ABC - Penance

Morituri’s, Unity Townsite

“I guess we need to find our own weapons” I commented to Ghost. He grunted an agreement and we readied ourselves for the rush.

The woman came at me first, her face contorted with rage as she lunged forwards with the spear. She was artless, her thrust badly timed and leaving her whole flank exposed as I side-stepped her strike.

I drove my fist into her ribs and yelled in pain, pulling my hand back in stunned surprise. It had been like hitting a brick wall rather than simple flesh and I knew in a flash what she was.

Woman was a Blocker, a kind of reverse Kinetic Enhancer. The Ability let her reflect any incoming physical attack, making her impervious to my own strikes. No wonder she was so sloppy as a fighter, she could endure whatever was thrown at her until she scored a hit on the enemy.

I danced away from her follow up thrusts, looking for an opportunity. The trick to taking out a Blocker is to hit them where they don’t expect it. While she could use her Ability to negate a blow, she had to focus her power. Best way to win was to hit her when she was focussed on something else.

“Never fought a Blocker before, hey Judy?” she grinned savagely at me. Guess someone knew my old Arena name. I grinned back at her, shaking my head.

“I’ve taken a few of you pussies out before” I replied, circling her as she feinted at my stomach with short jabs. Which was a lie, but I have taken down one Blocker in the Arena, so it was half-true.

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Ghost, facing off against the other three. I’d overheard one of my Warden escorts talk about how hard he had been to capture. Apparently he killed three Wardens and put seven more into the Camp hospital before they dropped him with a Pulse gun. That kind of reputation was why he was being gang-banged right now, but I was confident he could hold his own.

“So what’s your name?” I asked my opponent, pushing her thrust aside with my bare hand on the shaft, nearly taking a slice on my forearm. She drew back and twirled her spear like a baton, showing off for the baying crowd.

“You can call me Princess Stabby” she declared and came in again, jabbing fast at my chest. I had her moves worked out now, seeing how she always targeted the big ticket areas like stomach and chest. If she had been a smarter fighter, Stabby would have tried a shot to my leading leg or even an arm.

I stepped right into her, my right hand grabbing the spear haft ahead of her own and my left gripping the very bottom end. She met my eyes as our heads nearly butted, a look of complete surprise on her face.

“Sorry, Stabby, but I need this” I told her and twisted my body, wrenching the spear out of her hand. I spun away and brought her spear into line, forestalling any charge of her own to claim it back.

“Nice move, Judy” she snarled, “But that blade won’t prick my Blocker” She spread her arms out wide and moved in, an ugly smile on her mug. I hefted the short spear in my right hand, holding it just behind the broad bladed tip.

We closed in at the same time, Stabby roaring and reaching for the spear. I rammed it in as hard as my own strength allowed, feeling it slam jarringly into her rock-hard stomach as she focussed her Blocker.

Then I punched her in the jaw with my left fist, only putting a trickle of power into my Ability. Her head snapped back and she fell over, out cold before her body hit the floor.

She was just like the other Blockers I had known, professionally and otherwise. They relied too much on their Ability and didn’t know how to take a hit.

The crowd screamed abuse and at least one guy was sobbing at the sight of their beloved warrior princess on the ground. I spared them a quick two-fingered salute then turned to see how Ghost was faring.

One guy was down already, mewling in a high note as he cradled a broken elbow. His weapon was now in Ghost’s hands, a short hafted fighting axe with a hand guard protecting the knuckles and a wicked spike jutting ahead of the main blade.

Ghost had no new wounds that I could see, the only blood being a long gash on the forearm of an opponent wielding a pair of bladed Sai, those parrying daggers that every Ninja uses according to the movies I had seen. I don’t know how much real Ninja use them, but I confess to finding them quite effective in the Arena.

The other guy still standing was using a short sword, thick bladed like an old Roman Gladius, paired with a small steel buckler. That was a type of shield, barely bigger than a dinner plate and gripped using a central bar. It was a good combination for close in work, offering decent defence coupled with deadly thrust and cut from the wide blade.

Both men started working together, striking fast and as simultaneously as possible. That put Ghost purely on the defensive, trying to block multiple strikes using the axe guard and his bare arm. I screamed a challenge and the sword and buckler guy turned to face me, leaving his companion to keep up a flurry of strikes on my partner.

“Come and get some, bitch!” he yelled in reply to my call, stepping forwards with his buckler leading and sword held low. I roared too, dropping my voice into the Octaves to make it sound more fierce. Papa always said I sounded like an angry cow having its udder yanked too hard, but I don’t think he ever saw a real cow in his life.

Mr Buckler and I met dead centre of the pit, my spear ringing from his shield. He countered with a sweeping cut of the sword, the broad arc forcing me to hastily leap backwards. I swear the razor sharp tip passed close enough to shave my nipple hairs, leaving a slender line of parted fabric on my bra.

The sight of some boob on display got a big cheer from the audience. I gave myself some room and risked a quick glance downwards. Pinky was still fully covered but Perky was showing the flag, a section of tanned under-boob peeking out from the black spandex.

“I’m gonna strip you naked and cut you into chunks” my opponent declared and I could see the manic desire in his face. The people that got sent to Camp One were either dangerous or had dangerous Abilities. Mr Buckler was definitely in the first category and it remained to be seen if he fit into the second.

“Just go easy on the boobs” I asked him politely. “I can’t afford to lose any from what I’ve got”

Buckler laughed evilly and lunged, driving his short sword at my guts. I turned the thrust aside with my spear haft and tried a left-handed jab, channelling a fraction of power into my fist. This guy had some talent, hauling his right leg back and twisting his body away. My knuckles barely grazed his side, giving him a gentle tap instead of a rib buster.

Then he countered with his steel buckler against my hip and I saw stars as I was flung away from him, my body convulsing from electricity. The cracking boom and stink of ozone filled my senses as I hit the pit wall, wondering if my Jangler had been activated.

“What the fuck?” I managed to gasp out, feeling a burnt ring of flesh where his buckler had connected.

“They call me Flash” Mr Buckler laughed. “It’s short for Lightning Flash!” In the crowd, some fans had started yelling out his name – “Flash! Flash! Go Flash go!”

Fucker was a Lightning Projector, meaning he could send massive electrical discharges from his hands. I figured he wasn’t high enough a Grade to project them at a distance, so it relied on physical contact. My eyes narrowed on his weapons, seeing the short sword was solid steel with a wire bound grip, same as his small shield.

He could electrocute me with just a touch from either his sword or shield. The broad bladed spear I had stolen used an old fashioned wooden haft, meaning as long as I kept my hand clear of the metal spear head, it would insulate me.

“They call me Punching Judy” I told Flash and shifted my grip to the middle of the wooden spear haft. “To give fair warning, I am a Kinetic Enhancer. So I am going to punch your skull into a bloody pulp, you arse-wipe”

He roared angrily and rushed me, shield forwards and sword held low at his waist for a thrust. I pushed off from the wall and met him halfway, spear jabbing high to draw his attention. Flash followed the spear with his eyes, counting the bladed weapon as the biggest threat. Sparks flew as he knocked the head aside, trying to send another discharge through the shaft.

My left hand snaked forwards as we almost ran into each other, pushing his right forearm into his stomach and avoiding the sword point. Then I hit his shoulder with my own and pivoted around his back, swinging my heavy tipped spear in a wide lateral arc. Flash had taken a step past me, vainly trying to halt his own momentum.

That was his mistake.

If he had kept moving, he would have taken himself out of my range. The Assegai whistled in its deadly trajectory and I sent power into the weapon.

The crowd screamed in disbelief as I decapitated him in one blow. His head toppled from his shoulders, blood rising in a brief fountain from the neck as his body took a single step then collapsed to the hard floor.

“Sorry Flash, I lied about punching you” I said.

I turned to face Ghost, ready to give him assistance, but he was already pulling his axe from the shoulder blade of the Twin Sai guy, blooding pulsing from the deep wound.

An unhappy silence descended on the Arena, Ghost and I standing in the middle with their four champions bleeding or dying at our feet. Any second now, the Wardens would trigger our PCDs.

I dropped the bloodied spear to the floor and looked at my partner, giving him a brief nod.

“At the glass barrier please, dear Ghost” I asked him and held out both my hands. He dropped his own weapon and grasped my arms around the wrists, nodding his understanding.

“What the hell are you clowns doing?” Warden Acres demanded, standing up from his plush chair to point down at us.

Ghost started to spin, his massive strength lifting me easily off the floor. Three times he twirled, gaining speed as the audience whistled and booed at our strange performance. I was feeling quite light-headed by now, trusting in my partner to do exactly the right thing.

As soon as I felt his hands release me, mine unclenched and I channelled every scrap of power into my booted feet.

I hit the glass wall to the Warden’s booth and it shattered easily, propelling me into the midst of the stunned Warden and his minions. The fleshy body of the Head Warden himself cushioned my landing, everything a tangle of legs and arms and yelling heads.

Without looking I started kicking and punching everybody I could reach, channelling whatever power I had left into my blows. I let Punching Judy completely off the chain and for the next thirty seconds she was a whirlwind of destruction, screaming madly and breaking bones and furniture with equal disregard.

I came to my senses when there was nothing left moving in the booth. Inmates on either side of the glass partitions had recoiled in horror, pushing back from the violence into those around them, unwilling to be anywhere near my berserk fury.

Ghost clambered into the gore spattered booth at last, carrying the spear and axe we had been using earlier. His PCD was gone, already ripped from his neck using his own strong hands.

“The Warden and Tan got away” he told me bluntly. “You took out everyone else”

Outside we could hear orders being barked and as my heart hammered in my chest, I realised a painful electrical pulse kept surging through my body. My fingers went to the Jangler, sending me shocks ever since I had busted through the glass barrier.

Ghost put the stolen weapons down, braced his hands either side of my neck, then cracked the Jangler open with a powerful twist of his hands. The shocks disappeared and my poor abused flesh finally registered all the trauma it had been put through.

“Ow” I said, rubbing my chafed neck. “Be a bit more gentle next time please”

“Copy that, Alvarez” he told me solemnly.

=====

I took a peek outside the VIP chamber while Ghost looted the fallen Wardens for weapons and ammunition. There was a short corridor beyond leading to an elevator, with side doors leading to the left and right. It was from beyond the side doors I could hear the shouted commands, sounding like commands to Warden Corps.

There was no sign of Warden Acres or Tan, except for a trail of blood spatters heading to the elevator doors. A single crimson handprint smeared the control panel for the elevator, indicating they had fled that way.

Ducking back inside, Ghost handed me a pistol identical to the model I normally carried and two spare magazines of ammo. Both magazines were Suppression rounds, the same as loaded into the pistol already. He also gave me a Shock Rod after wiping off some of the owner’s blood on their uniform jacket. I wedged the extra magazines into my pants pockets, cursing the loss of my waist belt and bandolier, among all the other stuff they had stripped off me.

I searched quickly for an unsullied jacket to cover my exposed chest, yet all three Wardens were splattered in sticky fluids that included blood plus other things like white blobs of brain and bone. My memories of that thirty second rage were fragmentary at best and I decided to leave them alone for now.

Commotion to either side of the booth caught our attention. The prisoners were finally exiting the Arena stands through opened doors, hustling to get as far away as they could from my rampage. I caught a glimpse of a grey armoured Warden looking over the mass of men and women, checking out where Ghost and I were situated.

“We need to get our asses out of here” I told my partner. “The Wardens will be storming us any second”

“They’ll use gas grenades first” Ghost stated emotionlessly. “I can hold my breath for about five minutes, so they may deploy a Pulse as well”

A pulse would hinder their own Enhanced Wardens and could disable the prisoner’s PCDs, something they might be willing to risk in the circumstances.

“Pity I killed Campbell” I muttered, looking at the man’s body where he sat slumped in his chair. I had no specific memory of the moment but his neck was very clearly snapped, eyes still looking with surprise at the fighting pit. “We could have used him to access the elevator”

Ghost met my eyes with a deliberately flat expression.

“We still can” he said coldly.

=====

I made Ghost do the deed, using the sharp axe he had won in the Arena. For all the violence I had caused, I couldn’t watch him do it – instead I stood sentry in the corridor, pistol in one hand and Shock Rod in the other.

Ghost appeared shortly, the freshly blooded axe in one hand and the severed hand in the other. I confess I gagged a little as he carried the ghastly trophy the short distance to the elevator control panel, laying his own hand against Campbell’s to keep it warm enough.

The elevator pinged open and we crowded inside, Ghost first while I covered our rear. Noise was increasing on either side, meaning the Wardens had finally mustered the nerve to begin the counter-attack. As the doors closed, I heard a dull thump as the first grenade went off in the VIP booth.

I hit the button for the top floor, willing the doors closed as flashes and booms echoed along the connecting passage.

“Too slow, suckers!” I chided them.