Chapter 8: She's Explosive!

The next day, King was told that Peter was released promptly at the crack of dawn. Apparently, he could not stand the tension before the tournament. "Alright thank you doctor." King said as he turned to leave. "Oh yeah, and sorry about the outbreak yesterday. I was just a little stressed out and I reacted harshly." The doctor nodded and said "Its okay, I understand. When it's their child, parents normally get very defensive. Hope the tournament works out fine for you guys." King smiled and said "Thanks." as he left.

Once he got outside, King noticed a group of people standing around in a circle. They were cheering and yelling in excitement. As he got closer, King could see that the crowd had their attention on the fighter named Christie Monteiro. Surprisingly, Peter was with her. They were both sparring intensely, drawing mass fan clubs. Christie swung around with a neat looking roundhouse kick as Peter ducked. He laid on his side and kicked up at her ribcage. She backed up and jumped into a back flip as his two legs aimed to trip her. Once she landed, Peter had just stood up. The two stared at each other with a smile on their lips. Christie got more attention, seeing as how her stance was highly active while Peter's was one of patience and timing.

Suddenly, Peter charged at Christie and attempted to kick her stomach. She cart wheeled to her left using no hands and kicked Peter's chin. With a small groan, he turned to see Christie flipping towards him. He was unprepared, causing him to be hit by her flip kick. "You okay?" She asked after he hit the floor. He looked up to her and smiled. Suddenly, he launched himself into a series of cartwheel kicks towards her. Christie gasped as Peter kicked her chest and stomach. After landing, he stood patiently in his stance. Christie regained her composure and resumed her dance-like stance.

King noted that they weren't really hitting each other all that hard. Where they friends now? Sure, she was there to help last night, but she was Julia's friend. That's the next thing that King thought to do, look for Julia. Sure enough, as he searched the crowds, Julia was standing right in front. He moved his way through the crowd towards her. "Hey. What's going on here?" He said. Julia looked up and smiled at him. "Oh it's pretty funny actually. They're fighting over a slice of pizza. Whoever wins gets it." Julia looked down into her lap. King saw a pizza box there. Julia opened it and in it was one last slice.

This whole situation caused King to just crack up. He hadn't truly laughed like this for the longest time. Julia stared at him in shock as he continued to laugh. For some reason, Christie and Peter just looked so funny. "King, are you okay? You're not drunk or anything right?" Julia asked. King just pointed and said "Just look at 'em Julia. Cart wheeling each other to death over a pizza. HA HA HA HA HA!" Julia snickered at his comment. Peter turned around and saw him laughing. King stopped laughing right away as Peter's devious glare told him to. Without warning, Christie swung her leg into Peter's chest and tackled him to the floor. This caused more insane laughter from King to burst forth. Christie hopped on top of Peter as he tried to get up. She pinned him down by his shoulders and leaned into his face. "That pizza….IS MINE PETEY BOY!"

Julia looked less than pleased as she saw the two. Peter swallowed nervously. Christie smiled and said "What's the matter? Too close for comfort? Think Julia's jealous?" Julia rose up and walked over to Christie. "Ahem, your pizza." She said angrily. Christie looked up and saw Julia holding the box out to her. She happily grabbed it and leaned even closer to Peter's lips. Peter could feel her hot breath patting his lips. Just as she was about to kiss him, she opened the pizza box and jumped off of him. "Just kiddin' with ya!" she said as she helped Peter to his feet. As she looked inside, she yelled.

"Where is the pizza!" she fumed. Looking around, she noticed King shoving the rest of the pizza crust into his mouth. He laughed at Christie as she began to pout and stomp in frustration.

King smiled at Peter, for he noticed that Peter was pale and sweating heavily. Julia looked at Christie and said "Hope that WE don't fight in the tournament!" Christie smiled and replied "Well well well Julia, I guess we'll just have to see about that." The two stared each other down before Peter shyly interrupted the contest. "Easy ladies, there's enough of me to go around." he said in a joking manner.

Julia smiled and offered her hand to Christie. With a smile, Christie took her hand and told her "Believe me; you're lucky to have a guy like him." Looking at Peter, Julia noticed that Peter was so red; he could have passed off for Santa.

After giving Julia a small smooch, Peter walked off to join King. Upon reaching him, Peter punched King softly in the arm saying "You enjoy it when I'm a wreck don't you?" King grinned as far as he could as Peter rolled his eyes.

"Up for sparring?" King asked Peter. Peter nodded and replied "Yeah meet me in the gym in five minutes." That being said, both fighters took to their separate ways. Elsewhere, Christie pushed open the glass doors of the gym and stepped inside. She was wearing a tight red vest with black shorts, strings with beads hanging from the sides. Everything seemed so fun for her in public. If only she really felt that way. Inside, she was a girl torn by emotion. She had a purpose. She had to find Eddy, and this tournament was her only clue.

Sitting down to do some stretches, Christie noticed that there was something in the rafters on the ceiling. The rafters were dark, so she couldn't see anything; she just knew that there was something there. 'I am the only one hearing this?' she thought as she began to look at her surroundings. The only other person in the gym was the big man named Craig Marduk. He had been lifting weights, but was now on his way out of the back door of the gym.

As soon as Marduk left, a figure dropped down from the ceiling. Although Christie didn't know him, it was Starcain. With his black jumpsuit and bandana on his head, the dark skinned man took off his sunglasses to see Christie better. Christie, still in shock, barely said a word as she looked into his silvery eyes. She noticed that he wore a shotgun around his back as well as an unknown weapon that was tied around his waist.

"I call it Razi." Starcain said as Christie looked on. She noted that even though he looked as deadly as sin, she didn't feel the least bit threatened. Standing up on her feet, she replied "Oh that's interesting. But…what were you doing up on the ceiling?" Starcain looked down and said "Well, call it a bad habit."

Christie laughed to herself before saying "So, plan on doing any damage?" She nodded towards his weapons. Starcain looked first to his weapons, then back to her before he replied "No. Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

Curiosity got the better off her, and before she knew it, Christie was asking another question. "So, are you a fighter in the tournament this year?" Starcain shook his head in answer to her question. "Hey, you wouldn't happen to know a man named Eddy Gordo would you?" Christie asked, getting her hopes up.

"Sorry, never heard of him." he replied. Christie frowned, but soon cheered up as she had an idea. "Care to spar with me?" Starcain was in total shock at her question, the young woman showed no fear whatsoever. Really think of it, would many normal people ask a guy wearing a gun and sword who just fell from the ceiling to fight with them? 'Guess she's not normal. She's brave.' Starcain thought to himself.

"Sure, you'd be honored to spare with such a wonderful gal like me right?" Christie said in amusement. Starcain admired her now. Shrugging, Starcain removed both his gun and Razi as Christie began to prepare. Turning to face her, Starcain wondered what her fighting style was.

"Here we go." Christie said as she made a gunshot gesture at him before getting into her stance. Starcain quickly noted that she used Capoeira, the fighting style of rhythm and timing. With a smirk, Starcain got into his Jaded Pride stance and prepared to attack.

Swiftly, Starcain jumped into the air and kicked at her head. He was surprised when she did some sort of twist that moved her out of the way and landed her fist into his stomach. Realizing that she actually knew what she was doing, Starcain decided to step it up a notch. He ran forward and launched several punches towards her midsection. The first one connected, but afterwards she began to gracefully dance out of the way. Starcain dropped to the floor and put all his weight on his left hand, as his right leg came up to kick Christie. The kicked landed in her chest, causing her to lose her air for a second. Cart wheeling away from him, Christie began to catch her breath.

There was a small silence that filled the air before Christie resumed her fighting stance. Quickly, she launched herself into the air, her legs following her as she kicked Starcain in the chest. Losing his balance, Starcain hit the floor behind him. "Hey did you hurt yourself?" Christie said tauntingly. Then, she unzipped her red vest and discarded it to the floor, revealing a black work-out bra underneath. Pulling her ponytail out, she let her hair fall down her shoulders as she said "It's too hot in here." In shock, Starcain let out a gasp as he thought 'How's a guy supposed to fight under these distracting circumstances!'

Waiting for him to get up, Christie slowly made her way towards Starcain. Her dancing-like approach caused Starcain to smile and say "You're smarter than you look."

With a mock voice, Christie replied "I always had straight A's in school and it only took me two years to learn the art of Capoeira, while it took my teacher seven." Starcain smiled and slid across the floor at her feet hoping to trip her up. It didn't work and Starcain found himself dodging a series of well timed kicks. Beginning to punch at him, Christie increased the speed of her attacks. Jumping back, Starcain was in surprise when he found himself flat on his rear. Christie had sweep kicked him and now held her foot against his throat.

Starcain could do nothing but laugh as Christie let him go. "Okay, okay you win." he said, knowing that she just got lucky. Christie exhaled heavily and said "My name's Christie Montiero. What's yours?" Just then, she offered her hand to help him up. Blushing, he took her hand and was pulled up to his feet. In reply, he told her "I can't let anybody know my name. But it was a pleasure to meet you. Good luck in the tournament." With that, Starcain disappeared into the ceiling again as King and Peter walked in.

"Christie?" Peter said as she looked at them. Looking back to the ceiling, Christie noticed that the window near the back was swinging back and forth. Starcain was gone.

With a shrug and smile, Christie turned to look at Peter and King.

"How about you two. Would YOU guys like to spar with me too?"