The Gauntlet

Chapter 11 - Not So Friendly

Codi woke up early on the morning of the friendly. Too early. She sat in the canteen at seven o'clock, before even Vasco arrived, nursing a glass of water as she thought. In her head she ran through every combat technique she could remember, the weapon systems, the stances, the reactions, the blocks, the attacks; three months of painfully accumulated fighting knowledge.

She knew she was making herself crazy, but she couldn't help it. Taking a sip from the water, she dug her free hand into her thick black locks and closed her eyes. Codi heard the light footsteps entering the room but didn't deign to react.

"Can't sleep either?" Lita enquired, sitting down opposite her.

Codi gave a grunt of ascent but didn't open her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm nervous too."

"Never said I was nervous."

"It's kind of obvious."

"Fine." She opened her eyes and took another sip of water. Looking across the table she saw Lita with her hands resting on the table in front of her, fingers tightly interlocked. The pair sat there in an uneasy silence for the better part of half an hour, wrapped up in their own heads until the twins and Max appeared, seemingly at ease, but when he sat down she spotted the nervous twitch at the edges of his smile.

A few minutes later their coach entered, but to her surprise, instead of preparing breakfast like he did every morning, he came and sat down with them.

"How we all feeling?" Vasco asked simply.

Lucas grinned, irrepressible as ever. "Dunno about you guys, but I feel like someone's doing a barn dance in my stomach."

"Scared?" Max said.

The twin grinned. "Excited."

"And everybody else?"

"I'm okay, I guess," Lita said.

Acutely aware of the eyes of the group turning on her, Codi managed a shrug without looking up, not trusting herself to speak. For now she tried to stop analysing inside her head and relax. Having the others around reminded her: you're not in this alone.

"Alright," Vasco began. "I know the nerves are going. That's fine – I'd be worried if you weren't. We'll get some light drills in at the gym before breakfast. Trust me; it'll help settle your stomach."

The drills did help. They didn't don the formidable exoskeletons yet – in fact, they didn't do any combat exercises at all. Vasco simply ran them through a series of low key stretches and cardiovascular drills for the best part of an hour. By the standards of their training so far it barely qualified as a work out, but by the time they'd finished Codi felt a lot less jittery and ready to face breakfast.

"Make sure you all eat something," Vasco said as he powered down the treadmills. "You'll need the energy later."

"Are you expecting a lot of people?" Codi asked quietly.

He shrugged. "Couldn't say. This tourney was organised pretty quickly so we haven't had much time to advertise. That said it's been a long time since Brax-Delta hosted a tournament."

"You organised it all?" Max queried. "You've been with us training. How'd you find the time?"

"He didn't. Someone else did."

Codi looked sharply to her left at the sound of a familiar voice. Sure enough, there stood Mr. Barrow the disciplinarian, lounging against the door frame of the gym with his arms folded and an impish smile on his face.

"You organised this?" she exclaimed.

"Quite a bit of it, yes." He walked over to the group. "So how's everyone feeling today? Ready to have a bit of rough and tumble?" They all mumbled ascent, causing Barrow to raise an eyebrow. "Okay," he continued. "Remember this is just a friendly. Don't worry about the results. Go out there and try to learn something. This is the closest practice you'll get before the real thing."

"Why…I mean, how did you-?"

"I wasn't born as a school disciplinarian, Codi," Barrow chuckled. "I've had some dealings with the Gauntlet in the past. I figured I could give Drake here a helping hand to get you all ready."

"And I'm grateful for it." Vasco inclined his head towards his friend before turning to the fighters. "We've got three hours till things get started. I want you all at the arena, suited up and ready to go in hour for a warm up."

***

The butterflies hadn't gone away over the course of the morning that had passed with agonizing slowness. Standing with the rest of the team, fully geared up and ready to go, Codi gnawed on her lip, clenching and unclenching her fists by her sides. She'd done her best to keep calm and Vasco's pre-tournament regimen had certainly helped. He focused on driving home the disciplines she had mastered to date, especially the Ithcad style that suited her so well. The warm up had kept her limber, sharp, and above all, in the right head-space for the coming clash.

She chanced a look over her shoulder where the fifteen other fighters from the travelling academies were assembled. The sight made her stomach turn. Huge, burly males; lithe, sinewy females; every one of them looked like they'd been bred for this. Comparing them to their own team she couldn't help feeling like they simply didn't belong.

A booming announcer's voice cut off her thoughts. The man welcomed spectators, both local and travelling, and then thanked the other three academies for attending. She listened to the names: Blood Ruby, Kar-Matala; Zazana Lake. The three were local, by interstellar standards, travelling from nearby systems to give Brax-Delta's students their first taste of Gauntlet combat.

Then the doors opened. It took Max nudging her as he passed by to get Codi moving, out into the daylight to the ripples of applause. Glancing around as she exited the tunnel, she noted that he stands were only around half-full. That made her feel a little more at ease. Frankly, the less people staring and watching her every move the better. The instructors led their respective teams to their benches situated just on the edge of the fighting arena. Vasco said nothing as they assembled, his face a grim mask of concentration. Codi could only guess at what was going through his head.

Then the announcer bawled out the names of the first two fighters.

"And to open the preliminary rounds of this friendly tournament we will have a standard individual match-up. From Zazana Lake we have Arvin Lee, and his opponent from Brax-Delta; Codi James."

She swallowed down the lump in her throat and made herself breathe regularly. Then she felt Vasco's hand on her shoulder.

"Just remember the training, kid," he said. "And remember what Barrow said. Learn as you go."

Jaw tight, Codi nodded and walked out into the centre of the ring, turning to face her first real opponent. Arvin Lee stared back. He was around her height but built like a bull, the deep midnight blue of his exoskeleton glinting viciously in the sunlight. In a slow deliberate motion he lowered himself into a fighting stance. Looking at the placement of his feet and hands Codi tried to put a label to his style as she prepared. Her mind went blank. All she knew now was that this kid was getting ready to beat her into the ground.

Before she could gather herself and think the announcer's voice knifed through the air. "Fight!"

Lee was flying though the air before the echo died and Codi braced herself. The punches came darting in from both sides and she blocked automatically, running through the string of defensive techniques in her mind's eye. Left elbow, right elbow, duck, back step; then she brought both hands together, stepped aside and deflected a kick aimed at her mid-section.

She made the block, but then her hulking opponent rammed into her with one broad shoulder, the impact firing her backwards though the air until she hit one of the metal pillars. The exoskeleton took the brunt of the impact through, and she scrambled upright.

Codi leapt clear as Lee came thundering in with a murderous right haymaker. Hitting the ground and rolling, she came to her feet at the base of one of the platforms. Lee wasn't about to give her a respite, however. He jumped too, landing barely two feet away and bringing both hands down like a club.

Codi managed to deflect the attack away from her head, but instead his clenched fists hammered down against her shoulder, smacking her off balance. She threw out a quick jab with her right hand, cracking him across the jaw, but he rode the impact and powered forward.

Pressed up against the platform, she weighted the gravity down on her left leg and kicked out at his mid-riff with the other. He anticipated the move, twisting his body sideways, trapping her outstretched leg between his arm and side. Codi had an instant to panic before Arvin Lee gripped her leg with both hands and heaved, flinging her across the entire length of the arena with a snarl of exertion.

She hit one of the ramps with bone-jarring force and the wind was driven from her despite the exoskeleton's protection. Gasping for air, she struggled to her feet, only barely getting back into her stance in time for her opponent to continue his relentless assault. Eventually he found ways through her desperate resistance. First a right across the cheek, a left to the stomach, a kick to the outside of the knee. It all built up until Lee found a gaping hole in her defences and unleashed a punishing right hook.

Codi had no time to get out of the way. She closed her eyes and braced, knowing full well that even the tungsten mask wouldn't absorb all the impact from such an open strike.

Pain exploded in her head as the blow sent her spinning. Stars floated in her vision and her neck throbbed from the horrendous forces imparted. Without the exoskeleton she'd probably have been killed on the spot. Dizzied, disorientated and unable to think, Codi crumpled to the ground on all fours. She never saw Lee's follow up kick, but when it came it felt like she'd been hit by a truck.

His foot hit her right in the stomach, the servos in his exoskeleton coupled with added weight from the gravity stabilisers lending immense power to the attack. It lifted her bodily at least twenty feet high and when Codi hit the ground she couldn't get up again. A siren blared and she was dimly aware of the announcer's voice.

"And the winner of our first bout, by clear knock-out, Arvin Lee from Zazana Lake!"