Tar

by Catty Diva

  Going to his room, he pulled up the last fight held here on his computer so he’d know how to dress. The two fighting seemed to be in workout gear. After one round, they’d both stripped off their shirts. This fight wasn’t to the death nor did it end with a serious injury. These guys were almost playful.

  He pulled up the last ten fights and finally found Dick. The male looked like a serial killer. Muscular, tall, and broad he matched Teran’s own size. Doss had been correct about him not being fast, but he was brutal. He also used brass knuckles, the imprint was left behind when he hit his adversary. The other guy was too out of it to know or care, but the men around him didn’t seem to care either.

  That indicated there were no rules at play here. With an anything goes brawl, no wonder people had died. Death matches were illegal everywhere in this galaxy. It surprised him his people had no idea they were doing any fights at all. How was that even possible?

  Once he changed to appropriate gear, he headed down the hall to the gym. A few stretches to warm up was all he intended to do. There was no point in giving away his level of fitness until he had to.

  “There you are.” Doss greeted him the second he walked in. “Good choice of clothing. Same stuff Dick is wearing.”

  “I never heard of Dick before.”

  “There’s a good reason. You’ve heard of Greg Samoul, haven’t you?” Doss asked.

  “Hell yeah. Famous boxer who moved into anything goes fighting. Got his bell rung really bad and killed a guy in his next fight. He went a bit crazy.”

  “He sure did. Got a job working for Trevers and someone said he was a real dick. He liked it and it became his fighting name. Trevers fights him once a month. Sometimes he waits a month in between so he doesn’t get caught.” Doss explained.

  “Holy fuck. That man is a legend.”

  “That man is looking to take you down.” Doss pointed out. “You need to get him first.”

  “That’s one man I never wanted to fight.”

  Chapter 4

  Fight

  Patty stood at the back of the crowd feeling even more out of place than usual. As people recognized her, they stepped back leaving an empty circle around her. Although many talked about her, few talked to her or approached her. She was considered something unusual and to be avoided at all costs. Teran, or whatever his real name was, either didn’t know or didn’t understand just how different she really was.

  Even Trevers and Preston respected her abilities and held her in awe because of them. They both looked at her, but neither approached her. They’d not given pretty boy the kudos he deserved for getting her attention since they’d put him in a death match. Good thing he was more than they saw. She’d even put money on him. Patty knew she’d not been the only one to bet on him. He now had one fifth of the bets.

  Dick entered the gym, his eyes on something no one else could see and she shuddered. Poor guy. One too many hits to the head had rendered him unable to know what he was doing. Trevers was the one to blame for taking advantage of this man.

  As Dick stepped into the ring, the metal detector Trevers kept turned off went crazy. All eyes went to Dick and then to Trevers. Dick took his brass knuckles out and handed them off. Who knew what else he had on him?

  Turning on the metal detector was really all she could do to even the odds. Now she would have to watch the fight just as the others did. She knew he could probably fight, but how well? That question would soon be answered and she hoped it wasn’t in his blood. To give him credit, pretty boy looked cool and confident.

  Nothing seemed to affect him as he entered the ring. The two males touched fists, a custom rarely followed in these kinds of fights and left to the history of boxing ages ago for the most part. The fighting started out slow and built up steam. Dick was solid as usual, but the new comer had some slick moves she’d never seen before.

  Dick had punched at his face and he’d bent back so far his fist went over him hitting air. Who could bend like that? No one she’d even heard of in real life. His talents were ones she saw in cartoons.

  Trevers was getting nervous since his champ hadn’t made one hit yet. The gathered crowd was getting nervous which meant those watching on screens were restless too. Those Trevers dealt with hated to lose, but they hated long drawn out fights even more. His backers looked for brutal bloody battles.

  Teran clipped Dick’s jaw, the first real contact of the fight. It looked like Teran held back and Dick just wasn’t fast enough. Pretty boy moved like a blur when Dick tried to hit him. Poor Dick looked frustrated and tried to move faster than he was capable of falling to one knee. Teran should have moved in, but he backed off. It seemed he was unwilling to hurt the champ.

  The fight dragged on until the first break, something usually not done. From her vantage point she could see Trevers injecting the champ with something. After that he was wild eyes and ready to hurt someone.

  As the action began again, she knew Teran could see the difference in Dick. A light foam clung to his lower lip as he swung his fists wildly in every direction. There was no choice now but to end the fight. If he didn’t, Dick might hurt himself more or even someone nearby not in the fight.

  Teran came in low hitting Dick in the belly then hard to the chin as his head went down. The champ dropped like a sack of feed. Everyone stood still with looks of shock on their faces. Even those like her that had bet on Teran hadn’t really believed he could win.

  One thing was for sure, Trevers was pissed. Dick would be no good to him anymore. As an unbeaten champ, he was worth everything. As a beaten former fighter he was worth nothing at all. Teran immediately lifted the champ, no mean feat, and carried him to a bench. A medic was on call and he looked him over.

  “He’ll be fine once he sleeps it off.” The medic assured.

  “Thank you.” Teran replied.

  Teran didn’t go anywhere sticking to the champ possibly waiting for him to wake. There was no gloating or bragging, only concern for his defeated foe. It was a different outlook than she normally saw. She approached carefully.

  “Can you carry him back here where he can lie down in a bed? Ladonna and I have a med center with anything needed. We are both trained in basic first aid.” Patty offered.

  “Shouldn’t he have a doctor?” Teran asked.

  “I’m the closest thing to a doctor you’ll find here. Those others only know how to tear people apart.” Patty assured.

  “Alright. I can carry him if you catch the doors.” Teran replied. Trevers stood watching, a reflective look on his face.

  Once they were inside her area, Teran lay Dick down. “You’ll need to watch out for Trevers. He’s plotting something.” Patty observed.

  “I’ll not fight again. I need to push my mission forward. The champ didn’t deserve this.” Teran insisted.

  “You knew him?” Patty asked.

  “I saw him fight once as a youngster. He was a good man who had a talent for fighting. Once his adversary was down, he stepped back. It was never his desire to hurt anyone. Now look at him. He’s a victim and being used to hurt others. I know a place to send him where he’ll be taken care of.”

  “He’ll never go. That is a proud man who won’t take anything from anyone.” Patty explained.

  “They’ll give him a job with a place to live. That way they take care of each other. They do work on the kind of damage he got to his head. Maybe they can make it better.” Teran observed.

  “I’ve only seen vids of his old fights. Trevers took advantage of him. I tried to stop it, but I never could. At least you brought it to a stop, but now he’ll have his eyes set on you.” Patty cautioned.

  “I’m a big boy. I can deal with it. We need to get Dick out of here. If we send him to Oison, they’ll help him.” Teran assured.

  “How can we do that?” Patty asked. Her mind wasn’t working well because she was upset about what had happened. She hadn’t wanted either man to be injured.

  “We need a medical ship to transport him t
o Oison. Justice will take charge of him there.”

  “I can hire a nearby ship, we can leave him in my medical until then. We need to step back.” Patty directed.

  As soon as they were a foot away from the bed, it activated scanning Dick and a screen at the head of the bed found a bunch of injuries. “I didn’t do all that damage.”

  “No, Trevers fights him all the time. At least twice a week, but not here. Here he only fights once a month or less. Most of those here don’t realize how much Trevers was fighting him. He hasn’t been getting the proper medical care.” Patty observed.

  “Trevers is a user, he takes, but gives nothing back. He was draining the very life out of the champ.”

  “No argument here. We need to be careful. I don’t think he’ll want Dick to leave here damaged like he is. They might trace it back to him.”

  “Tell him the champ was in an assisted care facility and he got away from them. Tell him they don’t want anyone to know he was gone now that they finally tracked him down.” Teran suggested.

  “You’re smarter than you look.”

  “Cause I’m pretty?”

  “No, because you look young.”

  “Okay. Let’s do it.”

  “It’s already done. The ambulance is on its way.

  “When did you do all that?”

  “I told you I’m connected to the computer here. It’s all run by my brain.”

  “Can you leave here?”

  “Yes, silly. I’d just disconnect and reconnect at will.” Patty explained. “Come on. Dick is resting and we should leave him be. You made me a good payoff.”

  “You bet on me?”

  “I did. There was more there than was obvious and I knew it.”

  “I hope you stuck it to Trevers.”

  “He lost a good pile of money, but he charges for the vids so he still comes out ahead. I wasn’t the only one who bet on you. One out of five did.”

  “Not bad considering who I was up against.”

  “You respect him.”

  “He was a hero to me when I was young. He always treated his adversaries with respect and never did more damage than necessary to win. Some are brutal, he never was.”

  “That’s what I saw on the few vids I could find of his fights.” Patty admitted. “Now that the bed is taking care of him, let’s go to my room.”

  He followed her and once they were in her suite, she dug out some PJ bottoms for him. “The bathroom is through there. These are for you to wear while you sleep.” He took them and stepped through the door to the bathroom closing it behind him.

  Patty couldn’t deny her mind was imagining what he looked like as he showered. The man was having too much of an effect on her. She was thinking about keeping him, but that would never work. It looked like she would just borrow him a little while. She’d never had a boyfriend before, but she’d always wanted one. Ladonna was practically driving her crazy about it too.

  Now she had her chance and she wasn’t sure what to do. Sure, she’d seen a lot of movies, but they were old Earth movies. The men around here hit on her all the time, but none of them did it like they did in the movies. They were straight forward, just asking out right with no beating around the bush. Maybe that was what she should do?

  There was a knock on the door. “Come in.” It was a waiter with the food she’d ordered. “Thank you.” Her tip was automatic and generous enough the staff fought to be the one to bring her orders to her. She hoped Teran would like what she’d ordered. The aroma was making her hungry. She’d sent food to Ladonna too and hoped her friend would stay away tonight.

  “That smells great.” Teran said and she turned to look at him. Shirtless, his muscular chest too her breath away.

  “Thanks. I tried to order food you might like. Why don’t you have a seat and we can try it out together?” Patty said her voice sounding breathy. She wasn’t sure if he would like that or not. After all, she was planning on seducing him and she needed to figure out what he might like.

  “What is this?”

  “That plate is Springfield style cashew chicken. It’s one of my favorite Chinese type dishes.”

  “So Springfield is in China?”

  “No, it’s in the United States. They often came up with their own versions of recipes from other places.”

  “I’m not familiar with many Earth foods, but I’ve been to Earth.” He admitted.

  “You have?” Patty knew her eyes were wide and her voice barely a whisper. “I’ve always wanted to go. What was it like?”

  “We were orbiting the station above the planet most of the time, but I and a handful of my mates went to the planet to deliver some items to the rebels. You wouldn’t enjoy most of the planet. Most plants and animals have died and the air is barely breathable. I know it’s disappointing, but they abused their environment and now it barely supports them. Even so, they could with certain precautions eventually repair it, but those in charge care only about themselves.”

  “That sounds terrible. Tell me about the rebels?” As they ate, he told her more and she began to understand the way things were.

  “So they are living in a former gravel pit that was turned into storage and is now a rebel base?”

  “That pretty much sums it up.”

  “What do they have to trade?”

  “Right now they trade mates for the Mazlans. The Mazlans are a mostly male race. They used to have mating games, but they’ve adjusted their rules. Now they take large numbers of females and put them in jobs while they meet males until they choose a mate.”

  “That sounds fairer than being hunted. I pity the male that tried to hunt me.”

  “Me too. He would not do well if you didn’t approve of him.” Teran said.

  “Are you teasing me?”

  “Do you want me to tease you?” He asked.

  “I just want honesty and forthrightness.”

  “So no teasing at all? Not even a little bit? Alright. No I’m not teasing you. I think you can deal out some punishment if someone acts badly. Am I wrong?”

  Patty couldn’t help grinning. He had no idea. “No, you’re not wrong. I’ve had self-defense and I have a remote control and I’m not afraid to use it.” Teran didn’t need to know she could control most of the station.

  “Can you show me what they do with the kids?”

  “Why would you want to know?”

  “Let’s go with the honesty you asked for. I want to get them out of here. First I need to prove they are here being grown and experimented on. Maybe a vid showing the crime would go a long way.”

  She started the screen above them. They were through with the meal which only left dessert. He would not want his after he saw this. It showed a lab worker seeded the cells and setting them up in the see through boxes. One per box, because they grew at an incredible rate. The film went fast as the fetus grew until they were babies. It showed them being removed from the boxes one at a time, cleaned, and dressed before they were placed in cribs.

  “By the gods, I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

  “It gets worse.”

  Looking back at the screen, it showed a baby removed and placed on a med bed. They did surgery and sewed the child back up. “What happened to that little one?”

  “He didn’t make it. Female babies have a higher survival rate so they grow more females now.”

  “What about that one?” The film showed a small tot being given medicine.

  “That’s Ladonna.”

  “And the other one is you.”

  “You are correct.”

  “Why were you three separated?”

  “We were grown from different eggs, semen, and had different additives. I’m not even sure they know what we are.” Patty admitted.

  “Why do they have you run the place?”

  “My mental energy is off the charts. With Ladonna’s help I can do anything.”

  “I’ve heard you have abilities. Can you create fire?”

 
“Create fire?” She laughed.

  “I’m serious. Have you ever gotten mad and felt your temperature rise to where you were afraid you’d catch on fire?”

  “Hasn’t everyone?”

  “No, most people claim to be hot when they’re angry, but they don’t blow smoke out of their mouths.”

  “What do you think I am?”

  “In whole? I’m not sure, but you have heard of Phoenix?”

  “They’re mythical.”

  “Maybe, but what if they aren’t and you’re one?” Teran questioned.

  “I just don’t know. Do you want to eat dessert now, or do you want to go to bed?”

  “I’ll take dessert.” He said but he looked at her.

  She moved his dessert to him and she grabbed hers. “It’s cheesecake. Damn good too.”

  “Is this butterscotch?”

  “Yes, mine is chocolate.”

  Dessert went fast. “You have any more?” He asked.

  “Sorry, just one piece each.”

  “I guess it’s bed time. I don’t work in the morning. I’ll have two days off.”

  “We’ll have fun while you’re off work. Come on. Follow me.” Patty directed as she followed the way. Once they stood by the bed, she turned to him, closed her eyes, and pushed her lips out.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m waiting for you to give me a kiss. Am I doing it wrong?”

  “Not wrong, just different. Relax.” He said as he took her in his arms. As if she could relax when he held her. Her heart was pounding like a wild thing. “Easy, Sweetheart. Take a deep breath.”

  She breathed in smelling his spicy scent. No help there. Now her breathing was even faster. His lips touched hers softly almost like a butterfly. “Oh!”

  “It’s alright.” He assured as his lips touched hers longer. One more time and this time he kissed her for real. She saw bright lights behind her closed eyes.

  Her very first kiss! Now she felt his tongue edge along the seam of her mouth. She opened to him and his tongue sank into her mouth. Heat ran over her skin as her tongue met his in a duel that she lost. Cool air hit her skin and she realized he’d removed her shirt. Maybe he was too skillful at this romance thing. Never the less, she didn’t want to stop. Everything he was doing felt too good.