The Intersect versus The Robot

The idea of the conference was for agents of the New York FBI office to be introduced to the new idea of a fighting robot. It was designed to provide a challenging opponent for the agents to train against in Quantico and other training facilities. Using a volunteer to display the possibilities of what the robot could be capable of, Jones decided to raise his hand. With military training and FBI training he figured that he would be able to defeat a robot… right?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything and as usual this is un betaed :D

A big shot technology company had designed the ultimate fighting robot. What should they do with that kind of technology? Certain persons in Washington decided that the technology could be useful for training agents and keeping those in the field in shape.

The plan was scheduled to roll out quickly with the New York FBI office being the first group introduced to the idea. As the guinea pigs of the project, they were all pulled into a large conference with minimum staff keeping up the work for a day.

Sitting amongst the many seats arranged around a staged fighting ring, CI Neal Caffrey looked around wondering, once again, just what exactly was his purpose in being here?

Recognizing his friend's expression, Special Agent Peter Burke nudged him. "You're here because even a CI can spread the word to others how great this new technology is and a con man can especially lay on the charm to convince others to back this crazy idea of theirs."

Smirking, Neal responded. "Are you sure that I'm not some kind of safety back up that is being hid in the crowd as an unexpected source of protection?"

Peter chuckled in amusement at the absurdity of that statement. "Yes, you are such a great secret protection. That is why you hounded me for self-defense training after you had your run in with Larssen."

With a roll of his eyes, Neal responded. "How do you know that it wasn't a ploy to throw you off so that I would appear to be afraid after a run in with a special forces trained opponent?"

Looking at Neal like he had grown a second head, "So you want me to believe that you had pretended to be easily defeated by Larssen, hounded me for training, and all of that just to throw us off the scent of your amazing fighting capacity… really Neal? If you have such fighting capacity, why don't you volunteer to be an example when they ask the audience?"

As if it was the biggest secret to be held, Neal deflected. "What if my fighting capacity is due to some kind of government secret project that I can't share with others, unless they have clearance and the need to know?"

It was Peter's turn to roll his eyes. "Listening to Mozzie much lately? You two might have been working together too long if you want to use his paranoia for your excuses."

Conspiratorially Neal said, "What if he is right more often than you would like to think? There have been whistle blowers who have talked about some of his theories only to turn up mysteriously dead."

Using his features, Peter gave a look that asked Neal to give up. "Whistle blowers may have died about a few of his theories, but I don't think that someone would die for sharing that you are secretly a protector by governmental trans-humanism experiments."

Not giving in, Neal left the conversation hanging. "That is what you are meant to think."

Before Peter could decide to let go or pick up the conversation again, the guest speaker stepped up and began the conference.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen. My name is Ajax Pascal and I am here to introduce you to RIST or Robotic Intelligent Sparing and Training…" He continued to go through details about the technological capacity of the robot for an extended period of time.

Most of the agents seemed to be zoning out a little as they didn't understand all of the details that were being shared with them. Neal on the other hand, pretended to be another person in his own little world while he waited for the conference to be over, but Peter could tell that he was giving rapt attention to the details. He even had occasional weird twitches of his eyes. Peter wondered if he was so focused on the speaker that he was forgetting to blink often enough, but the way he reacted when he did blink repeatedly wasn't quite normal.

When the speaker announced that there would be a break, the crowd gave an inaudible sigh of relief.

As everyone got refreshments, stretched, and milled around in conversations, Peter decided to pick up his previous conversation with Neal. He opted to wait until the rest of their office had collected together with them so that he could have some help ribbing Neal. "So Neal, are you so focused on the speaker because you want to be prepared to save us if something goes wrong?"

Diana got a confused look and asked, "What is this about Neal paying attention to save us?"

Ignoring Neal's glare, Peter laughed saying, "Neal wants me to believe that he was just acting defenseless in the Larssen situation and that he is a secret government trans-humanism experiment who is here to protect us."

Jones entered the conversation laughing as well. "So you mean to say that he thinks that he is better than all of these trained agents?"

Diana answered. "Apparently he would like us to think so. Don't give me that look Neal. I saw you doing that blinky thing all through the presentation."

Getting them away from the trans-humanism, he decided to deny that part of the conversation only. "I never said anything about being involved in trans-humanism. That was Peter's creation. I did, however, say that maybe I was in 'some kind of government secret project' that I couldn't talk about." Amused by their disbelief, Neal simply stood by and let them discuss the situation for the remainder of the break.

When the conference was called back into session, the team had plans to volunteer Neal for the next portion of the presentation… the part where they got to see RIST in action!

While Ajax took the stage, there was a buzz of excitement as the agents ribbed various candidates into volunteering to try their skills against the robot.

Before the fun came, there were the remaining details of how to handle the brief five minute training session and what to do should the situation get to be too much.

As the call for volunteers went out, there was a bustle of noise as some raised their hands while others tried to encourage their team mates to accept challenges. The first volunteer called up was none other than Neal Caffrey.

The selection had come about when one of Ruiz's agents had overheard the conversation amongst the White Collar team and decided to help encourage Caffrey to go up. With a simple stab in the posterior with a pin, Neal was forced to move up and away to prevent further assaults.

Ajax took Neal's standing movement to be that of an overly eager volunteer and called him to the ring.

When Neal tried to down play his movements, the entire room pressed him into action to try and pressure him into accepting the challenge. Giving into the persuasion and attempting to cover his earlier slip with the team, Neal accepted and moved toward the ring.

After removing his clothes until he stood in his slacks and the t-shirt that he wore underneath his dress clothes, he stepped into the ring. While Ajax went about giving him the final instructions and set RIST to his lowest settings, Neal was mentally preparing himself to take on the fight with nearly the entire NYC office as spectators.

Stepping out of the ring, Ajax hit the signal and the fight began.

Neal slowly circled his opponent and dodged the slow light jabs that RIST threw his way. When he did throw a few decent jabs of his own, they were easily dodged by the robot. As the clock ticked down, the robot got progressively more complicated until it seemed like Neal was doing everything he knew how to in order to avoid getting hurt. Finally, the clock timed out and Neal stood like he had just finished a real world fight on the streets. Giving him the obligatory cheer, the room filled with applause and some jeering comments about him not doing too bad… for a White Collar criminal.

Returning to his seat, Neal was relieved to hear his team giving him words of encouragement for a good fight mixed with gentle teasing about him still hiding his true skills.

Other contestants stepped forward throughout the afternoon and the excitement began to wear off for some, while others continued to get riled up with the play fighting.

Deciding to give as good as he got, Neal turned the earlier ribbing of his team onto Jones. "Your FBI and former Navy. If I can survive a round with RIST, why don't you give it a try?"

Picking up on the line of thought, the rest of the team were willing to back him and encouraged Jones to take a turn.

Finally, at the end of the conference, Ajax called for a final volunteer.

The entire White Collar team pointed fingers at Jones who stood up and accepted the challenge. Walking towards the ring, he removed his additional layers until he was in his slacks and t-shirt just like the other contestants had done. Since Jones had his military and government background to help, RIST was put to a more difficult setting to provide a challenge.

When the bell rang for the fight to proceed, things started out normal. There had been several other more capable contestants fighting at the harder levels so the system had been seen before. However, it didn't take long before there were obvious signs of smoke coming out of the robots control panel and the situation started to get out of control.

No one noticed Neal moving to stand closer to the ring until it looked like Jones was about to face a scenario that would likely end in death.

Seeing the situation about to turn deadly, Neal unleashed Bryce, the CIA agent that he truly was and utilized the Intersect to join in on the fight. Pulling a track star/gymnast worthy run and flip into the ring, he intervened in the nick of time. With a flash he went to work fighting RIST who was going out of control and attempting to kill him with unhuman speed and precision. Fighting fire with fire, Bryce used the Intersect and his own natural skills to match the robot's speed and abilities. Once again the focus of every present person from the office, Bryce put on a show of skills that were wholly unexpected by his spectators. After a few minutes of lightning speed combat, Bryce flipped over RIST and twisted around to open the control panel. With a few more maneuvers, he managed to flip the switch and shut the robot down.

The room was filled with proverbial crickets chirping as the entire audience stood with their slack jaws and shocked expressions.

Turning towards the spectators, Neal said, "What… so a legendary 'con man' conning an entire office of FBI agents into believing that he is actually a con man surprises you?"

All he heard in response was Jones' mutter, "Maybe you weren't messing with us earlier so much as preparing us for the possibility of something like this happening."

Grinning in response, "Something like that, but I can't go into detail. You understand, based on what I said earlier." Bryce helped Jones up with a wink.

Thank you for reading and for those who continue to share that you like my stories :D

I leave tomorrow, will be gone for nearly two weeks, and then I will be posting on the twenty sixth. Let me know if you want to read "Time Incongruous," "FBI Unlikely," or "What he wasn't told (until later)" next as these are my longer stories. My profile page has the fandoms, lengths, and summaries for each so please help me chose the next story :D