The Green Ones

Episode 4, Part 12

Up to this point, the crowd has remained in a mumbling state of shock. Yetic does a nice job of appearing as surprised as everyone else. A rowdy individual somewhere in the arena demands to know what’s going on. Agreement ripples throughout the audience. I wish I could see the expression on Huemac’s face.

Using the break in the action, I search the telekinetic energy swimming in and around me for a key to unlock my latent abilities. So what if I’ve no formal training or experience? Everybody’s got to learn sometime. I close my eyes and think.

Neca had mentioned borrowing energy from the cage and his opponents. Maybe I can do that. But the more I focus, the more the energy around me seems to confine rather than empower.

“Citizens of New Teo! People of Worker City!” Less energetically, the announcer interrupts my thoughts. Before he can continue, I somehow hear Olin. Startled, I search for my brother in the crowd as the announcer explains the official decision.

I hear Olin again, even closer, and realize he’s in my thoughts.

He repeats his question, “What are you doing?”

The announcer finishes with an energetic, “Let the fight begin!”

Yetic glances around at the crowd theatrically, giving them his best shrug. A few claps and cheers build across the arena. Yetic darts about the cage, working the audience up. Finally, he leers at me. “You know who I am. Who might you be?” Some scattered laughter joins the energy growing amongst the audience.

I focus inward and think of Olin. Help. Instantly I hear my mind suggest a specific course of action I know I haven’t thought of on my own. It’s as if my mind is translating external signals into nerve impulses my body can understand. Of my own volition, I raise my hands and ball them into fists.

Yetic raises a brow, looking both surprised and impressed I’ve broken his mental constraints.

I should be totally in Yetic’s control, but I’m not. I shouldn’t be able to channel Olin through the cage, but I can.

Slowly, telekinetically, I unravel my blue-black braid from around my neck. Lashing it to the side, I crack the air loud enough to distort the sound system. The arena becomes pin-drop silent. I shake my head and loosen my shoulders while gaining quickness and familiarity translating Olin’s signals.

When I open my mouth, the words are totally my own. “I’m the next champion of New Teo. You heard the man, let the fight begin.” Lashing my braid toward Yetic’s face, he pulls away, and I spin into an attack with both feet aimed at his chest.

Partially repelling me and partially dodging to the side, Yetic avoids all but a glancing blow. Before the heel of my foot slides past his ribs, I swing my head, bringing my braid around for another lashing attack. Sparking the air, I catch Yetic’s ear and draw first blood.

As I rebound off the cage, dodging a wild roundhouse from Yetic, the crowd erupts. In seconds they’ve forgotten the fight they came here for, intent on the one unfolding in front of them. I’m sorry Neca, tonight’s story isn’t yours to tell.

Regrouping and giving the fans a moment to catch their breath, Yetic and I float into the center of the cage. Touching the tip of his ear, he rubs the blood between two fingers and licks his lips. “Nice to meet you.” Without moving a muscle, he launches a psychic attack.

Caught in the electrical storm, my body seizes in spasm right up until the moment his open palm drives into my sternum. Pain blossoming across my chest, my mind politely suggests I wrap my braid around the attacking wrist and return the blow to Yetic’s ribs.

Obediently, my right fist drives up as I twine Yetic’s arm with my braid. Yanking him forward, I drive my fist into his third and fourth ribs, cracking one with the force. Struggling for breath, I spin away from Yetic’s weak counter and retreat into the opposite corner.

Off balance, Yetic strikes the cage with a shoulder. The current propels him back into the middle where he quickly regathers himself.

Beneath the pain, my mind is still talking to me. I can’t discern between the two. Finally, I force a full breath into my lungs, despite the searing pain. Yetic and I exchange growls. We both lost on the last exchange. What ever good-natured chivalry he brought into the cage has been cooked by his smoldering rage. But anger doesn’t scare me.

I crack my braid twice, daring the bull to charge.

This time he comes with both telekinetic and physical attack. The psychic blow compresses between us as I counter. Before the tension explodes, I drop out of the air. Striking the bottom of the cage with my feet, I borrow the energy of the field and bound upward in a twisting somersault. Diving, Yetic leaps over my attack. He rebounds off the cage and thrusts toward me head first.

As his head impacts my gut, I aim my braid for his neck. He’s ready this time. Catching it, he batters my sternum with three quick punches. Clutching the base of my braid, he yanks me to the side and slams my rigid body into the cage.

The wash of its telekinetic field drowns me. Despite being able to see, I’m mentally blind. Olin? Nothing responds except static.

Weakly, I aim a punch for Yetic’s face. He deflects it with a thought.

The feeble attack is my worst mistake so far. His eyes flare with awareness. He knows I’m broken. Yanking me from the cage’s field, he spins me over his head. Desperately I search the static in my mind, groping to reconnect. Olin?

Tossing me, Yetic unleashes a vivid and show-stopping bolt of dark-red light into my chest. The force of it punches through me, draining whatever life I’ve left. Erratically, I bounce twice off of separate walls before coming to a stop in the middle of the cage. Nearly unconscious, I’m late to recognize the fact my body is completely inert, paralyzed by Yetic’s mind.

After hearing nothing except Olin and then nothing except static, I again hear the roar of the crowd. Now it’s filled with lust. Yetic has brought them to the brink. Time expands as the arena basks in the moment of climax. Not yet willing to step away from the cliff’s edge and embrace the afterglow, the audience shares in Yetic’s conquest.

I gasp for breath. We’ve given them the show they wanted, and no one had to die.

The following seconds and minutes blur. I hear snippets of Yetic whispering in my ear. “That was something, Bluehair…never seen anything like it…they won’t soon forget.” He’s cradling me and in a hurry. Several other voices yell for people to stand clear or get back. The noise of the crowd lessens. The air grows cooler.

Then I hear Neca. “Yetic! What have you done?”

We stop moving. I struggle to open my eyes. We’re in a tunnel. It’s dark.

The whites of Neca’s eyes loom in the darkness above me. “I thought a deal was a deal.” He’s angry.

Other bodies crowd around. I can smell Yetic’s breath, but he’s too close to focus on. “The girl’s deal was better. Nothing personal.”

“The girl’s deal? What are you talking about?”

I reach my hand for Neca’s face.

He notices the movement and focuses on me.

“I’m with Yetic now. Don’t waste what’s left.” My hand drops limply.

There’s more yelling in the distance.

Yetic tosses me over a shoulder and starts jogging. “You heard the lady.”

I can’t be sure, but I think I hear the word “why” trail from Neca’s lips before all sight and sound blink out.