Elite

by Joseph C. Anthony

  “Then I accept.”

  Daniel exhaled as Robby wrapped his hands in athletic tape in the ready room, waiting anxiously to be called out into the arena.

  He had never felt so nervous. He had never been in a fight in his entire life, and now he was going to have to fight in front of dozens of his peers in order to prove his worth. He had to win.

  It didn’t help that even his friends and biggest supporters had shown uncertainty in the days leading up to the fight.

  “It’s not as easy as it sounds,” Charlie had told him one night in the lounge. “I mean this guy was an Army Ranger. He was literally trained to kill people.”

  “You’re not going to die,” Shifty assured Daniel. “Just don’t let him make you look completely stupid.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be able to handle yourself out there,” Norma said, adding her own opinion. “You should do well enough to stay in the top fifteen.”

  Per the agreement Daniel had signed, losing would not result in simply switching spots on the totem pole with Jitters. It would mean a complete reevaluation. He would be knocked down to whatever spot Richfield felt appropriate.

  Elise had done everything she could to try and prepare him. She stopped taking it easy on him during their sparring sessions in an attempt to give him a feel for what a real fight would be like. But he was only a week into his training, and even with the accelerated course he was unable to keep up with her. He managed to land some descent blows here and there, but nothing substantial enough to give him an edge.

  Jitters had issued the challenge Monday morning, and the challenge fights always took place on a Saturday, giving Daniel five days to prepare. Five days was not nearly enough time to teach a radio salesman how to win a fight against a Ranger. He was screwed and everyone knew it.

  There was one person however, who did believe in him.

  “You only need to land one good punch,” Blank said over his right shoulder.

  The ready room was a dark and dreary place. It was lit by a single fluorescent light that hung above a medical exam table in the middle of the room. The rest of the room was filled with shadows, making it feel smaller than it actually was. It was impossible to tell exactly what color the walls were, but they appeared a shade of grey. In the back corner of the room stood a bank of three gym lockers. Blank lurked in the shadows, leaning up against the lockers.

  “You use that crazy strength of yours, and you can knock him out with one blow kid,” Blank stated, slowly stepping out of the shadows and into the light.

  Daniel nodded slowly in understanding. The logic in Blank’s statement was sound, but putting it to practice would be infinitely more difficult.

  Robby finished taping up Daniel’s hands and wrists, and Daniel dropped his head, staring down at the floor.

  He wore a pair of black and red shorts that Blank had given him when he had showed up to the challenge arena that morning. They looked a lot like the board shorts a surfer would wear, only with a bigger waistband. They were designed especially for mixed martial arts fighting.

  As he looked down, he glanced over his body, admiring his physique. He had come quite a long way in the last ten weeks. He now fit in with the other agents when walking around the gym and locker room. He no longer felt out of place or embarrassed. He was impressive.

  If only Jordan could see him now.

  Daniel had thought less and less of Jordan as his time at Elite rolled on, but his thoughts of her had increased in the week since the rankings were released. He wished he could show her what he had become. He knew she would be highly impressed by his accomplishments, and he liked to think it would be enough to re-ignite her romantic interest in him.

  But Jordan was a matter for the past, and possibly the future. He had to think about right now. There would be plenty of time to worry about his reunion with Jordan once his training was finished. His job now was to make sure he continued his journey to being the best. He had come so far, to fall short now would be devastating.

  From outside the doors Daniel could hear the sound of the crowd erupting.

  There were two challenges that had been issued that week. The first contest was for the number sixteen ranking between Donny “Slackjaw” Wilson, who currently held the spot, and the eighteenth ranked Harm Romsen. Their fight had kicked off the Saturday afternoon bill, with Daniel and Jitters’ fight slated as the main event.

  Daniel looked up as the door cracked open and the sound of the rambunctious crowd outside loudened. A bright light poured in through the open doorway, and a short, stocky bald man in a tight black t-shirt poked his head in.

  “Five minutes!” he yelled.

  Daniel hopped off the table and started to roll his neck.

  “You good and loose?” Robby asked him, giving Daniel’s arms one last good rubdown.

  Daniel nodded, a stern look of concerned focus on his face. It was go-time.

  Robby grabbed two fingerless gloves with padding on the palms and knuckles off the table, next to where Daniel had been sitting. He undid the Velcro straps on the left glove and held it open, prompting Daniel to stick his hand in.

  Daniel did so as Robby pushed the glove all the way up onto his hand and secured the Velcro straps.

  “Just keep your head about you,” Robby said, repeating the process with the right glove. “I’ve seen you work out man. You’re stronger than him and you’ve got better stamina. Use that to your advantage and you just might come out of this thing alive.”

  Daniel didn’t know whether or not Robby meant it as a joke, but he smiled anyway. It seemed that deep down everyone in the facility wanted Daniel to beat Jitters, but none of them believed it could actually happen. The odds seemed stacked in Jitters favor.

  “He’s quick, strong, and mean,” Blank added as he made his way around the front of the table. “But you’ve got heart.”

  Blank pushed his middle finger into Daniel’s chest. “I believe in you Danny Boy.”

  Suddenly Daniel felt a surge of adrenaline flow through him. He turned to the door, ready to rampage through it and into the ring. He wanted to shut Jitters up once and for all.

  Outside in the arena he could hear Richfield beginning Jitters’ introduction as suddenly the lights went dark. The ring was the only area of the arena with any light shining on it. Richfield stood in the center, a wireless microphone in his hand.

  “And now ladies and gentlemen, your challenger!

  “This firecracker needs no introduction, but we’ll give him one anyway. Standing five-foot-eight, and weighing in at one-hundred-and-eighty pounds of pure spastic energy, the Latino Bambinoooo – Manny, Jitters, Castellooooo!”

  A polite round of applause came from the crowd as Manny made his walk to the ring to the sound of Latin dance music being played over the PA system.

  Daniel couldn’t help but let out an audible laugh as he watched Jitters walked in the spotlight from the tunnel to the ring. Daniel had never heard Richfield act so silly before. It eased the tension of the fight just a little bit, making it seem more fun-natured and less life-or-death.

  “He really enjoys fight Saturdays,” Blank explained into Daniel’s right ear.

  “I can see that,” Daniel replied.

  “And now,” Richfield announced, beginning Daniel’s introduction. Suddenly all the nerves Daniel had been feeling earlier came rushing back. “Your number seven ranked Elite agent. The new guy who has quickly become legend. Only the second agent ever to complete the obstacle course in his first attempt, and then turned around and completed it a second time in the very same week. True, he may have a slight advantage given the fact that we implanted him with super-powers – What’s the matter? Jealous?

  “Standing six-foot-one – weighing in at two-hundred-and-fifteen pounds – In his Challenge Arena debut – Daniel, Hart!”

  The crowd began to cheer as Daniel walked through the short tunnel and out onto the floor of the Challenge Arena. A bright spotlight shown down on him, blinding him for an
instant before his eyes could adjust. Hard-charging rock music began pouring out of the loudspeakers. Daniel had chosen the song “Get Out of My Way” by the band KillZone as his walk-out music.

  He looked up at the ring, hoping to gauge Jitters’ reaction to Daniel’s blatantly favorable introduction, but Jitters was turned the other way, talking to the men in his corner.

  Daniel bounced up and down on his way out to the ring, as if trotting in place. It was what he had always seen boxers on TV do on their march to the ring, so he went right along with it.

  Robby set the pace of the march, walking with a bit of a strut, one step ahead of Daniel.

  Blank walked behind him. He wore blue-grey slacks with black dress shoes and a white dress shirt with a black tie underneath his blue-grey vest. His matching blazer was slung over his right shoulder, hanging by his index and middle fingers. Atop his head rested his signature grey fedora.

  If Daniel could have witnessed the intro from a different perspective he probably would have broken down laughing at the utter cliché-ness of it, but he knew it was all part of the fun. He wished he were able to find Charlie in the crowd, but it was too dark in the rest of the arena. That guy had to be eating this shit up.

  Though it seemed longer, it was only about a ten-second walk from the exit of the tunnel to ringside. The entrance to the cage was on the near corner of the octagonal ring, which would serve as Daniel’s corner.

  Richfield was exiting the ring as Daniel approached the steps leading up to it.

  “Good luck, kid,” He said, never breaking stride as he made his way over to the long, narrow scorer’s table which sat below the ring, to the left of the entrance.

  Daniel climbed the three steps up to ring-level and stepped through the cage door. The feeling from inside the ring was surreal. Daniel could feel the energy and anticipation from the crowd, surrounding him on three sides. Way up on the wall to his left, the rankings board was lit up. Slackjaw’s name now still sat next to the number sixteen, but in the eighteenth spot where Harm’s name once was, was an empty void, with Harm’s name no longer appearing on the list.

  Daniel took one final look at the board, not knowing where on it his name would appear tomorrow.

  He turned as he heard the metal cage door close behind him, and saw Robby fastening it shut. He caught Blank’s eye as the mysterious man in the hat gave one final nod of encouragement. Daniel returned the nod and placed the mouth guard he had been carrying in his left hand into his mouth, over his upper teeth and gums.

  He turned and made his way to the center of the ring where Jitters and the referee were standing waiting for him. The crowd was abuzz with anticipation.

  The referee was a tall, pale, bald man with white, bushy eyebrows and steel blue eyes. He had the frame of a man who had once been in top shape, but had softened a bit with age. He stood a couple inches taller than Daniel, and owned a very broad chest. He made Jitters look very small in comparison.

  Jitters wore shorts of similar design to Daniel’s, only they were bright orange with pictures of blue dragons. The orange appeared even brighter against Jitters’ tan skin.

  The referee wore a plain, pale-blue button up shirt with long sleeves and black slacks and black tennis shoes. He looked back and forth between Jitters and Daniel as he explained the rules of the fight.

  “Gentlemen,” he began, “this fight will consist of a maximum of three, five-minute rounds. Should the match end in a draw after those three rounds, a fourth round will occur to determine a winner. The match can end in one of three ways – either by technical knockout, declared by me, by tap-out, or if neither of those occur within the three five-minute rounds, by a scorers’ decision.”

  The referee then gestured over to the scorers’ table, where Richfield sat between two men he had never seen before.

  The referee continued, “There will be a one minute rest period between each round.

  “There are really only three rules you must adhere by – no clawing of any kind, no nut-shots, and you must stop when I tell you to. Is that understood?”

  Daniel nodded in understanding, trying not to crack a smile at the man’s use of the term “nut-shot.”

  “Very well, shake hands.”

  The referee moved aside as Jitters and Daniel met in the center of the ring to give more of a fist-bump than a hand shake. They both then turned and moved toward their respective corners.

  Daniel saw the shoulders and heads of Robby and Mister Blank standing in his corner. Robby was smacking his hands together in encouragement.

  He turned back around toward the center of the ring, and as he did the ref waved his arm back and forth over his head, signaling the sound of the bell. The fight was on.

  Chapter 16

  Daniel’s heart skipped a beat after hearing the sound of the first bell and seeing Jitters prance his way toward him in a combat stance. This had suddenly all become way too real.

  Daniel instinctively jumped up into a combat stance of his own, trying to remember everything Elise had taught him over the last two weeks.

  Jitters took a couple of quick hops toward him, and Daniel reacted by jumping a few steps back, anticipating an attack, but Jitters was just feeling him out. Jitters came at him a couple more times in the same way, flexing his arms a bit each time as if considering throwing a punch, but each time backing off after gauging Daniel’s response.

  All around him Daniel could hear the crowd buzzing, waiting for something to happen. This felt nothing like his sparring sessions with Elise.

  “Just one hit, Danny!” He somehow managed to hear Mister Blank yell over the rest of the crowd.

  Daniel took a deep breath and began to concentrate, taking control of his entire brain and preparing to pump himself up to give him the added strength needed to deal Jitters a knock-out blow.

  But Jitters was too fast. Before Daniel could send any extra oxygenated blood and adrenaline to his muscles, Jitters was coming at him with fists of fury.

  Daniel made sure to use the outside of his fists to cover his face, while keeping his arms down to protect his body.

  Jitters threw three quick jabs at Daniel’s head, Daniel’s gloves absorbing the first two blows with the third making slight contact to the side of his head. The small but powerful man then took a shot at Daniel’s body, but Daniel was successful in blocking it with Jitters’ fist only making contact with the outside of Daniel’s elbow.

  After the swift attack Jitters jumped back a few feet, and Daniel took the opportunity to lower his hands and take a deep breath, glad to have survived the first onslaught.

  Maybe this won’t be so bad, he thought to himself.

  But before he could even finish the thought Jitters was right back at him. Daniel lifted his hands, ready to protect his head and body once again from punches, but they wouldn’t come. Instead Daniel saw Jitters left foot flying toward the right side of his head.

  Daniel turned his body and threw his right arm out to the side to defend the kick. He knew such a move would knock Jitters off-balance, allowing Daniel enough time to recover and block a possible follow-up jab should he leave himself open to such a move in his defense of the kick.

  Instead, Jitters stood in place and watched Daniel recoil from the blocked kick, seemingly measuring him up. Daniel used the opening to go on the offensive.

  Without using his abilities, Daniel put all of his natural might into throwing a left haymaker, which Jitters easily ducked before jumping back out of the way.

  The crowd let out an audible gasp as Daniel threw his punch, every agent knowing the significance of Daniel landing such a blow with the full potential of his strength behind it.

  Jitters grinned after dodging the blow, not realizing that the punch did not carry the strength behind it to knock him out.

  Both men took half a moment to regain their composure, and Daniel took the opportunity to tap into his brain chemistry and increase the levels of blood, testosterone and adrenaline flowing through his bic
eps, triceps, and deltoids, feeling them swell up to maximum capacity. Jitters took a step toward him, and Daniel jabbed, contracting his right bicep beyond its natural state, greatly increasing the power behind his blows.

  Jitters quickly cover his face with his arms, but the power of each blow was pushed him backwards toward the edge of the cage. The crowd began to excite as they recognized the damage Daniel’s punches were causing his opponent.

  Daniel threw three slow, powerful jabs with his right arm, each one promising a welt on Jitters’ forearms. Jitters knew he couldn’t take many more blows of that caliber.

  He quickly turned the tables, easily dodging Daniel’s fourth attempt at a jab and countering with a quick, left-handed upper-cut into the right side of Daniel’s torso, which had been left unprotected by his jab attempt.

  Daniel let out an audible grunt as he felt Jitters’ left fist plow into the side of his rib-cage. Jitters didn’t stop there, knowing he had to keep his opponent on the defensive and not allow him to throw any more power-jabs which would undoubtedly take their toll in the later stages of the fight.

  Jitters began using Daniel like a punching bag, throwing jabs, hooks, and uppercuts as Daniel did his best to protect himself against each one. He did fairly well, with only a couple punches making contact with the side of his back as he twisted his body to protect his vital organs from the blows, but Jitters finally forced him into a mistake when Daniel crouched down and put his right arm up to protect the side of his head from a left hook.

  Daniel then raised his left arm, anticipating the next shot to come from Jitters’ right fist, but instead Jitters came right back with a half-cocked left fist, hitting Daniel square in the bridge of his undefended nose.

  Daniel felt the cartilage give way under Jitters’ fist, sending a searing pain through his sinus cavity and causing his eyes to water.

  But Jitters wasn’t done yet.

  Before Daniel could react or even think, Jitters had both hands on his back and was bringing up his right knee and smashing it directly into Daniel’s gut. Daniel bent forward at the waist, feeling a burning sensation build up in his abdomen, then feeling the side of Jitters fist crash into the back of his skull, forcing him down to one knee.