Blistering spotlights shine sheets of white onto a dizzying arena that somehow fits under a mall. Movie theater carpet blanketed in stray popcorn kernels and sticky drinks travels across the floor of the whole stadium. A flight of steps sinks to three steel-caged boxing rings in the center. A roaring cluster of people has filled almost every row and they're occupying the air with a thousand conversations. This explains the crowd of cars in the mall's parking lot.
Maybe five people walk up and down the steps serving concessions strapped around their chests. Two viewing booths poke out of the walls above us, and figures made of shadow line the large glass panes. I can't believe this is an entire sporting event taking place beneath a random New Jersey mall. And I don't think anyone above has any knowledge of this.
"Where in the world did you take us?" I ask Jessie.
"Jersey."
"I meant where is this."
"Where we'll do our training!"
"You're dodging the question."
"Dodging what questions?"
"Where are we Victoria? Victoria?" I turn around and she's disappeared from our group, gone without a trace. She's gone.
"She's gone! Finally!"
"You're not that lucky Ren." The creature appears behind me, somehow finding time to pick up a box of popcorn. "What do you want?"
"Damn-" I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up. "Victoria, do you know where we are?"
"How am I supposed to know!?"
"Because Jessie and I got numbers while you didn't."
"I didn't register us for anything. I'm as much in the dark as you are."
"Then why aren't you worried!"
"Because I'm a calm and reasonable person. What would a person so fine as me have to worry about?"
She's hiding something from me. She never does anything if she isn't sure it'll benefit her. And I know Jessie is withholding information. I have to stay on my toes here, or else I'll be caught up in something more than just training.
The door opens again and droves of people stream behind us, pushing us down the steps.
"Let's go find a seat. We don't want to get dog piled on." Jessie smiles, leading us down to an empty spot.
"Where are we!?" I beg.
"All your questions will be answered in due time friend! Trust me, I would never lead you into harm's villainous clutches!" Jessie finds a row of three plastic chairs and falls back into one.
They're not wrong. Typically they're the one saving me from danger. But they can't expect trust from me when they aren't willing to give any.
I fidget in the chair, moving my eyes all through the building to piece together what going on here.
I can see some other people in the audience with numbers like me, but the large majority don't. The caged ring leads me to believe there'll be some fighting at some point.
…There's no way Jessie brought me here so I can compete in a fight club right? That seems like the type of thing you'd tell someone about before you bring them. And if this is a fight club and I'll have to fight someone else with a number on their chest, my biggest question is why did Jessie let Victoria off the hook and not me!?
A staticky crackle interrupts my deduction of the situation and draws my eyes to the black speakers in each corner of the room.
"Welcome all criminals and combatants! To the third annual Tournoi de la Pègre held by the Clous Roulles!" A high-pitched voice with a thick French accent greets. "And what an event this year with an extremely special prize up for grabs!"
Don't tell me I was right... "This isn't a competition is it!?"
"Gee, what was your first clue?" Victoria says.
"The Boss is feeling like hanging his fighting gloves up for good!" The announcer continues. "He says he's gotten tired at his old age and is gonna retire! But then he got to thinking, why hang up his gloves when he could offer them to the winner of this year's tournament!? He wants to see the best the underworld has to offer, in exchange for one of the best prizes that could be offered! A level two Antique!"
The crowd explodes into a frenzied roar. Arms fly and food is launched. Every smiling and screeching face in the arena is a battery, charging the electric atmosphere.
"That's what I like to hear! This could give any one of you the head start needed to run a respected organization! So put your game faces on ladies and gents, this is your future you're fighting for!"
"They're offering an Antique to the winner?" I try and confirm.
"Yep! That's the second reason we're here! I heard about the prize from some credible sources and took it upon myself to come snag it!"
"Then we could have asked Ghislain for a ride!"
"We could have, if this was an approved Curator mission that is. But right now we're kind of working under the radar."
"They why didn't you just tell them?"
"Because they wouldn't approve of us fighting in the tournament if we did! We would've been told to just go straight for the Antique and not participate. We wouldn't be able to get this valuable training in!"
I thought this would be a little more controlled. I thought I'd be exercising with people who wouldn't be out to kill me. But if I go through with this, I'll be fighting hardened criminals. It's too early for me to go against people who mean to do me serious bodily harm. I've already seen how that goes when Levi was possessed. Plus, I don't know if the other Curators will punish me for knowingly sneaking around where I'm not supposed to. At the end of the day, they can always lock me up whenever they feel like it.
I start to rise towards the door. "I'll wait in the ca-"
"You're here now, it's time to fight!" They gravitate me back down to the seat with triple the strength of Victoria, smacking my butt back into the seat.
"Why are you so adamant I compete? Why not Levi? Where is he? Is he still recovering?"
"He's right as rain now! But he's staunchly against violence, only acting on it if every other option is exhausted. So I left him with a fellow Curator back at HQ where they're doing some old-fashioned weight training!"
"You- Your joking! Why didn't you tell me that was an option!?"
"Because I can tell you wouldn't have come! And because there's no substitute for a true life-threatening fight! Levi at least has Astahe if he ever gets in a pinch, but until we figure out what your Antique does, you're completely defenseless!"
That reminds me, Ghislain keeps brushing me off saying it's confidential information, but Jessie might know. "While I've been here, has anyone figured out what my Antique does?"
"Not that I know of. But if anyone would know it's our resident doctor and Antique expert, Dr. G! He's a natural at analyzing them."
"Finally! I can figure out what this tattoo on my back does!"
More people pile into the same row as us, locking us in between a horde of rowdy spectators. Their elbows push Victoria into me, but they don't notice their riotous behavior. Their eyes are fixated on the highlighted boxing cages. But nothing happens in the center for a while, until the announcer comes back over the loudspeakers.
"Can we get competitors #1 #2 #3 and #25 #26 #27 to the stage please? It's almost your time to fight!"
"That's us, Ren!" I take a look down at the paper in my hand and see my number twenty-seven matches the one called.
"I'm not going." Jessie pulls me off the safety of the seat, pushing me over to the stairway. "I'm not going! I'm not doing it!"
My heels catch the micro threads of the carpet, giving me enough resistance to at least repel their fervent effort to get me to the main aisle. But that does nothing to dissuade Victoria, who leaps onto me and coils her legs around my head.
The extra weight makes me struggle just to stay upright. I wobble onto random people next to me, who push me off them and nearly force me to fall the opposite way.
"Hey- what are you doing!" I try to fight her off as she climbs over my shoulders, arms, and waist, gripping and pulling at my shirt.
My flailing arms and general resistance are nothing for her, because she renders me shirtless faster than I can take it off myself. She climbs off me, but only after sticking some adhesive onto the right side of my chest.
I look down and the paper the lady had given me is stuck over my right nipple. "Give me back my shirt!"
"Don't be so self-conscious! You're a lot of things Ren. Whiny, weak, slow, stupid-"
"Your point Victoria!?"
"Point... My point? Oh yeah! The point I was about to make is, you're not ugly. You could probably become a male stripper if you-"
"My shirt Victoria! Hand it over!"
"I can't do that. But I can give you these." From her handbag, she pulls out a pair of pink martial arts gloves.
"Where did you..?
"The lady gives them out for free. They had a lot of colors, but I chose these cause I thought they'd fit you the best."
"I don't dislike pink, but I'm not putting them on."
"You can choose not to wear them if you want, but the point of gloves is to protect your hands, not soften your blows. So I recommend you wear them." She holds them out for me to take.
"You don't understand, I'm not putting them on because I'm not fighting. I'll do some jogging or get a gym membership if I have to. This is too much for me at one time."
"We understand Ren. It would be hard to go into a fight with as little experience as you have." I don't know if that's another dig at me, but she's being understanding for once. "So can you put these on, take your shoes off, and walk in the ring Ren?"
"What no I just said-" Why are the gloves on my hands? And my legs, they're walking towards the aisle on their own! "You have it don't you!?" I didn't see her swipe me, but I know this feeling.
"Have what?" She smiles.
She follows me down the steps until I've hit the foot of the aisle and start my ascent into the elevated stage.
Once fully inside the ring, where my mind gets control back of my body. I turn around to try an escape attempt but Victoria's ready for me, closing the gate to the safety of the outside.
"Open the door and let me out! Or at least open the door so I can fight you!"
"Where are your balls, Ren? A little boxing never hurt anyone!"
"You found my balls fine this morning!"
"Then act like you have the pair! Do your best in the match!"
"I'm not doing this Victoria! Let me out!!" I bang on the metal gate, then grip it and pull with all my strength. But nothing I do will release me from this cage.
"Ooh, one of our competitors is getting in the mood for a fight!" The same announcer's voice from before says. "Then let's not waste any time and get started before he starts gnawing at the fence alright!"
"Hey wait! Don't start anything, I don't want to compete!" I try and scream for help but the announcer's voice booming through hidden speakers and the crowd's collective chatter is drowning me out.
"The rules are simple! If you kill your opponent in the ring, we'll ensure you go down for murder! We are not and will not be liable for any gruesome actions you commit in the ring! Speakin' of gruesome actions, anything you want to do in there is fair game as long as it doesn't involve any hidden weapons! Kicking, biting, headbutts, kicking balls! Do as you please! The first one to get KO'd or forfeit loses and the winner moves on to the next round!"
They had to make a rule about murder!? How often did it happen before they had to make a rule for it!?
"Now why don't we take some time to introduce our first few competitors? First, we'll start with the excited pink-haired guy in our first ring! Number 27, a true blue-blooded Curator, Ren Lu!"
Boos and trash fly from the crowd into the plain white canvas. Some get up from their seats and hurl insults down with their food.
"I hope you die in there!"
"Dirty pig!
"You're shit!"
That's just a few of the violent words the crowd screams down at me. I can't even pick out half of them because they're too jumbled together.
I didn't even do anything! Is all this hate just because I'm a Curator? My opponent is probably less of an issue than this angry mob!
And his opponent, a survivor from Thursday's usurpation of the Dreaming Stars and previous member of Bianca's security team, Number 1 Big Brooks!
My adversary struts into the ring, shining in a spandex jacket my eyes take a second to adjust to. Despite the name, Big Brooks is a foot shorter than me, and his muscles aren't that much different from mine. His right ear is mummified in a fresh white wrapping and his quiet eyes and unexpressive face look prepared to go against me.
He's smaller than me, but the announcer said he was part of a security team. It'll be easy for him to tear right through me...
I've got to get out of here before they start the-
Ding!