Arena 4

by Logan Jacobs

  “Although, that does sound interesting,” Aurora said with a sultry wink.

  “It is not,” PoLarr huffed. “I felt like my head was going to pop like a pimple. God, that is gross. Sometimes having your memories is a nightmare, Marc.”

  “A ruggedly handsome nightmare?” I asked as I plopped down in a chair next to Aurora. Nova and PoLarr sat on the other side while Artie took her normal spot behind the computer. Grizz rematerialized in front of a large computer screen on the wall that looked like something from Blacklist with all kinds of displays. Everything from skill trees to maps to blueprints to character bios filled the wall.

  “No,” she responded flatly. “A nightmarish nightmare.”

  “Havak,” Grizz said as he pulled our attention, “you did an adequate job. You were still ridiculously sloppy and relied on sheer luck and happenstance to aid you.”

  “Thanks, Grizz,” I smiled. Coming from Grizz that was about as high a praise as I was apt to receive. “Can you tell me why we had to do this again? I mean, right now, since I won and the ladies all have to cater to my every whim, I am very glad, but I still can’t figure out why.”

  “Yeah, sugar,” Aurora echoed. “As much as I like it rough on occasion, why are we all going to have to run this gauntlet of fighting each other?”

  “You’re killing me, Aurora,” I said under my breath. The sexy space vampire seemed to be a never-ending double entendre of the promise of unthinkable pleasures. Which meant that that was all I thought about.

  “Grizz’s Gauntlet, is the ultimate test of how well you know your teammates strengths and weakness,” Grizz said and gave a wicked little grin.

  “Now that I think about it, Grizz’s Gauntlet has a nice ring to it,” Artemis nodded from behind her computer. “Good combination of alliteration and doom.”

  “I thought so,” Grizz nodded.

  “You two need professional help,” I groaned and rubbed at my temple.

  “While I trust your prowess and acumen as our trainer, Grizz,” Nova said after she took a big swig from a bottle of electrolyte water. “Why are we all fighting one another? Our alliance is strong. Other than the joy of punching Havak in the face, I don’t really see the purpose of the exercise.”

  “Hey,” I blurted out in mock offense. “Why are my rights being readed?”

  “Sometimes you have a very thin skin for a person who can dish out the amounts of sarcasm you do, Marc,” Nova commented and then winked at me. “I am just, how do you say it, yanking your chain.”

  “Oh!” Artie exclaimed and thwacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “That’s what that one is. I totally thought it was something different. Good thing I didn’t try it in the bedroom like I had been planning.”

  “The purpose of the exercise, Nova,” Grizz grumbled with his hands behind his back like a general discussing strategy, “is that you never know when you might need to fight someone you once trusted. In the Crucible a friend can become a foe in the blink of an eye.”

  Grizz stared at all of us. The gravitas of his sentiment did not fall on deaf ears. Grizz had been killed in the arena by one of his alliance mates, a young upstart named Tyyraxx who Grizz had taken under his wing. They had become almost as close as a father and son before Tyyraxx betrayed and stabbed Grizz in the back. Literally. Tyyraxx was now one of the most feared champions in the game, and as soon as we progressed to Platinum Tier I had vowed to turn the giant walking iguana on steroids into a wallet.

  “Grizz, you know I normally completely agree with you,” Artemis said diplomatically, “but, I don’t know, I can’t imagine that happening in Team Havak. Deluxe dressing, Aurora has already proven she can be trusted beyond a gloom of an ambiguity.”

  “What does salad enhancement have to do with any of this?” Grizz questioned.

  “She meant good gravy and shadow of a doubt,” I clarified.

  “That helped not at all, human,” Grizz responded flatly. “By the Greave of Godspeed the Gallant, your language is as inane as the Tales of Ignatius the Inane.”

  “By Balfour the Beater of Deceased Equestrians,” I shot back, “I am aware.”

  “I don’t know what we are talking about anymore,” PoLarr said with a raised hand as if she were a confused kid in class.

  “Me neither, sugar,” Aurora yawned. “I checked out a while ago.”

  “I am trying to protect you all from the possibility that one of you may go rogue and murder the rest of you!” Grizz exploded in frustration.

  A silence fell across all of us. Grizz’s chest heaved from the outburst. Even though he was a hologram who didn’t draw breath, the memory of who he had once been and how he had been betrayed blazed through the trick of light that made up his shimmering body.

  “Forgive me,” Grizz finally said as he tried to get himself under control. “This is clearly a heavy rucksack of emotional equipment that I have not begun to unpack. I do not mean to subject you all to my failing of feelings.”

  “Grizz,” I said quietly, “we all have baggage, man. Shit, I’ve got a damn U-Haul full just about my dad who I never really met. I can’t imagine what it’s like for you.”

  “You are not alone, Great Grizz,” Nova said with uncharacteristic emotion in her voice. “I, too, am an exile from my homeworld. We understand.”

  “Sugar,” Aurora said softly, “we all have demons in our souls that we conjure when we least expect it.”

  “She’s a sweet girl, Spike, but hey… issues!” PoLarr quoted from an obscure episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Which was a show I had been obsessed with in high school. “I have no idea what that means, other than that, I too have a lot of dark shit that rattles around in my head. You are not alone, Grizz.”

  “Thank you all,” Grizz acknowledged. “Still, I double my efforts to keep my personal notions from affecting our training.”

  “Do you guys have, like, I don’t know, a psychiatrist or something?” I asked, concerned. Sure the big guy was gruff and really hard on us, especially me, and had been one of the most celebrated and feared champions the Crucible had ever seen, but I could tell he had been fighting this battle in his holographic head for a while.

  “I shall entertain no Mind-Witches, Havak,” Grizz said forcefully. “I am sure if I just push whatever feelings I am having down into the dark recesses of my own soul that all shall work out just fine.”

  “Grizz, toxic masculinity affects us all,” I countered, only half-joking.

  “My masculinity is abundant and only toxic to my mortal enemies,” he huffed. “The topic is now closed.”

  “But--” I started.

  “I said it is closed,” the big oaf pouted and stormed over to the other side of the gym. “Closed! That is all the training we have time for today. Havak, you may commence with your victory.”

  Aurora, Nova, PoLarr, Artemis, and I just looked at each other in silence for a minute.

  “Sweet!” I blurted out giddily. “Okay, so we are all going back to the apartment where Woodhouse has already prepared our outfits for the night.”

  “Oh, oh, oh,” Artemis begged. “I want an outfit too. I don’t want to be left out.”

  “I wouldn’t leave you out, even though you are technically not part of my prize,” I said. “It shall please me that you are. Huzzah!”

  I could tell the other girls were going to protest, so I held up my hand.

  “Nope, nope, nope,” I hushed them. “Rules are rules, and I won fair and square. You all have to do everything I ask for the next day, and that all starts with wearing the sexiest costumes I could think of. Now let’s go. It’s Happy Marc Fetish Time.”

  We made our way to the apartment in record time, which was fine by me, since I was nearly bursting with excitement. I was going to make a bunch of bad-ass chicks do exactly what I wanted them to do. This was going to be so freaking cool.

  “Sir, all of our attire is laid out in your respective rooms, as you requested,” Woodhouse, my robotic butler said in his adorable
electronic British accent.

  “Awesome, Woodhouse,” I said to him. “You are awesome. Meet you all back here in five minutes.”

  I rushed back to my bedroom and changed into the clothes I’d had Woodhouse set out.

  I was going full Hugh Hefner in a pair of maroon silk pajamas, and a three-quarter length burgundy crushed velvet smoking jacket with an embroidered satin shawl collar. A pair of comfy slippers rounded out the whole ensemble.

  “You the man, Havak,” I said to myself in the mirror. “Time to show the ladies who’s in charge.”

  I practically ran back into the living room. Woodhouse was there with a tray full of props I’d had him get.

  “You can just set that down, Woodhouse,” I told him. “Okay, you guys, come on out.”

  “This is ridiculous, Marc,” PoLarr yelled from her bedroom.

  “A victory is a victory,” I yelled back. “And you all are my spoils of war tonight. I’ll call you out when I am ready to drool over you. First is Aurora.”

  “Okay,” the vampire space princess said as she exited her room. She was in a skimpy black and white French Maid outfit, and the frilly skirt barely covered her very shapely ass while the lace up front pushed her magnificently round, full breasts out even farther than normal. She had on a pair of thigh high black socks and black fuck-me pumps.

  “This isn’t that bad,” she said as she twirled her little feather duster in the air.

  “Shh,” I hushed her. “You are a maid and only speak when given permission. Also, start cleaning.”

  “Cleaning?” She raised a perfect eyebrow.

  “Yes,” I said as I pointed to the dining room table. “Use that duster and make sure you bend over at the waist.”

  “Like this?” Aurora asked as she bent over in the middle so that her perfect ass was thrust toward me.

  “Oh, my, goodness,” I sighed as my eyes roamed her perfect curves. “Yes that is perfect.”

  “Shall I wiggle my ass as I clean?” she purred as she began to sway her hips from side to side.

  “Babe, you are already scoring bonus points.” My mouth was actually watering a bit, and I forced myself to glance away from her so I could focus on my next girlfriend’s door.

  “Nova! Your turn!”

  “Very well,” she called out as she opened her door and stepped into our living room

  Her muscular, yet still shapely sexy body was clad in a white with red accents Naughty Nurse uniform. It hugged her body like it was painted on accentuating her large breasts and ass that could crack walnuts. There was even a cute nurses hat cocked jauntily a top of her mane of red hair. Red fishnets and three inch red heels completed the outfit.

  “I kinda like this,” Nova said as she smoothed down the front of her outfit.

  “More importantly, I like it,” I said and smiled wickedly as I let my eyes play over every inch of her body. “Which tonight, is all that matters.”

  “At least he isn’t making you clean,” Aurora snickered.

  “Oh, Nova has a job,” I declared.

  “I do?” the orange-skinned warrior said, and I was a bit surprised at the sprinkling of excitement I heard in her usual stoic voice.

  “Yep,” I said. “You see, I got very injured during our fight, and I need someone to nurse me back to health with all the finger food Woodhouse already prepped. Also, we have Jell-O shots in the fridge loaded into syringes. You’ll have to straddle my lap when you inject them into my mouth.”

  “Straddle your lap?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “You know I might crush you?”

  “Nurses take an oath to do no harm,” I explained. “Now go get one.”

  “Very well,” Nova said, and then she spun around, walked past the still bent over Aurora, and entered the kitchen. A few moment later she returned to the living room with a jello-shot syringe in her hand, and I gestured to my lap.

  “Like this?” she asked as she lifted one of her muscular legs up, slid it over my thigh and then gently set herself down on my lap. Most of her weight was to the side of me, so I wasn’t crushed.

  “Yep,” I chuckled as I stared into her beautiful eyes. “Now you say ‘I’m going to make you feel all better’ before you give me the shot.”

  “I’m going to make you feel all better.” Nova’s lips actually curled up into a grin as she inserted the jello-shot in my mouth and then she leaned down and softly pressed her lips into mine for a long kiss.

  “Did I do it right?” she asked, but I kinda thought she knew the answer to the question already, since my robe wasn’t really keeping my cock from pressing urgently up between her mini skirt.

  “Uhh yeah,” I whispered in her ear as I felt her slightly gyrate against me. “Are you wearing panties?”

  “They weren’t part of the costume, so no.” Her breath was hot against my ear, and she lightly bit my lobe before she pulled away, stood up, and then smoothed down the mini skirt that had ridden up her muscular thighs.

  I think my mouth was hanging open.

  “I will get the rest of the items to ‘nurse’ you back to health,” Nova declared with a wide grin, and then she sauntered back into the kitchen.

  “What the hell just happened?” I said.

  “I think she likes her costume,” Aurora giggled from where she dusted a lamp in the living room. “I’ll admit I like mine too. You gonna be helping me take it off tonight, sugar?”

  “Uhhh, yeeeahhh,” I said as I turned to the next door. In reality, I’d just planned on making them all wear sexy outfits for a few hours while we watched old movies, but both Aurora and Nova seemed to be… really excited by the choice in clothes.

  “Artemis, you are next!” I called out.

  “Hooray!” Artemis walked sexily out of the hallway, turned in front of me like a runway model, and then posed with her hand on her hip. She had on a thigh length, impossibly tight gray skirt that led up into a sleeveless button up white top. The top was unbuttoned to her waist. Her shapely c-cup breasts were supported by a black lace bra that they threatened to explode out of. Her hair was done up in a loose bun with a pencil, and she had a pair of black-framed glasses.

  “This is fun,” she giggled. “What am I supposed to be?”

  “Sexy librarian,” I answered as my eyes roamed over her perfect body.

  “Oh, I love it!” she exclaimed. “What do you want me to do to be all sexy?”

  “You have to tell everyone to speak in a low voice or you are going to punish them,” I laughed. “Also, you can occasionally suck on the end of your glasses.”

  “Like this?” she asked as she pulled the dark frames off her face, flipped her long brown hair back, and then slid the temple tip in-between her full lips.

  “Just like that!” I laughed.

  “Shhhh!” she hissed at me as her eyes narrowed. “If you don’t be quiet, I’m going to take you somewhere private and punish you, you bad, bad, boy.”

  “Best. Night. Ever.” I lowered my voice and then pointed to the bookshelf behind me. “See that step ladder? Go climb up it and start re-organizing the books.”

  “So you can stare at my ass?” Artemis asked eagerly.

  “Yep!” I confirmed, and she let out a gasp of joy as she skipped over to the ladder.

  “Okay, PoLarr,” I whispered loudly. “Your turn.”

  “No,” she called out.

  “Ohhh, come on,” I laughed. “You made the bet. You lost. Time to pay up.”

  “Ugh!” she groaned from the other side of the door, and then it cracked open, and I saw her face glare at me from the crack.

  “It can’t be that bad,” I laughed. “Let me see you.”

  “Fine.” PoLarr strode into the living room, and I thought I would pass out from sheer excitement.

  She had on a tight, red and black plaid skirt that barely covered the curve of her tight butt. A long sleeved white shirt was unbuttoned and tied in between her small but firm breasts. She didn’t have a bra on so I could see the nubs of her very hard
nipples as they pressed against the white fabric. White knee socks and a pair of shiny black patent leather shoes covered her legs. In her short blond hair was a matching plaid bow tie, and a thick black choker wrapped tightly around her neck.

  “Happy?” she said saucily.

  “That doesn’t even begin to describe it,” I purred. “You look amazing.”

  “Ugh,” she groaned as she rolled her eyes, but I noticed that she was also biting her lip.

  “Aren’t you forgetting something?” I asked as I wiggled my eyebrow.

  “Nope,” she said as she crossed her arms.

  “I think you areeeee,” I teased.

  “I left it in my room,” she sighed.

  “Darn,” I laughed. “Now I have to watch you walk all the way back there and get it.”

  “You are enjoying this too much,” she said as she shook her head. Then she turned and walked back into her room. I might have actually thought she hated the costume, but I knew exactly how PoLarr normally walked, and the PoLarr that was wearing the sexy schoolgirl outfit had like two-hundred percent more hip sway in her strut than normal PoLarr.

  “You can’t honestly expect me to--” she started to say when she returned with the lollipop in her hand.

  “Yep,” I interrupted her. “You know what to do with that.”

  “Fine,” the blonde-viking-killing-machine groaned a last time, but then she unwrapped the sucker, stared into my eyes, and slowly guided it into her open mouth.

  “Damnnnnnnnn,” I said as she shot me a hot sexy glare.

  “Are you enjoying this?” PoLarr growled as she slowly pulled the sucker from her mouth, gave it a long lick, and then slid it back in.

  “Are you?” I asked as I continued to stare into her icy-blue eyes.

  She didn’t answer. Instead, she just continued to suck on her candy treat as she stared at me.

  If anything, her nipples looked ready to tear a hole in her shirt.

  “Now everyone should continue with their jobs,” I said as Nova returned to the room with the snacks that Woodhouse had made. “I don’t want any complaining. You all probably had something worse in mind for me if you won, so I’m going to milk this the whole night, or at least until Evil Dead 3 is over.”