Chapter 2

The Morning After

August 14, 1987

The Lowell, Manhattan NY

"You….eh…cut a promo on 'em there pal."

Mac had woken up around noon that day, body still throbbing from the fight, to his bed empty. There had been a message on his room's phone, and it was that sheepish statement from professional wrestler Bear Hugger, a friend of Mac's that looked to get into boxing someday. If Mac has remembered his wrestling jargon correctly, "cutting a promo" meant that he had said derogatory things about his opponent to lead to a fight.

"What could he have meant?" Mac wondered to himself as he got out of bed. In the main room of their suite , on the velvet-looking couch sat Doc Lewis munching on a hot dog. Upon seeing Mac, he produced a freshly wrapped one from beside him

"Street dog" smiled Lewis, "You earned a cheat day champ"

Mac blinked, "Oh, that's right. I am the champ!"

Lewis laughed

"Doc, I woke up to a message from Hugger. Said I said some shit"

Lewis smiled a bit "Yeah, ya did kid"

Lewis turned on the TV, which happened to be showing a news program

\ "And now" said the pretty reporter, "We go to the biggest story in the realm of sports today, with newly crowned WVBA Triple Crown Champion Little Mac, and his impending fight against his contemporary"

"That's right Marianne" said the equally attractive male reporter. "We go to footage from our camera crew took of the event last night"

The screen suddenly became grainy night time footage, with a weak lighting source from somewhere off camera. Walking passed the camera was Mac, ambling with the help of Lewis and Alice down the street. Lewis had taken Mac's gloves off and changed him into sneakers, (which Mac didn't remember) Flashing bulbs illuminated the trio as they walked

"MAC! MAC! WHY'D YOU SPIT AT TYSON?"

"CAUSE HE AIN'T SHIT! HE MAY BE THE BIGGEST NAME IN BOXING, BUT NOBODY BIGGER THAN ME!" screamed Mac, his eyes vacant, mostly likely from post-concussion delirium

"Leave him the hell alone!" screamed Alice

"Ain't you vultures got somethin' better to do?" Lewis retorted

More repeats of the same question as the trio walked away from the crew

The news program cut back to the studio

"Wow, he's a feisty little guy isn't he Chip?" remarked Marianne

"That's why he's the champ Marianne" remarked Chip, "Now, similarly, Mike Tyson had something to say about this"

The camera cuts to a parking garage, the parking garage of the arena, Mike and his entourage were headed into a long limo

"Mike!" asked the cameraman as he hurried up to him, "Channel Four news here. Whaddya have to say about what happened out there tonight?"

Mike smirked, "Everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face. We'll see how that little punk handles me in the ring"

The feed cut back to the studio again

"Tyson vs Mac? Could such a thing even be possible?" asked Marianne

"Well, neither man's representatives were available for comment, so we'll just have to wait and see"

Lewis used the remote to turn off the TV

"God damnit" Mac said, munching into the hotdog Lewis had given him, "Where's Alice?"

"She's at the garage. Wanted to get away from the noise"

"Yeah. I'll grab a taxi. You can hold shit down here?"

"Ya know I can. You do what you need ta do with Alice. If he ain't already, Quarlow will be in touch with us soon, then we start trainin'"

Mac nodded as he exited the hotel room

Telro Industries. Brooklyn NY

Mac entered the door to a large warehouse. The lights were on, and a very familiar song was playing over the sound system

"The Godfather theme? Alice must be hard at work."

Mac strode to the other side of the warehouse. A giant robotic ape stood at the end of the warehouse. Meanwhile, off in a corner, a woman was hunched over the desk, tinkering with a microchip set of some sort

"Babe?" Mac asked quietly

The head of the woman shot up

"There's the champ!" she said groggily

She stood up, and the lovers embraced. Suddenly, the music stopped. Alice had had the remote to the record player she had built behind her back, and pressed the power button

A remote controlled record player? Wiring a sound system into a warehouse? Who thinksa this shit? wondered Mac

Alice Lincoln had been a part of the New York sports scene since she was a young girl, but not in the way that most were . With a genius level IQ, she had been building robots for as long as she had the hand eye coordination to, and when she was a tween, some investors had backed the building of the A.P.E series of robots, the third of which she took to an arm wrestling tournament, and made to the semi-finals with. The investors saw robotics as the way of the future and funded the creation of Telro industries She had been scouting the WVBA, as her next planned robot was a boxing automaton, when they'd met. They'd seen a lot of themselves in each other, conquering sports in ways traditionalists found obtuse, Alice with her robotics, and Mac with his short stature. After a few dates, around the time Mac had conquered the Major Circuit, they'd fallen in love, and made a vow to both invest in Telro industries, as that would be Mac's post-career fallback, helping Alice manage the company.

"So, uh…what're you up to?" Mac asked, breaking the long silence between the two of them

Alice blushed, "Ah. I'm just tinkering with the control unit for the A.P.E V. I reversed engineered an NES controller, as I think that'll be a good base. Only issue is the directional pad doesn't serve with the best movement. I wonder if I fuse two sets of buttons together, and then create analog control…"

Silence as Alice snapped out of it, "Oh God, I'm rambling again aren't I?" Alice sheepishly asked

"Nah babe, ramble all you want. I think it's sexy, watching your brain work 'an all"

"Thanks, but if you think that'll get you in my pants you're wrong."

"Hey, you know you wanna have a night with the champ baby!"

"Idiot" Alice snapped, rolling her eyes, with a tiny smirk on her face

Suddenly, Alice's body stiffened, "Oh shit I meant to show you something!"

Alice opened a side door and lead Mac through it. Among newspaper articles from five years ago showing Alice's arm wrestling triumphs, and a newspaper article of a recent VWA Championship match for Bear Hugger, was the WVBA World Championship, nice and framed.

"Wow….that's my belt." Mac said, suddenly breathless, feeling the tears welling up

"Yeah, it's yours babe. And I'm so, so proud of you"

"I couldn't have done it with out you, or Doc."

"And we wouldn't be the people we are if you weren't here with us/"

Mac pulled Alice closer, rubbing her back….

"Ah shit. Did Quarlow call?"

Alice's eyes went wide, "Oh God, yeah he did, like, 10 minutes before you got here."

Mac went over to a corner of the room, where Alice and Mac's bed stood, next to that was a relatively new looking phone on a night stand. Mac pressed the buttons he needed to and held the receiver up to his ear.

"Ah yes Makenzie, this is Quarlow. I saw your little stunt, and frankly, I'm fucking elated. Mac vs Tyson will draw big numbers. I hope to set something up in between now and his next title defense by the end of the week."

Mac felt his blood run cold

"H-his next title defense? That's two months away. I've got two months to train…"

"Mac! You've got this!" shouted Alice, "Let's not think about that today hmmm? We all need to go out to dinner to celebrate"

"Yeah. You said you wanted to go to one of those supper clubs right?"

"Yeah" agreed Alice, "Somewhere fancy, where we can just have a quiet meal, the three of us"

Mac smiled, "I agree, but I should probably change first"

Alice laughed as Mac headed to the side room that served as a walk in closet closet to pick out his nice suit for the evening.

Suddenly, a wave of dread washed over Mac

Mike Tyson, of all people. Goddamn

Suddenly, they heard a knock

"Yo Mac! Anything from Quarlow?" came the voice of Doc

"Yeah! We're headed out to Albano's!" shouted Alice through the door, "Wanna come with?"

"Does Glass Joe like French bread? Hell yeah kid. You buyin?"

"Of course!" Mac said as he buttoned his shirt, "I'm the champ!"

"Oh God, how often am I gonna hear that?" Alice sighed

"Every damn day babe" Mac said with a smile, stepping into his suit pants and throwing on his jacket

"Ey Mac! Is mah suit still in the back of yo closet?" Doc asked

Mac looked to his left, "A suit almost three times his size sat on a hanger to his left

"Yep!"

Mac strode out of the closet, holding his shoes in one hand, and the hangar containing Doc's suit in the other

Alice bit her lip, "Looking sharp babe" she said with a sly grin

"I only do it for you, so I'm glad you think so." Mac said, with an equal sheepish grin

"AY!" screamed the voice of Doc, causing the young couple to flinch, "Enough foolin' around. Y'all can fool around when we ain't gotta get goin'."

Mac sheepishly opened the door, holding the suit aloft. Doc snatched it, muttering, "Gimmie my got dang suit". Mac closed the door so Doc could change in privacy. Meanwhile, Alice had wordlessly swept into the walk-in closet to change herself. Mac flopped onto the bed. As long as Alice and Doc were with him, he realized, he could take on anyone.

(AN: I never do these, but some explanation is in order. Alice is a character from the NES arcade game Arm Wrestling, but as with early Nintendo arcade games, the characters didn't get fleshed out, so I aged her up. Telro industries is a reference to the game Telroboxer for the Virtual Boy. Yes, Alice was making a Virtual Boy controller for her robot. I also have to believe that the Punch-Out universe is one of those places where Nintendo exists as a console maker, why would Doc tell you to join the Fun Club otherwise? The VWA is from the NES game Pro Wrestling, another underrated little gem. I've always imagined the NES Sport Series and Punch-Out inhabiting the same universe. I hope you all are enjoying my Odyssey, and be sure to check out my other stuff if you haven't)