hunters rule, give us our pay so we can leave".

Before Linda could say anything befitting of her nature, a woman's voice that had a definite edge to it spoke softly "What was that about the police Harry?"

Ray turned around to see a light skinned African-American woman with short, matted down red hair. She had lighter skin; if she didn't have the matted down Afro, he would've said she just had a tan...

"You heard me sis! Now I can finally rub it in your face! The Steel Hearts have one-upped you and your squad!" Harry seemed to be reveling this moment in absolute pleasure. "I told you I didn't need to study for the police squad to make a difference!"

Ray thought he'd let Harry have his moment, despite the fact that it was RAY who made the difference. Oh well.

Wait a minute, Harry's older sibling is a policeman! Er, policewoman. And that means...

"Oh my god Harry! You mean to tell me that you're actually black?" Ray accidentally blurted out in front of the confused sibling duo.

Well, I'll leave it at there for now. I hope I didn't offend anybody with the black humor. If it helps, I'm about 80% black. I also know that this wasn't the funniest chapter, but this was the tutorial part of the game, and there's was no real way I could incorporate a lot of humor into this chapter.