Black Market Merchant

"Sir!" Second Lieutenant Caswell, Special Officer Hawkins's assistant, came bursting into his office.

"Report." Hawkins replied looking up from his work.

"Sir, one of our Fly Drones that was sent to monitor the Mad Dogs Arena, picked up some vocal cues that we had queued to alert us for. The drone discovered that one of the contenders is being called Queen." Caswell reported.

"Excellent! Is the drone’s operator following up on this? Do we have a visual?" Hawkins replied jumping up from his seat and he brushed past Caswell, who followed close behind him.

"Yes Sir. Intelligence Operator (IO) Gill is in position now. His drone's feed is playing on the main screen as we speak." Caswell said motioning to the big monitor at the front of the control room.

Hawkins looked up to see an aerial view of the Arena from the inside. Apparently, the Fly Drone was perched onto an overhanging light's fixture. If Hawkins didn't know any better, he would have assumed this was some boxing match being shown on live television. Standing in the arena with the referee, was a hulking man with a huge brown beard and yellow athletic shorts. His hands were tapped over with medical tap, as well as his feet and ankles. This man gave off such a proud and powerful aroura, even Hawkins could tell he was an experienced Fighter.

His opponent, however, was their target Lisa Cunningham or Queen, as they only knew of her for the moment. Lisa still had on her sun-kissed jeans and only her faded black skintight armor covered her torso and arms just above her biceps. She had left her Yankees hat on the bench next to Jerry, as well her metal studded gloves since they qualified as weapons. Her jet-black hair shimmered brightly in the spotlight as it swayed back and forth in a long ponytail.

"Where's the audio?" Hawkins replied urgently.

"The buildings materials had started causing some interference when the drone entered the building. We are working on it now." Caswell replied. He took a look at one of the technicians, who was furiously typing at a tablet. The technician glanced up and nodded to Caswell signaling that he was still trying and went back to work.

In the meantime, the AFR Soldiers got to watch the whole fight unfold on screen.

…

"DING!"

The bell rang sharply signaling the round had started. Lisa didn't rush in for the attack, the man before her didn't feel as weak as the other men she had fought from before. Rather she took up her Ap Kubi stance and waited for Owen to advance.

Owen saw this as a sign of her being too timid to make the first move. He had seen many new Fighters in their first Match appear nervous and usually hold back. Giving a broad smile he flexed his burly arms while advancing towards the small lady. He raised his arms up near his face to guard loosely and bounced on the fronts of his feet. His orthodox boxing stance was well polished and trained.

"I'll test her out first." Owen thought to himself while advancing steadily. "Maybe I'll see why Jackson speaks somewhat highly of this 'Queen'."

He closed the distance of the stage quickly taking control of the center. The Queen, however, calmly stood her ground. She never budged from her Ap Kubi stance, yet the whole time glared at him with cold silvery grey eyes.

These were not the eyes of a novice. Owen noticed it right away and reflexively tightened his guard. The two momentarily held their ground each looking for an opening. It was Owen who finally made the first attack.

Queens hands were opened and raised to match her stance, completely prepared to take him on. Owen jabbed at the right of her head with dangerous precision. Flicking her hand outward in response, Queen deflected the strike causing it to miss her head by mere centimeters. With her other open palm, she pressed forward, aiming at his chest.

The strike landed and the force of the Queens attack forced him backwards. Owen stumbled backwards a few steps, but he remained upright. He let out a deep breath, then started laughing.

"That was quite the strike. It was good that I decided to take you on seriously after all." Owen said regaining his bouncing boxing stance.

The Queen patiently remained in her Ap Kubi stance. Giving a smile on her soft pail face she replied, "Well, it seems I might have a decent opponent after all. I didn't expect you to be quite this sturdy."

"You're welcome, I guess." Owen said as he closed their distances once again with a small step. "Try to keep up!"

He let out a fury of jabs and punches at the Queen. She held her ground at first, deflecting and dodging her head from his attack. She seemingly was starting to get to focused on defense and unable to counterattack. Suddenly, Owen sent an upper cut aimed at her chin. Seeing that she couldn't deflect it, Lisa thrusted her forearm into its path causing the strike to land heavily. The sound of flesh on flesh being struck, reverberated into the audience.

The crowd oohed in unison hearing the smacking sound. Queen was ultimately forced to step back for the first time. Her movements created some space between them and seeing it, Owen immediately followed up aiming a kick at her right side. Queen ducked back, avoiding the strike and Owens foot whiffed harmlessly by.

"That was some block you just did." Owen said rubbing his right fist. "Is your arm made of metal?"

Queen didn't react to his prompt. Instead she switched stances and pressed for the attack. She moved like an arrow, straight and fast aiming right at his head. Owen threw up his hands to defend his face from the sudden attack. Queens fist crashed right into his right forearm, just as his did to her arm before. Owens own arm smacked into his face as she knocked it back and exposed him.

Immediately she countered with a side kick aimed at his head. She almost had to jump up to reach his head with her own foot. This height advantage gave Owen just enough time to react. Arcing back, her foot grazed by his nose as it passed over him with blinding speed.

The arcing motion nearly knocked him onto his back. Yet he caught himself and used his hands to spring him backwards into a flip. The motion created space between them once again as Queen landed from the kick and took her Ap Kubi stance again.

Breathing heavily Owen raised his guard once again. His arm throbbed from where she had hit him. A red fist sized bruise was starting to form. The impact might have fractured his bones if he hadn't had so much muscle covering them.

"You're good." Owen panted. Sweat had now started to drip heavily off his face and body.

"Thanks." Queen replied. Her breathing was still calm and only a lite sheen of sweat could be seen on her brow.

The crowd cheered loudly, and the stands were filled with excitement. The new opponent was making her debut one to remember. It was extremely rare that a high-ranking Match Fighter would be so hard pressed by a completely unknown new opponent.

Jackson was sitting up in the box seats, eagerly watching the event unfold before him. His arms were crossed over his chest and his left leg couldn't stop bouncing nervously. Things were not looking good, just like with his fighters from the first time he encountered Lisa.

"What is he doing?" Jackson spoke aloud to no one. "Sure, she's fast, but I know you are better than this, Owen."

As if Owen could here Jackson's complaint, he suddenly changed his fighting stance. It had been a loose footed boxers’ stance, but now he crouched low. His arms spread out to half his reach to hover just above the stage floor. This stance suddenly reminded Queen of something recently familiar.

The Twisted creature she had fought with in the tunnel. It had taken the same similar stance as Owen. Either Owen had seen a Twisted before or the Twisted had some level of intelligence; or it was just pure coincidence. Queen had to know. Changing her plans, she decided to not try and accidentally kill him, but this made no difference to her attack plans.

Owen charged at her swinging his open right hand at her with a slashing motion. The attack speed and visible power forced her to jump to the side. She avoided it, only to be suddenly struck on her opposite side by his other arm. She had fallen for his trap!

Owen grasped her arm just above the elbow. Instantly he smashed her body onto the stage floor, like an angry child’s doll. The impact of her body crashing into the ground sent a burst of dust flying up in the air over her. The crowd let out of murmur of pain seeing and hearing the crunchy impact.

Suddenly, from the dust cloud, there was movement. Owen jumped up and backwards just as the Queen's leg came flying out of the puff of dust, sweeping at his own legs. The crowd cheered at what they saw. The Queen had managed to avoid sustaining injuries!

When she was suddenly pushed down, Queen extended her free arm at the ground and caught herself. Her hand had been open when she landed, and the impact cause her legs to stir up the dust. Everything happened so fast nearly no one could have seen her reaction properly.

Owen was momentarily stunned. He hadn't anticipated her to have been able to stop his attack. Let alone take little damage and then even counter with her own attack. He snapped quickly out of it and charged at her again, trying to stop her before she could fully recover and get up.

However, the Queen was too fast. As soon as she had kicked out at him, she had used that momentum to jump back up. Only to see him coming at her again with the same low attack as before. Jumping backwards this time, Queen avoided his swipes as they barraged her viciously.

The announcer was shouting excitedly trying his best to keep up with the commentary. The crowd cheered loudly sending the air of the warehouse arena into a buzz of energy. However, despite all the noise, neither of the two fighters on the stage could hear them. It was only a muffled background noise to them. All their focus was on each other.

Queen had dodged every swing he had thrown at her and was now getting backed up into the fence. Caught in a precarious spot, the Queen tried escaping to the left along the face line. But Owen wouldn't let up his assault. His massive muscular arms struck out at her like pythons. Every motion was aimed to take her down.

Jumping back still, the Queen arrived at the area of the stage closest to Jerry’s seat. She seemed to have been trapped there as Owen blocked her from moving further around the fence line in either direction. She couldn't escape now and had to change tactics. She appeared to brace for impact as Owen closed in on her with both arms swooping at her from both sides, aiming at her center. It looked like he was going to try grabbing and squeeze her to death!

All his focus was on grabbing her and he wasn't seeing her going at him for a counter strike. He was going to put his full effort into taking her down right then and now. Yet something odd happened to Owen when he tried this hug like attack. When he grabbed at her, she was gone! Vanished without a trace!