Chapter 5: Quick fights
I looked through the files on the server. The Marvel Gameswas at the top, and the edited dated said it had only been edited a few hours ago. I clicked on it and opened it.
The Marvel Games initiative is in full effect! Fun entertainment for the entire family, streamed daily! For the past two years, the games have gained an underground following and are becoming more popular. Consisting of 15 unaware contestants in 5 teams they have to fight to the death within real life effect stimulation. In the past two years we have had a team of 2, and one of 3 win. Previous winners and their status can be accessed here:
I scanned through the text on what was obviously an advertisement for the games. Everything sounded similar to what our job was….. I got to the end and opened the link to see the previous winners. To my shock I knew them.
Natalia Romanova, a.k.a Natasha Romanoff. Status: Previously Fringe, currently Central. Won 1stgames
Clinton Barton, a.k.a Clint Barton. Status: Previously Society, currently Central. Won 1stgames along with Natalia Romanova
Anthony Stark, a.k.a Tony Stark. Status: Born Central, won 2ndgames
Steven Rodgers, a.k.a Steve Rodgers. Status: Previously Fringe, currently Central. Won 2ndgames along with Tony Stark and Thor Odinson
Thor Odinson. Status: Previously Society, currently Central. Won 1stgames along with Antony Stark and Steven Rodgers
Alongside each of them was a picture. It was Natalie, Clint, Tony, Steve and Thor. We'd been tricked. I slammed the laptop closed, nearly snapping it. I had to get out of here, what if they did something to my father? The games were to the death, why did the hell did I take this job? Thought were running through my head at a thousand miles per hour.
"I see you read the files then." Natalie's, or should I say Natalia's, cool calm voice came across the ear piece.
"What the hell is this? I want out." I spat out. I flicked the lid back up and opened the Black Market. I needed to see if I could find anything out about the vendor I went through.
"I'm sorry Alexis but that's impossible. If you leave then Pierce would know something is wrong." She did actually sound apologetic.
"Natalia-"
"Don't call me that unless you've disabled the bugs." She hissed. I rolled my eyes and got up. One by one I disabled the bugs, weaselling them out of their hiding places using a knife that was next to the (ornamental, may I add) fruit bowl.
"There NATALIA, they're disabled. Now explain or I'm walking out right now."
"Fine. For the past 2 years, Pierce has tricked kids into the games by offering a job they can't turn down. They're oblivious of what's happening, until they get out the stimulation at the end of the game and realize they've killed people, some of whom they've known since they were children." She sounded extremely bitter as she said the last line. I wonder who she killed.
"Is there any way of beating the system?" I clicked on to the vendor and started running scans to trace it. Even though I knew they were from Shield, I needed to know who put the offer up, so if I ever met them I could kill them. I meant it.
"No. We've tried, we even made sure that in the second year we had a computer genius in the games." I'm guessing that was Tony. I don't think Thor would know how to work a computer. "This year me and Clint made sure Bruce was employed on the science advisory staff to see if he could build in a failsafe that you could trigger, but he was being too closely observed. I'm sorry that we've had to put you in this position, but we weren't the ones who decided."
"Then who the orcae did then?" If someone decided that they were going to get me killed, I wanted to know.
"I'm sorry Alexis but I can't tell you that. May I also mention that Skye and Bucky don't know any of this, and they can't?"
"So I've got to go in there, with no idea how to shut it down, break the game, save my ass and theirs all while trying to avoid Pierce getting suspicious?"
"Yes. I'm sorry but yes. You need to get some sleep now. Tomorrow is the battle rounds, and you need to rest."
"Okay. Thanks." I pressed the button to disconnect the call and laid back. The computer couldn't track the vendor. They'd left no trace what so ever. I stared at the ceiling and listened to the soft drone of the city, which was still awake even in the middle of the night. Sleep evaded me but I didn't care; why should I? I was going to die anyway.
I drifted off against my own will around sunrise. Around 7 Skye came bounding in to wake me up.
"Come on Alexis, wake up! You have to get ready for the first stimulation." She pulled back my covers and I groaned.
"Skye, give me chance! Get out so I get changed then." I swung my legs out of bed and realised I was in the same clothes as yesterday. Oh well. Skye walked out and I walked over to the cabinet, nearly falling over my laptop in the process. I swung the cupboard doors open, and had a quick look through clothes.
"It's the black and dark purple top and trouser set." Skye called out. I grabbed them and pulled the top I was wearing off quickly. I shoved the top and trousers on; they were surprisingly comfy. A quick look at the material showed that they had tiny little sensors embedded in them, probably so the stimulation works. I pulled on a pair of black boots that were in the bottom of them and laced them up. I got up, closed the door and studied myself in the mirror. It wasn't vanity; it was just to see if I'd changed.
In the mirror I saw a girl, in a form fitting outfit who looked storing and brave. It didn't look like me. I reached up and began to braid my hair back, making corn rows at the front then pulling it into one braid at the back. Around my neck I clasped my mother's necklace, and slipped a leather bracelet that I'd stolen from my father onto my wrist. I stared at the girl in the mirror for a moment, then swung the door open and went into the lounge. Bucky and Skye were sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast.
"Finally! We thought you'd fallen through the wardrobe." Bucky called out. Skye mumbled something through a mouthful of cereal, which I elected to ignore. I wandered over to the (real) fruit bowl and grabbed an apple. I chopped it up into chunks and started to eat them.
"How much sleep did you get last night?" Skye said. I sat down on a breakfast stool next to her.
"Not much. Why?"
"You look as if someone's given you two black eyes." Bucky said, waving his spoon at me.
I shook my head and continued eating my apple. We chatted for a bit, and headed down to the stimulation floor around 9.30. One of the other teams was already there. It was the one with the irrumator in it. I looked away, hoping he didn't notice me. I didn't want another fight.
"Oh look, isn't it our favourite meretrix? How is the slut today?" He walked over to me and shoved me.
"Back off Luke." Bucky slipped in between us, completely hiding me from the irrumator, who is called Luke supposedly.
"What, protecting your girlfriend? It looks like she's found herself a pimp, but no one touches my slut." He shoved Bucky, who stumbled into me. Then I heard a cry of pain. I looked round Bucky and saw that Skye had jumped onto Luke's back and put it in a head lock.
"Leave my team alone you mentula!" She shouted out. Just then Natalie walked in so Skye jumped off and ran back to us. Behind her back she put out her hand, and we all high fived.
"Seeing as there are 6 of you here, we might as well start. Each of you pair up with someone from the opposite team, and then tell me." She said. She was holding a clipboard in her hand. Me and Luke eyed each other up, and walked over to Natalie.
"We've partnered up Miss, and may I say your eyes are glowing today?" Luke had obviously decided that he was going to chat up Natalie. She just smirked and raised her eyebrows.
"Now if you would like to follow me, I'll take you to your training room." As we walked out the door she whispered in my ear, "You can kick his ass easily. Remember what I said yesterday."
We walked into a large room, larger than my house in the Fringe and went to stand in the middle.
"This is the battle stimulation. Here you will have a one on one fight that will last until someone clearly loses. A computer while record your fighting moves so we can provide the best possible challenge in the survival stimulation" Natalie directed me to one mark and Luke to another around 5 feet away. We stood there staring each other out. I looked at Natalie, who'd to the observation room, quickly and she nodded at me.
A timer beeped five times then held a long beep. Luke ran forward, obviously trying to tackle me. I waited till the last moment and side stepped while leaving my leg there to trip him over. He fell for it and fell flat on his face. I spun and executed what would have been a perfect axe kick to the back of his neck, which I wouldn't normally use, if he hadn't have rolled and pulled me down. He pinned me underneath him, his large hands gripping my biceps.
"Not so tough and cocky now are you, meretrix?" he whispered in my ear. I thrashed and thrashed, and then waited. When he thought I'd calmed down, he loosed his grip slightly. This was the opportunity I'd been waiting for. I slammed by knee up into his groin and when he let go completely, slid up and out from under him. I jumped up and got a few metres away from him. He was doubled up in pain, groaning. I looked up at the observation box, where Natalie stood watching, arms crosses. She smiled slightly but shook her head. I would have to do more. Luke stood up, and took a strong fighting stance.
"Afraid to fight fair, are you? Afraid you'll lose?" he was being cocky to goad me. If he wanted a fight, I'd give him one. I slunk closer, staying light on my feet. When I was within hitting distance, he pounced forward and placed a very hard jab under my ribs. This knocked my breath, but I managed to get in a round house kick while his guard was down. He jumped back and threw a quick front kick, which I moved to the inside of and got within his guard. I tried to back fist his face, which he blocked, so I threw my elbow up and caught his jaw. As he bent over clutching his face, I took a few steps back, ran up to him and kicked my leg round his neck. I then scissored and brought my legs to the ground. The momentum and shock of it pulled him down and he fell to the floor with a heavy thud. A loud, long beep echoed around the room, and Natalie walked out. I'd won.
"Well done Alexis, those were interesting moves you used. Luke pick yourself off the ground, you wouldn't like a rumour to spread that your supposed meretrix kicked your ass would you?" Natalie sounded business like, but her voice had underlying steel. He slowly dragged himself off the floor and staggered around a bit, almost like the drunk men I'd seen on payday.
"Well, you could be my meretrix instead if you want?" He smiled at her, with a bruise beginning to develop on his jaw. She kicked him between the legs and he fell to the ground with a yelp. She pulled out her phone and took a picture, then pocketed it again.
"I'll send that to all his friends later. Now, shall we go get your hands looked at?"
I looked down at my hands and realised that they were bleeding and one of the knuckles looked displaced, dislocated I think. I must not have registered the pain through all the adrenalin that was coursing through my blood.
"Maybe that would be a good idea. How did the others get on?" I wanted to know how the rest of my team did, that way I could start to get an idea of who I would have to look out for more.
"They both won theirs; Bucky was against Peter. The poor kid had no chance. Skye was against the other Society girl, and they were pretty evenly matched. Where did you learn the scissor kick you used to take him down? I haven't seen that before and I do a lot of martial arts." Natalie asked. We started to walk towards the door, but as I walked past Luke he grabbed my leg, so I kicked him the face. Natalie just laughed, and we headed towards the medical bay to get my hand patched up.
A/N EXTRA UPDATE! What do you think? The kick is meant to be the spinning one Nat uses at the beginning of the avengers. I might update tomorrow if I get time. Thanks to Son-of-hiddle for reviewing the chap, and giving me great feedback. Till next time,
Ciao peeps