Review Responses:
Pt35 - That does seem pretty funny, but I was already writing the first fight in this chapter when the review came in, and knew what I was going to do for the second. Hopefully they're entertaining enough to make up for the somewhat convenient plot of this "episode"!
Earthpatriot117 - I have trouble remembering all the details of this story and the WoF canon too sometimes...
UnidentifiedWhistlingObject - The references to arc three characters are really just supposed to be Easter eggs, and I still don't know how I'll work in Swordtail's name somewhere.
Chapter 25: Friday Fight Night
Sundew Avenue
Near Midnight
Unlike Blue Avenue, Sundew Avenue was primarily lined with thin, two story houses. They resembled many of the other buildings found throughout Moss Town, with worn brick walls and shingled roofs, but lacked the flamboyant signs and flickering holograms found in the shopping districts. Occasionally, they would pass a pedestrian or two, walking down the cobbled street or stepping into one of the houses.
Another ship flew over, angling down to the right where the large circular ports were. It's faded green hull was riddled with dents and scorch marks, a chilling reminder of the violence in this part of the multiverse.
Lin shook her head, turning her attention back to the matter at talon. The Pancake House was nowhere to be seen, the street seemingly only home to residential buildings. As they made their way further from the central plaza, the buildings began to thin, the tightly squeezed multi story houses replaced by more sparsely placed single story ones.
And there, near the end of the avenue, sitting on the side of a small hill atop a thick foundation built of remarkably smooth stone, was their destination.
It was a relatively small building, with walls built of dark red brick and large glass windows that nearly stretched from the floor to the ceiling. Atop its flat roof stood a large glowing white electric sign reading The Pancake House. The windows were darkened, and as they approached, they saw that the place was empty.
"What even is a pancake?" Lin asked as they approached the building.
"Well, it's kind of a flat piece of bread, but very fluffy and cake like. And uh, you make it in a pan." Hidden explained. Lin cocked her head, trying to imagine such a bizarre delicacy.
Hidden walked up to the two glass front doors, a piece of paper attached to one of them. "Closed for Fight Night." he read aloud, turning back to Lin, "Guess that means we're at the right place."
Despite the vacated building, Lin could have sworn she heard the sounds of dragons from somewhere. She and Hidden walked around the building, and spotted a small metal door on the side of the foundation. It was propped open with a brick, a flickering electric lamp hanging just inside. Hidden nodded to Lin, and the two stepped beneath the building.
They were immediately greeted by the sound of excited chatter. Looking around at their surroundings, Lin realized that they were in a somewhat large underground chamber, its walls lined with the same smooth stone as the foundation, and lit by a dozen or so bright white spotlights hanging from metal rafters mounted to the ceiling.
They were standing on an upper walkway that ran around the chamber, circling a large octagonal cage of twisted metal wire that sat beneath them. Dragons sat excitedly on bleachers set about the walkway, eagerly awaiting the fights to come.
"Welcome to Friday Fight Night!" a muscular SandWing said, standing behind a counter that stood at the entrance to the club. "I can't say I've seen you two around here before, what brings you to my club?"
Lin looked the SandWing over. He had yellow scales with a slight brownish tint to them, and a few scars across his legs and underbelly. "I'm Lin, and this is Hidden." she explained, "Are you the owner of this place?"
"Yep, started it beneath my restaurant 'bout two years back, I always did enjoy a good fight." he explained eagerly. "So, you here to see the fights? Admissions for adults are 550 scales apiece."
"Actually, we're here to sign up." Hidden stated, leaning casually against the counter.
"Wait, we?" Lin asked.
"Yeah, I'm joining it too. It'll give us a better shot at the prize." Hidden explained. The SandWing gave him an irritated look, sighing.
"Well, we do have three spots open, so I guess I could register you both." he said, clearly regretting not instituting a rule against such a thing.
Lin looked down at the cage below, its sandy floor reminding her of the SunWing arena she'd heard so many terrible stories about. Attached to each side of the cage was a short fenced-in walkway, each leading to a solid stone box that seemed only accessible through a thick steel door.
"Hidden, are you absolutely sure about this?" she asked, "Something about this place seems...wrong."
"Oh, don't worry." the SandWing assured, "This isn't some lawless back-alley ring. Contestants only fight until one is either pinned or taps out. Any serious injuries are strictly against the rules."
"Huh." Hidden remarked, as the owner of the establishment tapped at a small screen mounted to the counter. "This town is a lot nicer than I initially expected." He walked over next to Lin, staring over the walkway's railing at the cage below. "I half expected us to have been mugged by now."
"Alright, that should just about finish it." the SandWing behind the counter exclaimed. "Head down those stairs over there to the armory, and once you're ready, step into the cell with your name above it."
"Armory?" Lin asked, Hidden already making his way down the steep metal steps.
"Oh, don't worry, none of the weapons are lethal!" the SandWing assured once again.
Lin shook her head, sighing, her question not really answered, and made her way down the steps after Hidden.
The armory was a cramped, narrow hallway that ran around the edge of the club. The outer wall was lined with a wide assortment of weapons, from padded spears to mechanical gauntlets, as well as a selection of body armor. Some mechs that looked eerily similar to the Reggie-tron, save for brown leather padding that covered their shiny metal exteriors, stood to the side, chest cavities open revealing the empty cockpits.
Lin spotted Hidden asking about the various weapons with a SeaWing who really didn't want to be bothered. Now you see what I have to put up with on a daily basis. she thought to herself, smirking.
She made her way around the armory, looking at the doors spaced along the inner wall until she found hers. A short, wide screen above the open doorway read her name in bold black letters, signifying that this was her cell to take.
She took one last look around the armory, and suddenly spotted a familiar looking SilkWing walking into one of the cells. She didn't get a chance to get a closer look, though, as she was distracted by Hidden.
"Not grabbing anything?" he asked, having strapped the two devices around his foretalons. A long padded pole was held to his side, and some leather armor had been strapped around his chest and legs.
"Dragons have enough natural weapons to hold their own, I think I'll be fine." she exclaimed.
"Eh, suit yourself." Hidden said, shrugging, as he stepped into his cell. A thick metal door slammed shut behind him, almost startling Lin.
She turned to look into her own cell, the dark, cramped room lit by a single dim light. She hesitantly stepped in, the door slamming shut behind her and trapping her in the enclosed space.
Why did you agree to this again? she thought to herself, looking around the small chamber. She barely had enough room to turn around, and her wings were pressed close against her sides.
She sighed, sitting down on the floor and attempting to meditate while waiting for her fight. Yet, no matter how much she tried to ease her mind, it was still consumed by images of dragons dying on the battlefield. She growled, slamming the hard stone floor with a talon as she got to her feet.
Why isn't it working?! She thought to herself, the sounds of fighting and cheering muffled by the solid stone walls surrounding her to the point where she could barely make out what was being said. Moons, is this what it felt like for those three in the Empress' dungeon?
She waited for her time to fight, listening to the white noise of the cheering crowd above her. The cell felt almost tranquil amidst the cacophony, so why was she still unable to relax?
Another metal door slowly slid up in front of her. Bright light from the spotlights high above shot into the small stone room, nearly blinding Lin as she stepped out along the short fenced-in path to the cage. A door cut into the twisting metal bars swung open before her, slamming shut one she had stepped onto the sandy arena floor.
Her eyes were still adjusting from the rapid change in light level, yet Lin could have sworn that there was nobody else in the cage with her. She took a look around, spotting a yellow-scaled dragon standing just to her left.
"Welp, it was worth a shot."
"Hidden?" Lin asked, her eyes finally adjusted. The SandWing seemed somewhat less surprised than her, looking up at where they had entered the club. The SandWing who owned the place was standing up there, grinning knowingly.
"Guess this is what you get when you try to cheat the system." Hidden remarked. A loud horn sounded, signaling the start of the fight. "So, how believable do you think we should make this?"
Lin donned a sly grin, and lunged at Hidden, swiping a talon down at the SandWing and forcing him to flee to the other side of the cage. "HEY! What was that for?!" he shouted.
"You really think I'm going to let you throw the fight?" Lin asked.
Hidden shrugged. "It'd make the most sense, then you could save your energy for the next fights." he explained. The audience started booing, having overheard the duo's conversation..
Lin chuckled. "Come on SandWing, I want to see how far you've come with your training. You were the one who asked for it, weren't you?"
Hidden smirked. "Alright, if you say so."
The SandWing leapt forward, Lin bracing herself for the blow when he suddenly reached to his side and pulled out the padded sword, swinging it in a wide arc at her. She barely had enough time to leap backwards as it sliced past her abdomen.
Hidden grinned, and spun around once more, swinging his tail and the pole across the sandy arena floor in an attempt to whip up a cloud of dust. Instead, he merely wound up drawing a circle in the sand around him, standing awkwardly in its center.
"Huh, I swear it worked differently in the movies." he remarked, before quickly darting away with a yelp as Lin rushed in for an attack. She swung around, sliding in to sweep his legs with her tail just as he was about to touch down, when Hidden suddenly flapped his wings right in her face, distracting her and allowing him to leap out of the way.
"You know, you're going to have to use some new tricks. I learn quickly." he said, when Lin grabbed a hold of his tail and flung him to the ground once again. He rolled out of the way, just as she was about to pin him and win the fight.
"And you still haven't learned to keep your mouth shut during a fight." she retorted.
"Come on." Hidden remarked, "It makes things far more interesting if you ask me."
He leapt forward once again, sword held high over his head, and Lin prepared to block the attack. Hidden brought the sword down early, though, hurling it straight at Lin's head. She swatted it aside, but by then Hidden had gotten in close, both foretalons held ready for a double gut punch.
Nice move, though it's gonna take more than a single blow to take care of….
A massive burst of energy was unleashed from the devices strapped to Hidden's foretalons, just as they made contact with Lin's underbelly. Lin winced, and was thrown back into the cage wall, slamming into the twisted metal bars and leaving a large dent in the structure.
Lin groaned, pulling herself off of the cage and landing back on the arena floor. She was breathing heavily, her stomach aching to the point where she felt almost ready to vomit. The crowd roared.
What are you doing Lin, this fight should be over already. she thought to herself. She didn't have much time to rest, though, as Hidden lunged forward once again, swinging his foretalons left and right. Lin deftly dodged his attacks, knowing all too well that another hit like that would likely be the end for her.
"So, what do you think?" Hidden asked, "I'd say I'm doing pretty good here."
"Coming from the one with the magic power gloves!" Lin retorted, "This is hardly a fair fight!" She dropped down, avoiding a blow from Hidden and landing a solid kick on his stomach. Despite the protective padding there, Hidden was still sent reeling.
You certainly haven't gotten much tougher since we last fought.
"Hey." he wheezed, righting himself, "You're the one who decided not to grab anything from the armory."
Lin growled. If she kept this up, she'd just tire herself out. "Perhaps." she said, "And I'll admit, those weapons are quite impressive." She leapt forward, Hidden readying to strike, and flung her wings out in front of her as a distraction, just as he had done moments before.
Hidden hesitated, only briefly, but long enough for her to elbow him right in the chest. He fell back, Lin quickly grabbing his foretalons as she pinned him to the ground, just as she had in the Salvation's hangar bay days before.
"Three, two, one, we have our winner!" the SandWing shouted from above. Lin grinned.
"But one still needs skill and training to wield them properly." she said, lending a talon to Hidden to help him up. He coughed, looking around at the roaring crowd.
"Yep, that seems about right." he said, stretching out his back. He walked over to pick up the padded sword, and paced back to the gateway leading to his cell. "Good luck with the next fight. I hope I didn't tire you out too much."
"Don't sweat it." she replied, making her way back to her own cell. As the metal door slammed shut behind her, she paused, kneeling to the cold stone floor of the cramped space to catch her breath. She had, indeed, exerted far more energy than she initially intended. Perhaps Hidden had been right in wanting to throw the match?
She shook her head, she knew she would never throw a fight, nor let her opponent do so either. She had at least a shred of honor. She turned around, sitting down once again on the cold floor of the cell as she took deep breaths. Her blood was still pumping from the fight, and her stomach still felt sore, but if she could clear her head, she might be able to pull this off.
The thick metal door slid open once again, and Lin stepped into the cage just as she had before. This time, her opponent was facing her dead on, one of the mechanical dragons she had seen in the armory. The cockpit slid open, a scrawny, pale skinned human with a bright orange tuft of curly fur on his head sizing her up from his seat in the mech.
Lin sighed. "Great." she grumbled, "First it was Hidden with his power gloves, and now a dragon made almost entirely of metal. This day can't get any better…." She stared at the human in the cockpit, frowning. "Quick question, how am I supposed to fight that thing?" she asked.
The human shrugged. "I dunno, you're the stupid MudWing who didn't grab anything from the armory." they said, snickering as they slammed the metal dragon's chest shut.
Lin growled, a low, guttural growl as rage started to seep up through her. She took a deep breath, focusing the extra energy as the mech slowly rose onto its hind legs, assuming an odd combat stance.
Metal dragon or otherwise, there's no way I'm losing to a human. she thought, feeling her body tense in anticipation. Especially not that one.
The horn sounded once again, and the fight began.
Lin leapt forward, hoping to land a quick blow and end the fight, but the mech spun out of the way, sliding effortlessly on its hind legs and striking Lin in the side of her abdomen. She rolled to the ground, clutching her side. The brown padding covering the mech had somewhat softened the blow, and Lin guessed that it's strength was comparable to any average adult dragon, most likely a handicap to allow for fairer fights.
Good to know, though you should probably try to avoid getting hit.
For the next few minutes, Lin grappled with the mech, her blows seemingly ineffective against the mech's solid metal body. No matter how many times she tried to push it back, it hardly budged, forcing her onto the defensive. The mech was surprisingly agile as well, and its fighting style was unlike anything she had gone up against in the past.
She spun around, narrowly dodging a thrust from one of the mech's foretalons. The metal creature paused, slowly making its way over to her as she backed away, feeling her tail brushing up against the edge of the cage. It towered above her, standing high up on its hind legs, and Lin was almost surprised it hadn't fallen over under the weight of its own wings.
Wait...that's it!
She rolled out of the way just in time to avoid another crushing blow from the machine, panting as she clutched a bruise on her right foreleg from their earlier melee. The mech spun around, slowly walking over to her and backing her into one of the eight corners of the cage.
"Sorry MudWing." the pilot's voice called from the mech's robotic jaws, "I'll be taking home that prize money."
"Not today you hairless ape!" Lin snarled.
The mech lifted one of its hind legs in response, sending it straight for Lin's face. Lin grinned, and in an instant, launched herself up into the air with a beat of her wings, sand flying everywhere in a cloud of dust.
She landed on the roof of the cage, and before the dust could clear, propelled herself straight down towards the mech's head. She landed right on top of it, the mech, now balanced on only one of its metal talons, sent reeling backwards with her momentum. It hit the sandy floor with a thud, and as the dust cleared, Lin was revealed to be sitting atop it, pinning it to the ground.
She felt the mech struggle under her weight, but the handicap she'd guessed had been placed on it meant that it lacked the strength to lift both itself and her. The SandWing counted to three once again, and Lin was declared the winner. The crowd cheered for her triumph.
"For the record, I'm an EarthWing." she said as the mech stood back up.
"Yeah yeah, whatever you say." the pilot sighed. They walked the mech back into their cell, Lin watching with a satisfied grin. She turned to head back to her cell, but found the gate tightly shut. Instead, a different gate opened up, a greenish yellow SilkWing stepping into the cage.
"Alright everyone! It's time for the final round!" the SandWing shouted in a boisterous tone, his voice blazing from black boxes hanging from the rafters. "In this corner, we have the upstart hot shot Lin, a dragon so confident in her abilities, she chose not to grab anything from the armory!"
The crowd cheered, Lin feeling a slight chill run down her spine at all of the attention. She looked around the stands above her, and thought she saw Hidden staring down at her, donning that same cocky grin he always seemed to wear.
"And in this corner, we have a returning champion, here for her third Friday Fight Night! She's already won her past two tournaments, and is looking to keep that streak alive! Everyone put your talons together for LUNA!"
AN:
One of the issues that I keep running into is my constant need to explain every little detail of a scene, no matter how insignificant. Like...what were the mech's wings doing in the fight against Lin? I'm also having a difficult time trying to figure out how to put important info into the story without ruining the pacing too. Another tricky thing I'm trying is to describe the world in the way that Lin would understand it, like how the concrete foundation of The Pancake House is described as "remarkably smooth stone".
A bit of extra info about Lin's fight with the mech: The mech's strength was meant to be nerfed to that of an average adult dragon, but its weight was still much higher. This meant that, while it did have the strength to lift itself off the ground, it was still very easy to pin. Its weight also, in combination with the bipedal fighting style, made it quite easy to topple if attacked from the right angle with the right amount of momentum. Before Lin was constantly striking it from below, its height easily twice that of her's on its hind legs, but when she attacked it from above while it had left itself open from a kick, she was able to claim victory. Also, another limit of the mech was that it wasn't supposed to be allowed to take in any additional weapons, but I never got around to explaining that in the chapter, and it probably wasn't too crucial of a detail to explain in the grand scheme of things.
The final fight against Luna probably wasn't that big of a secret, but hopefully I can make it exciting as well. I've gotta admit that this and the next episodes are quite daunting, considering I still have to map out the fight with Luna, and while I have some base ideas for the next episode, the details and events of it are still up in the air. I'm wondering if I should take a break, and I already did have a hiatus planned for later, but I'm only about halfway to that point.
At any rate, be sure to stay tuned for more Wings of Fire: Salvation!