Illegal Fights Part 1
Jacob had just reached the drop off point for the delivery. He clutched the backpack close to him as he walked into the alley and was ready to open the dumpster when he heard someone say “Hay” behind him.
Before the intruder could blink he was pined to the wall by one hand while the other was buried in his gut. As he doubled over in pain and dropped a piece of paper, Jacob realized he was one of the bodyguards from the initial meeting at the diner.
“Sorry about that, but why are you here? Last I heard this was supposed to just be me dropping the backpack in the dumpster and picking up a plant.”
The man took a few breaths before regaining his composer enough to respond. “Ye- Yeah. That’s right. It was going to be like that. Unfortunately, we gave you the wrong address. It was supposed to be the dumpster on 9th street, not 6th street. I was sent over to help make sure you got it to the right place.”
Jacob blinked a few times before he responded. “Really? Why didn’t you just text or call me? You have my number.”
“Three reasons. First, we wanted to do a apology to you face to face about the mix up. Second, I was already in the area to watch a fight. Finally, we try to minimize phone and texts with people outside of a certain level of trust to prevent them from being intercepted or used as evidence.”
Jacob just shrugged and accepted the logic. “Ok, I’ll head over to 9th street then.” He then bent down to pick up the paper the bodyguard had dropped. “Here is your-“
Jacob had to stop mid sentience as he say that it was a promotional flyer for the fight club the bodyguard was at. It had a address, time, and a picture of the headliner.
The thing that really got Jacob’s attention though, was that fact that the headliner was a dead ringer for Odalia. She had the green hair, the blue eyes, and even the purple and black jumpsuit that looked a little like a pantsuit.
“Who is this?”
“Oh, her? That is ‘The Closer.’ She is the reigning champ of the area. Fighting for 5 years without a loss.” The body guard then wiggles his eyebrows at him. “I have some bikini shots if you’re interested?”
Jacob recoiled in disgust and threw the paper at his face. “I would rather kiss a cactus with spikes dipped in snake venom that see that.”
The bodyguard held up his hands defensively at that. Whoa their friend. I was just trying to be friendly. You were just staring at that picture of her really hard for someone that isn’t interested.”
Jacob shot him a dirty look. “She just reminds me of someone that ruined the lives of me and my friends and multiple occasions.”
The bodyguard sobered after that admission. “Oh, THAT kind of interested. Sorry to hear you say that.” He then handed back the flyer. “If you want, you can try and apply to fight her. The boss can probably pull a few strings to get you into the bracket, but from there you would have to beat 3 others before facing off against her in the arena. It’s a longshot, but it might give you some closure.”
Jacob just held onto the flyer and staired at it intently.
At the Shack
Amity sat in a beanbag chair, looking at the flyer in her hands so strongly it was a wounder it didn’t burst into flames.
“How can she be here?”
She then began to crumple the flyer between her hands.
“I went to another dimension and my mother STILL finds a way here!”
Luz gave her a side hug and began to nuzzle the side of her face.
“I know Amity. It’s terrible that she is here.” Then she began to perk up a little. “Look on the bright side though, or maybe the Blight Side.”
Everyone in the building just shot Luz A Look.
“Really Luz?”
“What? It was right there; I couldn’t just NOT say it.”
“Luz, if you ever say that again, I am gagging you.”
Luz just shot Amity a smile. “No, you won’t. Dou you really want to kiss a mouth that taste like Abomination goo?”
“I think I can manage not kissing you for the day it would take for that to fade.”
Everyone just stared at Amity for a bit before they all devolved into laughter. Luz fell back onto her beanbag chair while clutching her sides, Willow dropped her pruning shears and started hitting the table with her fist, Gus leaned against the wall while trying to catch his breath, Vee started rolling around on the floor while her form melted between her human and baskalisk forms, and Hunter just pointed at Amity while laughing out loud.
After a few minutes Hunter was the first the speak. “The day you go 24 hours without kissing Luz is the day I morn Belos.”
“Or the day I decide to give up Plant magic and go back to Abomination magic.”
“Or the day I throw away all my human stuff.”
“Or the day I burn my Azura books.”
“Or the day I trust Jacob.”
Amity just rolled her eyes at her friends and girlfriends’ antics. “Yeah, Yeah, laugh it up. What were you saying Luz?”
She calmed down enough to talk to Amity again. “As I was saying, we can do what the guy said. You can pretend to be Jacob and have a one on one match where you can take out all your frustration with your mom-.”
“No.”
That brough Luz up short. “No? Why?”
“Two reasons. First is that using my abomination magic in a no magic hand-to-hand brawl seems too much like cheating for me to be confirmable doing. Second is the simple fact that I don’t have the experience with using my abomination magic to fight like that. I have only practiced the abomination suit with the idea of pairing with Gus if Willow can’t imitate Jacob for some reason, not for having a cage match where I wouldn’t be able of using my full capabilities.”
Luz just sighed. “Makes sense, Though I wish it didn’t.” She then looked over to Willow. “How about you?”
She just returned Luz’s looks with one filled with determination. “An opportunity to hit Odalia in the face? I am in.”
At the fight
Jacob walked to the backdoor of the warehouse he was told the fight was going to be at and handed his ID to the man guarding it. after having his identity confirmed, he was waved inside.
The place had been filled with several risers surrounding a large cage in the middle of the room. It was mostly empty at the moment, with only a dozen guys standing next to it. Jacob walked over and introduced himself.
“Hello, I’m Jacob. How does this work?”
The man sitting at the table raised his head and looked him up and down, raising a eyebrow at the brown suite he was wearing. “Please tell me you don’t think this is THAT kind of interview.”
Jacob rolled his eyes and patted the duffle bag he was carrying over one shoulder. “I am not dumb enough to walk around in public dressed like I’m participating in illegal fights, just give me somewhere to change and I’ll be ready.”
The man just nodded and pointed behind one of the risers.
“Locker room is over there. After you change, you just need to do four fights while being judged. They will judge your performance and decide whether or not to let you in.” He then handed over a piece of paper with three names on it. “Here are the three you will be fighting. Everything look ok?”
Jacob took the list and nodded. “Everything looks ok. I’ll go change.”
Jacob then headed into the locker room and found a stall. After closing the door, Gus reappeared next to her and started a timer.
“We have a little bit while we make the changing realistic. Feel free to talk, I’ve taken care of the sounds.”
Willow opened up her plant mech-suit and did a few small stretches. “Looks easy enough, Think your up for making my ‘injuries’ look real? It would be suspicious if I didn’t get a black eye when punched in the face or didn’t bleed.”
Gus gave her a nervous smile. “I’ve got it. But, just in case, you could NOT get hit?”
Willow just gave Gus a blank stare. “Gus, this is a fight. I am going to get hit. Even if I was good enough to dodge every strike, I would get split knuckles when I hit them.”
Gus signed. “I know, I just don’t want to see you get hurt. Just because you are able of walking around with a broken rib doesn’t mean I have to be ok with it.”
Willow placed a hand on Gus’s shoulder. “I know. Are you sure you’re ok with helping me do this? If you’re not, just say the word and I can drop out. The prize money isn’t something we need desperately enough for me to do this.”
Gus shook his head. “I can do this. None of us have had a chance to cut loose in a while, and this is the closest you’ll get in the human realm.”
He then smirked at Willow. “Just remember the most important rule about this.”
Willow gave a knowing smirk, “Rule 1 about fight club, you don’t talk about fight club.”
Gus just got a confused look on his face. “If you can’t talk about fight clubs then how can you let people know about it to participate and bet? I was talking about these being just as much about looking cool as it is fighting.”
Willow just blinked. “Hun?”
“Think of it like this. Remember when Amity spent 20 minutes talking about how things on that show wouldn’t happen like that in the real world and you told her to just not think about it and enjoy the show? This is like that. Just because you can end the fight with one quick jab to the head, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stretch it out a little bit to make it more entertaining.”
Willow just scrunched up her face a little bit before replying. “I get what your saying, but that is too likely to end up biting me in the butt. With things like this, the second you see a opening you have to exploit it or else you’re the one that’s down for the count.”
She then sighs. “I’ll fight like normal the first time and use that to gage how much adjust my fighting style for the future. Sound good?”
Gus just nods. “That is all I ask.
Round 1
Jacob walked into the cage wearing a pair of green shorts. A man with a lean build was already standing there in a pair of blue shorts, bouncing on his feet and shadow boxing while he waited.
“Come on man, you ready to get your butt handed to you?”
Jacob just looked at the man, sizing him up before Willow took a battle stance.
The ref walked between them. “Are you both ready?”
“I was born ready.”
“Yes.”
“Ok then, BEGIN.”
He then waved his hand down between them and quickly got out of the way. The blue man rushed at Willow while yelling like a maniac, winding up to deliver a massive punch. All the while Willow just stood there in a guarded position.
“EAT FIST!”
The blue man wound up his right hand to deliver a massive punch to Willow’s head, completely leaving himself open to a counter attack to the kidney, which Willow gladly provided.
Mr. Blue then fell to the ground clutching his gut while wailing in pain. The ref quickly got between them and started counting down.
Willow just looked on in shock that the fight ended so quickly.
Looks like Gus was right. If this is the quality of fighters, I need to hold back a lot.
Round 2 (Out-Fighter)
The man in the red shorts held both his arms up in a ready position while bouncing on the balls of his feet, ready to attack when given the signal. When the fight began, he moved in and immediately started to punch at her, using his long arms to try and get though her guard and land some body and head shots. When she tried to retaliate, his quickly moved back and used his longer arms to continue to strike at her while dodging out of the way of her own hits and out reaching her.
Ok, I have got to get in close if I want a chance of winning.
Willow tensed the legs of her suite to grant her a little more speed, and then rushed into his guard before she started to wale on him as much as she could before he ducked away, making sure to not hit his kidney yet to end the fight too soon.
He eventually was able of disengaging and trying to attack again from another angle, but she was able of getting her own guard up in time to block the strikes.
This game continued for a little while, before she decided she was done playing around and dove in fast to strike the diaphragm before following it with a kidney shot for good measure while he was distracted.
Willow walked back to her end of the cage when the ref got between them and started to examen her fists, noticing the bruised knuckles and slight bleeding thanks to Gus’s illusion skills.
I am so glad that these aren’t my real arms.
Round 3 (Slugger)
The man in the orange shorts was 6’2” and had tattoos over his heavily muscular arms. The second the ref gave the signal, he moved to swing at Willow. She barley dodged out of the way, leading him to hit the side of the cage hard enough to leave a large dent in it.
Willow lost a second looking at the dent and realizing just how bad of a idea it would be to get hit by that and decided to change up her tactics accordingly.
She proceeded to slightly lengthen the length of her arms by 2” to grant her a little more reach before she began to punch at his face. He raised his arms to tank the hits, but that left a opening for her to land a few body hits, which he just shrugged off. When he attempted to retaliate, she bounced back and kept using her longer arms to keep him out of reach while she continued to punch at him and avoid getting hit as much as possible.
Unfortunately, her foot landed on a bit of metal that had been knocked loose from the cage due to the first punch and she stumbled, leading the orange man to land a massive hit to her chest. If she hadn’t fortified that area with dense flesh vines from the Isles, it would have broken a rib or two.
The one plus side was that the punch left a opening for her to reach through his guard and deliver a massive punch to the bottom of his jaw, quickly sending him to the floor.
The ref soon came over and started counting down. While he was doing that, Willow started feeling around the massive bruise that would soon be appearing on her chest to make it look real.
Round 4 (In-Fighter)
The man in the yellow shorts was shorter than the last two, though he was still muscular. When the ref started the fight, he immediately rushed in to start hammering at Willow’s chest in rapid fire punches. He seemed to be focusing on the bruise left by her last bout.
Fortunately for her, Willow had fortified that area some more after the last fight and was able of ignoring the hits long enough knock him away. She still faked being winded from that to keep the illusion up and to make her opposite think she was weaker than she really was.
Can’t let him hit me there too much. Even if it doesn’t hurt as much as normal, it still hurts and could give away that I am not normal.
When he moved back in to reengage, she held up her arms in a guard, making sure to catch as many of his hits as she could on them. When she saw a opening, she then delivered a strong punch to his temple to try and end the fight. Unfortunately, he was able of disengaging fast enough to dodge it.
This continued on for a little bit, but eventually Willow was able of enhancing her arms enough to deliver a fast enough punch that he couldn’t dodge to his temple, taking him out of the fight.
After the ref called it, she walked out of the cage and told the judges she was going to the bathroom to patch herself off.
Bathroom Stall
Gus examined Willows arms and knuckles to see if any of the damage transferred over to her from the suit. She had already checked her own ribs and decided they could hold out until she got to the Shack and had Luz use her Healing Track training.
“Looks good. Just a little bruising, but nothing too bad. Are you sure your ribs are ok?”
“Yes Gus, I am sure they are fine. Now let’s get the disguise back on so I can go out and get my invitation to the fights.”
Gus looked conserved, but still put the Jacob disguise back on, complete with bruises under the suit just in case. When Jacob went over to the table the man that checked him in looked up and smiled.
“Hello Jacob! That was some really well-done fighting. I am proud to officially welcome you into next week’s fight night.”
Jacob smiled and reached out to shake the man’s hand. “Thank you for the opportunity. What is the prize if I win?”
The man gave a good natured chuckle. “The 1st place is only if you beat ‘The Closer’, and she hasn’t lost in 5 years. Realistickly, the you are looking at the 2nd place prize of $5,000 and %5 of the bets against you.”
Jacob gave him a determined look. “And if I do beat her?”
“In that event, you get the belt, $10k, and %15 of the bets against you.”
Jacob just blinked at that. “That much?”
He just shrugged. “The prize has been going up since she got the title. The longer you reign before you get taken down, the more you have to offer up to convince people to fight you.”
He then handed Jacob the address, date, and time of the next fight. “Good luck.”
Jacob then smiled and walked out the door and headed home, already psyching herself up for the babying she was about to go through. The idea of feeding a Odalia her teeth was a bright spot even that couldn’t extinguish though.