HELLCAT
Page 9
A twist was then announced for the final championship match. There would be a criminal or an extra paired fighter for each combatant. So, in essence, the championship would be a four-person fight, two against two.
The time came and Mahira now met her partner. He had long blond hair, somewhat dirty and greasy and pushed to the side. He was a scrawny fellow, and she recognized him immediately as he entered from afar; it was the redneck, Goliath. He gave her a big, toothless smile and said, “I bet you didn't think you'd see me again. How you doing? Looks like we're now a team for the ages.”
Mahira felt a twist of disgust in her stomach. She had no intention of doing much with this guy, and she felt he would be more of a hindrance than a help. She walked over and said to him, “Just don't get in my way, and if you're real lucky, you might just live through this."
Goliath came closer and placed his hand on her shoulder, but she slapped his hand away with a growl. “Well now, such a feisty girl,” he mocked. “We're fighting that black and red robot that destroys everything in its path. You're going to need me, so get used to it,” the lanky man added.
Mahira looked him right in the eyes. “There's one thing I want you to know . . . I will never, ever need you.”
With that said, she left the room to get some fresh air. The powerful robot's partner was also a criminal, a small woman with very short hair and a massive scar over her lips.
The Corporation robot was mostly covered in armor. His face and palms were lit up blood red, but the rest of him was jet-black. He was wide shouldered and built to destroy.
This time, both fighters and their assigned teammate waited at the same end of the mansion's southern tip. Mahira knew this would be her toughest fight in quite some time. She could see what he looked like and knew what he could do, and she'd been told what he had done in his other matches. The short woman with him mattered little.
Her own partner, Goliath, was a freaking useless idiot. He stood near her with a spear in his hand. He looked at her and smiled. She turned her head away just to stay sane.
Mahira and Goliath were announced first, and the wealthy onlookers applauded and appreciated the contestants. People were tapping their electronic devices to place high wagers on whom they thought would win such an esteemed match.
“What we gonna do?" spoke her redneck partner. Mahira did not pay him any attention, but he was persistent. “Hey, girly, what we gonna do to beat the machine guy?”
She finally answered him. “Like I said, just stay out of my way,” she smirked.
Then the crowd rose to their feet as the marvel of the Corporation entered the floodlit arena grounds. They all roared in the hope he was about to make them even richer. The ocean waves could be heard from beyond the nearby cliffs, the air was clean, and the night's weather was just right for a fight. Everyone was ready for action.
Robotic Corporation soldiers were looking around the area, and drones lifted high into the night sky, searching about, but they would not find any trouble tonight.
Mahira chose a sword, Goliath a cheap spear, the super bot had a spear with a nasty tip, and his female sidekick had a short curved sword. The four moved to the middle of the arena and the horn blasted to mark the opening of the fight. The skinny Goliath went straight to the woman, Mahira had predicted that would be his choice, and they began a fight of sword against spear.
The mean and rugged bot came for Mahira. He tried to jam his spear into her, but she dodged it skillfully. He had no expression, just a red glow that covered the front of his head. It looked more like a face mask. Mahira faked an attack on him but kept her distance, stepping back immediately afterward. He acted as if he would throw his giant weapon, but that too was a fake.
Meanwhile, her redneck partner slapped the short woman’s sword from her hands and Mahira heard her screams of frustration and fear. The short woman then ran at Goliath as he busted her in the mouth with the rear end of his spear. She crashed to the dirt but was still moving, just about.
The powerful robot engaged Mahira again. They swung at one another, clanking weapons and deflecting each other’s strikes. He then went for her legs with a long looping spear attack, but Mahira jumped in the air as the long barbed-tip spear swung right under her and hit nothing. She tumbled away so that he would not have a follow up swing.
The robot’s partner was in deep trouble, but he paid no attention to her, or the tall, skinny man looming over her and repeatedly kicking her in the ribs. “Take that," he kept saying, and, "Here’s another where the last one came from.” He was enjoying his dominance way too much. Goliath threw his head back in a caveman style roar, lifted his spear high above his head and drove it down hard, cracking straight through her skull and deep into her brain.
Mahira was on the defense and the marvel robot of The Y-Wood Corporation took the initiative once more. He jabbed out, faked it again and went low with the butt end of his weapon. It hit the little hellcat in the knee and stung like crazy, but she feigned being more hurt than she actually was. The machine came in for the kill while she was kneeling on one leg with her head dropped low, and as he raised his barbed spear and was getting ready to celebrate his victory, the tough little gladiator raised her sword and drove an upward diagonal cut right into his chest. The blow sent him flailing backwards, his body sparking fire and electricity in a bursting array. The audience went into an uproar, loving this championship finale.
Goliath saw the hit and cried out to Mahira, “Yeahhhhhh, fuck him up, woman.” But the multimillion dollar bot was far from done. He rushed Mahira again, and this time he knocked her sword to the side and sliced his spear tip across her stomach. She knew it was a serious wound, deep enough to matter if this fight went on too much longer.
That’s when she saw, out of the corner of her eye and much to her surprise, Tyne Gem appear in the front row of the crowd to her left. She was glad to see her cyborg sister was okay and had recovered so quickly. She suddenly felt weak as the bleeding gash was taking its toll, yet the super bot walked by her without attacking. Maybe she was seeing things, but no, he definitely just passed her by.
She gazed over to where he was going and saw Tyne leap from the stands and charge at him. Mahira’s world went slightly dizzy as she tried to figure out what was happening.
Tyne recognized the red and black robot, she knew his face, the one who destroyed her one chance at love with Ex. She had lost all artificial reasoning and sped out at the armored demon. Mahira, still in the fight, yelled, “Tyne, nooooooooooooooo, you can’t come on the playing surface . . . the drones will—”
Mahira's cry to her sister ended abruptly when the big black robot looked back over his shoulder and backhanded her in the head with his mighty robotic fist. Mahira spun in the air, unaware of her movements and fading attention to the battle at hand. She hit the ground and everything went dark.
Drones rose up in the air as Tyne Gem ran out at the robot before her. As they raised their cannon laser arms and started to point downward, Goliath ran in front of the bot. It paid him no attention as Goliath launched his cheap spear at the juggernaut's head. The spear hurtled forward and drove directly into the red-hot spot of this super robot’s facial features. It went in deep, real deep, and the metal giant lunged forward to his knees just as Tyne reached him. The lasers from above rained down, but instead of hitting the spectator who was forbidden to enter the grounds, they blasted into the black bot and blew a series of massive holes into his back.
Lomax knew of Tyne’s arrival and had made his way to meet her. He saw everything that was going down and ran to grab her, trying to pull her back, but she fought him and got free.
She quickly popped out a blade from her robotic arm and lifted the bot's face up before her. “This is for my Xaltus,” she cried out, driving the blade slowly into the side of the mega bot’s head, the blade penetrating him from ear to ear. Lomax had hold of her again now and dragged her back to the safety of the stands.
T
here was an uproar of yelling and screaming coming from the crowd, everyone was wildly upset, but also as shocked and stunned as could be. The skinny punk just dropped a mega bot! Before anything else could occur, Goliath grabbed Mahira under her arms and dragged her out of the arena. The drones had stopped shooting after hitting one of their own, so it had given them time to get out of the way. Blu rushed down to help, and she bolted through a frenzied group of screaming people on her way to the nearby training building.
Catching his breath, Lomax explained, “There’s no telling what will happen next, we need to get out of here immediately.” Blu had managed to wake Mahira, but she was still a bit shaken and concussed.
Tyne began to recall how she had lost her mind when she laid eyes on the bot, but there was no time for banter. “Is the thing dead?” she asked.
The greasy haired redneck with them nodded his head enthusiastically, “Yup, I got him, he’s long gone!”
Lomax motioned to Blu, “Go get your flyer ready, we will run out to you as soon as you’re up. Go, quickly.”
“Roger that,” said Blu as she bolted up the stairs and out of the training facility door.
“My head hurts," spoke Mahira. "What happened?”
Goliath leaned down to kneel by his former teammate. “I saved ya! Yeah, me, I saved ya,” he boasted loudly, pointing at his own chest.
Lomax pulled the man back, “Listen, let her be, we have to leave.”
The group went up the stairs and out into the open night. Blu was already up in the air and hovering above. She dropped a ladder so that they could all climb on board. Robotic soldiers from the Corporation now appeared and were jogging after them. Each friend went up the ladder, but Goliath, being last in line, was shot in the back and could not make it up in time. Lomax tried, but he couldn't help the guy.
Goliath looked up at them as he slouched over on his knees. “At least I did something good in my life,” he announced to the man reaching down for him.
Lomax felt for the guy, and he nodded in agreement. “Yes, you did, you helped save two women, who will one day go on to save the world.” Goliath gave a four-toothed grin at those words as he dropped face first to the ground.
The bots fired up at the sky captain’s ship, and they continued to blast it as she rose up and kicked it into full gear. Lomax looked at Blu, “Damn, this thing takes a licking and keeps on flying! Got to love her.”
Blu, cried out, “Woooo hooo, you’re damn right, mister! This bad boy is tougher than that ancient old movie ship called the Millennium Falcon.” She raised a fist in excitement, opening her mouth and wagging her pierced tongue at Lomax. “You saw that movie, right?” she asked.
The sky was pitch black and full of stars . . . and off they went.
Epilogue
The ship Lomax was sitting in zoomed ahead, on route to Boston, as everyone sat back and closed their eyes for a much-needed break. Time passed slowly, but they all appreciated the peace and quiet.
In less than two weeks, the sisterhood would make their biggest move yet. The event of the year, hosted by The Y-Wood Corporation and President Arn Marcou, was about to go down.
What a crazy life it is, thought Lomax as he ran his fingers through his wavy hair. He then looked at Mahira, now conscious and leaning back in her seat. She was unbelievable. She gave him a little wink, and somehow everything running through his over-worked brain started to become clear. His thoughts of Raegan, his always positive, beautiful, relentless wife, and his son, Johan, his most special of life’s gifts. It suddenly felt like it was all going to be okay, and that one day the words he had spoken to Goliath earlier would come true.
-THE END
Personal note from Michael:
Well you made it to the end of my book! I hope that means that you enjoyed it. I would just like to thank you for giving me your valuable time to try and entertain you. I am blessed to have such a fun job, but I only have such because of people like you; people kind enough to give my books a chance. I am very grateful for that. If you enjoyed this book and would like to help me out, then please consider leaving a review on Amazon, Goodreads, or anywhere else that readers visit. The most important part of how well a book sells is how many positive reviews it has, so if you leave me one, you are directly helping me to continue on in this wonderful writing journey.
About the Author:
Michael W. Huard is a dreamer, a lover of words, a dungeons & dragons fanatic, a long-time martial artist, and simply a human being on a voyage in time.
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My upcoming releases:
Rising– A Mystical Slayer's Prequel, coming in 2018
Hope Bringers– Book two in the Mystical Slayer's Trilogy, coming in 2018
Sisters of the Dawns Early Light- A Mystical Slayer Novella, coming in 2018