“Holy crap!” Elsie exclaims, looking out over the room, wide-eyed. “We’ve stumbled upon the underground Fight Club society of the south. Look at these people,” she says, almost unbelievingly.
“I know, who knew this world existed,” Janie says, also scanning the room.
“It’s like a parallel universe, our car went through a portal, throwing us into this dimension,” Elizabeth says.
Janie and Elsie look at her like she’s nuts.
“What? Haven’t you guys ever watched Dr. Who? You know, with the Tardis, an English telephone booth/spaceship that takes him and his assistant, usually a woman that’s madly in love with him, to anywhere in time or anyplace in the universe,” she explains to Janie and Elsie, like she can’t believe they have never seen the show.
“Yeah, I’ve seen some episodes,” Elsie responds.
“Ok, you got that one, Liz,” Janie says, giving her head a firm nod.
Everyone in the room is ‘wound up tighter than Dick’s hatband,’ whatever the hell that phrase means. The tension in the air is palpable, pulling you in, and wrapping around you so tightly that you can’t help but feel choked by it.
Tonight the members of Evolutions are competing against other MMA fighters from gyms within a hundred mile radius. Not every applicant who signed up was accepted, only those with the highest rankings in their gym. The competition was organized by Conflict MMA and it’s huge.
The girls spot an Evolutions Gym t-shirt in the crowd.
Janie grabs Elsie and Elizabeth’s hands and starts to maneuver them through the throng of people, towards their beacon in the crowd.
“Stay close and don’t let go of my hand. If we lose each other, we could be screwed for the rest of the night. Especially you two, as short as you are,” Janie says pulling them along.
“Hey, now,” Elizabeth starts to protest.
“Get real, Liz, you know she’s right. We can’t even see anyone over the crowd,” Elsie laughs.
“Shut up, I know, but I don’t have to admit it,” Elizabeth says as she’s being pulled along, the girls pushing bodies out of their way as they go.
“Embrace the shortness, love it and it shall love you,” Elsie laughs.
The three of them giggle like teenagers at the new age mantra.
They finally find the beacon they’ve been searching for, the person with the Evolutions shirt on. Janie taps the broad back looming in front of her, as the girls look around and see other Evolutions shirts nearby.
“We are with our people now,” Elsie exclaims in a melodic voice.
The man turns and they recognize him from the gym. They don’t know his name, but they’ve seen him each time they’ve gone for classes. He smiles broadly at them, recognizing them instantly, especially Marco’s woman, Elizabeth.
“Hi, ladies, so glad you could come and support the guys from Evolutions. We have never officially met, I’m Dylan,” he says, loud enough for them to hear him over the music and the hum of the crowd.
The other guys, some with girls on their arms, turn and smile their greetings.
“Hi Dylan,” Janie says. “Who’s going to participate tonight, from the gym?”
“Let’s see…John, Brian, Scott, and Rico. Marco,” he explains, now looking at Elizabeth, “Is in the back with the guys. He’ll be out in a minute.”
“Thank you,” Elizabeth says smiling at him appreciatively.
“So how does all this,” Elsie asks sweeping her arm in the direction of the cage, “Work, who fights with who?”
There’s an edge of nervousness in her voice. When she heard that Rico was fighting, as well, she visualized John sitting on top of him back in the cage at the gym. He had his fist poised ready to smash his face in. Although the guy probably deserved it, she didn’t want to see John pummel him. And Rico would definitely ask for it.
“The fighters are matched up according to their weight class and their skill level,” Dylan begins. “So, someone who’s a medium weight, like Rico, won’t be paired up with someone in the heavyweight class, like John. They’ll go three rounds that are three minute each, if there isn’t a knockout.”
Dylan answers Elsie’s unasked questions relieving some of her anxiety.
The advantage of knowing John might be fighting Rico would be she’d know what to expect…maybe. Now, she has no idea who he’s going to be facing.
A new level of anxiety begins to rise in her. What if John’s matched up with someone who fights like Mike Tyson? He could get his ear bit off. And Brian’s beautiful face, could she stand watching someone pound it to a bloody pulp?
All of these scenarios run through her mind in seconds. Her emotions run the gamut from concern to relief to fear.
“I don’t know if I can watch, maybe I’ll wait in the lobby,” Elsie stammers, as apprehension starts to fill her.
“Don’t worry, it is Elsie, isn’t it?” Dylan says trying to calm her nerves.
“Yeah,” she answers him, worrying her lip.
“It’s only exhibition, things aren’t going to get out of hand,” he explains.
“It’s an exhibition of fighting, right?” she asks, pausing for a moment.
Dylan nods his head.
“So they’re going to be punching, kicking, doing all that stuff, right?” she continues with her hand on her hip, daring him to argue with her.
“Yeah,” he answers slowly.
“So, it’s a fight. And people get hurt in fights,” she concludes.
“Yeah, but…,” he begins.
“Hit, kick, punch, wrestle. Fight. Simple,” Elsie ticks off on her fingers ending the discussion.
“Ok, yeah, all that will be happening,” Dylan agrees.
“What’s up, baby,” Marco says, coming up behind Elizabeth.
“Elsie and Dylan were just talking about the, um, specifics of the fights tonight,” Elizabeth tries to explain what was being discussed.
“Yeah, this big oaf was trying to say that the fights tonight are no big deal. Fights are fights, period,” Elsie states firmly leveling her eyes at Dylan.
Marco tries to stifle a laugh, by clearing his throat. Dylan looks at him, a silent plea of ‘Help me’ in his eyes.
“Well, you’re both right. These fights don’t mean as much to the participants, because they are not fighting for status or position. It’s just a show. But make no mistake, they will be fighting for real and they’re going to get bloody,” Marco explains.
Elsie glares at Dylan. By the tight expression on her face, it’s glaringly obvious she wants to taunt him. It takes all of her control not to stick her tongue out at him.
The crowd goes quiet, and everyone turns to look at the cage. The emcee is standing in the center, and the sound of the loudspeakers coming on fills the now quiet air.
“Ladies and gentleman, thank you for joining us tonight for this exhibition of MMA fights, showcasing the finest talents around. Tonight you will see the best of the best…,” his voice explodes from the speakers.
Elsie looks around and sees the men who are fighting tonight, gathered along the far side of the room. She stands on her tip-toes and finally catches a glimpse of John and Brian. The breath she’d been holding escapes as she’s filled with a sudden feeling of relief.
Sheez, they haven’t even started fighting yet and I’m worried, she thinks, chewing on her fingernail.
Both John and Brian have calm, controlled, expressions on their faces. Everything about them screams formidable strength. She can’t see them as clearly as she’d like from this distance, but from what she can see, they look intimidating as hell. Her eyes move further down the line, and meet another pair of eyes, looking right at her. Rico. She sees one side of his mouth curve up in a sly smirk. She jerks her head quickly and finds Scott. His large frame is dwarfing the guy next to him.
“Hi everybody,” comes a sickly, sweet, singsong voice that Elsie immediately recognizes.
“What are you doing here?” Elsie snaps, before she can stop h
erself.
That mouth of hers is going to get her in trouble one of these days.
“Excuse me, but I’m here to support Rico,” Bambi says, looking Elsie over, before turning her nose up in the air.
Elsie, Janie and Elizabeth all share a look of shock.
“Hey, Bambi, glad you could make it,” Dylan greets her. “It’s great of you to come out and support the guys.”
“Of course, Rico needs someone in his corner,” Bambi says accusingly, stealing a sideways glance.
She looks at all three women with daggers shooting out of her eyes.
“S’up Cuz,” the voice of an unfamiliar young man, breaks her stare.
“Nothing, you guys find who you were looking for,” Bambi looks between the two hoodlum-looking punks.
Their obvious attitudes crowds everything else in the space. They are screaming with their clothes, and how they carry themselves, that trouble is always right behind them. Their pants are hanging so far down their asses; they’ve got to walk with their legs spread apart.
Elsie looks a little more closely at the one who called Bambi cousin.
“Hey, you look familiar,” she says, narrowing her eyes at him.
“Yeah, Dog, I work on the Under The Dome set, too. I see you around,” he says, moving closer to her with a wannabe sexy smile.
“Dude, back off, it’s cool,” she says holding up her hand. “Yeah, I thought so.”
She looks over to the other guy, who looks like a complete piece of shit, and cringes. The feelings she’s getting from him are so negative and foreboding, it makes her physically take a step back. The look in his eyes is cold and devoid of emotion. He’s the type of person who blames everything that’s gone wrong in his life on the world, and he wants to make it pay. Dearly.
Elsie turns, not giving them a second look. Hopefully, they’ll all go away.
“Yeah, Cuz, we found ‘em. We got a lot more people to talk to. I’m out,” the young punk tells Bambi.
“Yay, sounds like it’s going to be a good night,” she squeals, smiling happily.
He shrugs, trying to keep his face expressionless and cool, before he turns and walks away. The two guys give Elsie a little ‘hey baby’ smirk before they leave.
Eew! Well, that was weird, but at least two of them are gone, Elsie thinks letting out a quiet huff of relief.
Because of her proximity to Bambi, she heard the whole conversation, but it’s likely no one else did. She shrugs her shoulders, dismissing it as nothing.
The bitch is crazy anyway, Elsie thinks.
“So,” Bambi turns to Elsie, “I see all of the teachers’ pets are here tonight. When’s it going to start,” she says trying to look around Dylan to see the cage.
Oh, no she didn’t! Elsie thinks as her blood is beginning to boil.
A firm hand clasps her arm and holds her back.
“Yes, Sweety, we’re all here, it’s nice to see they let you come out with the grown-ups every once in a while. Now, you be a dear and play nice. We wouldn’t want anything to happen to those extensions of yours, now would be?” Elizabeth tells Bambi with her subtle sophistication.
“I…..I…..I….,” Bambi stammers, exasperated.
“Yes, Darling, we know, now why don’t you run along. I’m sure it will be more, um, pleasant for you, over there,” Elizabeth continues, pointing a long perfectly manicured fingernail.
Elizabeth can cut you down, with style and poise, before you even know what hit you.
“HHRRRMPPH,” Bambi snorts and stomps off, with her nose in the air.
Before any of them have a chance to react to what just happened the emcee announces the first fight. It’s Scott, “The Sledgehammer”, versus someone they don’t know.
Janie bounces on the balls of her feet, apparently trying to contain her excitement.
Scott immediately goes in for the attack. The man is a wrecking ball. The power and force behind his jabs and punches makes you cringe. He caught his opponent off guard and the man is on the floor. He’s lying on his back, using his bare feet to protect himself and keep Scott from getting in close.
“He’s going to crush him,” Marco says roughly, behind the women.
The first round is finished. The fighters move to their corners and it’s visible, even from where Elsie is standing, that the other guys left eye is beginning to swell shut.
The second round starts and Scott goes at him with machine gun hits. He tries to unsteady Scott with a kick, but Scott shoos it away like a pesky fly. Scott hits him with a left then an uppercut.
The man is down. Scott waits as the referee moves in to assess the situation. The fight is called. Scott wins by a knockout.
Janie starts the cheer and Elsie and Elizabeth quickly join in, “Yay, WOOHOO!!” jumping up and down clapping their hands.
The next fighters are from a couple of other gyms. The crowd seems to know and love them, the hall goes wild. They go round and round, circling each other with bursts of kicks and punches, for most of their three rounds. The winner is announced, by a decision. One side of the room cheers, while the other mumbles their dissatisfaction. But everyone is civil, with no booing or name calling.
The next fight features Rico, “The Annihilator”. He saunters into the cage with his typical cocky attitude, his arrogance is as blatant as the spandex shorts he’s wearing. Rico is very good-looking. He’s arrogant, yes, but definitely a head-turner. The kind of man whose look says: ‘I’m oh, so bad, but I am very good at it.’ He finds Elsie in the crowd and winks, smiling at her. Then he pulls his mouth guard out and blows her a kiss.
Elsie’s completely shocked at his very unexpected and unwanted public display of interest.
Janie catches Elsie’s arm as she’s shooting it up to flip Rico off.
“Don’t, he’s just trying to get to John,” Janie laughs. “Don’t feed into it.”
Elsie happens to glance over to where Bambi is standing and catches her staring at her. The look on Bambi’s face is full of hatred. There is no trace of the air-headed bimbo in the expression of the woman staring back at Elsie. The eyes glaring back at her are full of malice, hate, and a severe warning.
Elsie breaks the gaze as a chill runs down her spine. Something tells her that she just made a very dangerous enemy.
The bell rings and the fight begins. Rico starts by circling his opponent, sizing him up, finding his weak spots. His opponent throws a couple of jabs. Rico bobs and swerves, getting out of the way. He spins and drops, kicking his opponent’s feet out. The man stumbles and Rico jumps up, grabs ahold of the side of the cage and wraps his legs around the man’s throat. Rico holds on to the cage as he’s choking the man. The man’s face starts to turn blue. He’s holding him captive, squeezing to the point of crushing his windpipe, until he finally taps the floor and gives the fight.
The crowd goes wild.
Elsie, Elizabeth, Janie, even Marco and Dylan give a collective, “Holy shit!”
Rico’s feet hit the mat and he finds Elsie again. He lifts his fist, points to her, and gives her a nod.
Elsie doesn’t dare look at Bambi again. She is not encouraging Rico. Hell, she’s never given him any indication that she’s interested in him. Actually, it would be the exact opposite, she’s made it perfectly clear that she has an immense dislike for him.
The emcee announces the next two fighters. Brian, “The Ghost”, is up.
Elsie’s hand reaches out for the closest arm, it’s Janie’s, and grabs on to it with a vice-like grip.
The first round gets underway and Brian begins to move. He’s fluid, smooth, one movement flowing into the next, like water, constant, unbroken, connected. His opponent is trying to determine how Brian is going to come at him as he’s moving his fists, preparing to guard himself. The first hit comes as a palm to the ribs. The unexpected impact knocks the wind out of him and takes him off guard. While the man is staggering, Brian hits him with a kick to the head. He’s out. Brian wins with almost an immediate knockout
.
The crowd is on fire.
Elsie is stunned. Janie’s screaming with delight and Elizabeth is waving like a fan-girl.
Brian turns, looks directly at Elsie, takes his mouth-guard out, then gives her that boyish grin and a naughty wink.
“Holy shit!! The guy’s a total badass! Who knew?!” Elsie exclaims still stunned. Her face flushes with embarrassment as she waves at him and jumps up and down.
“He’s pretty damn cool, huh?” Marco’s says, pride for his friend evident in his voice.
“Cool is one hell of an understatement,” Elsie says, shaking her head in disbelief.
She can hear Marco chuckle behind her.
Next up is John, “The Bear” Wolfe.
Elsie is immediately a nervous wreck.
John looks fierce, scary, intense.
His opponent looks mean and angry. He’s big, hulk-like, and moving in one direction. Towards John.
The two men are reminiscent of King Kong versus Godzilla. They’re both big, mean, and very powerful warriors.
His opponent moves to grab John’s head with both hands, while raising his knee up to smash it. He almost had him, John’s head was going down to meet the knee, rapidly moving to crush his face. But John jerks back hitting him in the face with the backward motion. Using his newfound momentum, John spins hitting him with an elbow to the head.
“Oh, my God, I can’t watch!!” Elsie croaks out breathlessly.
She wants to run from the room, but she’s glued to her spot, frozen, unable to tear her eyes from John. Her tunnel vision has her locked and is on the two men in the cage. Every move, every shift, every look, is magnified in her eyes and in her senses. Even though she’s about a hundred feet from John, she can feel the tension in his taut, massive, body, and the barely controlled rage which he’s molding and using as a weapon, taking it in his hands and overpowering his opponent. He is a warrior and this is battleground.
The tree of a man sways on his feet. John spins and kicks his feet out from under him while he’s unbalanced. The man hits the mat with a massive thud, his head bouncing twice as he hits. John kicks him in his ribs and then he’s on him pounding on his head. The referee has to call the fight. John stops, if he doesn’t, his opponent’s going to have permanent brain damage.
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