Reconfigure by Epredator, Ian Hughes Page B

baseball cap, a long coat and mucky off white hi-tops, with an out of place cartoon bag in his left hand.
    “Looks like I get a new phone too.” He said interspersed with a chew on his gum.
    Roisin was just a few meters from the main street, she could hear people and cars going about their business behind her. They were completely oblivious to the risky situation she found herself in now. He dropped the bag to the floor. Her keys jangled inside as they were rapidly decelerated. His right hand reached slowly to an inside pocket and came out holding a knife. She had no such weapons. This was not going to be a “That’s not a knife… this is a knife!” He was standing there menacingly. His smirk got wider and the glint of a great payday was in his eyes.
    Roisin had done some self defence classes. She had never had to use them. She didn’t want to start now. Even practicing with a rubber knife she knew that the outcome would not end well. Those toy blades always ended up bending as they scraped over her arms or body as she attempted to disarm her friendly assailants. This one was not friendly, nor was that blade rubber. He was not charging at her, he was feeding on her fear. He took a half step forward presenting the blade in as menacing a stance as he could manage.
    “The Phone!” He snapped.
    Roisin lifted up the phone in her left hand, moved her right hand to hold it too. It looked like she was about to present a business card to a Japanese executive with two hands. She was felling a rush of fear, but also an almost maternal rush of aggression to protect her bag. This mugger did not deserve her phone and access to RC either. That, she concluded, would be very bad indeed. She lifted the phone a little higher. She would let gravity, with a little extra impetus from her, destroy the phone. A second thought raced into her mental field of view. It was a much more aggressive and attacking idea. Could she operate FMM quickly enough? Whilst trembling and holding the phone her thumb hit Refresh. She saw on the screen amongst other cubes further away, cubes labelled Knife and Human1.
    “Right, outta time babe!” He grimaced at her.
    He was just sending the signals to his legs to rush forward when Roisin hit Translate on the knife. It clinked on the floor as it passed just 0.5 units to the right of its previous place, in his hand. The metal on concrete sounded much louder than her muffled keys in her bag had done when they came to rest a few seconds ago. Her would be attacker was confused. Probably not as confused as if he had not been quite as high as he was. He looked puzzled, then looked down at the knife, bent over and picked it up again using the momentum to launch towards his prey. Stepping back Roisin tried something else in a panic. She had been sure that disarming him would have confused him enough that he wouldn’t try again. She had no time to ponder the how or the why. His smile was now a frown come growl. She clicked and initiated something, anything. She probably should have Translated him, but instead she issued an ‘Attach Knife Human1 <0,0,0> <0,0,0> -absolute’ with a few frantic clicks. It was a crazy thing to try. He had a knife but she had a fast paced reconfiguring hunch. Roisin was still surprised at the end result. The knife again dropped to the floor. This time it was not totally alone. As the knife headed downwards it rotated to accommodate the apparently completely rigid human shape, frozen in its step forward motion and with a nasty snarl on its face. The new human shaped knife handle rolled around as the knife blade found the comfort of the concrete and came to rest. If it had not been for the adrenalin Roisin would probably have laughed at this odd situation. The yob was completely immobile. Like a fallen plastic toy soldier still in his running position. The folds and angle of his coat frozen against gravity and looking completely out of place. Roisin shuffled carefully to the downed mugger.