Chapter 61- And In This Corner…
"No..no, no, no." Jim shook his head in horror as he took in the screen.
Noah turned to view the monitor behind him and if he were a man given to panic, he might have let out a squeal that would put a six year old girl to shame. On the screen was Sylar's hastily taken photograph with the description of "Species: Human Male. Height: 6'1" Weight: 172lbs. Wins: 0. Losses: 0. Skill: Unknown." Even though he didn't really have time to pose for his picture, he still managed to look menacing.
"Oh no." Hiro gasped as he pointed to the screen. Everyone at the table followed his gaze.
Chekov, being a bit tipsy from a string of consecutive losses, giggled in surprise. "Vell! This vill make things most interesting. Vith powers like his, he vill vin in two minutes or less. That is my bet and I am sticking to it." He slapped the table confidently.
"But he can't use his powers." Ando reminded him. "I'm taking the Klingon."
"But do you really think he will let her kick his ass in front of everyone?" Sulu scoffed. "There's no way in hell I would if I were him. He may not annihilate her, but he won't take it lying down either. I'm with Pavel on this one."
"Well I'll be damned." McCoy declared.
"What the hell is he doing?" Peter fretted looking around for the man himself to hopefully get a handle on what was going on by reading his mind.
"This should be nothing short of ghastly." Mohinder observed darkly. "What do you think he will choose as his coup de gras, telekinetically ripping her spine out through her mouth perhaps?"
"I don't think that's even medically possible." McCoy grumbled. But after he thought about exactly who was involved, he asked, "Is it?" After all, he did use the Klingon engineer for a voodoo doll…
"Oh boy." Matt sighed. "Here we go."
"Seriously?" Nathan asked no one in particular. "Out of all of us, I thought he'd be the least of our worries. The one time you need him to tow the line, his ego gets the better of him. I'll bet she said something about his eyebrows and that set him off."
"Is he sensitive about that kind of thing?" Scotty asked mildly. "Ah mean, they are a bit…manly, but he keeps em in fair condition Ah would say."
"I don't know." Nathan replied slowly. "I never had the balls to insult him like that. Sending in shock troops to neutralize him is more my thing."
Uhura and Claire made their way to Spock, who wore an inscrutable expression on his otherwise pale face as he observed the monitor with his hands behind his back. "I tried to stop him." Uhura said desperately.
"It seems that we have both failed in out attempts to prevent this." He replied somewhat resigned. Simply put, Spock was not a man who was accustomed to failure. But, he had to accept the situation for what it was and try to figure out a solution.
"I can't believe he did it." Claire muttered. "Why?"
"I don't know, but I hope he has a plan." Uhura said. "I have to find a replicator. Claire, stay with Spock and I will be right back."
"Wait…what?" Claire called, but Uhura was already gone. Judging by the slight expression on Spock's face, he didn't have a clue what she was up to either.
The lights were bright and hot as Sylar stepped into the cage opposite his opponent. He slowly removed his jacket and took his time rolling up his sleeves while he observed her every gesture- cataloging her every move and making hypothesis about her in order to find and exploit any weakness. He was no fighter, he knew this perhaps more keenly than anyone, but he was determined to use his innate ability to the fullest extent and he didn't consider it cheating. He was simply smarter than she was and he shouldn't be penalized for using his brain.
There would be no real winning, he admitted to himself, only survival. He knew he couldn't use his powers, at least in an obvious way, and that put him at an unfair advantage. He could easily kill her in any number of ways, but there was more than just his own interests to protect so he was left to his own devices. The watchmaker would have to defend himself as best he could and pray for a swift end. That didn't mean he wasn't going to try to get a few good shots in, however. As he reluctantly made his way to the center of the ring, he caught glimpses of his comrades peering at him anxiously through the cage that surrounded him. Jim seemed particularly worried. He took a deep breath and focused his eyes on his opponent.
"You have accepted a challenge." The woman growled. "We will fight until one surrenders or dies. No outside interference- just you and me."
"Sounds fair." He conceded. She didn't know that no matter how much she beat him, he wasn't going to die, so he didn't have to worry about that mess.
She took a step back and struck her chest once before crouching into a fighting stance. Sylar was expecting some kind of a bell to ring to start the fight, but maybe that was the signal. A momentous roar built up in the crowd with the onlookers cheering for his death as the inferior human, but he didn't let it bother him. He had to put on a show even though he was truly the better of the two. That was his dirty little secret that he would have to keep to himself. He mirrored her stance and prepared for the worst.
She wasted no time in throwing a few narrowly missed punches. Thankfully, his height was beneficial in that it kept him at a safe distance while allowing him to maintain a long reach if he chose to strike back. For the moment, he was just hoping to wear her down. He took a few surprisingly hard punches to the ribs and he instinctively backed away before she could land another hit and possibly break them. His strategy would fail if he couldn't breathe.
Thanks to just a little telekinetic force, he managed to deliver an uppercut that sent her reeling. He was pleasantly surprised at himself because he never was good at hand to hand combat, so he felt vindicated even if he did bend the rules a bit. Although it temporarily stunned her, it seemed to have only stoked her anger. She growled as she lunged at him like a wild animal and tackled him to the ground. She was astoundingly heavy for her size- it felt like being hit by a wrecking ball. She used her knees to pin his shoulders to the ground while she rained down one punch after another that were aimed primarily at his face. He allowed her a few solid hits before deciding that it couldn't go on. Simply put, it hurt like hell and there would be no end to it as long as he kept healing. With all of his concentration, he willed his healing ability to slow down. This was the one power he never practiced with because he never in a million years could have imagined ever wanting it to malfunction, but now he needed it to look as though he were injured and he found it difficult to control.
With one last punch, he was sure she fractured his cheekbone and his head twisted violently. Through bleary, swollen eyes he saw Peter and Claire clenching the cage and watching. If he didn't think it impossible, he would have said that Claire actually seemed to give a damn. He would have thought that she would enjoy watching him suffer, probably wishing it was her throwing the punches while he bled. But instead, she seemed truly sorry for him and he didn't know what to make of that. Peter he could understand- it was simply in his nature to forgive and to want to alleviate the suffering of others- but Claire? She vowed to spend her days hunting him for what he did. He began to fade in and out of consciousness from the beating his brain took, but his ability would not let him pass out entirely, so he was unfortunately aware that the woman had given up punching him and started kicking his head and ribs instead to give her arms a break. There was a dull crack as several of them fractured.
"Give up already!" Peter's voice drifted inside his rattled skull. "You can't win this one. Just act like you are unconscious and let her win. Please."
Sylar lay motionless on the blood smeared matt with the crowd cheering at his defeat, staring up at the glaring lights, blood and sweat trickling down his forehead, willing his powers to stop working and he let it all fade away. He knew he couldn't win, but that was never the goal. He only wanted to survive and to get them all out undetected. If he was right in that evolved humans were saved and still walking around, anything less than total defeat on his part could expose them all and he didn't want to be the one responsible for possibly wiping them out again. It wasn't that he really cared, he had his own reasons. As long as he could hold on to the pain and let his wounds bleed long enough to be convincing, he might just be successful. He kept his eyes closed as he felt someone grab his ankles and drag him out of the arena, no doubt leaving a trail of blood in his wake. "You gave it your best." Noah commended supporting his weight along with Jim. "Let's get you out of here."
The crowd hurled insults at him as he was drug away, but he kept his head down as though he were dead and they were simply removing a corpse. "Christ," Jim declared with a small smirk, "you look like me after I get into a bar fight. Somebody get Bones over here!" In a quieter voice he added, "I know you don't need it, but we have to keep up appearances, don't we?"
The two men dumped him into a chair at the back of the bar and the others quickly surrounded him because they knew what he was doing and they also knew that even he couldn't suppress his abilities forever. "Let me through!" Uhura demanded as she shoved her way past Scotty and Ando clutching a small bag tightly. "Hiro!" She called grabbing his arm, "Can you freeze time for us?" He was slightly bewildered at her request, but nodded before squeezing his eyes shut and stopping time for everyone but the group surrounding Sylar.
"Mon!" Scotty mumbled wide eyed. "Are we the only ones still movin?" He slowly approached a Klingon and cautiously waved his hand in front of the alien's face In awe.
"My God, man." McCoy sighed taking one look at Sylar's injuries- or what he could maintain of them. "What happened up there?"
"You saw it." He shrugged.
"It was wise to allow yourself to be defeated." Spock commended. "Even though you were the superior fighter."
"Yeah, but how are we going to get him out of here?" Sulu asked gesturing to Sylar's slowly healing wounds. "He can't help but heal and that will draw attention. No one can take a beating like that and still look perfectly fine."
"I got it." Uhura smiled waving her little bag. "Go ahead and let your powers work. I got you covered."
Sylar was suspicious, but he was tired of the pain and further resistance was futile anyway. He almost sighed with relief when the cuts healed and fractures mended, returning him to his perfectly healthy state. All that remained were external smears of blood on his skin. Uhura unzipped her bag and he realized what was inside: cosmetics.
"Hold still." She instructed after he flinched away. "We have to make you look like you just got your ass kicked. Do you have any better ideas?"
"It's just a little make-up." Peter playfully teased. "Are you more of a winter or summer complexion?"
Sylar's eyes grew dark and he glared at Peter. He didn't plan on suffering this indignity as well, but she did have a point. Reluctantly, he allowed her to recreate bruises and cuts with various shades of blush, lip liner, and eye shadow until even others began to comment how realistic it looked. When she was finished, the make-up along with the remaining blood made for a convincing cover- at a distance.
"We may have to bend the rules a little." Jim nodded decisively. "Hiro, when you unfreeze time I want all of you to get back to the shuttles to get back to the ship. Tell them anything you have to get back onboard. I will stay here and make the final goodbyes and meet you. Peter, Matt, I want you guys to read minds and convince them that they were wrong if they catch on. It might not be entirely safe up there, but it sure as hell isn't down here anymore."