by Logan Jacobs
“I concur with my chemical enhanced alliance mate, Nova,” Aurora drawled deliciously. “It was immensely pleasurable to have fought by your side today PoLarr.”
“Speaking of,” I said as I made a motion for Aurora, Nova, and Grizz to join me by Artemis. “Team Havak confab.”
We all huddled around Artemis.
“Okay, I’m not going to beat around the bush here,” I said in a low tone that I hoped PoLarr couldn't hear. Although, I guess with the Soul Gaze she’d be able to access this memory at some point. “I think we should bring PoLarr into our alliance.”
I steeled myself for some vehement objections.
“Yes!” Nova said way too loudly.
“Agreed, sugar,” Aurora echoed.
“Yes, yay!” Artemis whisper-yelled.
“About time, Havak,” Grizz said with a nod as if I should have suggested it last week.
“Okay, but seriously guys, she’s badass and--” It took me a moment to realize everyone had agreed with me. “Wait. What? You’re all agreeing with me. At the same time?”
“Don’t get used to it,” Grizz grumbled, but the smile on his face belied his barely contained giddiness.
“I want to tell her,” Nova exclaimed ebulliently and ran over to PoLarr and gave her another big bear hug. “We want you to join our Alliance. Say yes or we might have to wrestle.”
I let that mental image take hold for a second before I filed it away for later as I walked over to the two of them.
“Yes,” I said as I stood in front of PoLarr. “Please, PoLarr, we’d be honored if you would join our alliance. Be a part of the madness that is Team Havak.”
“I…” PoLarr started and had to clear her throat. I could tell she was holding back a rush of emotion. “I was in a glorious sisterhood with my fellow Val’Keerye, one born and tested in battle. I was afraid that becoming champion would mean I would be all alone, and I had resigned myself to the reality of fighting alone. But with you all today, as we fought against odds that would crumble the will of others, I felt that camaraderie that I had shared with my battle born sisters. So my answer is yes. I will gladly join your alliance. You do not gain a Val’Keerye today. The Val’Keerye gain you.”
I stared at PoLarr with newfound respect and admiration, and that was pretty damn hard because I already thought she was freaking amazing. I glanced around and could see that we had all started to stand at attention in front of PoLarr as she spoke. That was just the kind of power she held, and what was incredible was I didn’t think she had any idea how special it was. I could feel the pride-filled tears threaten to spill from my eyes and saw the same in Nova, Aurora and even Grizz. Artemis had no such compunction against that particular emotion, and the tears streamed down her face freely.
“I love you already, PoLarr,” Artie gushed and hugged PoLarr, and before I knew it we were all in a big group hug, Grizz included, despite having no body.
The hug eventually broke after a few moments, and everyone collected themselves.
“I’ll inform the necessary officials of the addition to the alliance,” Artemis said as she went back to her command chair and began to type on her keypad.
“This is going to be great,” Nova practically giggled. The Blue Betty made her smile from ear to ear in such an unself-conscious way that I couldn’t help but smile too. “Someone else to help us give Marc a hard time.”
“Do we have to take turns, or can we all gang up on him?” PoLarr asked with a devious twinkle in her eye. Yeah, she was going to fit right in.
“I’m man enough to take you all on at once,” I threw back. I got super cocksure after a match. “And then one at a time.”
“Promises, promises,” Aurora teased and then yawned. “Sorry, ya’ll. I’m still fairly drained.”
“As am I, Aurora,” PoLarr affirmed. “I am ready for a few hours in a nice quiet regen pod. Oh, but I almost forgot. Nova, you dropped this in the heat of the final confrontation.”
She handed Nova the somewhat simple looking dagger that Nova had gotten from the loot crate during the match.
Grizz appeared right next to Nova.
“Did you actually bring that back?” He asked excitedly.
“Yes,” PoLarr answered. “Is that unusual?”
“Highly,” Artemis piped up from behind her computer. “Usually loot from a match or a match only boost disappear the moment the match is over.”
“What about my trusty Eradicator here?” I asked as I tapped the handle of the full-of-surprises weapon.
“That was your initiation level,” Artemis said in full on professor mode. “Our battle on Excelsior Minor was not a construct. That’s why you were able to bring the weapon back with you.”
“Wait, that was all real?” I asked in astonishment. “What the hell happened to Seti Beta Four?”
“No one knows, Marc,” Artemis answered gravely. “All communication with the planet ceased four days after we escaped. But that is a problem for another time! This dagger is very interesting.”
Nova had handed it over to Artemis while she was talking.
“What do you think, Grizz?” Artemis asked.
“I have never heard of it,” he replied as he appeared behind her at her computer terminal. “We should put it through a full battery of tests and scans and compare the results against our weapon and artifact database.”
“Oh, goody,” Artemis exclaimed, and she was truly excited by what Grizz had just said.
“Hey, what about our usual Into the Breach post-match celebration?” I asked with a bit more pouty kid in my voice than intended.
“Sugar, I’m beat,” Aurora said. “I need to ring up a few of my Thralls, um, I mean friends, to come over for a small dinner party. You understand.”
“Okay, Lestat,” I joked. Sort of. “PoLarr?”
“As much as I very much wish to throw back a few Coca-colas,” PoLarr responded in a serviceable Nicolas Cage as H.I. McDunnough from Raising Arizona. “I took a few bad hits and need to rest. Wait, why did I sound like that and what in the solar winds is a Coca-Cola?”
“Dumb luck that,” I responded without actually answering her question. The residual effects of the Soul Gaze were highly entertaining.
“I will accompany you to the Breach, Havak,” Nova said with gusto. “I wish to drink and revel in our victory. But we should bathe first. While I smell like triumph, you reek of sandworm guts.”
I took a whiff of myself and nearly gagged. “Fair point.”
Nova and I left Grizz and Artemis to their dagger tests and headed into the locker room. It was all I could do not to watch while Nova stripped out of her armor and body suit, but I managed to keep my inner perv locked away for the time being.
Fifteen minutes later, we both emerged clean as whistles and ready for some revelry. Nova had on a pair of skin tight black leggings and a form fitting but slightly oversized maroon shirt that went down to just barely cover her ass. A fashionable leather belt cinched the shirt at her waist, and she wore a pair of flat strappy sandals. Her hair was in a more relaxed version of her normal warrior braid and fell to one side. She looked kind of medieval sheik and definitely rocked it.
I’d gone for an old standby that I called the Johnny Utah. A broken in pair of Levi’s, or the alien knock off I’d had made, and a simple navy blue t-shirt that showed off my emerging biceps. My trusty Doc Marten boots finished off the ensemble.
“You look masculine and rugged, Marc,” Nova said and smiled. I wasn’t used to seeing her express her feelings this readily, and it was a nice change of pace.
“You look feminine and sexy, Nova,” I replied and caught her actually blush.
“Thank you,” she said. “Now take me to the Breach. I am starving and wish to drink.”
“As you wish,” I answered in my best Westley from Princess Bride.
Twenty minutes later, we slid into one of the booths that lined the walls of the old-school-meets-space-alien tavern that was Into the Breach and had a gian
t plate of steaming meat skewers and two huge flagons of dark ale in front of us.
I held my flagon up and motioned for Nova to do the same.
“To continued victory and good friends,” I toasted. “Now we clink glasses and drink.”
“I like this Earth custom,” Nova said as she clanked her flagon against mine, and we drank.
The ale was dark and bitter and cold and tasted like pure bliss. Nova took down half her flagon in three huge swallows and then tore into one of the mouth-watering skewers.
The meat was succulent and juicy and had the taste and consistency just like slow roasted pork. It was perfectly seasoned and had a touch of spice to it. We spent the next few minutes in silence as we slaked our warrior sized appetite and thirst. Before I knew it, the plate held nothing but skewer juices, and our flagons were empty. I was just about to order two more when a large, red brick hand set two more flagons down on the table.
“Courtesy of one of your biggest fans, oh Dragon Lord,” Brek’Taup said as he smiled down at Nova and I.
Brek was one of the bouncers at the Breach, and he looked like a chimney come to life.
“Hey, Brek,” I said as I shook his massive stone like hand. “I’m sorry, what did you call me?”
He chuckled and little puffs of smoke from the fire that burned inside of him escaped his lips. “Just a little nick name some folks have been calling you since today’s match. Dragon Lord. Because of you riding the big dragon.”
“Oh,” I replied. “I kinda like it. What do you think, Nova?”
“As if your ego weren’t big enough, Havak,” she smiled as she took a huge pull off her fresh beer. “And yes, I like it very much. Marc Havak, Lord of the Dragons.”
“Yup,” I said and laughed. “I definitely like it. Thanks for the beers, Brek.”
“Oh, my pleasure Champion Havak.” He smiled from ear to ear and the red-orange glow from inside him glowed a little brighter.
A loud crash and yell from the other side of the tavern grabbed his attention.
“Sorry, Champion Havak,” Brek said with a little head nod. “Duty calls. Hey! You two take it outside!”
And with the sound of two rocks rubbing together, Brek strode across the crowded, smoke filled place to go break up one of the fights that broke out on any given night. The Breach was a killing free zone, kind of a sacred and neutral ground, but it didn’t mean bar scuffles didn’t happen what with all the booze and trained murder machine patrons.
I turned back to Nova to catch her staring at me intently.
“What?” I asked. “Do I have meat skewer in my teeth or something?”
“You are a very handsome male human, Marc Havak,” she answered and grinned. “It must be the combo of weak Earth beer and Blue Betty because normally I would never say that out loud.”
“Weak?” I scoffed. “I’m half in the bag after one big beer.”
“Oh, yes,” Nova said before she took another big swig. “This is what? Eight or nine percent alcohol? Please. We give stronger stuff to our young squires. Paladinian ale is at least twenty-five percent alcohol. And that is considered light. Plus, dense molecules. I process spirits three times faster than you.”
“Maybe,” I challenged with a bit of wounded Earth pride and bravado, “but can you do a sixty-second keg stand and not barf? I think not.”
“I have never tried a… keg stand, but that sounds like a challenge,” Nova said and then burped loudly.
“Very lady like,” I teased.
“I am a knight, not a mere Lady,” she scoffed. “Lord Dragon.”
“That’s Dragon Lord to you, missy,” I said as I finished off my beer, which by the way my head was buzzing would be my last of the evening. “Now if you’ll excuse me for a moment, I need to use the restroom.”
“Very classy, Havak,” Nova teased. “Don’t you stick me with the check.”
“I’ll stick you with something,” I muttered to myself quite amused as I slid out of the booth and started to make my way through the crowd.
As usual on the night after a match the tavern was full of champions, hangers on, and groupies. Ours wasn’t the only match of the day, and the other winners celebrated while there were those who drowned the sorrows of lost friends or comrades. In fact, I caught some of one of the other matches on one of the large display screens that resided near the game room. And what I saw there made me nearly go to the bathroom right in the middle of the bar.
On the screen in agonizing slow motion was a large reptilian creature with jet black scales, seven feet tall, with massive muscles, and a long trench coat who literally ripped the head off a humanoid champion with webbed hands and feet and bathed in the purple blood that poured out of the headless corpse. The reptilian creature was a super asshole named Tyyraxx. We’d had words in the Breach on my first day as a champion. Oh, and he’d betrayed and murdered Grizz.
“Oh, if I was able to get my hands on that overgrown alligator--”
“You’d do what, Lizard Prince?” A deep, gravelly voice said from behind me and about a foot above my head.
I turned and found myself face to face with… yup, you guessed it, Tyyraxx.
“I would tell him he still had a little blood on his coat and that I knew a great dry cleaner off Mollarc Street.” I said with way more confidence than I felt at the moment as I pretended to brush blood off the big cold-blooded bastard's coat.
Tyyraxx laughed, and it sounded like broken glass rubbed on asphalt.
“You are a funny little creature champion Havak,” Tyyraxx growled.
“Yeah, I’ve been called worse, today.” It wasn’t much of a comeback but it was all I had left in the snark tank at the moment. “Maybe you’ll get to find out how funny if we meet in a match, and I can turn you into a belt and a pair of loafers.”
I’d hoped to provoke some kind of reaction but the belly laugh the walking luggage broke into was not it.
“Now that is truly hysterical,” he said and began to move past me. “If you ever reach the big leagues, then maybe we’ll get to see if your little body can cash the checks your mouth loves to write, Havak.”
I wanted to say something that would level his oversized ego, but nothing came to mind so I just watched him laugh his way over to his table of fellow overgrown cowboy boots.
“Oh, I’ll get there, and you better believe the bank will be open you son of a bitch,” I said quietly to myself.
Just then Nova walked up behind me. “Good lord, Marc,” she said as she handed me my jacket. “How big are human bladders?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry. I got sidetracked.” I answered and pulled on the lightweight bomber style jacket. “Wait, are we leaving? What about the check?”
“The waiter-bot said someone paid it.” She shrugged and led me toward the exit. “I like this whole Dragon Lord thing. Free dinner. And yes, we are leaving. It’s getting stuffed with groupies in here, and I feel like going for a walk.”
She wasn’t wrong, so I followed, waved goodbye to Brek’Taup, and walked out into the crisp night air.
According to Artemis, the planet, of which I still didn’t know the original name of, had started its winter equinox phase so the nights had gotten chillier, and tonight was not an exception. While not nearly as cold as the night I left Earth, there was a nip on the breeze, and I could see our breath as clouds of steam.
Nova and I walked in silence for a little while with no real destination in mind as we just let the ebb and flow of pedestrian traffic take us through the city, and neither of us paid much attention to our surroundings but just enjoyed the cold night.
We passed underneath a bright glowing advertisement for some type of soft drink and the light lit up Nova’s face and made her eyes sparkle like fireworks. I’d always known she was sexy as all get out, but in that moment I realized how damn pretty she was as well.
“Nova Qwark,” I said as I took her hand, “you look very pretty tonight, and I just thought someone should tell you that.”
“Marc Havak, you need to stop being so charming,” she said. “It is one of your more obnoxious qualities.”
“I am quite amazing to be around.”
“That is one way to put it.” Nova smiled as she squeezed my hand lightly. “Honestly, Marc, no man has ever treated me the way you do. On my home world, I was treated as a fellow warrior and knight, equal in every way to my male counterparts. You are the first person to treat me as an equal but also as a woman. It is… new for me.”
“I am a giver. I give,” I joked with her. “Nova, I’m sorry that has been your experience. I choose to treat you as an equal, well, because you are. Hell, you’re a way better fighter than I am. I can’t help but treat you like a woman because you’re one of the most amazing ones I’ve ever met.”
“Shut up your stupid face, Havak,” she said again and punched me in the arm just before I bent down, kissed her, and pushed her up against the nearest building wall I could find. I hoped public displays of affection weren’t frowned upon as I reached behind her, put my hand on her back and pulled her even closer.
Our bodies pressed together as my other hand steadied us against the wall, I could feel her nipples harden through the thin fabric of our shirts as she pushed back into me. A throaty gasp escaped her lips as our kiss broke for a moment before she grabbed my hair and pulled me back, her teeth tugged on my lower lip playfully. My hands moved of their own will from my hold on the wall and her back to drift down and cup her firm ass. I wanted to full on Roadhouse her right here in the street but figured that would probably get us arrested.
“Why don’t we head home?” she suggested. Her voice low and full of desire.
“My thoughts exactly,” I said just before I gave her my own playful lip bite. “Well, not exactly, but yes, let's head home.”
I broke our embrace and looked around. “Um, where the hell is home?” I muttered as I glanced around at the area and realized that I had no freaking clue where we were.
“I’m not from here, Havak,” she replied as she looked around. “I am as knowledgeable about this city as a toddler is about proper plasma cannon loading. Which is not knowledgeable at all.”