SLAM! A person fell from the top floor of the club and directly onto the big man in the ring. The big man slowly turned to face the person as they drunkenly struggled to stand up. The woman who fell wore a long, tattered, black trench coat and skin-tight black shirt and pants. She had a pale, thin face that made her look like she hadn’t eaten in months, with pale white eyes partially covered by thin strands of patchy blond hair, and she only came up to the man’s abs in height.
She slowly stood and drunkenly stumbled around the ring before turning a full three-sixty to face the big man in the ring. “HEY!” she slurred, “Why you fell on me!? Asshole!”
The big man looked offended, “I am Brock! King of this ring! You fell on me!”
“Pfft!” the woman spat, waving her hands as if to disregard what Brock said, “Yeah, sure. Talk when you’re not standing on the wall.”
“I’m not on a wall! You’re drunk and standing sideways!” Brock protested as the woman bent her body to one side, trying to stay upright.
The woman hiccupped and said, “NNNNoooo. I was standing completely silent when you landed on me. I am not wronged.”
At that moment, the referee came into the ring and said, “Please, ma’am, leave the ring.”
“You leave the range!” the woman obstinately spat back.
“That’s it!” Brock yelled, inraged, “You’re my next fight!”
“Fight, I am your next!” the woman agreed. The referee sighed and vacated the ring, letting the fight happen. As soon as the ref left the ring, Brock roared and charged at the woman, swinging a wide punch at her. It connected with her chin, and her head snapped around to the point it faced the wrong way.
Brock smiled and stood tall as the woman stumbled back a step. He turned to face the cheering crowd with fists raised in triumph. “HAHA!” Brock bellowed, “No one in the galaxy is a better fighter than me!”
“HEY!” Brock froze in his triumph and slowly turned to see the woman still standing. The woman’s head began to jerk and twitch as she reached up and turned it back around with a loud crack. Her white eyes fixed on Brock with a dangerous blue gleam where her irises should be. “You know what I hate?” the woman asked, her voice no longer slurred.
Brock brought his fists up, readying himself for a fight, “I don’t care.”
“I hate,” the woman continued, “being sober.”
Brock charged, swinging another fist at the woman, “I said! I don’t care!”
Just before his fist connected with her face, she turned and headbutted Brock’s fist with a loud crack. Brock screamed in pain as he brought his fist back and saw it broken and bleeding, with several bones sticking out through the skin as though it had been crushed. Brock looked back to the woman, and his eyes widened in surprise. The woman’s head had been covered in a thick layer of dark metal with two massive curved horns coming out of her forehead. Where there should be her face was something that resembled a monster. It had zig-zagging teeth with a pale and dark blue light in its maw and slanted eyes with the same color. The woman pulled off her coat and tossed it aside as the metal covering her head ran down her body like a liquid, covering her in dark metal with pale and dark blue light, highlighting the metal in intricate patterns.
“Time to die,” the woman said, her voice sounding robotic and menacing. She moved and appeared before Brock before he knew what was happening. She drove her fist into his stomach, and he flew back into the corner of the ring behind him with a loud BANG! Blood spilled out of his mouth as he clutched his stomach and hurled over the side of the ring.
He breathed heavily as he turned toward his coach and said, “Give it … to me.” His coach nodded without hesitation and pulled out a needle with a greenish liquid within and stabbed it into Brock’s thigh. The effects were immediate as his muscles began to ripple and grow, turning his skin red and his eyes bloodshot. He turned back to the woman and roared in anger and pain as his shattered fist knitted itself back together, and his bones popped back into place.
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The woman cocked her demon-like head, “Substance X-3046. Street name: Monster. A highly addictive and powerful steroid that boosts the body’s immune system, muscular regeneration, cellular regeneration, and increases strength. Side effects: intense blinding rage for five point zero three two minutes.”
“SHUT UP!” Brock yelled as he charged at her. The woman returned the charge, and their fists met with a loud crash. They both recoiled from the contact as their fists met but immediately followed up with another fist-to-fist strike. Their strikes grew increasingly faster and faster as the fight went on until their fists were almost a blur as they collided.
After a few seconds, the woman cocked her head again and asked, “Is this the fastest you can move?” Brock roared in response, not letting up his relentless barrage of fists. The woman nodded, “Good to know.” With a squelching crack, the woman’s right fist connected with Brock’s left, and six dark metal spikes protruded from his wrist.
Brock screamed as he brought his right fist back and swung for the woman’s face. She met his fist with hers with another squelching crack, and six more spikes protruded from his other wrist. He screamed in pain as the woman twisted her arms slowly, forcing Brock to bring his forearms out and fall to his knees so he was at eye level with the woman. She brought her horned head back and brought it crashing down on his face with a loud crack. She headbutted him over and over, turning his face into a bloody mosaic.
Once she stopped, her jagged demonic mouth opened, and a host of needle-like tubes came out and wriggled their way over his body before stopping along each vertebra of his spine and on several spots on his arms and legs with one tube at the base of his skull. Brock seemed to come out of his steroid-induced rage long enough to plead, “Please, don’t kill me,” his voice came out weak and small. The woman didn’t respond as each tube stabbed into his body and began to pulse with blue light as Brock silently screamed. His body slowly began to shrink as any fat he had began to disappear, revealing the muscles under his skin in more depth before those too began to shrink and disappear, revealing his bones.
Within a minute, the massive nine-foot-tall man was nothing but dried skin and bones as the woman retracted the tubes and pushed the corps over. The dark metal covering her retracted into her body, revealing a woman who looked well-fed with full, long blond hair and beautiful blue eyes. A thud sounded behind the woman as someone else jumped down from above into the ring and grabbed her right wrist, raising it high above her head.
“LADIES AND NOT SO GENTALMEN! GIVE A ROUND OF APLAUSE FOR THE QUEEN OF THE RING, ONI!” A woman yelled next to Oni, who turned to see a woman with short blond hair with blue highlights and yellow and blue eyes.
Oni sighed, “Hello, Violet.”
Violet smiled at her as the crowd cheered over the bloodshed and said, “Let’s talk upstairs in private.”
***
Adjani, Oni, and I sat in a private room on the fourth floor of the club. Oni had a bottle of whisky she drank from while Adjani and I drank our beers slowly. Adjani looked at me contemplatively, running his finger along the rim of his glass as he considered my proposal. “So let me get dis straight,” Adjani began, “Yuh were hired to start a war with a newly discovered alien race.”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
“And yuh want our help?”
“Yes.”
“To start a war.”
“Yes.”
“With aliens?”
“Yes! It’s almost as if I just explained it to you.”
Adjani went silent for a moment, “Aliens?!”
“For fucks sake, wrap your head around it faster!”
Adjani nodded and went silent again before asking, “What’s in it for us?”
“Now, we’re getting somewhere,” I sighed, “Whatever you want. The Order gave me a blank check and freedom to do as I please to get the war started. You want money? I got it. Guns? I can get those, too. Anything that gets you on the team.”
“I want,” Oni began, speaking for the first time since entering the private room, “my freedom. I want to rid myself of this meat-bag and do as I please.”
I considered Oni’s request and said, “I might be able to arrange that. But no promises.”
“So, yuh will do favors for us as well?” Adjani asked to clarify.
“Within reason,” I confirmed.
Adjani leaned back and sipped his beer as he thought. Then said, “I want a General killed. Can you do dat?”
I nodded, “I can set the general up to be killed by your hands if needed.”
With a smile that flashed his white teeth, Adjani said, “I’d like dat, me friend. I’ll join yuh.”
I turned to Oni with a raised eyebrow and asked, “And will you join us?” Oni finished the bottle and nodded. “Great!” I said as I clapped my hands together, “Why don’t we head back to my ship and get started on the details of your favors? It’s going to be a fun time starting the war. But we do need a pit stop.”
“For what?” Adjani asked as he downed his beer.
“For our last crew member,” I clarified as an uncontainable smile spread across my lips.