TCR 43) Fight. Fight. Fight!

Buzz led me down four flights of steps to speak to another crewman with a clipboard and a headset, turning to me he grimaced, "Sorry I forgot your name."

I stared at him for a moment. “Pyrope.”

With that, he began to head off. "I'll catch up with you after the fight to make sure you get back."

Then the clipboard guy pointed me to a door. “Wait in there until you get called.”

So I walked into a woman’s locker room.

Well more like a changing slash waiting room, although it looked like there were showers and a toilet in an adjoining room. This one had a table with bottled water and energy drinks in some tubs of ice as well as a nice setup with sliced up roast beef, salmon, and cut up veggies.

Eating before a fight didn't sound like the greatest idea, but it looked like at least a few people had picked at the food.

The room also had several fit looking women, two of who were in the middle of changing out of their street clothes to some tight fitting costumes.

Awkward.

I walked over to the chair the furthest away from anyone else and had a seat. It didn't matter if the body I was in was currently female, I was still actually a guy. This wasn't right. I was violating a place set aside for women, and even if it was for a good cause, it felt wrong. Like a betrayal.

For me at least, other people might be fine with it, and I guess some people might feel like they belonged, but for me. I shouldn't be here.

A hard faced woman with so much muscle packed on it was hard to tell if she was really female was staring me down. “Who the hell are you bitch?”

I slowly turned my head to stare at her, then looked her up and down in her chair before looking away in dismissal.

She started to get up before a younger woman, now dressed fully dressed in a tight pink and red outfit that matched the colors of her hair spoke up. “Sit down Roxy, save it for the fight. You know what fighting in the waiting room gets you.”

Roxy sat down. I looked over at the other woman. “What does it get you?”

She glanced over at me. "Kicked out of the tournament, and billed for any damages. I'm Code Red by the way. Care to share, or haven't you picked out a Name? Like some people." She looked over at Roxy who sneered back at her.

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I'm not here to make friends, but I didn't have any reason to be rude either. "Pyrope, like the gemstone."

That got me a sharp look from Roxy for some reason. Which I didn’t care about, there was other information I needed that was a bit more important.

“So is this an all girl fight? Just the… seven of us.”

Code Red shook her head. "No, it's mixed gender, but mostly guys. We just get our own room to prep since we're ladies." She tilted her head and fluttered her eyelashes while saying the last part in a sarcastic tone.

A few minutes later several monitors hung around the room, and Roxy grabbed a remote to turn the sounds up so we could hear a vaguely familiar guy walking out into the ring and grabbing a microphone lowering down on a cord.

I think I saw him doing the talking on a robot fighting show.

“Welcome one and all to the eighth annual Battle on the Barge. A no holds, no blows barred knock down and kick them in the head Super powered fighting tournament. Tonight we have twenty eight contestants to bleed for your entertainment with a cash purse of half a million for the grand champion.”

“We have a starting bout of Clementine vs Axil. Bets are now open. Both fighters report to the ring.”

Code Red turned and hugged the other shorter girl who was wearing orange and white. “Axil does a spinning thing around his center of balance that makes it hard to knock him down and then brings the force of your hits back at you as he spins in place. Focus on gut shots.”

I paid attention to the first fight, with her friend's advice the girl, no more than in her early twenties, kept her punches and kicks at a pale greasy looking guy's guts, but he was tumbling around making it hard for her to connect.

Not that he could connect either. Clementine had a force field effect that flared orange when it deflected his hits. And it absorbed the force of them which Axil found out when she sent a half sphere of orange force as tall as she was at him, catching his whole body to slam him into the far end of the ring.

Where Clementine was able to rush in and work his middle against the fencing without him being able to get away. The guy wearing the referee shift seemed disinclined to interrupt her.

Axil tapped out when she backed off and let him fall to the ground. Then she turned to raise he hands up high to the cheers of the crowd, a huge smile on her face.

Code Red cursed. “Dammit, she used it too early. That was supposed to be her hole card.”

I stood up and looked over the energy drinks. “It wouldn’t have helped her any if she lost, and it wasn’t looking good for her.”

The woman in red nodded absentmindedly.

The next few fights were men on both sides. As normal, most of the Supers were Brutes, the most common power, with some of them having odds and ends of additional powers.

Like the blue skinned kid I had kind of met in one of the gyms in the Palace back in Concentric City, who had to be way too young to be participating in what had to be a highly illegal offshore fighting tournament.

As much as I would like to be cool, I was old enough to feel the need to tell on him like a responsible adult.

He had gravity powers.

Oh. He must be Skyrise’s kid. What was he doing here? His mom’s loaded from lifting cargo into orbit. He must be out to prove something. To make his own name. Today it was Mr Blue Sky.

And he did prove something. That what Superpowers you have don't always make the difference. Sometimes the bigger, higher Ranked guy wins.

The kid launched his burly opponent, Foraker, into the top of the cage, and then sent himself up to meet him with a punch to the face as the larger man fell. Sending him flying up again on the force of the hit alone.

He got two more good hits on the guy, and then Foraker caught a hold of him.

And broke him.

Not the arm he had gotten a hold of him by, but the kid’s jaw with a punch, an arm snapped over the big guy’s thigh like a branch for firewood. Then Foraker dragged him along the ground by his intact arm to stretch Blue Sky out, kicked his one leg so it was crossed over the other one, and stomped his foot down to break them both.

Lifting the semi-conscious kid by his remaining intact arm, Foraker looked him in the face, then spun him around and threw him into the cage wall around the ring, catching him with a kick in the guts as he bounced off.

They carried the kid out, a little blond woman already laying her glowing golden hands on his guts as she walked along with his stretcher.

I'm guessing it's pretty much guaranteed that I’m going to end up having to fight that guy.

In a way, I’m almost looking forward to it.