She fell asleep, feeling moderately safe for the first time in years.
She woke up, feeling a presence in her mattress. On her mattress, the only passably clean thing in this filthy dump. Had Diego finally decided to hop on and take advantage of her? Her mind raced, confused. No, this body was smelling wonderful, this couldn’t be Diego, not in a million years. Wait, Diego was gone. That was a dream. She was elsewhere now. Her eyes adjusted to the dark.
It was Cherry next to her, curled up in the foetal position over the covers. And she was called Pickle now. Pickle covered her friend up with the covers, and held her in a hug with her augmented arm. She rubbed Cherry’s hair with her fingers, gently. Cherry hummed and smiled in her sleep.
“There you go, Cherry,” Pickle whispered. “You’re safe. We’re safe. We’re home.”
DROP ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEEN
Pickle knocked on his workshop’s door. Her knock was soft, timid. She held a lipstick on the same hand.
“Yeah? Is there a fire or something?” Hector shouted through it.
Pickle rested her head on the wood. “No, I needed to admit something to you.”
“So, no fire then. Pickle, I have one rule, when the door is shut-”
Pickle opened the door and walked in. She didn’t care if he was naked or wanking off or anything, she needed to get this off her chest. Hector was just cleaning his electric shaver. She paced up and down not saying anything for a full two minutes.
Hector chuckled, shaking his head slowly. “Pickle, you think I don’t know you’re keeping things from me? I get it, it’s just how your mind works. You’re always scheming-”
“I’m not scheming!” she complained, her voice pitched high.
He raised his hand. “I’m not saying you’re out to get me. I trust you. I’m just saying that yeah, those neurons in your head are always firing, plans within plans, wheels within wheels. I know you’re smarter than me, no matter how dumb and submissive you act towards me. And I know you’ve manipulated me plenty of times already, but it was for the best of both the girls and the team.”
She wanted to object, her mouth open. But there was nothing to object to, since it was all true. “Hector, I need you too know that I deeply appreciate what you do with us. With me.”
“I’m not mad, Pickle. Relax. I just wanna know what it is that’s got you so worked up. You’re afraid something might happen, you’re reinforcing security, you got us guns. It’s serious, and this is my house. I have a right to know.”
Resigned, she sat down and covered her face with her palms. “I know, I’m sorry.”
“Just tell me. We’re just two buddies, Patty and Hector. Hey, Patty, what’s bothering you,” he acted out with his hands. “Now you reply...” he let his voice hang.
Pickle stood up and started pacing again, then started talking a mile a minute. “So, here’s the deal: I did slip with my debts and got into a paramone contract, but I chose Cyberpink. I was younger and stupid, I thought I could turn this into an opportunity or something.” She groaned at herself.
Hector sat there blinking at her, saying nothing.
“And I thought, like a vlaka, that I could expose what was happening inside, behind the scenes, you know? All those ugly things you constantly hear about but never make the news. I thought I could write a story about it, convince some of the girls to come forward, go on record even. Take the case to court.”
“Uh-huh,” Hector nodded, putting his electric shaver down.
“And the dirtiest malaka in Athens is Nicomedes, as you’ve recently found out. So I went snooping around while I was on a loan to the Pinups.”
“And you were found out,” Hector said, following the trail of thought.”
“Yes,” Pickle winced. “Red-handed, like a total vlaka. He thought he could lord it over me, tried to buy me from Diego, but he didn’t want to.”
Hector stood up and held the brush menacingly. “Wait, are you saying Nicomedes ordered Diego killed because of you?”
Pickle’s lip quivered and she teared up. Her vision blurred. “I thought so and I investigated, but no. It seems Diego’s fate was due to his own stupid schemes gone bad.”
Hector calmed down. “Oh. Didn’t know you were investigating it.”
Pickle stopped pacing up and down and sat in the corner of the room. She gestured wildly, her elbows resting on her knees. “I felt so bad. But yes, I’m pretty sure Nicomedes wasn’t behind it. But he knows I have dirt on him, and he’s dangerous.”
“So, if I’d had sold your paramone contract when he offered, he’d have-”
“Killed me by now and made it look like a training accident,” Pickle said simply, her lips quivering.
“Huh,” Hector said and turned to the side, mulling it over. “Well, we need to do something.”
“Like what?”
“Where’s the dirt?”
Pickle presented the lipstick, in a shade she never actually wore. She popped it open and showed the concealed flash drive inside.
“Nice! Okay, Pickle, here’s what we’re gonna do. We will give this to Tony, he can encrypt it and hide it on the dark web with his computer thingamajigs. Then he can set up a dead-man’s switch, so that if anything bad happens to me or you, the files get sent to predetermined recipients. He can do those things, I know he already has on one occasion.”
Pickle perked up. “And then what?”
Hector grinned, showing his teeth. “And then we’ll inform the greasy fucker of the severity of the situation.”
DROP ONE HUNDRED NINETEEN
“Who was that?” Pickle asked as Hector cancelled the call.
“The Milk Juggers.”
“Really? What do they want, they already booked it all for the Snarlies.”
“Apparently, they got plenty of subscribers from our little match. They’re giving us off-hours.”
“Off-hours? That means late nights. If we train that late, it will throw the entire schedule out of whack!”
Hector shrugged and smiled.
“Then again, we don’t have another place to train properly.
DROP ONE HUNDRED TWENTY
Hector wasn't expecting much in the way of attendance. He thought that some fans with nothing better to do might show up, look around, lewd at the girls for a while and then get bored with how dead the party was.
He was met with a bass beat that threatened to shake his chest out of his body. "What's this ruckus?" he shouted at Tony.
There were a lot of people at Milk Juggers. Like, a lot.
"Oh, hey. Meet the Pies' owner, everybody!" Tony shouted and raised Hector's arm up.
The fans cheered and clapped at him. Hector felt weird, he hadn't been clapped at since he played some small role at a school play. He forced a smile at them. He didn't feel well having all that attention at him, but he was still a businessman. A failed one, but a businessman. These were paying customers. "Wow, they like the Pickle Juice Slushie?" Hector asked while they walked further inside.
"Not really," Tony said, shouting in his ear. "But we raided your ouzo supplies and spiked the drinks, so everyone's got a buzz now." Tony realised what he said and looked horrified. "Hope that's okay, Pickle said you wouldn't mind."
Hector chuckled. "It's okay, I'll restock. Tonight is more important. So, what, this is going good? How did you get so many people to come over? I'm certain we don't have that many local fans yet."
Tony winced.
Hector turned to him, grabbing his shoulder. "Spit it out."
"Look, man, I wanted this to be a hit, alright? So I may have embellished some of the attractions for tonight."
"What did you promise them?" Hector said, dragging out the words in a menacing way.
"It's nothing lewd! Okay, it is, but I checked with the girls beforehand. Pickle signed off on it!" Tony pleaded.
Hector nodded. It was true, if Pickle was okay with it, so was he.
"Look, there's Dainty Feet, just doing her thing. It's nothing worse tha
n what she does on her stream every day." Tony pointed at the middle of a gathered crowd.
Dainty Feet was up on a pedestal, sitting. She was barefoot, and she was cooing and chatting with fans. They were standing underneath her, admiring her feet. George was next to the pedestal, slapping the hands away from fans that felt too ambitious.
Hector grunted. "Fine! If she's okay with it, it doesn't bother me. And good call on placing George there."
Tony beamed at him. "And look, the fans are just chatting with the girls."
Hector looked at the other side of the training grounds. Indeed, there was another group huddled up there, and the Pies were chatting with fans and signing merchandise. "This is our merchandise already? I thought we didn't have enough cash to stockpile any?"
"That's the beauty of it!" Tony spat out, excited. "I put the designs up on a service and made them all available for purchase. Then I told the fans that if they bought merch and showed up with it, the Pies would personally sign them! It's a win-win, right?"
Hector scratched his head. "That's actually brilliant. Who came up with that one?"
Tony opened his mouth.
"Pickle did, of course," Hector interrupted, nodding. He saw Pickle in the middle of the group of fans, smiling and maintaining order. The girls chatted and signed t-shirts, coffee mugs and caps. Those were the normal kind of merch. Hector also saw a fan holding a pair of tits. Not real ones, fake ones, moulded in soft material. He blushed and raised them up to Cherry, and asked her to sign it.
Cherry turned red from embarrassment.
Hector recognised the pair of tits immediately. He stepped forward and pushed the fan aside. "Hey, this is inappropriate."
"But I paid for it! It's not cheap, you know," the lewd fan squeaked. He was tall and chubby, easily over a hundred kilograms in weight.
Cherry touched Hector's hand. "It's okay, I'll sign it."
Hector turned to her. "You don't have to do it if you don't want to," he told her, frowning.
Cherry touched his cheek. "The fact that you said that is enough," she smiled bitterly. She then turned to the lewd fan. "Hey, bring me my pair of tits so I can sign them already, will you?"
The night was progressing nicely. Hector could admit he was having fun. George had to only kick out three fans that had crossed the line, and the rest kept their wandering hands to themselves.
"I'm so glad you're here, man," Hector told George when the horny crowd calmed down a bit.
"This could have easily gotten out of control. Don't worry, I can handle it solo. But you didn't tell me the details, I'd had brought in a second," George said, his eyes still scanning the room.
"I didn't know there'd be so many people! Honest," Hector apologised.
George grinned. "Does that mean I can ask for some extra cash? I am doing the job of three bouncers, after all. I know I make it look easy, but it's not."
"Oh, you got it!" Hector looked around and stuttered, "I-I have no idea how I'd handle all these horny bastards by my own."
"It's-" George started to say and stopped mid-sentence. He ran up to the field, ready to crack heads.
The fans huddled up around the field, and the girls were in the middle, on the opposite side of a long table. There were large plates with something covered up on the table. The fans cheered and shouted extremely lewd things.
Pickle blushed, Cherry was enjoying it with a wide grin, Bobo looked pissed off as usual, Cadena winked naughtily at a group of presentable men and Dainty Feet was sending smoochies to everybody.
"And now it's time for what we've all been waiting for. The reason we drove all the way up here, the reason this party is the wildest party of all! It's time for the pie-eating contest!" Tony said in an announcer's voice.
The girls uncovered the pies. The fans clamoured, excited.
"But," Tony said in the mic, walking between the Pies and the fans, "I see far too much clothing tonight..."
The fans cheered "Yes!" George pushed everyone back on the line, shouting commands and being a one-man riot control.
Tony theatrically tapped his chin. "Hm... Let's see." He turned to Cadena. "How much would you want to take your top off? In willing donations, of course."
Hector gritted his teeth. He was about to get in there and call the whole thing off, but then he met Pickle's eyes. She nodded to him, assuring him it was fine. He deflated and sat on a chair.
Cadena pretended to be shocked. "Well, I'd do it for five hundred."
"Five hundred, eh?" Tony smirked. "Do we have a sudden donation of five hundred in Cadena's account?"
The fans swiped in the air and gestured wildly. The veils showed transactions around them.
"And we do! Wow, this is amazing!" Tony said, hopping once. "Off with the top, Cadena my dear! If you want to, that is. Suddenly feeling hot in here, right?"
Cadena smiled and took her top off, exposing her perky boobs. She tossed the top into the crowd, causing a small fight amongst fans. George broke them up with only a couple of bruises on each side.
"How about you, Dainty Feet?" Tony asked, leaning in to her like the lewd bastard he was.
"Well," she cooed in her high-pitched voice. "I could take my pants off..."
Tony didn't even need to say a number. Hector saw the fans sending in small amounts, gesturing on their veils. Wow, how many foot-worshippers were in there?
"Is that enough? That seems to be enough," Tony coughed, coordinating with Dainty Feet, not revealing the donated amount.
Dainty Feet got up and wiggled her shorts down. The fans said some extremely naughty things about her pussy. George threw two of them out with no remorse. Hector was surprised to see that one of the fans shouting the loudest that she wanted to lick it was a woman, and a pretty one at that. The fact that her tongue was green from the Pickle Juice Slushie made the whole thing surreal. Dainty Feet posed, showing off her thighs and her legs by sitting on the stool, toying with the audience.
Hector held his forehead. He couldn't believe this was happening, but Pickle and the others seemed fine with it. He downed some ouzo to calm down but it barely gave him a buzz. The auction went on, each girl removing one item of clothing for the raving fans below, George keeping them in line, Tony riling them up again, money changing hands, insanity ensuing.
He'd felt the excitement that first day at the Cyberpink Tournament where he first saw Pickle, and he was seeing it again. Deep down he couldn't blame these people for seeking an escape from their miserable lives. And it wasn't just horny men, there were plenty of women in the crowd too, far more than he would ever predict. Hector spotted some trans people as well, but those were so punked up with piercings and augmentations that he couldn't tell if they were men transitioning to women or vice-versa.
He didn't really care. They were having fun, they were tossing money away, and he was profiting off of it, while at the same time treating the girls much better than everyone else seemed to. He hadn't forced them to strip down for money. He hadn't terrorised them into doing whatever he ordered them to. He hadn't abused them in any way. He'd simply formed a team and the girls themselves wanted to see it happen. It was inspiring, in a fucked-up kind of way.
Hector met Pickle's gaze as it was her turn to strip down. She did so, her breasts squeezing over her exoskeleton that didn't allow much to get out, like a corset. She blushed so bad Hector thought she had painted her face red.
The girls helped each other put their hair back with scrunchies and hair clips. Then they tied themselves up with a rubber band, more for show than for actual bondage.
"And now, LET'S. EAT. PIE!" Tony shouted at the top of his lungs, and the five girls dove in with their faces, hands behind their backs, eating pie like there was no tomorrow. Bits of crust and cherries and pickles stuck on breasts, necks and noses. Their cheeks were full of pie, and they even got into a sporting mood as they chewed down and turned to see which girl was ahead in the race.
It was messy. It was funny. It was sexy.
The f
ans loved it.
Hector shook his head, but smiled, admiring the mania unfolding.
DROP ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE
"This is it," Pickle said, meeting the eyes of everyone in the room in succession. "This is the moment we've trained for."
The girls clamoured and raised their fake weapons.
"Now, I know that this hasn't turned out the way we all wanted it to. Not all of you will be in the team next month. But trust me, carrying a team into the qualifiers counts an awful lot for future prospects. And I will make sure to leave a glowing recommendation on your records. It will be easy to snag that next contract, and we will part as friends. And who knows, maybe we will meet again on the field."
Cadena nodded in acknowledgement to her, but Dainty Feet scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Come on already, enough with the speeches. Let's do this," Dainty Feet said while walking into the field first.
Cherry shrugged and followed her, walking backwards. She waved everyone to get moving with an open gesture."You heard her. Let's do this!"
"Well, well. If it isn't the brand-new owner of a jugger team," Nicomedes said, clapping slowly.
"Well, well, if it isn't a short pimp on top of high heels," Hector replied, turning his face to the man up on the VIP lounge.
Nicomedes narrowed his eyes. "I see you've grown some balls. Must be from having all that pussy around. It happens to the best of us," he shrugged, fixing his jacket. That thing looked shiny and weird, like what the fashion models wore. Hector was sure that it was expensive, tailor-made and absolutely pointless.
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