Growing Pains

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I went to the address on the card, but a tiny sign next to a staircase leading underground squished between two other buildings wasn’t it. There wasn’t even a fancy door to set it apart, just the same metal bar door where the outside screen door would normally be and a dull red wooden one behind it.

The inside wasn’t any more impressive.

Flat, undecorated, off-white walls that were barely lit by the one struggling light in the middle of the ceiling. A single beaten up wooden desk off to one side with one of those little bell things and an even more beaten up brown leather couch that looked one good shove from falling apart were the only furniture there.

Seeing nothing better to do I walked up to the desk and dinged the bell.

Nothing happened for a few seconds but then I heard a droning, crackly sound.

“People sending in kids now? Guess we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.” A voice drawled over a really low quality speaker. “You know what this place is for, girl?”

“Yeah, some guy named Carl said I could fight people here?” I said looking around trying to spot the hidden camera the person must have been using.

“Carl, huh? You a meta, girl?”

“No, I’m a Saiyan.”

“Not human, good enough.” The voice said disinterestedly. “Whatever, head to the back and we’ll have you evaluated for a weight class. Heads up though, if you’re wearing a wire or something for the cops, the automated turrets will fire immediately.” The speaker cut off and a hidden door in the back wall slid open revealing a hidden hallway.

Huh, this was actually kinda fancy wasn’t it? Even despite the ratty exterior. Hopefully their fighters were good too.

Down the hall was another room, this one completely empty besides one really tall muscled guy in cargo pants and a vest. I looked around for any hint on what was going on, but it was just a room.

“Meet Leatherneck,” The voice came back as a door shut behind me. “He’s the one we use to judge the fresh meat that comes in. He’s a meta with unbreakable skin. All you have to do to get a pass to the arena is last two minutes against him. If he breaks your spine, don’t worry, we’ll drop you off outside a hospital real quick like.”

“So just beat him up for two minutes then?” I asked out loud.

“Heh, don’t get cocky, brat. I’ve taken an RPG to the chest before and came out without a scratch.” Leatherneck laughed. “And then I went on to feed the guy who shot me his own teeth for trying. Don’t think being a kid is going to make me go easy on you either. I looove the sound of tiny bones breaking and I can’t wait–”

“Hey, can I start already?” I interrupted. I wanted to get to the real fighters.

“Haah, well now you pissed him off.” The voice sighed. “Go ahead. I’ll send a cleanup crew in a few minutes.”

“Fucking brat! I'm going to take my time pulling you apart!” Leatherneck screamed and lunged at me.

He was annoying so I put a bit more strength than I was planning into my punch.

I nailed him in the stomach and sure enough I didn’t do any damage to his skin.

…I did do a bit more damage to everything else when I sent him smashing through what looked like a reinforced brick and then halfway through a metal wall on the other side.

Oops.

I waited a bit for the guy to get up, because while I hit him harder than I was planning, I didn’t hit him THAT hard. But no matter how long I waited, Leatherneck didn’t get up. Crap, I didn’t kill him did I? No he was still breathing, so I should be good…

“Hey, did I win?” I called out to the voice.

“Y-yeah. You won.” The voice didn’t sound bored anymore. Guess that means I impressed him! “Congrats, I think you're going to be a big hit in the Dome.”

“The Dome?”

“Yeah, it's where the real money is made. Specialty fights and stuff. Free-for-alls, team fights, king of the hill…stuff like that. I’m sure you’ll have plenty of people shelling out bets for you.”

“Does that mean more fights?” I asked.

“As many as you want. Come back here tomorrow. I’ll have someone take you to the Dome.”

Cool! I was looking forward to this!

-o-

I was back the next day with still no clue what Batman was doing. Kinda frustrating cause I really wanted to know when I could train with him again. I had even done a quick fly-over last night and this morning looking for his ki signature but he wasn’t home. But I was too excited about today to care much.

I met a different man at the same recruiting spot that simply shoved me into a plain black car and started driving without a word even though I started peppering him with questions about where we were going, how strong were the fighters, and how many fights I could have in a day.

He didn’t answer me once.

So we drove in near silence despite my attempts at conversation until he pulled into a service tunnel that once again led somewhere underground and parked the car.

“So I guess we’re here?” I asked when the door opened. It didn’t look like much. Some old underground facility they repurposed, I guess? There wasn’t much to look at either. Just the tunnel we came through and a large door going inside. Though it did make sense, a probably-illegal underground fight club wouldn’t exactly pick a public building or a place that screamed ‘illegal things happening here’. Hopefully it looked better on the inside.

The driver still didn’t say anything. Maybe he was mute?

“So do I just go in there?” I tried again.

This time I did get an answer! The driver just nodded though, so my mute theory was going pretty strong.

“Okay then, thanks for the ride!”

-o-

Getting to the arena was pretty easy after that.

Apparently the staff was expecting me, so I was guided through what passed for security – mostly just making sure I wasn’t being tracked or recorded – and after a short wait I was pushed through a door into the arena itself.

This was much more impressive than the front door.

A large dome of some clear material separated the fighters from the crowd and there were thick metal doors that prevented anyone from just wandering onto the arena floor. The floor itself was big enough that special props could probably be added for events, and was lightly dusted with dirt to make cleanup easier.

I couldn’t actually see the crowd, the lighting in the back and the shadows around the place made them all look like black blobs, but I could hear them just fine. I could practically feel the floor vibrating from the noise they were making.

“Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to another night of electrifying fights!” An announcer boomed even over the noise of the crowd. “Tonight we have a particularly special event, but before that we have a new challenger to the Dome! She may look like a kid, but she’s actually an alien conqueror, here to challenge the champions of Earth!” several boos came from the crowd, ”Let’s give a proper Earth greeting to the Saiyan, Califa!” Was this a wrestling match? Did I need a catchphrase? No one ever mentioned needing a catchphrase! Anyway, the crowd exploded in cheers, boos, and curses.

”And as our own special welcome, we here at the Dome have decided to give her our own special greeting! The announcer continued once the noise died down a bit. ”If she wants to challenge all of Earth, let’s give her a taste of what we have to offer…in an everyone versus one match, let’s get ready for a Dogpile!” Once again the crowd lost their collective minds.

The giant metal doors rose up enough that the other fighters could walk under them without issue.

And there were a bunch of them. Easily somewhere around twenty.

The cool thing was they all either were obviously metahumans, considering the animal traits on several of them, or had some kind of supertech. One guy was even in a full suit of armor and looked like he replaced his entire arm with an energy cannon. That was pretty neat.

All of them were in some kind of costume too.

I thought there would be more people in just normal clothes but then again even Leatherneck was in something like a costume and he was just a punching bag. It made me wish I had shown up in my spare set of armor instead of just wearing the undersuit. I felt a little underdressed!

Well, only kinda.

I did see several people not bothering with a shirt for some reason or another. Did they not get cold? One of them wasn’t even wearing shoes! Just these weird little foot wrap things and karate pants. Although I guess if he wore a shirt he wouldn’t be able to show off the snake tattoo on his chest. Still seemed dumb to me though…

”The rules are simple!” The announcer interrupted my musing. ”The round ends when one side can’t fight anymore! Besides that, everything is fair game! Not only that, the last people standing will get to be included in our final special event. So brace yourselves, this is going to be bloody!”

My opponents all fanned out and started posturing. Some were cracking knuckles, others were posing or playing with whatever weapon they brought, and some were charging energy attacks or guns. All while staring at me.

A sharp smile split my face and my hair began to move from the breeze my rising Ki was producing.

This was going to be fun.

”And here we go, people…3…2…1, begin!”