The doors slid shut behind them as Jane pressed the button for one of the lower levels where the arena was located. They quickly lowered, the doors sliding open once more to reveal a level with a high ceiling, a low rumble to be heard down the hallway. The area was teeming with life as dozens of crew members walked past, their different colored shirts blending together.
Jane began walking forwards, pointing to a hall branching off to the left as they passed by. "Down there is where the shooting range is located, though it's a closed course and the only way to watch it is on your screens."
They continued on, the crew members they passed quickly snapping to attention before proceeding. Dozens of transparent screens floated in the hallway as the crew members huddled around them passing bets and talking as they watched the games.
"I'm surprised at how many of your crew are involved in the games," the commander said as they progressed down the corridor towards the rumbling noise.
"I hate to admit it but it's a rather great opportunity for them to gamble, though I don't admire it of course. There's a lot of betting going on for each round, and then even more wages set for the overall winner."
A few more crew members snapped to attention as they stepped past, and Jane couldn't help but to notice their stares on the commander. Few of them had seen him before, and it would be a shock to suddenly realize that they had two captains. The noise at the end of the hall grew louder and louder as they progressed, and the sound of shouting voices and cheers could be heard.
"How do you become the overall winner? Are the fights set up like a tournament?" The commander asked, his hair bouncing slightly as his long legs carried him down the hall.
"No, its not really organized at all. If you want to fight you step into the ring, if you win, you fight the next round, and so on. Whoever lasts the longest wins. If there's a tie at the end, say both contestants each won ten rounds in a row, they fight each other to see who is the winner."
"Is there a time limit?" He asked, ignoring the crew members who were mingling around an open doorway that snapped to attention as they passed.
"Sort of. They tend to make the fights go rather quickly, so once the crowd gets bored of the fight they stop it and the winner is chosen by their level of skill, though the results are rather jaded. Most of the time the fights end on their own with a determinable winner."
"Have you ever participated?" Jane caught him glancing over at her, sizing her up and determining if she were fit enough to win a fight.
"Not for a long time." She responded honestly. It simply wouldn't be fair for her to compete, she would win every round and she wouldn't be able to see any new talent as the other contestants would all be too scared to face her.
The noise grew even louder as they approached large double doors at the end of the hallway, the walls extending high above their heads. Jane smiled at her companion as they paused in front of the doors to the arena. "Shall we?"
The commander nodded, excitement hidden beneath his stoic features. Jane stepped forwards, the commander falling in step as the doors automatically slid open to reveal a wide square stadium, the ceiling arching high overhead. Tiers of seats encircled the entire area, the area completely packed as the multicolored blur of crew members shouted and cheered at the fighting going on below. They stepped forwards, for once unnoticed by the crew. The walkway in front of them lowered until it reached the center of the arena below them, a giant blue mat taking up the center, the two fighters punching and kicking each other on the mat as they tried to wrestle each other to the ground.
Surrounding the fighting area was a low wall, behind which stood several more contestants who watched the fight with stoic expressions. Jane walked down the walkway as a few crew members nearby snapped to attention, she nodded at them briskly as she continued towards the center. The commander walked besides her, his gaze roaming the large area and noisy crowd.
"Do you know the names of all of these people?" He asked with amazement as his eyes skimmed over the packed rows of people.
"Yep," Jane replied smugly, "obviously this isn't everyone, as several of my crew are still at their stations, though this is a majority of the ones on their breaks."
He remained silent as he looked around him with awe as she lead him directly towards the open mat. The other contestants snapped to attention as she neared so she quickly waved them away so that they could return to watching the fight and stepped towards the low wall in order for them to get a good position to see the fight directly in front of them.
The same security guard from before was in the ring, his black skin shining with sweat as his red eyes glared at his opponent. He had done really well, just as Jane had predicted, she figured that he must already be on his fifth contestant. they were standing apart, both breathing heavily from a struggle that neither one of them had gotten the upper hand in. Across from Justin was a small alien woman, her scales a dark green color. Her face was pointed angularly forwards, her nose two slits and her eyes yellow with vertical slashed pupils. Her lips were drawn back in a snarl, revealing her large, pointed teeth as she circled the tall security guard, her limbs jutting sharply from her body, her long claw-like nails extending from her fingers. Her knees bent backwards and her bare feet revealed scaly toes with nails sharpened to points, an extra appendage extending beyond her heels like a thumb.
"Another security guard," the commander stated, nodding towards the reptilian woman's brown shirt.
"Sylvia is quite the fighter, I have a feeling that she might win this round." Jane commented. The commander remained silent and pursed his lips.
A small camera hovered above the area, staying well enough away from the fighters to not get hit but close enough to catch all of the action.
Justin continued to circle, going for the more defensive approach in order to reserve his energy. Sylvia jutted out her thin, forked tongue from between her dagger like teeth, testing the air. Suddenly she leapt forwards, Justin anticipating her attack and stepping to the side, holding his hands above his head. In mid air Sylvia twisted her body, sending her feet out to the side to catch Justin as he tried to step aside, her long toes digging into his shoulder as she fell to the ground, dragging him with her. A loud gasp of shock emanated throughout the arena as shouting rained down on the fighters. Justin shouted in pain as he wrenched her feet away from his shoulder, the long nails of her toes drawing blood as he turned over to his hands and knees.
Sylvia jumped on his back, trying to force him down once more but he easily accepted her weight and stood up as her arms wrapped around his neck, choking him. Jane was disturbed, the fights were supposed to stay clean without blood or any life threatening injuries, but so far Sylvia was disobeying both of her rules.
Justin wrenched at her scaly wrists as the crowd's shouting escalated, until suddenly he jumped into the air to fall onto his back. At the last possible moment, before his body hit the floor and crushed the reptilian woman beneath him, Sylvia twisted her body out from underneath him so that he landed with a thud on his own back. One of her legs quickly stretched over him to pin down an arm as she began pummeling his face with her bony fists. He squirmed beneath her, her feet pressing against his arms as he tried to wrestle her off; blood was being drawn over his arms as claws continued to dig into his flesh. She was in an optimal position: he was unable to get his arms up to push her off of him and no matter how he squirmed she would be able to keep him down, not to mention the fact that he was obviously winded from the fall. Yet, even though Sylvia had basically won, she continued to hit him, the screaming in the crowd elevating into a deafening roar until finally the ten seconds were up and a loud buzzer rang through the air.
Sylvia stopped pummeling him as she heard the buzzer ring, then slowly stood and stepped off of his bloodied arms as there was a mix of cheering and booing from the stands. Jane was displeased with the display of violence, Sylvia shouldn't have been able to use her claws to draw blood. The hand to hand fighting was supposed to be more of a test of skill, much like wrestling, and shouldn't involve too much damage, but Sylvia had purposefully made Justin feel pain from her claws and unneeded pummeling as she held him down.
Justin sat up, his arms and shoulder dripping blood as his red eyes blinked rapidly, the right one swelling terribly, his nose probably broken. A few medical doctors in their completely black uniforms leapt into the ring over the small wall towards the large security officer and helped him to his feet, leading him towards one of the exits towards the med center that was also on this level.
Jane glanced at Sylvia who was standing smugly in the center of the ring, her bloodied toes curling on the mat as a few green shirted janitors cleaned up drops of blood. She didn't want to see her advance through the fights and risk further injuries to her crew, especially if she would be going to use her claws and needlessly cause more damage when she didn't need to.
"Was that allowed?" The commander asked as he looked concerned towards Justin who was being led to the exit by the two medical officers.
Jane clenched her jaw. "Unfortunately, yes. I might claim to set the rules, but in all reality I can't do anything unless I want a mutiny on my hands. Everything is fair game in the fights, if they win the fight, no matter the cost, they get to proceed."
He turned to look at her, his eyes showing indignation. "And you offer no punishment?"
"Only if the damages are severe enough to keep them from doing their job. He'll be able to return to his job shortly, it might have looked like a lot of blood but the scratches weren't too deep, though I must admit that they were entirely uncalled for." Jane glanced back into the fighting area as Sylvia stared at the contestants lined up around the walls, her yellow eyes daring someone to face her. If Jane didn't want any of her crew facing against the reptilian and she had no power over the course of the games, she had only one choice.
With a smooth movement Jane vaulted over the low wall and stepped onto the mat before any of the other contestants had a chance. The crowd immediately quieted as they saw their captain step into the ring, even Sylvia snapped to attention. Jane smiled as she bent down to remove her boots, slowly sliding each one off as she felt the stares of the entire room on her. She stood, holding her boots and turned to look back at the commander. He was staring at her in shock, disbelief on his face.
"Catch." Jane said as she tossed her boots towards him. He quickly caught them but continued to stare at her, completely confused. Jane turned back to Sylvia and bounced on the balls of her feet, feeling the padded yet firm material beneath her. The room was deathly silent as they watched her, which made her feel slightly self conscious. She tried to think back to the last time she had stepped into the fighting arena, and had to admit that it had been a while. Several of her crew had never seen her fight before so this was something entirely new for them.
"Well?" Jane asked, peering out at the many faces that looked down at her, seeing the camera pointed towards her from the corner of her eye. She brought her hands into fists and held them in front of her face. "Let's fight!" She shouted as the room erupted into applause and cheering.
Sylvia looked at her with indecision, not wanting to hurt her captain but unable to back down. If any of her crew had seen her fight before, they would know that Sylvia didn't stand a chance. No one stands a chance against me, Jane thought to herself with a smile. She knew that she would be able to defeat any member of her crew in a heartbeat, and even now she was considering immediately knocking out her opponent or playing to the crowd for a while and making it appear to be more even. She also didn't have to worry about being hurt, she would certainly feel the pain, but being able to automatically heal herself had many benefits, which was something that came with her immortality.
Finally Sylvia crouched and clenched her hands into fists, though she held her arms tensely at her sides, unlike Jane who kept them close to her face. The reptilian woman appeared like a spring all coiled up, her knees bending far backwards as she tilted towards her. Jane bounced lightly on her feet, rolling her shoulders and keeping her eyes on her opponent, waiting for her to make the first move.
Suddenly Sylvia leapt forwards, her claws extended towards Jane to tackle her and Jane could hear the panicked gasp resound throughout the crowd. Jane quickly leapt backwards and did a backflip in the air, her knee connecting firmly to Sylvia's jaw as she tried to grab her. Jane landed lightly on her feet, feeling the bruise form on her knee where she connected with her opponent's jaw and watched as Sylvia collapsed onto the floor in a heap. Jane heard wild cheers throughout all of the crowd and she considered ending the fight then and there by tackling her opponent and holding her to the ground, but instead decided to wait as she watched Sylvia stand up, her opponent's knees shaking as she stared at dazed expression.
Sylvia shook her head to clear it, her lips pulled back into a snarl as her tongue darted out from between her sharp teeth. She clenched her fists and began to circle Jane, so Jane decided to go on the offensive. She ran forwards, seeing a scaly fist fly towards her face as she neared so she quickly dodged and sent a few jabs into the security guard's side before dodging another punch. One of Sylvia's legs flew up in attempt to kick her in the face, so with a smooth movement Jane grasped her foot and flung it upwards while stepping to the side and swinging her opponent through the air, making her do a backflip of her own as she landed heavily on her back. Jane stepped away once more, letting the fight continue though she could have ended it there as well.
Sylvia rolled over to get her feet under her, glaring up at Jane as she crouched on the floor. Her muscles tensed and Jane could see that the reptilian woman was going to leap once more. She prepared herself for the inevitable attack by staying loose and continuing to bounce against the mat. She knew that from the audiences' view she had no way of avoiding this next attack, she was much too close and could hear the crowd quiet in anticipation.
Finally Sylvia leapt forwards and flew the short distance in the air to Jane, her claws extended and her mouth open, ready to bite. At first Jane had considered allowing Sylvia actually get her this time, as she had yet to land a punch, but as soon as she saw the claws and the gaping mouth she changed her mind. With a quick movement she kicked forwards, catching the security guard in the side and sending her towards the floor, following her movement by wrapping her other leg around her body as they both fell, she twisted and knocked Sylvias hands away so that when they landed Sylvia's head was the first thing that hit, the rest of her body following, Jane's legs wrapped around her stomach and pinning Sylvia's hands beneath her torso. She was now completely pinned, her legs twisted beneath her as Jane held her down, the crowd roaring their approval as the ten seconds clicked down, Sylvia squirming the entire time.
Finally the buzzer sounded and Jane disentangled herself from her opponent and stood, then offered her hand to her crew member. Sylvia glared up at Jane with frustration, but Jane could also see that there was now respect in her eyes as she accepted her hand and allowed her captain to pull her up. The crowd was absolutely roaring at the quick fight, amazed at their captain's skills.
"Thanks for the fight, Sylvia. Good work." Jane complimented as she patted her on her back.
Sylvia glanced at the captain, her tongue darting out from her mouth. She nodded in response and then walked away, leaping over the low wall as the other contestants gave her a wide berth.
Now all alone on the center mat, Jane examined the contestants that were lined around the low wall, her eyes resting the commander as he stood out from the rest of the group with his blue captain's shirt. He stared back at her, his turquoise eyes showing respect and admiration for her fighting skills. Jane decided that since he was able to see her moves, it was time to see how talented he was.
"Commander, would you like to face me?" She dared, her voice silencing the stadium as everyone heard her request.