“...Ye, I’ve seen her before. Doesn’t carry herself like most folks, so I remember. She walked into the club two streets down two days ago.” The disheveled homeless man stated.
“Are you sure?”
He held his stare at me for a second before he continued, “I don’t have time to fool around with you. I’ve said my piece, goodbye.”
“Wait, give me your contact information. If your info is right, I’ll pay you for it.”
“No need, I don’t need your charity,” He said as he continued walking away.
He didn’t give me a chance to continue, so texted Jane and Vin the new info I got and proceeded to the club mentioned.
The NLA night scene wasn’t much worse than in Elevate City. The streets were getting more crowded as I approached the street where various clubs and bars were. The people had pretty weird getups and came in a large variety as they made use of their chrome to customize their eye and hair color.
It took me a while to find The Glove, the club the old man told me about. It only had a small sign on the main road while the actual entrance to the establishment was in one of the small streets with much less traffic.
There were still quite a few people inside the spacious open area with high ceilings. They were all crowded around a boxing ring, cheering and drinking. Off to the side was a bar where people occasionally ordered a drink before joining the crowd around the ring.
I walked by a small booth where they took bets and approached the bar. The bartender was busy serving others, so I waited patiently and took a look around.
“Thank you all for waiting, folks. The next fight is about to start. You have one minute to place your bets if you haven’t already!” The speakers nearby all rang out with the voice of the announcer.
There was a quick rush to the stall to place bets immediately after the announcement. A timer was displayed on the wall where a giant screen was and when the timer counted down, the sound of a gong being rung echoed throughout the venue.
“Time is up folks. Get ready for our second round of fighters! Give it up for Rabid Jab Joe, and his opponent, Dempasy Rio!” The announcer introduced the two walking hunks of cybernetics and muscle, who both sported dangerous-looking cyberarms.
People cheered for their favorite fighters as they entered the ring. I waited until the noise died down a little before I approached the bartender, who now stood idle and ordered a drink.
“Hey, have you seen this person?” I held up the photo to him as he placed down my drink.
He gave it a brief look, “No, she’s not a regular around here.”
“I have a friend who saw her come here two days ago. Are you sure?”
“Could have come before or after my shift. I don’t know anything. Ask someone else.”
“...Do you have a manager or something around?”
He pointed over to where people placed bets and went back to do his own thing, ignoring me. I walked over to the gambling counter that was now free as everyone paid attention to the fight. The attendant there was sitting leaned back with a glow to his eyes that indicated he was watching something on his optics.
“Hey,” I lightly tapped the table. “Are you the manager around here?”
The lights in his eyes faded, and he looked up, “What do you want? Bets are closed until the next round.”
“I just wanted to ask a question. I’ll pay credits for your time,” I slipped him some credits.
“...One second,” His eyes were unfocused as he stared blankly for a moment before returning to normal. “He’s over there near the front, watching the fight. He said you can go over to him.”
The fight climbed toward the climax as I made my way to the front. I instantly saw the area I was directed to as it stood out with fancier chairs than the rest, where a fit bald man cheered as the fight went on.
A bodyguard in each direction surrounded him, and they watched me carefully as I approached. As I tried to speak with the man, one guard held up a hand and signaled for me to wait.
Looking over at the fight, I watched one of the men completely on the defensive as he was being pummeled into the corner. The attacker landed a strong body blow that dropped his hand for a second and took the opportunity to continue his assault. From there, a downward spiral began as a barrage of punches slowed the defender’s reaction time. The attacker soon found a gap in his defense and landed a decisive blow, knocking him to the ground.
The crowd cheered in unison for a full minute before it calmed down.
I gave the guard, who stopped me a look, and she gestured for me to approach her charge
“Hey, the bartender told me to speak with you about helping me find someone. Can you check if you or your staff have seen this person?” I held up the photo to the man.
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He took a swig from his glass and inspected me, “No, we’re not in the business searching for people or selling info.”
“I can pay you—”
He held up a hand to gesture for me to stop, “Do I look like I need some pocket change? I bought this place for my enjoyment, not to be bothered by random people. But you don’t seem so bad. How about I’ll help you out if you take part in a bout tonight?” He pointed toward the ring.
Fighting head-to-head was never my forte…Should I give it a go? Fighting augmented people was never safe, but the gloves or whatever safety feature they had seemed to tone it down or else that fight wouldn’t have lasted so long with metal cyberarms bashing into each other.
“I’m not much of a fighter, but my friend who’s on the way may be interested.”
“No, I want you to do it or no deal. We recently got an opening tonight and you fit the weight class. This is a yes or no question,” I never knew how much pressure being glared at from all directions produced, but the surrounding bodyguards helped me gain this valuable experience.
“Your opponent isn’t any established fighter, either. I’ll cut you some slack, make it a good show, and I’ll help you even if you lose.”
Would it be rude if I sighed in his face? At this point, I guess I’ll agree. From my experience with the medical equipment I normally deal with, I can clear most damages sustained from a fistfight within the night with the help of medical nanomachines. It’s just going to hurt…
“Fine, I’ll do it.”
With my agreement, they took me to the back, where they outfitted me and briefed me on the rules, which consisted of various restrictions that limited you to your hands.
Whatever happened next felt like a blur, because it was my turn in no time.
“Good evening folks, for our next fight, we have a slight change to the contestants. Fighting in the stead of Roger Guns, we have Seeker versus The Rush! In light of this change, previous bets on this match will be refunded. You have fifteen minutes to place new bets now!”
I hadn’t bothered giving my name or creating one, so I guess Seeker was what they chose for me. I awkwardly walked toward the ring and waited right below as people rushed to place their bets.
The crowd stared my way with judging eyes, so it was a little uncomfortable. My opponent seemed completely relaxed, though. He was shorter than me and young, so he couldn’t be that experienced, but he certainly knew what he was doing more than me.
Unfortunately, things got worse as I spotted people who did know me approach.
“...What in the world happened for you to get roped into this?” Jane said, befuddled.
Behind her, Vin was holding his stomach, laughing his heart out.
“HAHAHA, do you even know how to throw fists, Rollo?”
I gave him an unamused look, but he didn’t stop so I ignored him, “I’ll explain later, but I needed to do this to get our next lead.”
The time quickly passed and the lines to place bets thinned.
“Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, let the fight begin!”
I was summoned into the ring with my opponent by the ref. We wore these thick gloves that someone put on for us while they also sent us some software for our cybernetics to tune them down.
The ref then brought us close and talked loudly so we could hear over the crowd, “You two know the rules?” We both nodded at him at the same time.
“Okay, start!” He pointed to his nearby partner, who rang the gong in response.
Almost immediately, my opponent closed the distance and started throwing a wide swing at me that I instinctively backed away from.
Calm down, me. I may have only played around, imitating what I saw on TV in the past, but I’ve seen enough to know the basics. Keep moving, weave, and throw compact punches.
Just as I was starting to realize how bad of an idea this was, he threw another swing at me and I barely dodged out of the way by stepping to the side. I instantly followed up by throwing a basic one-two at his head and jumped back.
Wanting to continue my offense, I attacked while circling around him, making full use of his blind spots in my opponent’s vision that my stealth skills had taught me. I landed a few good combos, but it proved to be a big mistake as he started anticipating my movement.
I tried to imitate the most orthodox stance I’ve seen from most boxers with my hand up to defend. I didn’t have much time to think as the man in front of me unleashed an unrelenting barrage.
I continued backing away as he swung and missed. He continued his onslaught, but what I didn’t anticipate next was my back making contact with the ropes at the edge of the ring. With nowhere else to run, the blows landed on my guard.
Desperate to defend, I held both arms up and went entirely on the defensive.
I can’t let this continue. I need to make some distance or hit him back.
Luckily, he started to slow down. I decided to drop my guard and take the hits with my forehead and fight back. I tucked my head down and threw punches back, carrying more for quantity and power than precision.
I felt my fist make contact several times suddenly; I realized he had stopped attacking.
“And he’s down! The fight is over and the Seeker wins!” The announcer declares, followed by the cheers and jeers from the crowd.
Awkwardly, they guided me off the ring and I got changed before one of the previous bodyguards led me back to her boss.
I found the bald man sitting in the same place as before, smirking at me, “Congratulations!” He slowly clapped, “Here, have a drink.”
“No thank you, now if you’ll help me search for my friend as promised.”
“Straight to business, I like that. Leandro, go ask the staff about the person our friend is looking for and check the camera footage too. You said your friend came here 2 days ago, correct?”
I nodded at his question and watched one of the guards head off toward the back.
“Take a seat. It’ll take some time.”
Accepting his offer, we sat there in silence as he continued to drink and the next fight soon started that captured his full attention. I wasn’t too interested in the fight, so I surveyed the venue and found Vin and Jane nearby, occasionally stealing glances my way.
It wasn’t until a few minutes after the fight ended that Leandro returned and whispered into his boss’s ear.
“Good news and bad news. Which one do you want first?”
“...Bad one.”
“Okay, the bad news is none of our staff remember seeing her. Can’t blame them really, we get pretty high traffic around here so you can’t expect them to recognize every new face.”
“And the good news?”
“We got footage of her time here. The recording is right here,” He held out a small storage chip to me.