The tall man insisted on paying for Ren and Angel’s room. The boys didn’t really have much of a choice but to let him do so, yet their pride was hurt. The stranger paid then waved at the boys as he left to his own room. He had a cheeky grin on his face, the type that would make you want to punch him. Ren was a little upset but let it go and proceeded to walk towards the room. Angel was highly upset. He followed Ren while mumbling to himself. They eventually make it to their room and realize that it’s one of the more expensive ones. They rolled their eyes.
The boys settle down and continue their earlier conversation.
“I think we can catch one.”
Angel is startled. “You really want to catch one? If I remember correctly, they made those guys in the cabin bleed out and then they sunk into the ground. We also don't even know why they did that to them and not Hisa and Momoko. That sounds way easier said than done.”
Ren pouts for a moment and then his face lights up.
“Hey Angel, I got an idea!”
“Yea!”
“Why don’t you dress up as a helpless girl, and then the moment they try to take you...BLAM...whack 'em in the skull!”
“You may be on to something. I do have really long hair.”
Ren lets out a little bit of laughter and Angel realises that he was messing with him.
“Ha ha very funny.”
He was not amused.
“I wonder what Saru would do in our shoes. Maybe he would've found Hisa and Momoko by now.”
Angel looks down.
“Look, I know how you feel. You feel like we betrayed him. But we were kids. Our first concern needed to be survival. Don’t beat yourself up because of things you did as a child.”
Ren looked out the window.
"Does telling yourself that make you feel better about the things that you did?"
Angel sighed.
“Take a nap to clear your head. I’m gonna go for a walk. I’ll make sure to get our stuff from Arbie’s place before I come back.”
Angel opens the door to the room.
“Angel.”
Angel turns to see Ren in bed turned the other way.
“Thanks for staying with me all these years.”
Angel smiled.
“Rest easy.”
------------------------------
In one of the suites at the inn, the man who paid for the boys room is laying in bed.
‘I should’ve just gone back with the others, it’s been a month and no signs of unusual activity anywhere. I suppose I’ll set out for Fawn tomorrow. It’s a shame but I’ll be returning empty handed.’
------------------------------
Angel begins to walk around town. Zero was very lively. The buildings bathed in the yellow and orange lights hung all over town. The town was decently sized and the center square had buildings that outlined the shape of a zero with a cross. Apparently, the town got its name for being located at the base of the mountains to the north. People from all over visited Zero often, as it is a hot spot for tourists. The place blended in different parts of Kazahenien culture to become a melting pot for art, food, and loads of other things. Angel admired how alive the town was.
“So this is the human experience.”
Eventually, he enters Zero’s “Fun District” where he comes across a crowd of brolic men surrounding an elevated platform. Angel approached them to see what was happening. He walked up to one of the buff men in the back and asked if he could tell him what was going on. The man quickly turned and had a mean face on. Angel was uneasy.
Then the man spoke in a cheerful voice while smiling. “Hey I’m Mick, nice to meet you!”
Angel was surprised but didn’t know whether to be weirded out or not.
“What’s with the crowd of meatheads?”
“Well, to explain that, I must start at the beginning...”
Angel rolled his eyes. “Oh brother.”
------------------------------
Mick explains that he was a member of a local martial arts dojo that specialized in “super powered combat at peak physique.” On this particular night, the men from the dojo were roaming the streets looking for new recruits and informing people around town on what they practice. They do this pretty often so it was nothing out of the ordinary to locals. While trying to spread their practices around town, an elevated circular arena in the fun district caught the attention of some of the men. It wasn’t usually in the street there so they thought it was quite odd. Mick was among this group and he had noticed that there was a desk next to the arena with speakers. At the desk was a young black woman with curly white hair in a tuxedo with a matching fedora. The woman had noticed their curiosity and decided to talk to them. “You guys look tough! Wanna earn some easy money?” A man from the group responded saying that money was not a good enough reason to hurt someone. The woman stared at them in silence for a moment before responding.
“You guys must just be scared. It's understandable, maybe those big bodies can’t move so well. What’s the point of being so uselessly big anyway?”
This upset the group of men so they tried to lecture her about how they are at the peak human physique but she wasn’t buying into anything they said.
“Look you orcs, if you think that you’ve got the optimal meathead build or whatever, settle it in the ring and not with your mouths.”
One of the men spoke up. “Who will be our opponent, you?”
The woman smiled. “My lover!” she responded happily.
The rules were that they would have hand to hand combat on the platform. The first person to spend a collective of 60 seconds out of the ring loses. The men agreed to the rules. The woman stated that they would have to add to the pot of money to compete, the winner takes all. She proceeded to put a band (1000) of gol (currency) into her fedora. The men snarked. ‘This brat is disrespecting us’ they thought. They pooled all of their money together to about 500 gol to show that they weren’t intimidated by pockets. “Now who's the brute who’ll challenge my fighter?” she asked. One of them named John stepped up. He clenched his butt to fight. “LETS SCRAP!” he roared. However, in a few seconds he was knocked out of the ring never to return to the fight.
------------------------------
Angel was surprised that somebody so big could be moved with such little effort. Intrigued, Angel decided to ask some more questions.
“How big is this ‘lover’ of hers? Is he some kind of human fortress?”
Mick sighed. “Not ‘he’...’her.’”
The current match came to a close as the challenger was launched out of the ring and landed in front of Angel and Mick. Angel looked up to see a slim yet muscular black woman with short hair (bleached on top and black on the sides) dripping in sweat. She yelled out to the crowd of defeated men,
“WHO’S NEXT!”
Comments (1)
See all