The city they had driven into, Denon, was bustling, but there was little sign of technology around, which made it difficult to navigate on unlit roads under the night sky. Vazerio explained that the Capitol often tagged any piece of tech they sold, so until it was screened and taken off the grid, there was no tech in this place. Their car had already had the tracker removed, so they could enter at their leisure. He went on to explain that the only reason this place hadn’t been attacked by the Capitol already was in regards to the city was on the border of the Groatian Empire, and the Groatian Empire didn’t take to kindly to an army a mile from entering their territory. Vazerio spoke as if from experience, but he explained the Capitol had tried long before he was born to attack the city of Denon and failed miserably because the Groatian Empire sent troops to defend the small city, claiming it was self-defense.
By the time Vazerio had explained the tense history between the Northern Empire’s Capitol and the Groatian Empire, they had arrived at their destination. Terra was surprised it didn’t look more...military-like. They were parked in front of some sort of round stadium that rose ten stories into the air all around. Vazerio strolled up to the entrance and flashed a badge at the guards, who let him in without a word.
When they entered the stadium, the entire area was illuminated by ten blinding sets of lights that lined the rim. Seats rose from the center arena to the full height and Terra could see people running up and down the stairs. She wanted to ask Vazerio why they would ever want to run such a meaningless course, but he was already thirty feet ahead of her greeting the generals.
The warning Alter had given her last night did little to prepare Terra for the Captain; she was easily six feet tall and had the widest shoulders Terra saw on anyone. Her arms seemed to want to burst from her shirt and her legs looked like they might do the same to her pants. Were all the women on this planet big?
“Vazerio! It’s been too long!” The Captain boomed, her hulking figure standing over the teen, wrapping him up in a bear hug.
“I agree, Captain,” he managed to squeeze out as he was crushed. “I’m glad you’re doing well.”
The giant woman’s eyes fell on Terra and she braced herself.
“And who is this cutie!” The Captain squatted to Terra’s height and pinched her cheeks, cooing over how pretty she was. “Did you adopt a little sister Vazerio?”
“No, er, this is the recruit I was talking about. The one we saved from the desert.”
The Captain’s demeanor suddenly changed. She stood up to her full height and turned to Vazerio, towering over him menacingly.
“I thought we agreed the minimum age for recruits was thirteen. Did you go behind my back and train a ten-year-old?” The way the Captain growled at Vazerio made Terra cringe. Vazerio was stammering and couldn’t seem to find the right words to speak, so Terra tried to come to his rescue.
“The group rescued me and I joined their cause on my own. He didn’t force me to do anything.” Terra declared, turning the Captain’s head towards her.
The Captain’s bright green eyes pierced her own blue one and Terra felt a chill run down her spine. This person was seriously intimidating! The minute she thought that the Captain lifted Terra into a hug.
“You’re so cute! I just want to keep you forever!” She turned to Vazerio while still holding onto Terra. “You get out of it this time just because she’s so adorable.”
When Terra’s feet were set on the ground again, her knees were shaking but she managed to remain standing.
“You’ll be our official mascot!” The Captain declared with a huge toothy smile.
“Captain, that mascot completed Continuous training in the simulator.” Vazerio tried having gained his wits back.
“Preposterous! No one has ever finished that before. I didn’t even know there was an end! Plus, there’s no way that little ball of cuteness could have completed that.”
“But Captain, she fou--” Vazerio attempted.
“Quiet. I still haven’t forgiven you for training an underage. We’ll talk about the consequences later.” The Captain’s icy glare turned soft when she met Terra’s eyes. “Come with me, I’ll introduce you to the leaders of our cause. Your adorableness will inspire all the troops to fight even harder!”
The Captain turned on her heels and grabbed Terra’s hand to bring her over. Terra shot a frantic look at Vazerio’s direction, but he just shrugged and mouthed ‘good luck’ in her direction, leaving Terra to deal with the Captain by herself. As soon as she got to the table and the Captain introduced her as ‘a sight for sore eyes’ all the generals groaned and shot Terra looks of pity.
“Captain, this makes the ninth mascot this week. You can’t just keep dragging kids in from off the street and calling them our mascot. I don’t want to have to fight off another mother again.” The general that spoke leaned down to Terra.
“My name is General Shautine. Let me take you from this gorilla that can’t help itself and take you back to your parents.” He offered him her hand.
Terra frowned. She was getting nowhere with these people. If anyone else treated her like a small, lost child, she might scream. Looking around, she tried to find something that would demonstrate her worth since words didn’t seem to do any tricks. Spotting a group of soldiers huddled and cheering, she found her chance.
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“Excuse me,” she told the officer and walked towards the group, leaving behind a very confused general.
“Sweetie, come back!” She heard the Captain calling, but she walked faster hoping to reach the group before the giant woman could grab her. She squeezed in between the tightly packed knees to see two soldiers brawling on the ground.
“I call fighting the winner!” She yelled at the top of her lungs.
Everyone in the ring turned to face this little girl who had burst through, even the two who were mid-brawl paused to stare at this little girl. Terra could feel a blush coming on with that many eyes on her, but she insisted.
“You heard me! I can take anyone of you on and win!” She fished into her pockets and drew out an accumulation of the allowance she’d been saving up.
The men and women in the group chuckled as if a joke had been played on them.
“Cutie pie, what are you doing?” The Captain had pushed through the crowd and reached out to grab her arm.
Terra nimbly dodged and continued urging the other soldiers to find someone to fight her.
“Are you all chickens?” Terra taunted while continuing to dodge the Captain’s outstretched arms. “Bock, bock, bock!” Come to think of it, where there chickens on this planet?
“None of you cowards will fight me?” She yelled, noticing that everyone was dodging out of her way since the Captain kept lunging for her. An idea unexpectedly hit her and she planted her feet on the ground and squared her shoulders against the hulking woman coming up from behind her.
“Captain, I challenge you to a duel!”
The crowd around them gasped as if Terra had committed some sort of blasphemy by challenging the Captain. The Captain stopped in her tracks, staring at Terra in disbelief, and then began laughing. Well, that plan backfired.
“Oh, you’re funny too! You’ll be our perfect mascot.” The Captain said, wiping away a tear.
Terra was growing irritated. What was up with the Captain and wanting her as a fucking mascot? Did she have some sort of obsession with mascots? Tired of all the bullshit, Terra reached towards the nearest officer and pulled out their gun, firing it in the air. That certainly did the trick. Terra pointed the gun at the Captain.
“I said that I challenge you to a duel.”
The Captain went silent, the humor completely faded from her face.
“Terra! What are you doing?” Vazerio called out to her, grabbing the gun from her hand and giving it back to the officer it belonged to.
“Step away from the girl Vazerio.” The Captain growled.
Terra felt a chill go from her head to her toes and she suddenly wished she had challenged the general that had talked down at her; he seemed much easier to fight against than this muscular woman nearly twice her height. But she made her bed so she was going to sleep in it.
“One weapon, first to call out mercy wins.” Terra declared.
The Captain squinted her eyes and gave a slight nod. With a flick of her finger, she ordered a soldier to grab her weapon. Terra waited anxiously to see what it was. She hoped it wasn’t anything with a long reach otherwise Terra was really going to struggle to get in close enough to deal any damage. The soldier returned with a set of silver gauntlets and Terra let out a breath; just one less thing to worry about. Terra reached into her pouch and removed the black crystal and all the anxiety she had felt disappeared. The cool touch of the rock soothed her nerves, but she still felt fully in control of it.
One of the generals she hadn’t been introduced to stepped into the center of the makeshift ring of people.
“Alright, let’s have a fair fight.” He walked to the edge, out of the way. “Begin!”
At first, they both just stared each other down, and then the Captain rushed forward. Terra jumped out of the way, surprised at the large woman’s speed, but the Captain kept rushing in. Terra continued to jump out of the way, wondering how she could get the Captain to say mercy without severely hurting her. The Captain really wasn’t pulling any punches, literally, and bits of grass and dirt rained onto Terra every time the Captain missed Terra and hit the ground.
Trying something out, Terra changed the black crystal into a solid round ball and chucked in at the Captain’s head. The Captain dodged but looked hesitated when she realized Terra didn’t have a weapon anymore. Spotting her chance, Terra charged and recalled the ball, landing it right on the back of the Captain’s head, catching her by surprise and she tipped forward. Crystal back in Terra’s hands, she transformed it into a sword and lunged forwards, stopping mere millimeters from the Captain’s throat. To Terra’s surprise, the Captain smiled proudly.
“Mercy,” she said, raising her hands in defeat.
Terra heard guns caulking all around her and when she turned her head, she saw every recruit, officer, and general with a gun set it back in their holsters. If Terra had actually killed the Captain, she wouldn’t be escaping the arena very easily.
“You’ve proven yourself ballsy, I give you that, but a good fighter won’t win a war. I don’t know why Vazerio wanted to show you to me personally, but I think you may have wasted a trip.” The Captain told Terra, shooting Vazerio a look.
“I’m not sure either, but I guess it might have something to do with this.” Terra held out her hand and Vazerio gave her his gun.
“What are you doing?” The Captain questioned, and Terra could hear guns caulking all around her again.
“Don’t worry, I’m not trying to kill you,” Terra said and held the gun up against her temple.
“Holy--” The Captain lunged to try and stop Terra.
She pulled the trigger. The blow was more powerful than she thought it would be and she fell to the ground. Terra figured it was more dramatic than shooting her arm, and boy was she right. The Captain had rushed to her side with tears in her eyes and a medic had already been called. Terra waved them all off, laughing. Half her face was coated in dense black crystals, but besides her not being able to see out of her right eye she was perfectly fine. It was amusing to watch the faces around her try and absorb what they had seen and continue watching as the crystals retreated. Within two minutes she had wowed an entire audience and gained visibility in her right eye.
“I don’t know if this changes things, but I really hope we haven’t wasted a trip,” Terra spoke to the Captain.
“No, no trip wasted. This most definitely changes things.” She turned to the generals. “Assemble all troops, it’s time to initiate Plan D.” She turned back to Terra. “I don’t know if you realize this, but you are, by far, the best mascot we’ve ever had.”