Episode 52: Messy

When Micro walked out of the pocket apartment, those gathered around her started to fan out. All there felt not only the need to give her space, but were also aware of the opportunity around them.

Micro and her people seized the moment and put the momentum on their side from the beginning.

“Let the battle BEGIN!”

…

Ash pushed her way through the rest of the room. She was going to incinerate anyone who thought they could capture her and use her as entertainment.

She’d only been nervous originally due to the potential of her inevitable square-off with Arson.
Their fight was long overdue as far as Ash was concerned.

You think so little of me that you think you can send some street trash to handle me. Well little Arson, it seems you’ve given me the perfect chance to crush you. This ends here.

“Aye you, where is Sovereign, I demand—“Ash was interrupted by an Augustine being drop kicked, and the brawl began.

“Let's make this quick,” mumbled the hooded figure in front of Ash. Ash frowned before she was forced to duck underneath a kick aimed at her head.

Many small fights broke out. The BHC cultivators were honestly outmatched, but the problem lay with their tenacity. The black clothed cultivators refused to stay down no matter how many times they were punched, kicked and even slammed.

Ash began to feel like she faced zombies after she managed to lift a girl from behind by the mid section and slam her overhead into the back of a couch, before she set it ablaze.

The girl didn’t rush to get up. Instead she sat up without the use of her hands; fire licked features unaffected by the heat.

The girl didn’t even care to chase Ash. Simply rose, looked around for someone to fight, and moved on.

Ash at first worried about setting the Augustine members around her on fire, but started to realize their higher body count had dwindled. Whatever advantage they did have would be lost if she didn’t turn the tide of battle immediately.

Fire rolled down Ash’s body in a flash of light and heat. She shot streams of condensed flames at the BHC members; most knocked off their feet in a single blast.

“Spark these worthless idiots and whoever birthed them,” yelled Ash. She tackled an enemy and set them on fire, only for the person to laugh at her before they passed out unable to breathe.

The more Ash set ablaze, the less oxygen within the room. Many started to pass out, and unfortunately for Ash, the Augustines were the first to go to sleep.

All Ash could hear was the cheer of the crowd below her. Feel the heat of her own flames. See her next opponent.

Her focus narrowed. Ash knew she wasn’t immune to smoke inhalation damage or asphyxiation, yet. So she was shocked to see many of the BHC members still able to move through the room and fight up to that point.

Only seven Augustines remained upright against the final four BHC members left. It was at that point that Ash noticed someone she knocked out moments before wore something on their face. She reached down and tore the object free.

“These pieces of garbage have gas masks, find one and strap up before this gets any uglier,” commanded Ash. A moment later she was masked herself, and able to breathe far easier.

“Just cause we can breathe doesn’t mean we are out of a jam, we are still burning oxygen,” warned Ash as she took in the room. The Augustines all managed to find a mask with the exclusion of one, who passed out with the item half on.

The only enemies left, were four BHC members who’d never even stepped away from the portal they’d used to enter. Ash hadn’t even noticed their lack of interaction with the violence around her until that moment and cursed inwardly that she allowed anyone to stay fresh within the chaos.

Not that she worried that anyone there could outlast her in an endurance test, more that she saw the situation in its occurrence as an overall slight to her honor. The integrity of her name…

…

Micro was beyond annoyed. She hadn’t seen Arson in what felt like days, and now had to fight his older, younger sister, she was confused by that more than anything else, but was still, annoyed.

Annoyed enough, that she broke free of her given script and made her own move.

“Will you just shut up already!” said Micro.

Ash froze when she spoke up. Micro had to make sure not to let her mana flow free of her body as Arson had informed her that it would knock out most people who hadn’t trained with them across various realms.

Their mana was different now, and Micro knew Ash could tell that to be true during her slip of annoyance in the prior moment.

“Who are you?” asked Ash, and Micro couldn’t help but smile at the frown that grew across the girl’s face.

“That doesn’t really matter, Ash, but what does matter to me is that you know your place…”

“Know my place? Huh, I’ll show you my place,” responded Ash, and the temperature within the room rose drastically.

“Gang, stop with the dead-men antics and give me and this one some space…” When Micro spoke all of the still-masked BHC members on the ground knocked out by the Augustines during combat, stood up. The group stunned everyone involved, some to silence, being the remaining upright Augustines and Ash, and others…

“Yeah!!!” The crowd was in an absolute uproar. Many broadcasters across Maelstrom shifted their gazes and feeds toward the content being shared by the fans just below the action. Xani’s information grid array was basic, but still limited camera recording lengths,approved, or disapproved what content was sharable and more.

The BHC members in the room with Micro herded the few standing Augustines to stand around the perimeter of the room; picked up the sleeping combatants left on the floor, and even managed to put out a few minor fires.

“You act like you're not about to try and burn this place down from the inside out. What’s a few little fires?” said Micro. The ex gang leader almost laughed while Ash’s frown deepened for each fire they quenched, but let this aspect of their show continue as planned, even though she had begun an improvisation of sorts.

Shadows around Micro started to move as her nano bots drank in the light around themselves.

Thousands of the dragon shaped bots crawled from her shadow and climbed up her body. The mass formed a crow that perched on her shoulder and roared like a dragon.
“Hey boss, don’t forget that you told the big man that you wouldn’t kill her,” yelled one of the BHC members from the sidelines. Micro merely grinned as her people waited patiently for her to make her move.

“Cro, slow down girl, we are supposed to be giving them a good show,” yelled another of her crew. Micro had begun to summon both of her blades, black dragon nano bots slithering down her arms as the two weapons formed from thin air and shadows in her palms. She rolled her eyes and closed her hands without making the weapons, and formed simple mixed martial arts gloves instead.

“You can give up before this gets truly bloody,” said Micro as she clenched her fists repeatedly.
Ash then pointed at her and Micro knew whatever was next, was going to be good for her building fury.

“I’m going to break you, then, I’m going to find little spark and break him too…”

…

Auto watched his eldest sister seemingly manhandle the BHC members in the sky above his viewing box. He even cheered when she German-Suplexed another combatant, but then frowned when that same girl got up unaffected, with a smile on their face.

Then another of the sword drones he was actually there to study dropped off a meal to one of the other attendants in the same lavish viewing room he was in. His mind refocused on the problem he was having with remanufacturing their designs.

None of the swords were the same, at all. Yes, there were many short swords, longswords, broadswords, but besides being in the same category or style of weapon, that was the drone's only similarity.

Size, and shape, all different. The metals used; the stones housed as mana cores, and even the arrays and formations etched into their surfaces, were all completely different.

“How…,” mumbled Auto with a sigh, and to his surprise, his self-directed inquiry, received an external response.

“I have absolutely no idea, at first I thought it was some sort of nano-based ability, or unknown runic formation system, but regardless it's rather impressive,” said a voice nearby. Auto looked around momentarily feeling bewildered by the voice speaking to him and took in a starry eyed young man a few seats away from himself.

“Oh I don’t mean the fight,” said Auto, with a gesture toward the girl he sensed used some sort of Nano and EtherVoid abilities against his sister.

“Me either,” said the young man. His long curly red hair bounced as he pointed toward the drones that cut through the sky all around them.

“I even got my hands on one and dismantled it completely, thought my rival must be using an ability rather than runes to make her drones work, but now I know it is deeper than that, it may even be a combination of Nanoids, a soul based ability, and formations smaller than fine print. How she’s inscribing things to that degree, I have no idea, and you’d never believe where I found the sparking formations,” said the stranger with a laugh. Auto’s eyes went wide, and before he could even comment another one of his siblings entered the room and approached the young man.

“Aura, what are you doing here?” asked Auto surprised to see his younger sister. Instead of the normally enthusiastic response the energy filled Aura normally gave, all Auto received was a single nod, before his sister bent and whispered into the ear of the man Auto had just spoken with. It was only then that he realized she wore the suits worn by the BHC bodyguards.

Is she working for them now, I didn’t know that?

“Oh, I see, well it can’t be helped. Cro will do as she pleases. Have Lane send me a status report if viewership drops during their fight for any reason at all,” prompted the young man. Aura gave another confirmative nod and was off before Auto even had a chance to speak to her.

The man returned to his meal and even offered Auto space at his table. Auto hadn’t eaten yet, and the spread the man offered to share with him was unrivaled from what Auto could see compared to those around him.

Auto had decided not to buy one of the most expensive suites offered, as he wanted to stay as low-key as possible while he studied the product his competition made.

His imitations thus far were quite impressive, but as he watched another blade dive toward their table, set down additional food Auto had shown interest in, all before the drone bobbed slightly with an accompanied farewell chime, he knew he had much to improve on.

“That would make any of our mundane attempts to accomplish what we are seeing in front of us an impossibility for us to achieve, even if you and I worked together,” stated Auto, completely blown away by the knowledge the young man offered for free about the inner workings of their competitor's work.

“Yes indeed, but technology becoming available to all is a thing of the past, and we both know it, as long as they keep it under wraps, it will stay a secret, potentially even permanently,” said the young man. Who to Auto’s disbelief hadn’t stopped eating since their first interaction. After a long stare the man even laughed and commented.

“I’ve been out in the backwaters of nowhere for a long time, food like this was never available, not that I would have been able to eat it anyway.” Auto shrugged and eventually turned back to the fight above. A fight that had apparently gotten much worse for the heir to Maelstrom.

“What the sparks?”

…

Ash didn’t like how the fight was going so far between her and this, Cro…  As they called the girl.

The heir of Maelstrom was an honor that Ash held proudly even above her own older sister, even though Autumn was far more powerful than she was.

She’d fought every day against people much more powerful than herself, and knew what it meant to be entirely outclassed.

Her trainers often showed her why it was so important to push beyond her current limits, because of the infallibility of there always being a stronger opponent to come. A sensation she’d become intimate with over the years as a king’s daughter.

I’m not going to win this fight, am I…?

The understanding came in a flood. Ash watched her opponent move with a casual grace that reminded her of her own father’s movements.

Ash started to shoot fireballs in threes at the girl in front of her; only to watch the projectiles be slightly pushed aside, directed away and toward anything but her enemy.

Her opponent used her palms to seemingly catch a few of the fireballs at one point and crush them outright. Which was just another reason why Ash knew she was losing.

Her three primary reasons began with the gloves Cro wore. No matter how hot Ash made the fireballs, they seemed to only be comparable to mere candle flame in the wind, when faced with the vacuum of space Cro wore around her hands like clothing.

The second reason was the girl's movements. Ash had long ago been able to summon fire in the air at a distance, but as if the girl had eyes in the back of her head, Ash watched Cro spin kick her fireball out of the air, completely unfazed by the sneak attack.

The fight continued and Ash’s tactics changed continually, which brought her to her third and final reason.

Why is this chick so mad at me?

…

Micro roared out her frustration with a dance of kicks that split a literal flame wall in half. She ignored the rising apprehension she saw on Ash’s face and raised the pressure slightly with every breath taken.

“I see your ferocity, Cro,” pushed out Ash in between heavy breaths. Ash had to focus the majority of her mental concentration on the three pillars of fire she manipulated to move around the room in an attempt to trap Micro, and she knew it as she watched the older girl sweat more and more.

Micro chuckled slightly. She knew Ash had no idea how easy it was for her to face fire in combat after training with someone with a deep hatred for the element.

Micro stomped the side of a nearby couch. The furniture lifted into the air until completely vertical, and with another spin, the entire chair was sent hurtling.

One pillar…

Micro rotated, and allowed for the two pillars to graze by her body as Ash tried to attack from two fronts only to come up short.

Micro then jumped high enough that her areal cartwheel transformed into a heel drop, that detached the chandelier above from the ceiling. The glass rained down in a shower of glimmering shards reflected by the fire pillar below the chandelier.

Two pillars…, thought Micro even before the massive light snuffed out the second flame attack with a massive crash and explosion of glass.

Even before this had occurred Ash had once more tried to send her final pillar toward Micro’s back. Micro hadn’t even landed by the time the final pillar was a few feet away from her.

“You should work for me, someone worthy of your might, a fellow sister in arms,” yelled Ash even as she tried her best to blindside Micro.

Micro turned around slowly. Spread her arms out wide in a snap of movement and speed, before she clapped her palms together around the final flame pillar.

All artificial light within the area had been removed. Which left only the now darkened night sky and the stars and moons above to light their battle.

Ash lost track of Micro in the instant she took out the final pillar. The light being compressed to such a degree between her palms in an instant had created a flash that left stars in her opponent's eyes, which only made Micro chuckle as Ash tried to wipe away her blurred vision.

And you believe you could fight against my Arson… Ha.

“Boo.” Ash jumped, right into Micro’s arms and an unavoidable, rear naked choke.

At first the girl struggled to get out of the choke. They were the same height, which didn't give Micro much leverage.

Then Micro used her nano bots to shape high heels underneath the flats of her sneakers, until she was tall enough to make Ash dangle there.

“You wouldn’t be able to catch up to me if you had a dozen lifetimes at this point, and I am merely his shadow…”

This moment quickly became the most watched thing on screens across Maelstrom. More people in that moment had lost money betting on a strong scion than had been lost as a whole in the last dozen centuries combined.

BHC fighters didn’t always win. So betting stayed pure amongst all parties involved, but with the prominence just shown… the waters had been tainted.

The crowd below exulted in an eruption of celebration when Micro dropped the princess on the ground. While most were happy about the outcome of the fight, many were worried about the potential for the BHC to find the perfect fighters, for any kind of match. A fact that could distort the betting pool forever.

…

“Sparks, looks like the princess lost to the ex-gang leader,” said Arson as he looked at his brother Auto and shrugged.

“Damn, I had a lot of money on her, that is going to set me back even further,” cursed Auto. Arson smiled to himself and nodded, glad that his plans were moving in line regardless of the changes made by Micro.

Originally she was supposed to make his sister look good in combat, just before pulling off a surprising comeback victory. Which had not happened at all. Yet the objective for the night had still been achieved, regardless of Arson not being able to use his bets for the BHC as a faux weak point to draw his brother into a deeper scheme.

No, this will work out much better I think, thought Arson before he said, “Hmm...well, I have some extra funding due to my win today. You could always come and work on a little side project I am putting together?”