by T. C. Clover
platform, but her body resisted its push.
Fassim danced around the spray of the water cannon on the black section of the combat area, waiting for Litz to be vulnerable. After the water had halted, the rapper engaged her co-star with aggression. The ninja began to crab walk backward in a rush until she noticed a green dot from a laser sight that appeared on her assailant’s neck. Her retreat then slowed, and the plumber pretended to be injured, lying on her right side and dragging herself across the rubber tiles.
The paparazzi photographer hunched down and pretended to threaten Litz like a gangster, but a water cannon shot her in the chest, and she exploded off of the platform into the mud ten feet below.
Litz turned to see where the other combatants were, and discovered that Stoney was almost on top of her. She reacted by raising her feet and using them on his stomach to catapult him to the far corner of the black combat area. Stoney landed hard on the rubber surface, and the back of his pink Mohawk became saturated in mud.
This allowed the clever ninja to get on her feet to gain an advantage before he could recover, but then she saw another green dot on her outfit. The nimble woman dropped to her knees on the muddy platform and felt herself slide forward – almost off the edge. Litz then knelt down with her knees clutched to her chest as a water cannon blasted her again in the left abdomen. The concentrated torrent hit like a hurricane-force wave and the young woman sensed that she was going over the edge. However, Litz was able to lean into the spray and maintain her balance.
The ninja got back to her feet despite the chilly water that saturated her sore muscles. Litz then closed her eyes in a grimace of exhausted disdain. She noticed that Jazzy had already climbed out of the four-and-a-half foot flows of mud below the platform, and Fassim was ascending one of the yellow padded ladders.
“Enjoy your mud bath!” Stoney shouted as he lunged toward Litz in an attempt to knock her off the edge.
The police officer was shocked when the ninja blocked his maneuver with her forearms. She then danced backward with graceful arrogance across the muddy platform, taking three large bounds away from him. During the third step she slipped in the mud, and her right knee buckled, smacking against the black synthetic surface.
Stoney signaled for help from the other women; however, Jazzy seemed to want revenge and was in pursuit. He smirked at the ravenous vampire and gestured for her to come forward, but a water cannon shot him in the center of his back, and he dropped to his belly on the slimy platform.
Fassim climbed to the top of a ladder and planted her feet on the non-slip surface of the combat area. The crowd began to count down from ten, and the prudent Muslim looked upward to see where the mud pipes would be spewing their payloads. When she lowered her gaze, Fassim caught a glimpse of Litz in the ninja uniform and felt herself being shoved hard in the chest. The humble woman couldn’t help but smile in acceptance of her short roundtrip back into the mud pits.
Jazzy saw that Stoney was vulnerable and crept up behind him with a devious gaze of premeditated humiliation. But her focus was broken when she heard the mud pipes rattling throughout the arena. She braced herself for a torrent of sticky liquid to douse her costume in another coating of light brown. The alert woman heard footsteps approaching from behind and glimpsed an image of Litz coming at her through the mud.
When the mud flows stopped, Jazzy watched Litz drop into one of the square openings in the floor. The comedian then pulled her right fist to her stomach in celebration. However, this gesture was for naught as she witnessed the ninja avoid a fall by keeping both arms outstretched. Jazzy’s eyes opened wide in awe when she saw Litz use her upper body to rise out of the hole in the floor until her knees reached the platform.
The comedian turned just in time to see Stoney trying to push her off the edge. She dropped to her knees and put her arms out straight, which forced the punk rocker to alter his course and slide in the mud. Stoney faltered for a moment and tried to regain his balance, but fell nonetheless.
Litz engaged Jazzy from the woman’s right side with a fierce look in her eyes. Her ninja outfit was now mostly brown and soaked all over. Jazzy smiled when she noticed a green dot shining on the abdomen of the ninja costume. But to her dismay, Litz grappled Jazzy around the chest and pulled the comedian up to a standing position. The water cannon fired and hit Jazzy in the gut while the merciless ninja used her as a human shield.
When the water cannon lost pressure, Stoney emerged through the waning stream and tried to shove both women off of the platform. Litz sidestepped in a motion that looked instinctive and watched the punk rocker toss the vampire into the mud. She then pivoted and used Stoney’s momentum to guide him off the edge as well.
The arena exploded with a satisfied cheer and Litz held her arms high in a display of victory.
Jazzy stood in over four feet of mud below the champion sporting slicked back hair that was gritty with debris. The skeptical woman scowled and folded her arms in disbelief after witnessing the efficient display of acrobatics. She then exhaled and glared at the crowd, feeling mud seeping into places where it didn’t belong.
Stoney emerged from the small lake of mud and wiped his eyes with an expression of defeat. When his gaze met with Jazzy’s brazen stare, the stars exhibited solidarity in their experiences. The mud tournament no longer felt like a fun night out; it seemed to have deeper implications.
A tall figure gazed down at Litz amid the screams and cheers in the arena. He had wanted to get a table closer to the action, but due to short notice had wound up in the second row from the back. The athletic man admired her body in the muddy ninja outfit, and his biceps shook with desire when he thought about being close to her. In his mind, the crowd was there to cheer him on and advance their closeness in the bonds of fate. He saw the beating of the war drums as a serenade of their hearts joining in rhythm. The passionate stranger was overwhelmed with desire and began to hate the crowd for coming between them. His arms rose toward the ceiling, and he shook his fists in contempt at everyone. After this wicked display of longing, he blew a kiss to the victor on the stage and made his way toward the exit.
XV. Punchy the Predator
“Look, I know that I screwed up in Houston, but I can handle a plumbing call, guys,” Litz pleaded with her security team as they traversed a staircase made from concrete slabs toward a yellow townhouse in Brooklyn. “I appreciate the show of solidarity, but you don’t need to be with me all the time.” She snorted after a length of clear snot emerged from her nose and cursed herself for not canceling work for the day.
The adventurous plumber felt exhaustion and pain in her joints from a cold that came on after her appearance at Mud Rituals. She detected a slight fever and hoped that the rainclouds would give way to warmer afternoon weather. Litz looked around at the neighborhood to assess any threats from dogs or desperate characters. Her eyes locked on the concrete slabs ahead and she surveyed the moist areas left behind from a recent rainstorm. The weary vixen dragged herself up the last few steps and onto the concrete porch, feeling grateful to be on drier ground.
She inspected the pristine entryway and admired the cleanliness of the home. These signs gave her a feeling of confidence that the inside might be just as tidy as the exterior, which would be a welcome benefit to her during the repair work. Litz rang the doorbell and raised her eyebrows at the two men standing beside her.
A muscular thirty-year-old man with extensive tattoos on his arms opened the dark cherry wood door. He was tall and lean with large biceps and magnetic blue eyes. The smitten woman was enamored by his brown leather vest that was draped over a white T-shirt and faded blue jeans.
“Hi, I’m Aron Woolsy,” the homeowner said as he reached out with his right hand toward Litz. “Are you here to fix my water heater?”
Litz smiled at her customer with curiosity, watching him flex his toes in a pair of new white socks. She looked at a silver crucifix
necklace that the man wore and smelled his fantastic cologne, but couldn’t make out the brand.
“Yeah, I’m here to take care of your repairs,” she replied with a wry smile and reached out to shake his hand. “And these are my escorts. I call them bulky Kevin and William.” The young woman gestured to the men in dark suits to her right as if they were benign tumors.
“Well, that’s real cool; why don’t you come on in?” The man invited the trio with an expression of formal hospitality, taking a few steps backward. “The lights went out in the basement, but I have a flashlight at the bottom of the stairs.”
“What happened to the lights in the basement?” Kevin pried with an expression of mistrust as he stepped across the threshold toward the stranger. “Why don’t you have proper lighting for the job?” He added with a callous stare.
“Look, I hardly use the basement,” Aron explained with his hands on his hips. “I didn’t know that my water heater was going to fail, or I would have gotten the lights fixed. Do I need to call someone else?” He asked with skepticism and walked backward to a dining room that featured mellow décor.
“No, it’s nothing to worry about,” Litz interrupted before Kevin could speak. “I’m sure my