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Chapter 3: A Girl and Her Suit
Troy was lying in bed, wide awake. It was 11:24 S.S.B time, according to the soft glow of the clock on the wall, and Troy couldn't seem to find sleep. Link was to his left, snoring loudly in his bed. After dinner, Link went off to train some, while Fox and Falco went back to their room to do… whatever animal people do for fun, Troy had guessed. Troy took a small nap and woke up to do some meditation, and some Tai Chi deep breathing exercises. Link had walked in on him unnoticed, and Troy had his eyes closed in concentration; Troy was rather embarrassed, the exercises can be sort of strange looking to an observer.
Entertainment was pretty scarce around the facility. According to Link, there was a recreational room on the lower floor, right beneath the dining hall. He had also mentioned that it's a bad idea to go in there, as it smells really badly, and it's dominated by the large gorilla called "Donkey Kong", along with his little posse. Link told him there's some weird magic box, with people moving around inside of it in the 'rec-room'. Troy had chuckled, and guessed that Link had been talking about a television, but the blonde warrior most likely didn't have those where he was from.
Staring at the ceiling, Troy thought of all that had happened recently. I was abducted from my home planet, after learning what really happened to my parents, and why they were killed. I actually managed to make some friends, and compared to everyone else, I'm actually relatively normal.
Troy then thought about the blonde girl he'd tried to talk to earlier. She seemed so closed off, so emotionally unavailable. Troy envisioned her face when he first approached her; sadness and hurt were in her eyes. Troy was sure she had thought that no one was watching, and she had quickly tried to mask the look with a glare at him. What could she be hiding behind that stormy exterior and why was she so closed off to everyone? Troy had to find out somehow, the girl was mysterious and alluring to him.
Troy turned over and looked at the door to his and Link's room.
Let's see how good those cameras really are.
Troy got up from his bed, wearing only some boxer briefs. Troy pulled on the only clothes that he owned at the moment, a dark T-shirt, and some khaki pants, and pulled on his shoes.
The door to the small room opened with a touch of a round looking button. Outside in the hall, the lights on the ceiling were dimmed almost completely, shedding only a little light to the floor below. Troy began walking down the hallway in the direction opposite the dining hall, towards the training rooms. 210, 209, 208… The numbered rooms counted down as he walked. He heard some weird noises coming from 205, but he decided to keep walking, as he really wasn't supposed to be in the hallway this late.
Well, a day in solitary doesn't sound so bad, I could get some good meditation going with that much time, Troy thought. He rounded the corner, and the long stretching hallway that signified the training rooms spanned in front of him. Troy stopped and stood on the metal floor below him. He rubbed his shoes on the smooth panels, feeling the metal-work. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, enjoying the serene quietness that surrounded him.
Maybe I'll go and try out the training rooms, and see how advanced the technology is, Troy thought to himself. He kept walking down the hall, passing by windows as he walked. Troy wasn't sure which room he should use, and hadn't known for sure if all the rooms were the same anyways. Troy was too busy looking in all of the windows on his way down the hallway, and he didn't notice a faint glow emanating from one of the windows ahead of him. As he approached the window marking the room with a light on in it, he slowed his pace. Who else could be up right now, and who would be crazy enough to train this late?
Troy peered inside the window, keeping as much of his frame from visibility as he could. Inside were 5 manikins, each in different chaotic positions of attack and deformation. It looked as though a few of the manikins were fighting something, and one was being sent flying through the air. The manikin hit the wall with the force of a truck, and Troy flinched instinctively, bracing for the noise. The manikin just burst into hundreds of digitalized bits and pieces, as it noiselessly hit the wall.
Amazing… Troy thought. What could have hit the poor thing so hard? The manikin reappeared in the center of the room, and started moving around like its other manikin buddies. In the center of it all, there was a humanoid figure kicking, punching, and mauling all the manikins. It looked like a robot, but Troy was certain the movement of the figure was far too fluid and dynamic to be a robot. It almost looked like a metal… suit.
Fox had mentioned that the girl that sat at her own table used a suit in the arena, Troy thought. He watched as the girl with a metal suit moved blindingly fast. Troy also noticed that whoever had taught her had known some Muay Thai; she delivered high kicks very similar to the ones he had practiced. Although, there was a personal spin on it, a flick of the toe for extra force; she was making the most out of her movements, making each one efficient and forceful.
She's incredible, Troy thought, in complete amazement. Troy continued watching the unsuspecting fighter with awe, until he heard a noise coming from all the way down the hall. It was the noise of shattered glass, sharp and distinctive. Shortly afterward, loud grumbling and a muffled curse were heard.
Someone dropped something, it seems, Troy thought. Ah shit. I'm not supposed to be here. He was about to make a run for it back to his room, then stopped. He couldn't just leave the girl there to get in trouble; she didn't know someone was going to be coming down this hall very soon. Troy had to think fast, either he left her out to dry, or maybe both of them would be caught.
He quickly lunged over to the window and gave it a hefty bang with his fist. The armored woman rounded to face the window, looking for the source of the noise. Troy pointed towards the hallway he'd heard someone, and mouthed "Someone's coming!" ecstatically. The shiny metal figure punched an incoming training dummy, and then ran over to the console, and pressed a large red button on the screen. The dummies disappeared with a flash. Troy heard footsteps from the hallway. There was no time for the girl in the room to come over to the door and run away, so Troy did something he was sure wouldn't work.
Troy slammed the button to open the door with his fist and practically fell inside. He turned around and pressed the opposite sided button, and the door shut behind him.
"No time to explain, lights off, now!" Troy shouted at the figure by the console. He scanned quickly for somewhere to hide. The room had been designed to be mostly empty space, so the only place to hide was behind the console, and it wasn't much room.
Troy made do with it, and ran over to the console, with the metal clad girl just staring at him. She doesn't seem to get the message that we're fucked if she doesn't hide.
"Someone's coming, get behind- mmmf!"
Troy's mouth was clamped shut by a painfully cold, and forceful, metal hand. The ground rushed unbelievably fast to his head, and he and the heavy suited fighter were on the floor, behind the console. There was some shuffling behind him, and the lights flickered off. Troy would have groaned loudly, but he was finding it a bit difficult to breath.
Oh my God… she's on top of me. They were scrunched up in a little ball on the floor, with one of the suits arms wrapped around Troy's mouth, and the other around his waist. All went quiet for a second, and then Troy heard a distinctive tap-tap-tap; someone was walking towards the room. Troy could hear his own breathing, and he felt the rise and fall of the suit's chest pressed into his back. The tapping grewlouder, and Troy was sure the person was right outside the room. Suddenly, the tapping stopped.
No! Please don't come in! Troy thought. The door opened.
Fuck.
There was some grumbling heard, a man's voice, older and with a raspy lisp.
"Stupid game masters… 'turn off the console' they said… stupid mug… stupid floor…"
The metal-suited girl had her leg draped over Troy's mid-section protectively, and she straightened her head up, still behind the console, but she had more range of motion now. She pressed a small yellow button in the corner of the console. The console turned dark and it made a loud beep noise.
Why'd she turn it off?! We're definitely fucked now!
The man stopped where he stood. He spoke, "What? I say, when did we get the voice activated consoles?" He paused for a second, "Console, turn on!"
The girl pressed her hand against the yellow power button in the corner again. The console whirred to life and made another loud beep noise.
"Well then, that's quite nifty! Console, off for the night then." The man said.
The console turned off once more when the button was pressed. The man shuffled out of the room, and the door closed behind him. Troy breathed a sigh of relief through the fingers clamped over his mouth.
That was genius! How did she even think of that?
The metal body behind Troy pushed him out from under her, and stood up from the ground. Troy stood up as well, and took a large breath of air. He turned around to look at the suited figure, and saw her with her hands on her hips, looking at him expectantly. She removed her helmet, and her long blonde hair spilled out of it. She had flushed cheeks and sweat dripping down her face from her forehead. Troy would have thought she looked extremely alluring, but her eyes looked at him as though they intended to cut him in half.
She spoke.
"What the hell do you think you're doing? You could have had us both thrown in solitary!"
"I… I was just… uhm…" Troy fumbled for words; he was never great at speaking when he was nervous.
"Why are you even here? Just leave me alone!" The girl yelled at him.
She turned around and stormed to the exit, slammed her hand onto the button, and then rushed out the door.
What just happened? Troy thought uneasily. He rubbed his head where it had hit the floor and started walking towards the door to the hallway.
Walking back to his room, he tried to make sense what the blonde girl had said to him. Why was she so upset? I saved her from that dude walking in on her... Then again, she'd saved us both from him actually finding us. Troy turned the corner of the hallway, and walked up to the door of the room, 216.
Troy wondered how she could be so pissed at him, just for trying to talk to her. I'll apologize for bothering her tomorrow. Troy thought glumly. I'll just tell her sorry for annoying her at all, thank her for her quick thinking, and leave her alone.
He pressed the button and walked inside. Link was completely sprawled out on his bed now, and his mouth hung open, snores came from the back of his throat.
However annoyed she was at him, Troy knew he'd made the right choice. If he ran back without her, she'd probably be in solitary by now for being out past curfew.
Troy didn't even bother pulling his clothes off, just his shoes. He fell into bed, the clock reading 11:35 S.S.B.
"Hey, Troy, wake up!" Link said to the still-sleeping Troy.
Troy bolted upright and looked around the room.
"What? What's happening?"
"Relax man; you just overslept a bit that's all."
Troy looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:00 o'clock S.S.B.
"You missed breakfast, so I brought you some of it." Link held out a plate of eggs and bacon that smelled amazing to Troy.
"Thanks," He said. "So uh, what's the plan for today?"
"Well," Link began, "It's Monday, so this week's matches start today. I can't believe I forgot to tell you how this entire thing works."
Troy sat up in his bed and looked up at the green clad warrior.
"In the arena there are 3 different types of matches. One vs. one, Exhibition, and Tournament matches. The main focus is the one vs. one matches though, it's the most competitive. There are a few matches each day, starting off at 11:00 o'clock in the morning."
Troy nodded, taking a quick mental note of the time Link had mentioned.
"Every Friday is Exhibition match day, where the fans vote for crazy different types of matches to take place, and it's really just for fun. During Exhibition matches, game-masters place some interesting tools on the field; you get to play around with some really cool stuff. Also, every other week, on Saturday, we have a tournament. These are very competitive, and fun to be a part of, at least in my opinion."
Troy snorted. He couldn't see how any of this would be fun. He was going to be experiencing a lot of 'simulated' pain and mutilation for the viewing pleasure of random people.
"Now, regarding one-v-one battles: it's very obvious that there are some more capable fighters in this place, so putting them against weaker opponents wouldn't technically be fair, or entertaining."
"To solve this they made a class system, fighters face off against people in their same class. Starting from E-class, and ending with A-class, A being the best, and E being… well, bad. Only a few people make it to A-class."
Troy thought for a moment. Which class am I going to fit in? Maybe it was Troy's self-esteem speaking, but he was certain he wouldn't be very high. I mean seriously, how am I supposed to fight dragons, crazy military dudes, weird creatures, and other random shit? Not to mention everyone and their buddy has a sword or a weapon. Troy remembered last night, seeing a kick from his blonde 'friend' that would have shattered his bones. Yeah, there's no way I can fight that.
"Hey Link, which class are you in?" Troy smirked, knowing the question would make Link uneasy.
"Erm… that's not important. I'd rather not speak of it." Link said nervously.
"Is it bad? I won't laugh, promise. I don't think I'll be in a better class than you anyways."
Link scowled, "No it's not D-class or anything, it's just… you'll see, okay?"
Troy made a Tch noise, signifying his defeat.
"Anyways, every new fighter must go through a standard class initiation trial. You start out at the middle, C class, and fight someone from there. If you win, you move up. If you lose, you move down. You do this three times, and at the end of the three matches, you have your theoretical class. Pretty simple huh?"
Troy nodded. "Just a quick question, how long does this class you get last?" He asked.
"Every tournament day, the game-masters decide whether you move up or down, or stay. It's all up to how they think you did during the week." Link replied.
"Also, will I be facing anyone else doing their placement matches?" Troy had remembered that Fox and Falco said there were some new arrivals, one of them being the blonde girl.
Link thought for a second. "Not usually. But if you both happen to be in the same class by the third match, and it's convenient, the game-masters will pair the two of you up."
Link took a seat on his bed as Troy finished off his food, and put his plate on the floor.
Link spoke again, "Another thing, this is an industry to the game-masters. They'll do whatever it takes to get better ratings and make more money. During your matches you need to be wary of how you come off, game-masters like to twist any interactions fighters have. If you and another fighter have a rivalry, it makes for great grudge matches for viewers to get hyped about."
Troy nodded, and said, "It's very similar to how the paparazzi treated movie stars back where I'm from. If something happened between two of them in Hollywood, it was sure to be seen somewhere by the public. Frankly, I hated all of it."
Link chuckled, "I'm not sure what you're talking about, but you're a part of it now it seems. I see what you mean though, it really sucks. My rival and enemy, Ganondorf, is a part of the fighters as well. We avoid each other during our time in the facility, but when we face each other, it's pretty bloody."
Troy wondered if he'd have any rivals in the arena. That blonde girl sure seems to want to kill me now I suppose. With any luck I'll be in the lower leagues, safely away from her scary-as-fuck-suit. She's sure to be in the higher classes, with how much skill she possesses.
Maybe that pink puff ball can be my nemesis…
Troy grinned at the thought. How could he hurt something so cuddly?
Link noticed Troy's thoughts wander, and he spoke up, "Well you'd best get ready. Your match is the first of the day. By the way, your girlfriend is in her placement matches as well, she got here in the middle of last week. Placement matches only take place on Mondays."
Troy gave Link a look, "She's not my-"
"Yes we know, the whole place knows after last night." Link started laughing manically as Troy's face grew into a pinkish color.
Troy thought for a minute that Link was talking about the training room, but he knew the swordsman must've meant the incident at dinner.
Troy stood up and remembered he only had a short amount of time to get ready for his match. He got up from his bed, and went into the bathroom. He was in desperate need of a shower, and he was pretty sure he'd never been happier to see one. Feeling the water run across him, his mind began to wander.
What if I actually do well in this arena?
Troy thought about some other the other combatants he'd seen at dinner. He was sure he could beat the big nosed Italian guys; they didn't really look all that intimidating. He knew he could probably beat all of the women at the women's table, they looked relatively harmless. Now that Troy thought of it, a lot of the fighters didn't really seem all that bad in a one-versus-one battle.
Then he remembered some of Gendun's teachings, "You must never underestimate your opponent. A man who is sure of himself is his own downfall, he becomes slow and his guard is momentarily lowered, for in his mind he cannot possibly lose. To defeat your opponent, your mind must be alert, and balanced."
Troy was determined not to underestimate his opponent. Looks were not something to judge someone by. He also remembered Gendun said the opposite is true as well. While you should never underestimate a foe, you shouldn't be intimidated by them either. "A warrior must be a rock, truly immune to any sort of external circumstances; one who is so easily swayed of the mind, is also weak in battle."
Troy knew Gendun was very wise. Everything has its weakness, and nothing is undefeatable. In order to win, Troy was going to have to be very mentally tough.
He got out of the shower and changed back into his clothes. Link was waiting for him at the door; he was also ready to go, with his sword and his shield on his back. He had some other weapons: bombs, a boomerang, some knives, and a bow, with its matching arrows. The friendly and bubbly blonde guy Troy met yesterday looked like a trained killer now.
Things aren't ever what they appear to be.
"Come on," Link said. "I'll show you to the shuttle that will take us to the arena."
