The teen, who was named Belgor, moved forward and spoke to Aliah. “Sorry, young kid. I have to kill you!” Aliah swallowed hard and took a fighting stance.
The boy wasted no time and immediately came in swinging his sword at her head. She ran right to avoid his attack and ducked under his strongest swing. With both hands holding her staff and making good use of its length, she volleyed one strike to the teen’s leg and a second to his head, which stunned the boy and made him back up.
He was now more pissed than sorry he was going to kill her.
Aliah took a stance, pointing her long staff at his eyes, and the boy rushed at her again. This time, she drove its end into his teeth and rotated its other end up under his jawbone as she pulled back. With an almighty crack, Belgor was knocked down onto his backside.
The entire arena went nuts. This little girl had spunk.
The match was over as quickly as it began, and Aliah was sent back to prepare for her next fight.
Her second fight was against an adult man, a random drunk from the audience. When the owners had made their way around the crowds asking for anyone brave enough to fight the little girl, the pretty much wasted fellow, whom his buddies called Earlster, had taken up the challenge.
He was given a knife and sent to the pit. He roused the watching people by raising his weapon high above his head while laughing and pointing to his friends in the audience. The guy was in his late thirties or early forties, and his greasy gray hair hung in messy tendrils over his eyes.
As Aliah strode into the pit, he stuck his tongue out at her and yelled, “Come here, you little shit. I’m gonna cut ya. Yup! Cut ya, and wreck that pretty face of yours.”
Aliah saw that he only had a knife, but her staff still needed to be put to good use.
This time, she lifted her staff above her head and waited for him to stab into her now open stomach area. She circled to the right of Earlster and grinned at his look of surprise. Then, he tried to drive his knife into her belly.
Down came her staff, which slammed right into his wrist and caused him to drop his knife. The man panicked; being intoxicated didn’t help his situation. He knelt to the ground and grabbed for his blade. Seeing the opportunity, Aliah swung her staff low to take his head off, yet luckily, the guy ducked under her swing and got to his knife.
Aliah tried to thrust the stick into his teeth, just like she did with the teen boy earlier, but the man was quicker than he looked. He grabbed her weapon and pulled it from her grip before tossing it to the ground on the other side of the pit. Knowing she still had a knife in her sheath, Aliah pulled it out right away.
She wondered if he was faking being drunk. Did this guy have a plan to get everyone’s attention? Did he actually have skill?
As they moved about each other, Earlster, with a long knife in his hand, licked his lips and spouted out, “Okay, girl, cold steel is coming your way.” He then ran towards her at full speed. His first swipe, she backed up on. His second backhanded cut, she crowded in on. Now up tight on her adversary, Aliah sliced across the bridge of his nose. This sent him reeling back, screaming in pain.
“You fucker,” he yelled out in frustration.
He sprinted right back at Aliah and stabbed at her in a vicious attack. Dodging to the left, she cut down on his stabbing wrist and elbowed him in the head with her free arm. A fountain of fresh blood erupted from his wrist as he dropped his knife to the ground.
Aliah gave him no time to recover. Reversing the grip on her blade, she charged at him and sliced across his throat. Just as Aliah’s blade pierced the skin of his neck, he retrieved his own knife from the ground and buried it deep into Aliah’s right arm. She had paid a heavy price for her victory.
He gurgled a few times as he looked to his buddies in the stands, reaching out for them with pleading in his eyes. With no time to wait for their reply, he toppled to the blood-stained dirt in a heap.
The audience went ballistic. This kid was good.
Aliah’s clan members patched her arm up as best they could. Lucky for her, the injury prevented any of the promised after-party activities from occurring.
Devastating to her was the fact that they didn’t treat the wound as well as they should have done. A couple of weeks later, back on the road, she lost the lower part of her right arm.
There were many more stops and fighting pits along her journey. Her main focus was to stay active and to avoid Drucker and his girlfriend. As long as she kept busy training, fighting, and winning them money, they didn’t encroach on her personal space at night.
It was in another combat situation that the young girl suffered an inner thigh stab. Again, the nonchalant cleaning and pitiful care of the wound led to the eventual loss of her leg.
Obviously, she was not going to be able to continue to fight for clan money.
Forced to use a crutch, she soon became nothing more than a cleaning person for the clan, doing whatever was asked of her with only one arm and one leg.
It was at another circus show years later that the same strange magician-like man in dark robes bought the child.
The sad part about it all was that there was no denying how beautiful she was, with her cascading dark hair, full lips, beautiful complexion, and unblemished skin. If it wasn't for her terrible injuries and consequent amputations, she would be considered one of the prettiest young ladies in the land.
Her deformities made her unwanted to all except this strange wizard-like fellow.
He called himself Mogue. He was not truly a magician; he was more like an illusionist. For the circus, he dabbled in imagery that would defy the mind’s logic. He could create fire and lightning amongst other things, but the one trait that Aliah took to, was his ability to throw knives. He would use her as his live human target, but at the same time, she was able to learn to toss the blades herself.
This was a lifesaver for her because Mogue dressed her in long robes just like his own, which covered up most of her otherwise obvious deformities. With her striking beauty and expert knife throwing skills, she became popular on the circuit and traveled from city to city and town to town with him.
The two of them traveled together for a few years and became good friends. Mogue was a kind man, who hid behind the mysterious look of a dark and sinister warlock.
But he proved he truly was a soft individual when he bought Aliah a puppy to travel with while on the road.
For all that she had endured, and for the many times she had changed hands, life, as it was now, wasn't so bad. Aliah found herself talking to Mogue late one night, and the old fellow was glad to hear her spirits were good. “I dunno what I would have become if not for you. I like life now; it’s good to travel and make people smile.”
Mogue was not much of a talker, but tonight he replied, “That’s good to hear. Seeing you smile makes me happy.”
Things were really looking up for Aliah.
That was until an event in New York City changed everything.
CHAPTER FOUR
In a mean post-apocalyptic world, a carnival brought fun and a great change of pace to the region. However, it was as deadly as living on the street for some.
When Aliah spotted Drucker and the rest of his clan, including the wicked slut and two men that had first attacked her, she desperately wanted to avoid them.
Despite her best efforts, she was spotted by one of them, and the guy made sure that everyone knew the little girl, who was now all grown up, was here.
Mogue had assembled some spare parts to act as arm and leg limb replacements for Aliah. The money they earned traveling to the different shows enabled them to fix her up quite well, so no one ever knew she was hiding such horrible injuries under her robes.
Drucker didn't look a whole lot different. He still had a long beard that was split in the middle at its end, and he had even more tattoos plastered over his face and neck. Slut had aged the most in looks—drugs had a way of doing that. Plus, she must have had at least an extra twenty piercings about
her nose and eyebrows.
They caught up with Aliah in her makeshift dressing room one day after the show had begun. Drucker and Slut stood at the opening. “Well, well, well, if it isn't the little girl we once knew, all grown up now and looking so lovely.”
Aliah tried to act like it wasn't such a big deal that they had come across one another again. “Hi, Drucker,” she said.
Drucker curled his lip and spat on the ground. “Fancy seeing you again. I bet you think you’re something else now.”
Slut added, “Yeah, ya think ya special. You’re not. You’re the one we all know as the cripple.”
Without any warning, one of the guys in the clan jumped out from a side opening and clobbered Aliah over the head. She slumped to the floor in an unconscious state.
When she woke up, she was tied up, drugged, and once again on the road with the very people she despised the most.
It was then that she heard the guys talking about a roadblock up ahead: a Y-Wood Corporation checkpoint.
The occupants of the bus quickly descended into chaos, mainly because her old traveling clan had many illegal substances in their possession and many other things unauthorized by the government.
Her bindings were getting looser by the moment, and with an extra few wriggles and struggles, she was finally able to get her hands and legs free. Spotting an emergency exit on the old bus that the clan had recently acquired, she decided to try and sneak out.
New York and its surrounding areas made up the home base region of the Corporation itself, and today, a very powerful robot happened to be at this roadblock. He was what the citizens called a super bot: a nearly seven-foot-tall blue and silver metal specimen with glowing blue eyes.
He would not be defeated easily by this clan, and Aliah sensed that a nasty fight was about to break out as she finally escaped from the bus and made a run for it.
Aliah ran away from the bus as fast as she was able to, but a woman jumped out from nowhere, leaped on her, and dragged her to the ground.
The traveling clan and the robot security guards all circled about as the two women began to fight. Drucker, seeing the apparent commotion, came running out of his armored Jeep to see what was going on.
He walked right over to break the two women up, but the large robot intervened, placing a hand in front of him and saying, “Let them fight.”
And that the women did. The heavily pierced wild chick named Slut knew of Aliah’s injuries and immediately went for them. She kicked out at her bad leg and attempted to tear at her bad arm. Now in defense mode, Aliah put up a strong fight.
Her new limbs were well constructed, and her newly found knife skills came into play. She was getting the advantage over her one-time tormentor and had stuck a good knife throw right in the woman’s kidney area. Drucker now ran in and intervened, separating the two.
Aliah slipped another knife out and threw it directly at his face. The blade found its way to the center of his forehead.
Slut screamed out and charged Aliah upon seeing her man slouch to the ground. She jumped on Aliah and, with sheer craziness, snapped her artificial leg off, thus sending Aliah to her backside yelping in pain.
Slut jumped on her. They grabbed at one another and rolled all around. Slut was savage; she gouged and tore at Aliah’s face before grabbing her arm and twisting that out of its socket too. Aliah was a mess.
The crazy woman now locked onto Aliah’s throat and began strangling her with both hands.
Aliah looked up to see the large robot glaring down at her, but her vision slowly became more and more faded. She had to act quickly.
She drove her good hand up through the choke hold around her throat, breaking it apart, and then she bucked her hips up and rolled over to get rid of the woman on top of her. With one final thrash of her body, she ended up between Slut’s legs. She pulled a dagger from her belt and drove it down into the woman’s larynx.
Then a grenade went off.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOM.
When it was all over and Aliah had fully regained her consciousness, she stood up on one leg and hobbled about, trying to recover her prosthetic limbs. Suffering from serious cuts and burns all over her body, she couldn’t hear anything apart from jumbled sounds and voices.
The super robot directed his soldiers to apprehend the entire clan but they were instructed to leave the young woman with him. She was a wreck, but she had courage and beauty and he could see her potential.
A woman that looked like her, especially one that would keep fighting with no arm and no leg, was something that made him consider her potential.
Back at Y-Wood Corporation headquarters, Aliah was taken to the hospital sector after being told she was to have surgery to help repair her injuries. Little did she know, this was far from the truth.
Corporation doctors and scientists worked on Aliah for hours. When she awoke, Aliah was just a shadow of the person she once was.
Her entire body, or at least most of it, was a reconstruction. She could still think for herself; her brain had been kept intact, albeit altered. Her face and hair were still the same.
Aliah, however, was no longer a normal woman.
The scientists would go on to implant her with various computer chips of intellect and combative prowess. In the end, she had been transformed into a cyborg.
The Corporation had been seeking such a woman; someone with natural good looks. One they could manipulate, create, and empower with the ability to amaze the expectant crowds. One that could be their undefeated champion in the arena.
Aliah had become a metal girl.
CHAPTER FIVE
When she woke up, it felt as though her body had left her. Aliah was in shock. It was then that the president of the Y-Wood Corporation, Berlin Purcell, walked in. He was a square-jawed man, with short and spiked light-colored hair. The president peered down at her lying on the bed before him.
“Hello, young lady.” He nodded to her with a smile. “How are you feeling?” he asked.
Aliah wanted to scream and shout, but noticing the various tubes and wires all about her body, she dared not move. She suddenly realized she could not get a feel for her own body.
Still, she cried out in anguish, “What happened to me? What have you done? I can’t feel anything. Why am I here and connected to all these machines?”
Deciding she couldn’t stand it any longer, she tried to wriggle free, but a team of medics ran in and held her down. They tightened her restraints and then left without saying a word.
“Let me go,” she demanded. “Who are you, and what do you want with me?”
The president came closer. “First off, I want you to relax and calm the fuck down. You were hit by a grenade for one thing, and if you can get your memory back, you might recall you lost an arm and a leg earlier in life.”
Aliah’s mind was a vortex of mess. She couldn’t remember much. It felt like she had hardly any thoughts other than survival right now.
Again, she cried out to the man before her, “What have you done to me?”
He’d had enough of her screaming and turned to leave. Aliah pleaded with him, “Wait! Please help me.”
The man turned back. “Help you, my dear? I have already helped you. I’ve given you a life to be proud of.” He then left the hospital room.
Aliah screamed after him, “No! What you have done is taken my life. I will have revenge one day, I swear it.”
In the weeks that followed, Aliah increasingly hated what she had become. No longer was she a woman. She had been transformed into a thing.
The doctors and scientists that worked on her continued to hear they were hated, day in and day out. Then, as her so-called add-ons became integrated with her mind and movements, Aliah felt a power she could not fathom. She yelled at the doctors, “I hate what you’ve turned me into! I want to kill ya’s.”
Yet eventually, she had to accept her new body. She was also brainwashed, mind fucked, and had learned to take directions when told to do so.
Under the watchful eye of Y-Wood, she learned to use the multi-million-dollar body she was given. Her manufactured body was instilled with the combative skills of Muay Thai, Jiu-jitsu, Judo, Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Ninpo, Capoeira, and wrestling, giving her the ability to fight in ways she could have never imagined. She also gained new knowledge of all types of weapons and firearms.
In time, she learned of her true Corporation purpose.
Drucker had been wounded badly during his fight with the crippled girl, and even more so when the Corporation grenade landed near him and blew his right hand off. Yet, he lived. The scar on his forehead was a big one, serving as a constant reminder of the dark-haired girl: someone he now lived to kill.
Slut was not so fortunate.
Eventually, Drucker had reformed his band of crazies and ruffians, and they walked the dystopian roads of fallen America once again.
CHAPTER SIX
Aliah was now the Y-Wood Corporation’s star fighter. She was a spectacle to those who would gather to see bloodshed. She had sparred and fought robots and intelligent clones for months now, and today was finally the real deal.
This was her first real test, one of loyalty and skill. If she came through, everything would be perfect. Y-Wood had their reasoning, and she was their subject.
The death match was going down in upstate New York. The city of Ithaca was the designated venue, and people now gathered about the shores of Cayuga Lake. It was a rocky arena that would be used for the fights.
This particular testing ground was a good, out-of-the-way place for all to find out if this experiment was going to work.
Aaron Steele, the Corporation’s assistant to the president, was here, as were a bevy of clones sent from Y-Wood. The super bot Galax was also in attendance, acting as the main security in case anything went wrong. He too wanted to see this gorgeous woman fight for real.
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